It must be a slow news day in the U.K., too, because Amanda Platell, controversial celebrity columnist for the Daily Mail, is looking to pick a fight with Bob Geldof. Bob’s 19-year-old daughter Peaches, whose mother, Paula Yates, died of a heroin overdose in 2000, reportedly overdosed on an unnamed drug a few days ago. Platell, who has written about “Saint Bob’s” lax parenting style in the past, says he’s to blame.

But the truth is that, for the past few years, it has become increasingly apparent that Peaches has been careering down the fast lane of boys, booze and, yes, perhaps even drugs towards an inevitable crash of some kind. It’s been like watching a film of Paula Yates’s own trajectory - from fashion icon to rock chick to victim of a life lived to dangerous excess - played at double-speed. Even Peaches’ fledgling media career seemed to be apeing her mother’s.

This is the girl, remember, who was recently secretly filmed handing cash to an alleged drugdealer-to-the-stars, saying: ‘I’ll need Valium after this!’

And where was her father while this all-too-predictable story was unfolding? Well, it goes without saying that he is a truly remarkable man whose tireless campaigning to alleviate poverty and suffering in the Third World deserves the greatest admiration.

It is also true that it cannot have been easy, as a single father with a new girlfriend, to raise three daughters as self-assured as Peaches, Fifi and Pixie, as well as taking on responsibility for Tiger Lily, Paula’s child by Michael Hutchence. But it is hard not to conclude that her father must take much of the blame for Peaches’ current predicament.

I am reminded of a haunting article that Sophie Parkin, a friend of the Geldofs, wrote for this paper three years ago, in which she made a public plea for Bob to take control of Peaches, then aged 16, whom Parkin could see was in desperate need of a stricter parental hand.

Describing how Bob had actively encouraged his daughter’s first forays into the world of celebrity, and allowed his daughter extraordinary freedoms to live her life as she chose, she wrote how Peaches was woefully ill-equipped to deal with the pressures of fame.

[From The Daily Mail]

While I can’t completely disagree that when a 19-year-old overdoses, there must be some dysfunction going on at home, I also have to wonder where this reporter gets off judging Geldof. He’s been raising his three daughters along with the daughter his ex-wife had with another man. Furthermore, I doubt this journalist has ever had kids of her own- because if she did, she would realize how difficult it is to get a 19-year-old to listen to you. It’s not like you can ground her. She’s legally an adult. Peaches was very young when her mother died and there is probably an air of mystery there for her. Perhaps she feels closer to her mother by repeating her destructive behavior. Either way, I predict a very fiery response for “Saint Bob” any day now.

Bob Geldof is shown at Nelson Mandela’s birthday party on 6/25/08. Peaches Gedof is shown at the premiere of The Dark Knight on 7/21/08. Credit: WENN

I once saw an episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory and Lorelei go to Ireland and hang out in a certain Dublin bar hoping to bump into Bono. Or at the very least one of the other members of U2. Turns out, all you have to do is hang around worthy charitable events and they’ll come to you.

U2’s Bono and The Edge played a surprise gig tonight (November 23) at London’s Union Chapel.

Playing as part of Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions, the duo surprised the audience with a four song set which included rare track ‘Wave Of Sorrow’.

The identity of the ’special guests’ was shrouded in mystery when introduced by host Jo Whiley as “a new band with a lot of potential…Dave the guitarist is very nervous…If he makes a mistake forgive him, he’s new. The singer is very shy.”

[NME]

The duo also played ‘Stay’, ‘Angel of Harlem’ and ‘Desire’.

How very cool that would be. And they did some of their best songs, not that electronic stuff of recent years. Would U2 please do an acoustic tour?

Unfortunately for Mencap, a charity that helps people with learning disabilities, it seems that Bono’s involvement in charitable causes might not be helping, according to the head of African Aid Action.

Jobs Selasie, head of charity African Aid Action, claimed that such campaigns increase corruption and dependency on the continent.

Selasie explained that he believed that the western media had an obsession with political correctness which diverted from what he believes are the real causes of poverty in Africa.

The charity says since the original Band Aid campaign, the number of Africans living on handouts has increased by 500 per cent and African governments who used to rely on only 20 per cent of their annual budget from overseas aid are now dependent on a 70 per cent contribution.

“Aid has failed because campaigners, charities and governments do not have the right plan and excluded African entrepreneurs and grassroots organisations from being part of the solution,” said Selasie.

“You can’t impose change from without,” he continued. “It has to come from within and we won’t end poverty with handouts. Africans need to fight corruption and work hard.”

[NME]

I’m not going to judge whether this is true or not. I’m not some kind of international relations economist, but I will say that these economic issues might have happened anyway, and at least celebrities like Geldof and Bono have their hearts in the right place. Don’t let it put you off supporting a worthy cause.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Bono, his wife Ali Hewson, and Alicia Keys are shown on 10/25/07 at the 4th Annual Black Ball Concert for “Keep A Child Alive.” Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures.

So when you have a poll of the most memorable television moments of the last 50 years, what would you include? The final episode of Friends? When Fonzie jumped the shark on Happy Days?

Turns out the British think a little more broadly than me.

Top Ten Television moments of the last 50 years
1. Twin Towers Collapse
2. Princess Diana’s Funeral
3. Neil Armstrong’s Lunar Landing 1969
4. Collapse of the Berlin Wall
5. Bob Geldof requesting viewers to ‘Give us your f**king money’ at LiveAid
6. The Two Ronnies ‘Four Candles’ comedy sketch
7. Dancing Ricky Gervais as The Office manager David Brent
8. Monty Python’s ‘Dead Parrot’ Sketch
9. England Winning the soccer World Cup 1966
10. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Watch the videos below, thanks to News.com.au for linking them.

I’m glad that the terrorism and deaths are balanced out by Monty Python’s comedy and Bob Geldof swearing. Some obvious contenders for most memorable moment that are missing would be Princess Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles, or maybe the year 2000 being celebrated. Although who was at home watching TV on that night?

1. Twin Towers Collapse

2. Princess Diana’s Funeral

3. Neil Armstrong’s Lunar Landing 1969

4. Collapse of the Berlin Wall

5. Bob Geldof requesting viewers to ‘Give us your f**king money’ at LiveAid

6. The Two Ronnies ‘Four Candles’ comedy sketch

7. Dancing Ricky Gervais as The Office manager David Brent

8. Monty Python’s ‘Dead Parrot’ Sketch

9. England Winning the soccer World Cup 1966

10. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The poll of most memorable TV moments was conducted by Whitehaven in Cumbria, UK, which will be the first place in the UK to switch off the analogue signal to switch to digital television.

It seems to me that if you’re famous, there’s no such thing as resting in peace in death. Ten years after the death of INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, his mother Patricia Glassop is out getting paid for interviews, where she slags off Peaches Geldof, and calls Bob Geldof Satan.

“He’s certainly not a saint. I can’t see that side of him at all. I think he’s Satan,” she said in the interview (with Australian television show A Current Affair).

Mrs Glassop, who has been formally notified that the knighted musician is seeking to adopt her granddaughter, claims Geldof rarely allows her to even see Tiger Lily.

“I am not allowed to speak to her on the phone. He’s even changed the phone number,” she said.

Taking aim at Peaches, she claimed the wild child “throws her knickers around in parties” and sets a band example for 11-year-old Tiger Lily.

“I don’t think a girl who … throws her knickers around at parties should be (Tiger’s role model).

“Tiger knows about (Peaches’ behaviour) and reads about it,” Mrs Glassop said.

Mrs Glassop has seen her granddaughter twice in the past seven years; once on a trip to London, and again last year when the 11-year-old came to stay with the family on the Gold Coast for five days.

It was after this trip that Mrs Glassop claims the 11-year-old rang her repeatedly and pleaded to be allowed to come home to Australia.

“She rang here five nights in a row when she went home, begging to come back and live with us but Bob, of course, wouldn’t let her.”

Herald Sun

Patricia also claims that Sir Bob is only after her granddaughter’s inheritance, but somehow I don’t believe he’s inclined to steal from his children. I also suspect that he has plenty of his own cash to spend.

Also, it’s been seven years since Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily’s mother Paula Yates died, and Tiger went to live with her equally strange named half sisters. If you wanted to claim custody of her, couldn’t you have done it a little earlier?

For such an urbane, charming man, Michael Hutchence seems to have a pretty strange family. They couldn’t mutually decide where to scatter his ashes so divided them up between them. They sold his possessions on eBay to fund overseas holidays. They wrote a book about his life. They hired a notorious celebrity manager to handle his funeral, and broker magazine deals. Now they’re making a movie about his life. It seems to me the only person trying to profit from Michael Hutchence’s life is his family, not Sir Bob Geldof.

Update by Celebitchy: Paula Yates was married to Bob Geldof from 1986 - 1996, and they had three children, Fifi Trixibelle Geldof, 24, Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof, 18, and Pixie Geldof, 17. Yates moved in with Hutchence and they had a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, in 1996. Hutchence was found dead in his hotel room, an apparent victim of autoerotic asphyxiation, in 1997. Paula Yates died from a drug and alcohol overdose in 2000. Geldolf then went to court and got custody of his three daughters and became the guardian of Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, eventually enraging her grandmother when she was low on cash. [All details from Wikipedia]