Amy’s hard living is an education in itself

She has a Master’s degree in hard living. Now the highs and lows of Amy Winehouse are to be a set text for business students. A diploma and degree-level course in the “study of the music industry” will use the troubled artist as a case study.

Teaching materials will be provided by her record company, Island, which launched the careers of Bob Marley and U2. Allan Dumbreck, music course leader from the University of the West of Scotland, tells us: “Island have offered us the original marketing plans for artists like Bob Marley, which offer students a fascinating insight into the industry.

“Amy Winehouse is a great example of the potential pitfalls in the music industry,” he adds. “She is recognised as a multi-award-winning great artist. But the byproduct of that lifestyle can be stress and illness. We would look at how the industry is often not a supporter of longevity.”

Artists will be invited to address the students. Might the crisp Dumfries air have a rehabilitative effect on Winehouse?

Bella Freud, a childhood model for her father Lucian, has quizzed the great artist for Harper’s Bazaar . They discuss a visit to see Picasso. “Was he friendly to you?” asks Bella. “Yes, in a hostile kind of way,” recalls Lucian. “He told me to look around the studio and sort out the paintings I liked best. I showed him what I’d chosen and he said: ‘I’m glad you like those because they are among the things I did last week’.” “Did you ever show him any of your work?” inquires Bella. “Yes, that was probably stupid. His response was polite contempt, really.”

Barack Obama emerged unimpressed from his London meeting with David Cameron, according to James Macintyre in the New Statesman. “Cameron went on to indulge in what one source has described as an ‘anti-European diatribe’ . . . Obama was, according to diplomatic sources, ‘distinctly unimpressed’,” he writes. “Obama exclaimed of Cameron after their meeting: ‘What a lightweight!’ He apparently also asked officials about Tory Euroscepticism.” Yet Macintyre does not divulge his top sources.

Don Foster, the Lib Dem sports spokesman, has swallowed his words after accusing Chelsea FC of “ripping off” fans through extortionate beer prices.

“After speaking to the club again, I am happy to accept that their prices are actually £3.50 a pint,” says the MP, who blames “reasons of miscommunication” for his claim that fans were being charged a wholly unreasonable £4. Mr Foster will now make a fact-finding matchday visit to Stamford Bridge. The drinks are on him.

Postscript

Is Nigella Lawson the new Doctor Who? She tells the Radio Times: “When I say on TV ‘this cake takes 20 minutes to bake’ and then one minute later it’s ready, what do they think I have done? Do they think I have some kind of Time Lord qualities?”

— Boris Johnson missed Boris Becker at the Spectator/GQ birthday bash: “I’ve asked him to play tennis with me countless times but he never does.”

— Britney Spears' mime show on The X Factor has disturbed Emma Watson. “That's really depressed me,” the Harry Potter star told 5 Live. “I thought Britney coming back was all going to be good. Awful."

Being young is the bees knees

The Face - Dakota Fanning

A precocious poppet who has moviegoers divided about her talent, is the blonde, blue-eyed Dakota Fanning the most talented find in years, or just too sweet to stomach? A screen veteran at 14, Fanning has already held her own alongside Tom Cruise and Robert De Niro during a nine-year career. A reported £5 million-per-film earner, she is ready to pursue more mature roles. In The Secret Life of Bees, which opens tomorrow, she plays a runaway teenager struggling to cope with her mother’s accidental death and an abusive father. “It’s still one of the best books I’ve ever read,” she says of the Sue Monk Kidd novel.

The release is a milestone for Fanning, who earned her blockbuster spurs in The War of the Worlds.

But she knows that Hollywood child stars too often crash and burn. “I don’t want this time of my life to end. I don’t want to grow up too quickly.”

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