Michael Barrymore: Kick A Fallen Star

The Mail give a very detailed account of the night Stuart Lubbock died,then rehash the Mirror's front page story from Wedenesday - they have nothing new to add.

Meanwhile in today's Mirror he gets an impassioned defence by Fiona Phillips; My friend Michael Barrymore's only 'crime' was coming out.

PS Shamed Michael Barrymore could be sued by dad of man who died in his swimming pool, Mirror. How is he 'shamed' when he hasn't been convicted of anything?

Michael Barrymore: They Shall Not Rest Til He Is Dead

Daily Mirror.

In the absence of news, you can always give Michael Barrymore another kicking.

Nigel Farage: It's The Way He Tells 'Em

Naughty Nigel enjoying a nice fag.

Nigel Farage was last night accused of homophobia after footage emerged of him making a joke about ‘fags’ in a best man speech.

The Ukip leader’s final hours of election campaigning were overshadowed by the release of the video of his brother’s wedding.

The singer Rod Stewart, who was a guest at the July 2001 wedding, appeared visibly uncomfortable after Mr Farage used the word ‘fags’ as part of a joke about the death of a man at Michael Barrymore’s house, which happened months earlier.

Mr Farage yesterday pulled out of a planned visit to a bingo hall shortly after he was contacted by the Mail about the film.

He claimed that he had intended ‘no malice’ with the joke, but did not apologise...

Mr Farage, who appears much younger in the video with a full head of black hair, says that he would like to start the speech with some ‘housekeeping’.

He said: ‘As far as smokers here are concerned there’s good news and bad news for you. The bad news was we were not allowed to smoke until the coffee was served.

‘But the good news for us who are smokers is that we are far better off here than if we had been at Michael Barrymore’s house.

‘Because there they removed all the ashtrays on the basis that now they chuck all the fags in the pool.’

Daily Mail.

Now this is funny.

Not Nigel Farage's joke about the death of a gay man, obvs.

How long have the Mail been sitting on this video?

And was it released now as a final pre-election bombshell?

And did they think this would turn their readers off Farage, rather than warm to him even more?

And finally, you may want to read this Observer interview with Barrymore from 2002, where he attacks his 'trial by tabloid'.

PS Did this play a part in NF pulling out of answering questions from Pink News readers?

Michael Barrymore: Emotional Pornography

TROUBLED Michael Barrymore tells today how he has come close to killing himself on two occasions.

On CELEBRITY JEREMY KYLE he says: “I’ve been taken off to the hospital a couple of times.

“Pills, too many pills, just chuck a load (in my mouth)... I bought them from the chemist. I think that was a cry for help.”

He also talks about the day he found Stuart Lubbock’s body in his swimming pool after a party at his home 13 years ago.

He says: “I just froze. That was my very first thought. I ran back into the house to get help, then the two boys started giving CPR and then the ambulance was called for and that in turn calls the police. And I was stood... just in complete shock.

“The first thing I did wasn’t run away, the first thing I did was run to get help.”

He breaks down in tears recalling his acrimonious split from wife Cheryl, who divorced him after he came out as gay in 1995. Cheryl died of lung cancer in 2005.

But Barrymore also says: “If I hadn’t (come out) I truly believe I would have died, because I believe that my drinking and my (drug) using was getting worse because of it.”

The Sun.

In emotional pornography the tears are the money-shot.

Of course, nothing would give the cnuts at The Sun more pleasure than if 'troubled star', Michael Barrymore, did commit suicide.

Mission accomplished!

PS I'm sure they'll put it on ITV Player eventually.

Michael Barrymore: V For Vendetta

From false allegations of sexual assault to the lurid coverage of the death of Stuart Lubbock in his swimming pool, the comedian has been the subject of an extraordinary volume of negative headlines. Looking back, he believes he was the victim of a press vendetta partly motivated by his aloofness towards the redtops (he rarely gave interviews) – and partly orchestrated by his former wife and manager, Cheryl, whom he acrimoniously divorced in 1998.He also suspects that newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, whose parent company News Corp controls the rival Sky TV network, had a commercial motive in targeting him. "It smacks me that there was a definite conspiracy to destroy ITV's main brand at the time: 'We want to get rid of anything that works for them'.
"I never shy away from the fact that I'm an alcoholic and that I have had my problems, but I've never murdered anybody. I've never got up in the morning and thought I'll harm someone. I've just had an extraordinary sequence of events that have been on public display, that I've had no control over."
He adds: "[The press] killed Michael Barrymore. My [real] name is Michael Parker, but Michael Barrymore is dead. Although I have been a couple of times to the jumping-off point, I didn't kill myself. If I had, it would have completed the story."

Michael Barrymore profiled in the Independent - his first national newspaper interview in a decade, they claim.

There is much that is interesting/frightening in this article about what sounds like collusion between the Met and the News of the World after Stuart Lubbock's death - which post-Hackgate shouldn't surprise anyone.

I've always suspected they were just out to get Michael Barrymore whatever - though I think homophobia was the main spur, not TV rivalry.
It wasn't just the Murdoch titles that were hoping Barrymore's sorry story would have a really unhappy ending, and went in for the kill.
Michael's downfall, in a scandal that involved celebrity, gay sex, drugs and death, was too good for any of the tabloids to let go of.
Note: "On 22 September 2002, the Sunday Mirror pictured Barrymore on the front page next to the headline: You Are a Killer, without even the customary quotation marks."
Might I suggest a title for a TV documentary about all this - You've Been Framed.
The poor sod.

Michael Barrymore: You Know Where You Went Wrong

Michael Barrymore was fined yesterday for possession of "a very small amount" of cocaine.
A second charge - that he was "drunk and disorderly" - was dropped.
Are you still awake?
This hardly sounds like the scandal of the century, does it?
Thankfully The Sun reminded us of "disgraced" Michael's full name; "Barrymore—whowasquizzedafterStuartLubbockwasfounddeadinhispoolin2001."
IKES!
The Daily Star told its readers; 'SHAMED Michael Barrymore launched a foul-mouthed rant at police who arrested him for having drugs, a court heard.
'The former telly star raged: “Don’t you think I’ve had enough f***ing sh*t from you lot over the years?"
Can you blame him?
Apropos of sod-all the Star recalled - helpfully vaguely - how; "Two men were arrested on suspicion of murder in 2001 after butcher’s assistant Stuart Lubbock, 31, was found dead in the swimming pool of Barrymore’s Essex mansion."
The Mirror ran a long profile of the "troubled star" that read like Michael Barrymore's obituary.
"Once one of Britain's best-loved comics, Michael Barrymore has lived through countless highs and lows in the public spotlight...
"But viewers saw the clown's mask fall and realised everything was not "awight" - his well known catchphrase - in 1995 when Barrymore announced he was gay..."
It's obvious the tabloids have been dying to run that obituary for a decade now.
Don’t you think he's had enough f***ing sh*t from you lot over the years?