By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
12:00 AM
Susan Boyle, despite her defeat on "Britain's Got Talent," continues to dominate the headlines. Sadly, it's not for the reasons she had hoped.
Yesterday, she was resting in a mental hospital surrounded by news crews, and the British prime minister gave a televised interview to say he'd checked in on her.
Police took the Internet singing sensation to the private Priory clinic Sunday night after she suffered an emotional breakdown -- just 24 hours after Saturday's finale. Producers issued a statement saying she was "exhausted and emotionally drained." One of the show judges, Piers Morgan, wrote on his blog yesterday that Boyle "told me she'd spent most of the week crying, throwing up, not sleeping and generally feeling the weight of the world's pressures on her."
According to British media reports, police were called about 6 p.m. on Sunday to a London hotel where doctors were "assessing a woman under the Mental Health Act." The woman was taken by ambulance to the Priory, a clinic in north London known for its celebrity clientele.
Yesterday, PM Gordon Brown said he had called judges Simon Cowell and Morgan to "be sure that she was okay." Boyle's brother, Gerry, told the Edinburgh Evening News he spoke to his sister just before she was admitted. "First and foremost we have to make sure she is happy, and she is -- she wouldn't change all this for the world. . . . But she will bounce back."
The hospitalization is the latest twist in the dramatic saga of the 48-year-old Scot, who shot to white-hot fame in April after her surprise rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream," one of the most viewed Internet videos of all time. Boyle attracted nonstop interest from the British media since her initial appearance -- the kind of hype normally reserved for the Queen or Michelle Obama, reports our colleague Karla Adam. The frumpy church volunteer was celebrated, besieged and accused of meltdowns and temper tantrums.
"You've had a weird seven weeks," Cowell told her after Saturday's performance. He said a lot of people thought she "shouldn't even be in this competition, that you're not equipped to deal with it. . . . I completely disagree with that." Cowell said he'd gotten to know the "real Susan" -- not the person portrayed in the media -- who is "still a very nice shy person who just wants a break."
The runaway favorite to win came in second to Diversity, a group of 11 street dancers, including three sets of brothers. Bookies had the boys at 16-1 odds, but they may have benefited from telephone voters who thought Boyle was a shoo-in. Or maybe Boylemania peaked too soon: The Brits like underdogs (one of the reasons why she was so popular in the first place), but by the finale, Boyle was one of the most famous women in the world.
"Never in our fast-changing history, until Susan Boyle, have we managed to quite so swiftly canonize and then pillory another human being, for our own titillation," the Observer wrote.
Boyle appeared to be a magnanimous loser, saying "the best people won." The tabloids, however, reported a darker face of defeat, saying she stormed down a corridor and screamed: "I hate this show!" By the next night, she was acting so erratically that police were called to her hotel.
This development may be a blessing, says cultural critic Cintra Wilson. The author of "A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as a Grotesque, Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations" argues that Boyle's breakdown is actually "the healthiest possible response to this kind of stimuli. Any person whose sanity is worth a grain of salt will crack. This is the normal response. You cannot do that and not suffer. That's exactly what she should be doing."
Boyle's scheduled tours in Britain and the United States are on hold, as are the millions she stands to earn from albums and a possible book and television biopic about her extraordinary rise. One commentator on the Times of London Web site urged her to return to her pre-fame life: "Susan, go back to your pussycat for Heaven's sake. Who needs all this?"
Tension We Can Take to the Bank?Can this relationship be saved? We wondered about the expletive-fueled shouting match between WTOP political analyst Mark Plotkin and former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe at the Capital Grille back in March. McAuliffe assured us at the time they were just joking around -- but maybe the damage was already done.
In a recent broadcast, Plotkin called the Virginia gubernatorial hopeful "all hat and no cattle"; he followed with another commentary urging voters to support anyone but McAuliffe. There's an ambiguous back story, reports our colleague Michael Laris, involving some long-ago business between the two during McAuliffe's banker days.
"You're just mad I turned you down for your bank loan 20 years ago," he sniped at Plotkin in a live WTOP broadcast in February. "He's still mad at me. And it was the right thing to do."
Huh? Plotkin wouldn't explain the loan matter but told Laris there's no bad blood. "It's one thing to have a strong opinion of someone, and another to have bad blood." He said he's "an equal opportunity offender" when grilling candidates. McAuliffe's rep declined to shed light on the men's history.
Hey, Isn't That . . . ?Mark Warner, catching the Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller show at Wolf Trap on Sunday night. The senator, with wife Lisa and other pals, sat on the lawn cheap seats. Red Ralph Lauren polo shirt.
Love, Etc.-- Born: A son to tobacco heiress Nancy Bagley and former Clinton administration lawyer Soroush Shehabi -- the husband-and-wife publishing duo behind Washington Life magazine. His name? Camron Reynolds Bagley Shehabi to reflect both his Scottish and Persian roots. The 23-inch, nearly 10-pound boy arrived at Sibley Memorial Hospital on Saturday morning with a "near perfect" Apgar score, the first-time parents boast.
-- Expecting: Jennifer Hudson and fiance David Otunga, reports the Chicago Tribune, which confirmed the pregnancy rumors through guests at her recent baby shower. Unknown when the Oscar-winning singer, 27, is due or when she'll marry the lawyer-turned-aspiring pro wrestler.
Quoted"They had this musty, yeasty flavor that was not good at all. But I thought I'll start chewing it and see what happens."
-- Patti Blagojevich on her brave effort to win the tarantula-eating contest on last night's "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" premiere. The foul-mouthed wife of disgraced ex-Illinois guv Rod acquitted herself with surprising dignity on the D-list reality show, nearly drowning in a Costa Rican river crossing but sitting out the big smackdown between Spencer and Heidi of "The Hills" and VH1 comedy duo Frangela over a bottle of dry shampoo.