Ex-Groupie Yates Deserving of a More Balanced Portrayal

Paula Yates was a neighbor until I came to Los Angeles recently, and the woman I knew and respected bore no relation to the clumsy one-dimensional caricature conjured in “Life Post-Groupie: Fast Times and a Slow Burn” (Sept. 20). As the story says, Paula was little-known in the U.S., but if she was worth column inches in your paper, then I would have expected a more accurate reflection of who she was.

Photographs of Paula never captured the spark that entranced those who met her. Her allure was not at all hard to quantify: She was witty, intelligent, loving, charismatic, and fabulously, eccentrically herself. The story’s determination to portray her as some groupie/porn-star cliche gave scant mention to Paula’s professional successes.

As an interviewer, she cut effortlessly through the PR facade of even the biggest egos. Despite a childhood fractured by her own mother’s indifference, Paula was also an inspired and inspiring mother. She continued to work in television, newspaper and magazine journalism, also authoring several books, and still gave 100% to Fifi, Peaches and Pixie, her daughters by Bob Geldof. As a mother too, she defied categorization, remaining eternally glamorous while personifying the earth mother extraordinaire, long before Madonna and sundry supermodels followed in her footsteps.

The piece ends by describing Paula as a “sleazy goddess.” I don’t think so. Paula had courage, and was authentic and loved with all her heart.

GEORGE HENCKEN

Venice

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Why the paean to yet another alcoholic who drank herself to death? Am I the only one who noticed that everyone discussed in the wistful tale about Paula Yates was exhibiting clearly alcoholic behavior--her lover, her mother, herself? The last century romanticized tuberculosis; this one does the same for alcoholism.

MIMI MERRILL

Ridgecrest