Todays topic : Hurry Up Pete, we're getting bored

I do wish that Pete Doherty would either hurry up and either get over drugs or die from them. It sounds harsh, but I am so bored with hearing about his every misdemeanour. I am also heartily sick of listening to his denials and declarations, promises and piffle.

The problem Pete has is that the tabloids would love him to die. It is almost as if he has had his narrative written already. There are many examples of this in the past. The press wanted Torville and Dean to fall in love and get married - turns out that they more or less hated each other. They then hooked onto McCarthy and Morrell. She, of course, campaigned for years whilst he was kidnapped in Beirut. After he was released the press wanted the wedding shot. Terry Waite conducting the ceremony and everyone living happily ever after. In reality, they'd been dating for only a few months before he was kidnapped and their relationship didn't survive. Awwwwww.

Michael Barrymore said recently that the press would only be satisfied when he committed suicide. He was right. The papers like nothing more than an easy stereotype. I don't think they actually wish him dead, but want the story to play itself out. And Barrymore's story can only end in three ways. Tragedy, Redemption or he goes to live in New Zealand and fades out of view. The third option is boring and just not newsworthy and the second cannot be allowed. They will never let a family entertainer forget that, whilst hosting kids karaoke on TV, he was holding a drugs and fisting party at his house, and someone ended up dead.

Pete is in the same position. He's been overfeted as a genius, when in reality he is quite talented. The Libertines first album showed promise, the second one showed little progress and his Babyshambles project has swung wildly between flashes of inspiration and, well, shambles. It could be that he turns out to be a very important artist. But just as easily he could turn out to be another overhyped but naked emperor. Again, there are only three outcomes available to him. My preferred option - that he cleans up and then has a middling career as a fairly interesting singer/songwriter, is not newsworthy enough. The hysteria is already at such a level that the story seems to demand a sensational ending of death or redemption.