They really hate her

"They" would be the London tabloids. Above is the front page of the London Sun.

"Her" would be Heather Mills.

She does herself no favors, to be sure. The way she's behaved during her split and subsequent divorce from Sir Paul has made her a target. She's leaked the most personal and unflattering moments of their married life (for example, Paul telling her not to nurse Baby Beatrice because he didn't "want a mouthful of breast milk") in hoping the public would take her side. They didn't.

She presents herself as a selfless charitable crusader, yet the judge who heard Mills vs. McCartney wrote:

• "Much of her evidence, both written and oral, was not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid."

• "Her tax returns disclose no charitable giving at all."

• "To some extent she is her own worst enemy. She has an explosive and volatile character."

• "In the light of the husband’s generosity towards her, as I have set out, I find the wife’s behaviour distinctly distasteful."

• "I reject her case. I am afraid I have to say her case is devoid of reality."

Still, her treatment in the British press does take my breath away. So far my favorite reference to her is as, "one-legged former porn model." And that can't be the most attractive picture of her they could find to run on page one.

I'm not saying Heather Mills doesn't deserve this. No one makes her appear on camera. No one forces her to cry and whine and air her personal dirty linen in public. No one insisted she throw a glass of water at her husband's lawyer in court. (Heather dismissed it by saying Paul's lawyer had simply been "baptized.") No one implored her to lie about her involvement with charitable causes. She's a 40 year old woman. She did all these things of her own volition. And she was made to look even worse because she was up against the most publicity-savvy Lad from Liverpool, who understood that by suffering in silence he'd look that much more gallant.

But still … I almost feel sorry for her.