|
McCartney Puts Mills on Lockdown?
08/09/2006 12:14 PM, E! Online
Love isn't all you need. Sometimes keys help, too.
Police were called to the London home of Paul McCartney
Monday evening after staffers mistook the rocker's estranged wife,
Heather Mills McCartney, for an intruder after spotting her security
guard scaling the walls of the ex-Beatles' estate.
Mills McCartney had arrived at their formerly shared North London home
as part of an arranged visit to pass off custody of the duo's
two-year-old daughter, Beatrice, only to discover that McCartney had the
locks changed since her last pop-in, which had been portrayed in British
media reports as acrimonious.
McCartney was not home
at the time of the incident, but his longtime staff, who presumably
would have recognized the former missus, were.
According to the Daily Mirror, the 38-year-old landmine activist
arrived at the home and spent nearly five minutes trying to unlock the
estate's gates before retreating to her car while her driver tried to
make contact with the staff through the intercom.
When nobody responded, Mills McCartney dispatched her security guard to
scale the walls surrounding the home so as to unlock the gates from the
inside.
After spotting the man attempting to climb the
gates, McCartney's security, failing to recognize Mills McCartney's man,
called police to report that an intruder was trying to enter the home.
"Police were called at approximately 7:50 p.m. to an
address in [St. John's Wood] to reports of a suspect on the premises," a
Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed.
"Officers attended
and spoke to a female who subsequently left the scene. No offenses took
place."
When police arrived, they immediately
recognized Mills McCartney--about time someone did--and made her wait
outside the home while other officers spoke with house staff. According
to the Mirror, during the police inquiry, she took her daughter
for a drive around the block so the girl wouldn't be upset by the swarm
of cops on the scene.
When the mix-up was finally
sorted out, the former model was allowed into the home, where she spent
the night with her daughter. McCartney was due to arrive at the estate
later today.
Mills McCartney's spokesman, Phil Hall,
confirmed the incident, but said it wasn't as dramatic as the press has
made it out to be.
"She was laughing about it," he
told Reuters.
Whether the incident was simply a
misunderstanding or a particularly cunning exercise in public
humiliation, the lockout was just the latest episode in the duo's
increasingly bitter and publicly played out divorce.
Last week, McCartney waged the latest battle against Mills McCartney,
freezing their joint bank account after reportedly discovering that the
missus had withdrawn nearly 1 million pounds in less than a month.
Her spokesman also confirmed that the account had been
frozen, but denied that his client had withdrawn such "obscene" amounts
of money.
The pettiness reached new heights again
last week when McCartney had his lawyer fire off an angry legal letter
complaining that three bottles of cleaning solution had been taken from
his Sussex home to clean his estranged spouse's nearby office.
The duo announced their split in May after seven years
together and proceedings have gone from treacly amicable--they stressed
their continued respect and admiration for each other in the separation
announcement--to nearly outright contempt.
McCartney
blamed his wife's "unreasonable behavior" in his court filings, claiming
she was argumentative and rude to his staff, and since then, Mills
McCartney has borne the brunt of the tabloid coverage, with the
newspapers printing salacious photographs of her early modeling days and
accusing her of participating in pornography.
McCartney came to her defense after one tabloid went so far as to allege
that she was a hooker in her early 20s, which resulted in her filing
suit against the paper. McCartney, though, has not spoken publicly on
the reports since June.
As for the divorce, a
settlement may still be a long time coming. The couple failed to sign a
prenuptial agreement before marrying, which means the lion's share of
McCartney's 850 million pound fortune--roughly $1.6 billion--is
potentially up for grabs.
The estranged spouses are
hunkering down for a fight, having hired the same divorce lawyers as
Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Anthony Julius, who represented
Diana, will run point for Mills McCartney, while Fiona Shackleton, who
was Charles' legal eagle, will advocate for McCartney.
|
