U2isthebest
ONE love, blood, life
biff said:Here are two more reports from The Irish Independent:
Ex-U2 stylist admits approaching Max Clifford PR agency
13:02 Thursday October 19th 2006
U2's former stylist has admitted approaching the Max Clifford agency to protect herself against statements coming from the band.
However, Lola Cashman says she is not aware that the PR firm is known for dishing the dirt on celebrities and says she does not intend to publish any further material about her experiences with the band.
Ms Cashman is taking a High Court case to try and reverse an order for her to return certain items to U2 which she claims were gifts.
She is denying claims that she wants to sell her story of working with U2 during the 1987 Joshua Tree tour to a tabloid for a five-figure sum.
She also says she is not involved in preparing a film about U2 despite a radio interview she gave in 2003 in which she says she is writing is a film script with a bit of rock n' roll in it.
Counsel for U2 is accusing her of betraying her employers by revealing personal details about U2 members in her book and stealing items from them for her own personal gain.
However, Ms Cashman says she has chosen not to publish her collection of 200 photographs, which she says could be compromising to the band.
Evidence points to only one winner: the lawyers
Friday October 20th 2006
THIS is a childish little spat.
"I was trying to dress him and he was running about in his underwear," Lola Cashman told the High Court yesterday. The "him" in question was Bono. He was 27 at the time but, bless him, he wouldn't settle.
Plonking a silly hat on her head kept the young lad giggling for a while, she said, but Bono doesn't remember it like that. He didn't give her his favourite hat. He thinks the bad lady took his favourite hat - the only hat that kept the bogey man away.
Now (sob, sob) he wants it back. And while she's at it, any other toys that he threw out of the pram. So there.
It is cases like this that keep lawyers in the life they're accustomed to, and make the rest of us admit that our parents were right when advising us to "take the silk" or whatever it is lawyers do.
No doubting what senior counsel Paul Sreenan does. Nothing childish about him either. You get the feeling that Mr Sreenan always did his homework impeccably in the run-up to the big examinations. He certainly did yesterday.
Cross-examining Ms Cashman for more than three hours, U2's big wig painted pretty little evidence patterns while simultaneously painting the stylist into any number of corners.
She must have been delighted to start working for the biggest rock band in the world, he suggested. "I actually didn't even know who they were back then," she replied.
Mr Sreenan immediately reached for her own book on life with the band and quoted her as being "elated to join the biggest rock band in the world".
Why, he asked, had she 10 bags of the band's by-now-infamous "stuff" with her on a flight back in December 1987 at the end of the Joshua Tree tour? She was finishing off a style project for the band, she maintained, and would be working for the band for another four months.
Mr Sreenan reached for the book. He read out a piece where she claimed she walked away from the band in December 1987, despite Paul McGuinness offering her a retainer and Bono begging her to stay with them.
Mr Sreenan kept reaching for the book. To say it was well-thumbed would be to do a disservice to the work of Mr Sreenan's thumb. From where we were sitting, every third page seemed to be tagged, ready for reference.
Most likely, nobody has read 'Inside the Zoo with U2' more times than Paul Sreenan. Certainly, nobody has ever got as much out of it.
He referred to her anger with the band before even meeting them as she had had to wait seven days in various hotels to do it - "the rude f**kers were going to get it and I was going to give it to them".
He spoke of her role as a confidante to the band members and then referred to sections where she spoke about the band members' worries, including The Edge's thinning hair.
He also used her earlier solicitors' letters and evidence from the case in the Circuit Court. Each and every time, he got a lot of use from Ms Cashman's own words.
Following John Rogers SC's bombast, bite and bluster, it was a quiet and studied approach. But it was equally effective, and it was relentless.
To have these two brilliant minds square up to each other to sort out who owns a pair of pants and brown hat seems utterly ridiculous. Maybe this is why we keep hearing that the law's an ass.
"I don't think the book's the issue in this case. I thought it was about four small pieces of memorabilia," Ms Cashman said at one stage.
Those pieces, of course, include the toy hat that keeps the bogey man away. Something else kept Bono away from court yesterday to the disappointment of a number of transition year students in for a look around.
After the razzamatazz of days one and two there wasn't much to entertain to be honest, although Ms Cashman interrupted our dozing with her tales of Bono and his smalls backstage.
Thankfully, it was before lunch.
"I could have mentioned a lot of things I didn't think it was necessary to put in the book who was sleeping with who, it wasn't that kind of book," she said, before informing us that she had been in contact with the publicist Max Clifford.
So we shouldn't be too surprised if we soon find out who was sleeping with whom.
Ms Cashman put up a better fight after a bite to eat - "I clearly know what belongs to me and what doesn't belong to me" - but following on from Bono v Mr Rogers and Paul McGuinness v Mr Rogers it was all a bit of an anti-climax.
The fact that Mr Justice Michael Peart reserved judgment didn't help to enliven matters.
Who was sleeping with who, ? Really, well considering by their own admissions that Edge, Bono, and Larry have all been faithful to their wives/partners, I would love to find out that fascinating piece of information. Aislinn, Ali, and Ann Horrors! We already know that Adam wasn't exactly Mr. Monogamous, so does she honestly expect us to believe her load of crap?