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April 2008 Page 1

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April 11, 2008 -- Showbiz Spy

Sir Paul McCartney planning a 'divorce' world tour

Sir Paul McCartney is planning a huge world tour this autumn in a bid to put his recent divorce woes behind him.

The 65-year-old Beatles legend - whose divorce from former glamor model Heather Mills was finalized last month - told pals the prospect of touring again helped him get through the bitter experience, which saw him fork out a whopping $48.6 million settlement.

Dates in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK are all in the pipeline.

A close friend of Sir Paul said: "Paul's made happy by his family and music. He sees this as a kind of celebration that the messy episode with Heather is over.

"Dates for the autumn are likely to be finalized next month and fans can expect to see an amazing show.

Sir Paul McCartney is in the process of planning a huge world tour for this autumn, taking in gigs in the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia.

Representatives for McCartney have been meeting concert promoters around the world this month to iron out the details of the tour, on which he is set to debut selections from an album's worth of new songs he has written.

According to the Daily Mirror, McCartney's tour director flew to Nova Scotia in Canada recently to meet with promoter Harold MacKay.

The duo discussed a possible date at the 50,000 capacity Halifax Common venue, where The Rolling Stones performed in 2006.

The world tour dates are set to be finalised in May.

Heather Mills has launched another attack on her former husband Sir Paul McCartney, claiming he has three girlfriends.

Speaking on GMTV this morning the outspoken former model said of McCartney: "I think he's got three different girlfriends so I wish all the girls the best of luck.

"Better them than me," she added before criticising the judge in the couple's divorce battle and mocking McCartney's lawyer Fiona Shackleton.

Mills described her divorce battle with Sir Paul as "David versus Goliath" and scoffed at Mr Justice Bennett's "one-sided judgment".

The ex-model then turned on Ms Shackleton, telling how she doused the lawyer after she said something under her breath.

"I cleansed and baptised her. I thought she looked fantastic - I thought it did her the world of good and now I'm getting lots of offers to restyle the hair of women of her age," she said.

Mills then pledged to continue her legal fight to get transcripts of the case released.

To read the full transcript from the GMTV interview CLICK HERE

Paul McCartney's stance against Canada's controversial seal hunt has some music lovers saying they will boycott his Halifax concert if he comes to the Commons this summer. Some readers commenting on The Chronicle Herald's website Wednesday were up in arms that the former Beatle would consider doing a concert in Atlantic Canada just two years after his highly publicized visit to protest the seal hunt.

One reader wrote in the website's comments section that he or she will always love the Beatles and their music but has lost all respect for Mr. McCartney. "As I recall, he made a big protest against the seal hunt," C. Gaudet said. "He's got balls for wanting to play here and no memory of what he did."

"There are lots of other good entertainers that could come here without all the baggage," said another reader. "If you want to redeem yourself, publicly denounce your anti-sealing campaign."

Many McCartney fans are excited by the news of the tentative concert but fear a repeat of the Celine Dion debacle, where her manager-husband cited negative publicity as the reason to scrap a show scheduled for August on the Commons. "This is what's wrong with Halifax," Tom Mason wrote on the Herald website Wednesday. "Everyone has such a negative opinion of everything that nothing ever gets accomplished."

Jody Nelson, a longtime McCartney fan from Dartmouth, also disagreed with the singer's critics. "I don't care how old he is, I don't care about his stance on the seal hunt, I don't even care if they have any opening acts, I just hope they get the deal done," Mr. Nelson said.

Mr. McCartney visited the Maritimes in March 2006 with his now ex-wife Heather Mills in hopes of persuading the Canadian government to put an end to the annual seal hunt. He made a number of public appearances that included a televised debate with Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams on Larry King Live and a helicopter trip to the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to see the seals up close. Mayor Peter Kelly said the seal hunt kerfuffle has nothing to do with Mr. McCartney's music and the former Beatle's personal beliefs shouldn't be tossed into the mix. "The opportunity to have him here is certainly advantageous," Mr. Kelly said.

Local concert promoter Harold MacKay said Tuesday that Mr. McCartney and his staff will decide in the next few weeks whether to go ahead with a Halifax show this summer. A group representing the rock legend's tour staff arrived in Halifax last weekend to check out the Commons site. "They left here very, very impressed," Mr. MacKay said Tuesday from his Power Promotional Concepts office in Dartmouth.

Bridget Curran of the Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition said Mr. McCartney and his views are welcome in Halifax any time. "He is an amazing singer-songwriter and compassionate human being," she wrote online. "All baby-seal-killer supporters who are complaining about him . . . can stay home (from the concert) and sulk - you won't be missed."

Heather Mills has issued a lengthy list of dietary demands for 4-year-old daughter Beatrice while the 4-year-old is on holiday with her father Sir Paul McCartney.

The 40-year-old former glamor model reportedly sent a fax to the a hotel in Morocco - where the music legend plans to take Bea next week - with eight pages of instructions on what she can and can't eat.

Mills, dubbed Lady Mucca by British tabloids due to her porn past, recently won a $48.6 million divorce settlement from the 65-year-old former Beatle - and is adamant that Bea's strict vegan regime should be maintained.

A source said: "Paul booked the break for some quality time with Bea.

"Now he's found out that Heather has been driving the hotel staff mad, faxing both the head chef and manager instructions and recipe suggestions for Bea.

"Paul is furious. He is perfectly capable of looking after his own daughter - especially after successfully bringing up his other children on vegetarian diets."

The promoter who is bringing country star Keith Urban to Halifax is hoping Paul McCartney drops by for a concert of his own.

Harold MacKay played host to the former Beatle's senior tour staff this week.

Paul McCartney sent his senior tour staff to check out the Halifax Common, promoter Harold MacKay said Tuesday.

"I feel good about it," he said Tuesday. "They did say to me that McCartney told them to come to Halifax and check it out, so that's always a good sign."

MacKay said McCartney's group, including a tour director and production manager, visited the Halifax Common, the central park where Urban is set to play this summer and where the Rolling Stones played in 2006.

"They were very impressed with everything they saw. They wanted to know a lot about the demographics. The fact that the Rolling Stones were on that site helps an awful lot," he said.

"They toured the site for a considerable length of time looking at the various angles and the ground levels and the number of screens they want. McCartney is very much a rock and roller so he likes lots of sound and lots of lights and lots of video screens."

MacKay said he expects an answer by mid-month.

The Stones headlined a concert at the Halifax Common on a rainy night in September 2006 before 50,000 fans.

MacKay announced Urban's concert in December, a month after promoters cancelled Céline Dion's show in the park, citing the unsuitability of the site.

Was it proof of her endorsement by his family, or simply a statement of her intent that, as the new romantic interest in his life, she's here to stay? Nancy Shevell, the woman reported to be more than just good friends with Sir Paul McCartney, was snapped by paparazzi in New York last week bearing a carrier bag emblazoned with the name of his fashion-designer daughter, Stella McCartney.

Surely, it must be more than a coincidence, following on so soon from Miss Shevell and Sir Paul's holiday together in Antigua which had tabloids aflutter as the love-struck pair frolicked in the waves? And certainly there is something rather calculated about this shot of the glamorous Nancy with that particular bag - Stella has a long-held and widely-known dislike of her father's ex-wife, Heather Mills.

The timing is spot on, for sure. Its publication coincides with a poignant tribute by Sir Paul to Linda, his first wife, ostensibly to mark the tenth anniversary of her death from breast cancer and a new exhibition of her photographs.

Not since her death aged 56, on April 17, 1998, when he described his "total heartbreak", has the former Beatle spoken so revealingly about their relationship. Could it be that he is seeking to erase the poison generated by his bitter divorce from Mills by focusing public attention once more on the defining love story of his life?

Writing in a Sunday magazine, he recalled his first meeting with Linda, his "corny" attempt at chatting her up - "My name's Paul. What's yours?" - and how Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale became their song after their first date.

She was, he said, "genuinely a woman" and very different from the "girls" he'd been dating. "She was always very beautifulbeautiful hands, absolutely no make up, just the structure of the face I was genuinely impressed by the way she handled herself in life. She just knew how to do it."

He also explained how he and their four children kept from Linda the fact that her illness was terminal. "She didn't know she was dying. I'm not actually sure she ever knew she was dying She was fighting right up to the end." It is desperately moving - and a subtle act of revenge on Mills. He seems to be saying: "Forget her. This was the woman I really loved."

Now that Macca is single again, any woman wanting to follow in Linda's footsteps should consider herself warned. It will be the toughest of acts to follow. So what chance does Nancy Shevell, a 47-year-old meat-eating Republican, who is said to possess a collection of crocodile-skin handbags, have against the ghost of the vegetarian liberal Linda, who adored animals?

Well, she has one obvious advantage in that she actually knew Linda. She and her husband Bruce Blakeman - from whom she is legally and amicably separated - were good friends with the McCartneys. They became even closer when, a year after Linda's diagnosis, Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer, too.

She has her own fortune, hailing from a wealthy New York family, as indeed Linda did, and her own career as vice-president of a family freight firm. No one could accuse her of being a gold-digger. She also knows and is liked by all four of the McCartney children, who nicknamed her "Jackie O" because of her style and her penchant for enormous sunglasses. That bond was reinforced when she joined with them in counselling Sir Paul against marriage to Mills.

Quite how they feel now that Nancy is their father's girlfriend has yet to be established. But if Stella approves - and that shopping trip was surely telling - she's on her way.

Poor little witch girl. Even if she is looking at apartments, Heather Mills isn't buying one anytime soon.

"She may be meeting with people, but she isn't purchasing. She doesn't have that much money," her new mouthpiece, Michele Elyzabeth, told us.

Yeah. Um, she does have that $50 million.

"No, no," Elyzabeth told us. "It's a lot of money to a regular individual, but once you want to start supporting causes, that money goes really quick. It is not a lot of money in the long run."

And don't expect Heather to get all chatty now that she is hosting Miss USA this week. The McCartney-ex will walk the red carpet and that's it.

"Are you kidding? She can't answer questions. How could she possibly answer questions?" Elyzabeth said.

Right. Cause she's so good at keeping her mouth shut.

Stella McCartney and Yoko Ono's tearful embrace at funeral of 'Fifth Beatle' - but Macca stays away

Rock's aristocracy turned out mourn of the man they knew as the 'fifth Beatle' yesterday.

Some 250 mourners paid their respects to Neil Aspinall, the Beatles's original road manager who went on to run the group's business empire for 40 years.

John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, 75, was seen warmly embracing Sir Paul McCartney's fashion designer daughter Stella, 36, and also Beatles producer Sir George Martin, 82, outside the funeral at the Church of St Mary the Virgin near Aspinall's home in Twickenham, south west London.

Ringo Starr's wife Barbara Bach, 60, and original Beatles member Pete Best, 66, also attended, as did The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend who arrived with a guitar under his hand to perform at the ceremony.

Townshend, 62, played along to Mr Tambourine Man and then to late Beatle George Harrison's solo hit My Sweet Lord which marked the end of the service as Aspinall's coffin was taken from the church to be buried.

Former EastEnders actor John Altman, 56, who played Albert Square's resident bad boy Nick Cotton, gave a reading during the service.

He had become good friends with Mr Aspinall as they were neighbours in Twickenham.

Neither Paul McCartney nor Ringo Starr attended the ceremony. Best had been Aspinall's best friend.

Yet he never saw eye to eye with Starr, who replaced him in the band, or indeed McCartney, which might have gone some way to explain their absence from the funeral yesterday.

Sir Paul managed to visit Aspinall in a New York hospital, days before he died from lung cancer two weeks ago. McCartney's spokesman said he was out of the country on a pre-arranged trip yesterday.

No hymns were sung during the service conducted by Rev Dr Kerry Samuel.

The 50 minute funeral service began just before 1pm after the coffin arrived in a black hearse with the word "Papa" in flowers inside the car.

The red brick church was surrounded by local residents keen to pay their respects after Aspinall's passing.

Verger John Evans said: "His friends and family sang along to the chorus including Mary and Stella it was very moving."

After the ceremony Mr Aspinall's family went on to Teddington Cemetery for a private burial before joining friends at a party to celebrate his life.

Mr Evans said: "'It was a lovely service with so many people in attendance. There were no Beatles songs, I suppose he must have been a Bob Dylan fan."

Aspinall died two weeks ago in New York after a battle with lung cancer.

He earned the much-used title of "fifth Beatle" perhaps better than any other.

He became guardian of the Beatles' shambolic business interests at Apple Corps in 1968, on the condition that he would do it "only until they found someone else". He quit the position only last year.

For some 20 years following the break-up of the group in 1970, Aspinall applied his astute business acumen to fighting lawsuits on their behalf and unravelling their tangled financial affairs.

His flair for figures helped to transform them into the wealthiest entertainers in the world, with a estimated combined fortune of £2 billion ($4 billion).

A notoriously reclusive accountant, Aspinall made a rare public appearance last year in the course of a lengthy legal dispute involving Apple Corps, the Beatles' business organisation.

But a matter of weeks after settling the row with the Apple computer firm over the use of a trademark, Aspinall abruptly resigned as chief executive, reportedly frustrated that the band's musical legacy was being compromised in the quest for profits.

One of his last tasks had had been to remaster the group's back catalogue for legal downloading on the internet.

Sir Paul's friend and former PR advisor to the Beatles, Geoff Baker, said: "Neil Aspinall was the man who was closer to all of The Beatles than anyone.

"Under his creative and caring direction, The Beatles business phenomenon and its trademark Apple transcended far beyond the Sixties.

"He was the Beatles' friend who became their roadie who became the chief of their empire and the unassuming, modernising mastermind behind the band's enduring appeal and influence for four generations.

"Although he would deny it, he was long considered to be 'the real Fifth Beatle' by the music and entertainment industries which for 40 years revered and respected him as one of the wisest men in the record business."

Baker said Aspinall became friends with McCartney and Harrison at the Liverpool Institute for Boys where they formed the "Mad Lad Gang" that John Lennon later joined.

The others formed the Beatles while Aspinall became an accountant, but he soon rejoined his friends.

Mr Baker added: "Neil remained at the centre of the gang that was to change the world.

"Always he was right at the Beatles side, captaining their flagship Apple for 40 years after beginning as their first road manager and driver of their old Commer van, doubling up as The Beatles' minder, spotlight operator, confidante, fixer, personal assistant and, moreover, their mate."

Aspinall's wife, Suzy, and his five children were at his side as he died.

April 7, 2008 -- The Sun

Macca's Mills dig in Linda tribute

Sir Paul McCartney has paid a moving tribute to his "beautiful, smart and talented" first wife Linda.

And he said: "She was a great person to hang out with."

The ex-Beatle, 65, spoke of his love for photographer Linda ahead of a London exhibition of her work.

His words were a clear dig at second wife Heather Mills after their recent bitter divorce battle.

Speaking nearly ten years after Linda, 56, died of breast cancer, Sir Paul said: "She was a very natural girl, naturally blonde.

Strong

"She was so funny, smart and talented.

"Probably the most haunting photograph in this collection is the self-portrait she took in 1997.

"She'd had chemo and her hair was growing back ­ it was a very chic look.

"She didn't know she was dying. She was such a strong, forward-thinking lady.

"She was fighting right up to the end."

Heather, 40, has forked out on a second new hairdo since her £24.3 million ($48.6 million) divorce payout. She swapped bottle blonde for RED locks on holiday in Los Angeles.

April 7, 2008 -- New York Post (Page Six)

BEATLE BABY

WHILE Paul McCartney was taking a break with his new love Nancy Shevell - and his peg-legged ex, Heather Mills, was looking for a New York apartment - their daughter, Beatrice, went shopping. Our spy saw the precocious 4-year-old and her nanny strolling into CPW Kids at 84th and Amsterdam early last week. Beatrice went to town picking out her own clothes and talking like an adult. Bea ended up with a dress, a Rolling Stones tee and a striped tank with lace edging.

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April 6, 2008 -- Daily Mail

Paul McCartney's new love splashes the cash at his daughter Stella's shop... while Heather becomes a redhead

She might have been hoping for a discount. Or perhaps Nancy Shevell just wanted to make a good impression on her new boyfriend's daughter.

Of all the shops in New York, the heiress chose to splash her cash at Stella McCartney's.

Having just returned from a romantic holiday with Miss McCartney's father Sir Paul, she was photographed walking out of the young fashion designer's boutique with a large carrier bag.

Fostering good relations with Miss McCartney, as Miss Shevell's predecessor would attest, is not a bad idea.

Heather Mills fell out with her early in her relationship with the former Beatle, and Stella even left their 2002 wedding celebrations early. The marriage ended with last month's bitter divorce hearings.

Miss Shevell, however, was ahead from the start.

She was a friend of Sir Paul's first wife Linda, and was affectionately nicknamed Jackie O by the McCartney children, because they all thought she was so glamorous.

The 47-year-old brunette, whose family firm is worth £250 million ($500 million), looked happy and relaxed after her week in Antigua with Sir Paul.

While on the island, the pair were photographed strolling along the beach and frolicking in the water. They spent Wednesday night together in New York before Sir Paul flew back to the UK.

Yesterday, Sir Paul paid a moving tribute to Linda - the mother of Stella and her siblings Mary and James - as the tenth anniversary of her death approaches.

He wrote in loving terms about their relationship, inviting unfavourable comparisons with his latest marriage.

"Linda was very down to earth," he wrote in the Sunday Times magazine. "She taught me to relax. Her priorities were private rather than public.

"She didn't go on television to ingratiate herself. She was just very funny, very smart and very talented."

Meanwhile, Heather Mills showed off her new look ­ and it's a case of better red than wed.

After her exhausting and bitter divorce battle, the former model has undergone a drastic transformation.

Out goes her striking blonde hairstyle and in comes a softer, redhead look.

Her image change comes as former husband Sir Paul McCartney breaks his silence about his love for first wife Linda.

40-year-old Mills was seen showing her new colours on Friday as she left the Chic Nails Design salon a stone's throw from Beverly Hills, which advertises nail and waxing services, with 'walk-ins welcome'.

Heather, who had a leg amputated in 1993, wore a supportive boot on her false leg and a flimsy orange flip-flop on the other foot.

In casual white jeans and a blue top, and juggling two mobile phones, she looked a far cry from the formidable woman who was awarded £24.3 million ($48.6 million) of the ex-Beatle's massive fortune just three weeks ago, despite being criticised by the divorce case judge, Mr Justice Bennett, as a 'less than candid witness' who had a 'warped perception' of the world and 'indulged in make-believe'.

Perhaps Heather's new look will help soften the blow of Paul's exclusive article for The Sunday Times Magazine.

He tells all about he and Linda's early years together and reveals that they were brought together by Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale.

"It was our first date and I remember I heard Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale for the first time. It became our song."

This connection brought about a 30-year relationship for the McCartney's which ended in Linda's death from cancer at the age of 56.

Awkward encounter: Heather handing over Beatrice to Sir Paul last summer as part of their agreed custody agreement

"Until then I'd been dating girls - well, except maybe one or two. Linda was genuinely a woman. She had a five-year-old child and I was genuinely impressed by the way that she handled herself in life. She just knew how to do it.

Sir Paul also admits that Linda's calming manner helped him to deal with the pressures if fame and go on to lead a relatively normal life.

He writes: "Linda was very down to earth. She taught me to relax. Her priorities were private rather than public. She didn't go on television to ingratiate herself. She was just very funny, very smart and very talented."

He talks about Linda's final days and reveals that her doctor advised him not to tell her that she was dying.'

"At the time she knew she was ill but she'd had chemo and her hair was growing back," he writes.

"She didn't know she was dying. I'm not actually sure she ever knew she was dying.

"You have a decision to make as a family as to whether you tell someone and the doctors leave it to you, the immediate family.

"I talked it over with the doctor and he said, 'I don't think she would want to know. She is such a strong, forward-thinking lady and such a positive girl that I don't think it would do any good'."

The article's publication coincides with the opening of an exhibition of Linda McCartney's photographs at the James Hyman gallery in London.

Meanwhile Sir Paul was said to have met with former wife Heather this weekend to collect their daughter, Bea.

Heather was said to be less than keen to hang around in the Big Apple after reportedly having a 'blazing row' with Sir Paul over when Bea would be introduced to his new girlfriend, American millionairess Nancy Shevell.

Sir Paul was staying in the exclusive Carlyle Hotel there, after spending the previous week with 47-year-old Nancy in Antigua.

On Wednesday Heather was seen in New York sporting a black wig and dark glasses ­ the first time she has been spotted in public since she travelled to the US to recover from the trauma of the court case.

She is reportedly enraged that Sir Paul has found someone else so quickly after their divorce.

To mark the 10th anniversary of Linda McCartney's death, Paul and daughter Mary have selected the best of her photographs for a revealing exhibition. Here, Mary tells Sean O'Hagan why the pictures are so special to her.

When I ask Mary McCartney to describe her mother's photographic style, she thinks for a long moment and says: 'She approached photography the way she approached everything else - with quiet confidence.'

You can see that in the photographs spread out before us on the table of the west London members' club where McCartney has met me to talk about a forthcoming exhibition of her mother's work. The show, which opens at the James Hyman Gallery on 25 April, is the first major retrospective of Linda McCartney's photography, and has been timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of her death from breast cancer. The photographs have been selected by Paul and Mary McCartney, with input from Hyman, from 4,000-odd contact sheets.

'It's an incredible archive,' says Mary, herself a respected fashion and portrait photographer. 'Mum never stopped taking photographs, though it may have seemed that way to the public. It's about 30 years' worth of work. The only gap is around the time when Stella and I were born when, as she said, she was up to her neck in nappies. Otherwise she always seemed to have a camera in her hand.'

To many people Linda McCartney was known, first and foremost, as the wife of a Beatle, and then as a vegetarian-cum-animal rights campaigner. Yet it is her career as a photographer, which waned as she embraced motherhood, music and activism, that is her lasting legacy.

'She was an instinctive photographer and always unobtrusive,' continues Mary. 'She wasn't that interested in straight portraiture or art photography - the images she caught were nearly always intimate, relaxed and oddly revealing.'

You can see that intimacy in her shot of John Lennon and Paul McCartney working on lyrics in the corner of a recording studio. Both are immersed in the task, but obviously having a good time. McCartney, his biro poised over a sheet of paper, may just have amended the lyrics. Lennon obviously approves. They seem almost conspiratorial and to have the intimacy of a long-term couple. Which, in a way, they were.

With the Beatles, Linda's access was assured. Before she met Paul, though, she had worked with many of the icons of the Sixties pop scene, including Jimi Hendrix, whom she famously captured mid-yawn. He didn't seem to mind.

'It was a different time,' says Mary, 'before PRs and image makers took over. Back then, she told me, the manager would often be a friend of the band. If you were cool and they liked you, you could simply hang out.'

Mary's younger sister Stella, now a celebrated fashion designer, is in one of the most intriguing family snapshots. It was taken at Paul McCartney's cottage in Scotland, near the Mull of Kintyre, which he famously hymned on one of Wings's more mawkish songs. Paul balances on a fence in dressing gown and slippers. He is watching with some concern his young son James, who has just leapt off the bonnet of the family Land Rover. Immune to the drama, Stella is kneeling on the grass in the foreground, immersed in some private reverie.

'That's Poppy, our family dog,' says Mary, pointing at a pooch in the background. There is also a sack of logs, or maybe potatoes, in the foreground near Stella. It is a detailed photograph but intricately composed: the dark, looming cottage on the right of the image, the fence that arcs away to the horizon, the tall figure of Paul echoed by what appears to be a ring of standing stones in the background on the left.

It is also a perfectly rendered moment, a deceptively casual portrait of a family caught up in one of the small dramas of the everyday. The image is given added resonance by the fact that it is a glimpse into the private life of the McCartney family at a time in the early Seventies (WEBMASTER'S NOTE: The photo was taken in 1982) when Paul had fled the media-fuelled madness that attended the Beatles, and by the fact that Linda is the invisible, guiding presence.

'I love that photograph,' says Mary. 'It's so weird - the dog, my brother jumping into the air, and Stella in a world of her own. I could look at it for ages. It's not set up at all; it's all about watching and timing. I bet she didn't even change the lens to take it, just used the same old 50mm lens she always did. That's what I mean about instinctive. There's a faith that it will be all right and it is. She just gets it.'

She stares at it some more, and the photographer in her gives way to the loving daughter. 'We uses to walk that fence all the time to see how far we could go before we fell off. So it has all those memories, too. Our lives are mapped out in our mum's photographs. I found out her and Dad's story just by looking through the contact sheets: her rock'n'roll stuff, then her photographs of the Beatles, then her meeting Dad. It's like her diary, really, a record of her life.'

Linda Louise Eastman began her career as a photographer almost by accident. While working as a receptionist for Town & Country magazine in Manhattan in the mid-Sixties, she picked up an invite for a press party on a boat on the Hudson. It was for the Rolling Stones, newly arrived in America. She charmed the bad boys of rock as she later charmed Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

Soon afterwards, she forsook the genteel concerns of Town & Country for the more earthy delights of the Fillmore East, a celebrated but grungy New York rock venue, where she became the house photographer, capturing live images of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, the Doors and the Who. Before Annie Leibovitz became Rolling Stone magazine's favourite snapper, Linda was the first woman photographer to have her work on the cover - a portrait of Eric Clapton.

'Mum liked doing music work when it was all free and easy,' Mary says, 'but when the lawyers and the accountants took over, she lost interest. She was independent always. She did it on her own terms or not at all. Plus, she had children. Children take over your life.'

Contrary to received wisdom, Linda Eastman was not an heir to the Eastman Kodak empire, but she did come from wealthy American stock. Her father Lee was a music-business attorney, while her mother, Louise Sara Lindner, inherited the Lindner department-store fortune. She died in an aeroplane crash in 1962, when Linda was just 20, precipitating in her daughter a lifelong aversion to flying.

'I think Mum and Dad were close because they both lost their mothers when they were young,' says Mary. 'It was one of the things that bonded them. You could glimpse it when certain songs came on the radio, and they'd both be suddenly sad at the same time. I also think it's what made them so family-oriented.'

Family life, one suspects, is also what grounded Paul McCartney after the craziness of the Beatles years - though blissful domesticity also seemed to soften his musical brain. For a long time Linda stopped being a professional photographer to become a musician of sorts with Wings, and had to contend with the wrath of Beatles fans who blamed her and Yoko Ono - but mostly Yoko - for the fall in quality in both Paul and John's solo work. She later admitted that she sometimes sang out of tune on early Wings songs.

Paul met Linda in the famed Bag O'Nails club in London in May 1967, where the new rock aristocracy hung out, and where she was taking shots of Georgie Fame for a feature on Swinging London. That same week, they met again when the Beatles unveiled their Sergeant Pepper album at a party in their manager Brian Epstein's Belgravia pad. In September 1968 Paul asked Linda to fly to London for a date. They married six months later. Mary was born in August 1969. On the back of her father's first solo album, McCartney, she is the curious infant peeking out of her father's jacket straight at her mother's lens.

'It's a beautiful moment, isn't it?' Mary says. Does she remember much about her childhood in Scotland? 'Oh God, yeah! I remember we'd go off exploring a lot, Stella and me, and we didn't have to be watched all the time.' It's a revealing memory, a reminder that they were still the children of one of the most famous pop stars in the world and had to be protected accordingly.

How big an influence is her mother on her own photographic style? 'I'm not sure. It was more her attitude I admired. She was feisty in her own way, but not in a big, in-your-face way. I suppose she was quietly persuasive. It took me a long time even to get to that point. I used to be so green when I started, almost apologetic. I'm more like her in the way I approach my personal projects: just me and the camera and a few rolls of film. She gave me loads of advice all the time and I really miss that, chatting and arguing over the contact sheets. I remember when I used to moan about missing a great moment, a great photograph, she'd say: "Oh, don't worry, it's in your soul camera." I think she really believed that.'

Was it hard to be the child not just of famous parents, but of parents who were seen as alternative types - hippies, vegetarians, animal rights activists? 'Well, my friend Josie used to call us hippy convoy kids,' she laughs. 'We were tomboys, that was down to Mum. She was a bit anti-authority, a bit rebellious. At the local comprehensive in Rye I tried to blend in but Mum and Dad would turn up in the Land Rover with the rainbow-stripe fabric on the seats. The rock hippy parents! I did the whole thing of being embarrassed as a teenager. I'd look at her odd stripy socks and go: "You're not going out dressed like that, Mum!" Now I think it's beautiful. Like the way she cut her own hair. It's quite cool, really.'

There is a powerful self-portrait of Linda towards the end of her life in Francis Bacon's studio. I ask Mary if this was the last image taken of her mother before she died. 'No,' she says haltingly. 'I think I took the last photographs of her. I was working on the press pictures for her cookbook. I think the very last one was a close-up where she is looking deep into the lens. Really intimate and poignant. The thing is,' she says, tears welling up, 'I don't think she ever saw it.'

As she composes herself, she sorts through the images. 'That's the thing about photographs,' she says. 'They are wonderful reminders of things, but they also carry memories, sadness.'

It must have been an emotional experience to sort through her mother's archive for the show. 'In one way it was, but in another it was satisfying. Me and Dad have a proper grown-up relationship now. I feel I was a kid for so long, but now we have both been through a lot. We're both divorcés, for a start,' she says, laughing mischievously.

Though I had been warned that the words Heather Mills were not to be even mentioned, it seemed an opportune moment to utter them. Did you, I ask, gritting my teeth, ever do a portrait of her? 'No,' she says, looking perplexed at the very thought. 'No. Not really. I didn't.'

Funny that, I say, but she does not respond. The silence, though, says enough. In more ways than one, she is her mother's daughter.

· Linda McCartney's photographs will be at the James Hyman Gallery, 5 Savile Row, London W1 (020 7494 3857) from 25 April to 19 July

"A Whiter Shade of Pale", a 1960s No 1 hit by the group Procol Harum, became "their song".

McCartney has broken his silence after a decade to write exclusively about his first wife for The Sunday Times Magazine.

In the article, written to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Linda's death, McCartney says there was an "instant attraction" when he first met her at the Bag O'Nails nightclub in London's Soho in May 1967.

"As she was leaving . . . I saw an obvious opportunity," writes McCartney, who was one of Britain's most famous stars. "I said: 'My name's Paul. What's yours?' I think she probably recognised me. It was so corny, but I told the kids later that, had it not been for that moment, none of them would be here."

Later that night he took Linda to another West End club, the Speakeasy. "It was our first date and I remember I heard Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" for the first time. It became our song."

The record fused Bach with pop to create one of the most enduring songs of the flower power era. It sold 10m copies.

The song was credited to Gary Brooker, the group's singer, and Keith Reid, its lyricist. Two years ago Matthew Fisher, the band's former keyboard player, was awarded 40% of the royalties after arguing that he wrote the organ music. Last week Brooker won an appeal in the High Court. A judge ruled that Fisher should be credited with co-authorship, but should not benefit financially because he had taken so long to bring his case to court.

Finding a song they both liked was the beginning of a 30-year relationship for the McCartneys which ended with Linda's death, aged 56, from cancer.

The article's publication coincides with the opening of an exhibition of Linda McCartney's photographs at the James Hyman gallery in central London.

McCartney's account will invite unfavourable comparisons with his recent marriage to Heather Mills, which resulted in a bitter divorce battle that ended last month.

"Linda was very down to earth," he writes. "She taught me to relax. Her priorities were private rather than public. She didn't go on television to ingratiate herself. She was just very funny, very smart and very talented."

Linda Eastman - she kept her maiden name professionally - was a photographer. When she met McCartney she was over from her native New York on an assignment to photograph the Swinging Sixties scene in London. She was at the Bag O'Nails with The Animals, another group.

"Until then, I'd felt I'd been dating girls - well, except maybe one or two," writes McCartney. "Linda was genuinely a woman. She had a five-year-old child and I was genuinely impressed by the way she handled herself in life. She just knew how to do it." She encouraged McCartney in his desire to have a more normal life; they would often travel together on the Tube rather than taking taxis or chauffeur-driven cars.

She took countless photographs of McCartney, their three children and her daughter from her first marriage. "When she was taking pictures, she managed to get us all to ignore her, totally," writes McCartney. "She could take pictures pretty much of anything and we knew we could trust her."

She took few pictures of the Beatles, partly because she knew them only during their last two years as a band. Among her rare Beatles photographs are several taken at the EMI studios in Abbey Road, north London.

McCartney is particularly fond of one image that shows him with John Lennon. "What I love about the shot of John and me is that it shows the great working relationship we had," he writes.

"It was a joy to work with John, particularly when we were writing and organising, as we were in this picture."

He also recalls Linda's final days. "At the time she knew she was ill but she'd had chemo and her hair was growing back," he writes. "She didn't know she was dying. I'm not actually sure she ever knew she was dying. You have a decision to make as a family as to whether you tell someone and the doctors leave it to you, the immediate family.

"I talked it over with the doctor and he said, 'I don't think she would want to know. She is such a strong, forward-thinking lady and such a positive girl that I don't think it would do any good'." In fact, Linda McCartney was riding her horse on their ranch in Arizona on the day before she died.

So much of my life with Linda, and our family, was spent just hanging out either at home or on holiday. The picture on this page is just a simple holiday snap. It was just one of those shots, a photograph of me in Jamaica relaxing in the afternoon. As a photographer, Linda had the freedom to take great family snapshots. She had that knack: when she was taking pictures, she managed to get us all to ignore her, totally.

She could take pictures of pretty much anything and we knew that we could trust her. We knew she'd only take pictures of stuff that she thought was worthy and not too private.

We were made to feel at home. I suppose we were, after all. When I first met her, I realised that as a photographer she was very sympathetic. It's now 10 years since she died and probably 40 years since we first met. I can still recall our first meeting. It was at a London club, the Bag O' Nails, when Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames were playing one night. Across a crowded room, as they say, our eyes met and the violins started playing ­ but they were drowned out by, of all people, Georgie Fame. Another northerner.

There was an immediate attraction between us. As she was leaving ­ she was with the group the Animals, whom she'd been photographing ­ I saw an obvious opportunity. I said: "My name's Paul. What's yours?" I think she probably recognised me.

It was so corny, but I told the kids later that, had it not been for that moment, none of them would be here. Later that night, we went on together to another club, the Speakeasy. It was our first date and I remember I heard Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale for the first time. It became our song.

Although Linda knew lots of top musicians ­ she'd worked as a photographer on the first issue of Rolling Stone ­ she was always very down to earth. In the 1960s we often travelled around by Tube. I took a picture of her one early afternoon. The carriage was completely empty and she wanted to shoot pictures of me.

She was always very beautiful. That picture of Linda on the Tube shows her perfectly: beautiful hands, absolutely no make-up, just the structure of the face. The argyle socks that everyone used to make fun of. She had two pairs and used to wear a red one with a green one. She was a very natural girl, naturally blonde. It was a very casual look. That's how the two of us went around in those days ­ down into the Tube, and I shot a couple of pictures of her and she shot a couple of me. Soon after the Tube picture was taken I broke up with the Beatles, which was a horrendous thing for me. Linda was very matter of fact, very down to earth ­ two of the attributes I really needed at the time. And also she was a woman. Until then I'd felt I'd been dating girls ­ well, except maybe one or two. Linda was genuinely a woman. She had a five-year-old child and I was genuinely impressed by the way she handled herself in life. She just knew how to do it. I found that very impressive. It's funny, but a lot of singers and bands these days are more down to earth than you might think. I actually went to dinner one evening with my daughter Stella and Madonna, who showed up on her own. We offered her a lift home and she said: "No, I want to walk home." You think people wouldn't want to do that, but they do. I go shopping, I go to the cinema, I do a lot of things like that because it's a good balance for me between that and the high-profile stuff.

Even at the height of the Beatles era and the screaming fans, I would still go to gigs on the Tube. There was a ring of theatres on the outskirts of London in places like Walthamstow and Finsbury Park and we used to play all of them. I would just take the Tube into the suburbs and walk into the theatre. I remember one night a group of screaming fans recognised me walking along the street on my way to the gig. I always tried to say: "Wait, calm down." It was a kind of brotherly attitude, like I was their older brother. I'd say: "Hello, girls, what do you want?" I'd just take control. They'd reply: "We want your autograph." I'd say: "Okay, here's the deal. If we all walk quietly to the theatre, we'll chat and I'll do them. We'll have a great experience, but if there's any screaming I won't." I cut a deal with them and it worked.

Linda didn't take a lot of pictures of the Beatles, but she made the most of the opportunity when she was in the studio, usually at Abbey Road. She was very sensitive about not interrupting. She had this knack of not getting in the way. She had this great style where she would sit in the corner and just pull out her camera and take a couple of snaps and put it away. What I love about the shot of John and me is that it shows the great working relationship we had. It was a joy to work with John, particularly when we were writing and organising, as we were in this picture. I can't recall exactly what we were doing ­ maybe a lyric, maybe a running order, maybe the medley on Abbey Road. At some point we had to organise what song would go where. I just love the joy of that picture ­ it's beautifully composed. There were also the difficulties of the period ­ which show up in the film Let It Be ­ which I think have overshadowed the truth. It was a very heavy period. But this picture shows it wasn't all like that. There was some light. And that's how I remember our working relationship. Even though there were some tough moments, this was a great friendship.

Faced with the pressure of being married to a Beatle, Linda often wanted to get out of the city.

We would go on visits to places like Cliveden, where Linda photographed me with Heather, Linda's daughter, who became our daughter. She always called me Dad. It is an interesting shot. I knew Cliveden from making the film Help! ­ we shot a sequence where we'd used the house, pretending it was Buckingham Palace. I'm not sure the Queen would have allowed that. I'd been out there with the Beatles and we met Lord Astor and he was on his last legs.

I remember him offering us all oxygen. He was saying: "Do you want a bit?" I think we did have a quick whiff.

I knew that Cliveden would be a nice day out for Linda, Heather and me. When we went for a drive, Linda always wanted to get lost. I had an in-built panic about being lost. I always want to know where London is. I don't want to get to, say, Staines and not know my way back. We would go down to the most obscure places, have a great time, find a little tearoom or a riverbank. She taught me little things like that, to relax and be down to earth. It was very valuable to me then, a great part of the healing process after the Beatles broke up. She adored the country and loved taking photographs there. The picture on the opening spread was taken in Scotland on our farm, in 1982, when we were spending a lot of time there. That's my Scottish dressing gown ­ it was itchy on the skin but it's the one I wore.

My task was to walk from one end of the fence to the other and back, which I did until it got a bit rickety and it became a bit of a health hazard. What I think is fabulous about this picture is that it is one of those moments in time that someone like Cartier-Bresson specialised in. There are famous pictures that Cartier-Bresson took that showed someone jumping over a puddle in the road ­ it's that "you're there!" look. Then you have this lovely figure of Stella just crouching down in the foreground. And then you've got the dog perfectly pointing, a little labrador called Poppy, and then you've got me balancing. It's quite amazing.

Linda was a very natural woman. She loved the fresh air and the freedom and the privacy of the countryside. During the break-up of the Beatles we spent quite a long time in Scotland ­ three to four months. Normally it would just be a two-week holiday. We loved it up there. It was the end of nowhere.

Our farm is in Campbeltown and I still go there with the family. The men in the picture were known by Linda and me as the Old Biddies. They were retired. They used to hang out in their macs and their Andy Capp caps and sit around and have a chat. Later I think someone put a bench there for them. We used to always see them when we went into town to get some groceries. She'd take snaps and there are quite a lot of photographs that are now quite historical. In 30 years, places change. We've got pictures of babies, bonny wee bairns who are now great, grown-up farmers.

And the Campbeltown museum has some of Linda's pictures for that very reason ­ they've become historical. I love the raincoats. Those old guys are all just country types, retired with their sticks. There is some great atmosphere in that photograph. Linda was very fond of the Old Biddies.

One great thing about Linda was that she was able to mix with anyone. Her father was a well-known lawyer. He had been to Harvard and had a very successful practice and lived in an apartment in Park Avenue, a very posh address, with a stunning art collection. She could live in that world, she was very at ease there. But also she could communicate very easily with people on the street. She had a very easy manner. In the 1960s and 70s the press over here didn't get it ­ simply because she'd become my girlfriend and then my wife.

She didn't go on TV and say "This is who I am ­ hello" and try to ingratiate herself. We didn't need to do that ­ it was our life, not theirs. We were too busy living it. When anybody came to the house and met her, they thought she was fantastic. She was just a great person to hang out with: very funny, very smart and very talented. She could just as easily talk to a local postman as a New York art dealer.

It takes time for people to get to know you, especially if you don't work at it ­ and she didn't work at it. Time is the essential factor. People would come round to dinner with us, people like Twiggy and Joanna Lumley. Linda would occasionally do interviews and people would gradually get to know her. The word just got out that she was just a really cool lady. People would say about her: "She's nothing like the image." Her priorities were private rather than public, and that's why it took a bit of time.

For me, probably the saddest and most haunting photograph in this collection is the self-portrait she took in 1997, not long before she died in 1998, in Francis Bacon's studio in South Kensington. Linda was a great art lover. She had studied art at college in Arizona and her father had a phenomenal collection. So she'd grown up with great art. She admired Francis Bacon greatly and had an opportunity through a friend to photograph his studio after he died. We knew the people who looked after his studio. It was going ­ the entire contents ­ to Dublin. She went along and took some pictures. This one is a classic. With the cracked mirror it's particularly eerie. It is a very strange but powerful picture. I'm not sure, but that looks like somebody's death mask on the right of the picture.

At the time, she knew she was ill, but she'd had chemo and her hair was growing back. I thought at the time it was a very chic look. She didn't know she was dying. I'm not actually sure she ever knew she was dying. You have a decision to make as a family as to whether you tell someone and the doctors leave it to you, the immediate family.

I talked it over with the doctor and he said: "I don't think she would want to know. She is such a strong, forward-thinking lady and such a positive girl that I don't think it would do any good." She was fighting right up to the end.

Even on the day before she died, she was out on horseback. She loved riding so much. Sometimes she'd get up on her a horse and I'd say: "You don't want to get down, do you?" She preferred it up there than on the ground.

An exhibition of Linda McCartney's photographs will open at the James Hyman Gallery, 5 Savile Row, London W1, on April 25. The show is the result of a three-year collaboration between Sir Paul, Mary McCartney and James Hyman. Limited-edition platinum prints are available from the gallery. Visit www.jameshymangallery.com

For it seems Sir Paul McCartney is celebrating the end of his bitter divorce from Heather Mills by dating THREE women.

This week Macca, 65, has been on a romantic break with striking brunette NANCY SHEVELL.

But we can reveal he is still seeing Hollywood star ROSANNA ARQUETTE and former Olympic horse-rider TANYA LARRIGAN.

Sir Paul has told friends that he wants to play the field. Following his "disaster" with Mucca, he does not intend to marry again and won't be rushed into another long-term relationship.

Lovely

A close friend of the Beatles legend told us: "Paul is keeping his options open and is seeing many women.

"He has a lot of interest from many lovely women and he's happy to go out with all of them.
Hollywood star Rosanna Arquette

"None of us would be surprised if Paul met a FOURTH woman and took her on holiday with him.

"He doesn't want to rush into another heavy relationship. He just wants to go out, have fun and live life. He really likes Nancy but he is not taking things too seriously. He doesn't even acknowledge they are in a relationship at this stage.

"We're not sure Nancy sees it that way. She seems to have very deep feelings for him. But he is back on top form, loving being the eligible bachelor after that horrible divorce."

It was only this week that Macca's ex Heather-known as Mucca for her sordid past as a hooker and porn star-finally decided not to appeal against the £24.3 million ($48.6) divorce settlement imposed by the high court.

At the same time Sir Paul was relaxing in Caribbean paradise Antigua with 48-year-old Nancy.

The News of the World can reveal that Macca has been providing a shoulder to cry on for Nancy after her older brother, motor industry boss Jon, died suddenly last month in Los Angeles at the age of 50.

Shaken Nancy, a close friend of Macca's first wife Linda, asked him to join her on the holiday to try to get over her grief. Our source added: "At the same time Paul has hooked up with her for this holiday to boost his self-worth. After three years of hell with Heather he needed to spend some quality time with someone who made him feel like a man again.

"Heather went all out to wreck his male pride and his bond with his family and friends."

Despite his relationship with Nancy, the millionaire musician remains close to Rosanna, 48, who he has wined and dined in London several times in the last six months.

Macca's pal said: "He speaks regularly to Rosanna and they plan to meet up very soon."

The superstar has also become very close in the last few months to Tanya, 53, daughter of his old Beatles days friend and former horse adviser Peter Larrigan.

Rocked

The pal added: "Tanya is another friend who helped him through his woes recently. They have known each other for years but have been in closer contact lately."

Sir Paul has himself been rocked by the death of three close friends in recent months.

Both former sound engineer Hurricane Smith and manager Neil Aspinall have died from cancer.

And Macca was shattered by the death of Betty Robbins, who taught him how to play music as a child in Liverpool.

The friend revealed: "Paul saw Betty just a week before she died and was really shaken. He loved her deeply as she looked after him for many years in his youth."

George Clooney fancies Paul McCartney's girlfriend

It seems George Clooney has taken a bit of a shine to Paul McCartney's new girlfriend Nancy Shevell.

After meeting Sir Paul and 47-year-old Shevell in New York's Carlyle Hotel, the Hollywood hunk told pals: "I wouldn't say no!"

While eying up Nancy, George, 46, complimented Paul, 65, on his healthy glow and joked that divorce from Heather Mills had obviously served him well.

Over drinks in the hotel bar, George - who's dating former cocktail waitress Sarah Larson - was overheard drooling: "Paul McCartney's girlfriend is definitely keeping him young!

"He's done pretty well for himself - I wouldn't say no!"

But even though Clooney, 46, is one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors, the 65-year-old former Beatle has little to fear.

He and Nancy recently enjoyed a romantic Caribbean holiday where they were seen kissing and cuddling on the beach.

While his ex-wife, Heather, who scooped a $48.6 million divorce settlement, tries to secure lucrative TV deals in LA, Paul has returned to London to look after their four-year-old daughter, Bea.

She's elegant, publicity-shy and oh-so-discreet, so why are Paul McCartney's family worried by his latest love?

He is a 65-year-old grandfather who has had more than his fair share of heartbreak.

But, right now, Sir Paul McCartney is grinning like a teenager in the first flush of love.

Strolling through the lobby of the exclusive Carlyle hotel in New York, following a romantic week-long trip to Antigua with stunning American millionairess Nancy Shevell, the former Beatle glowed as he gave waiting fans his famous 'thumbs-up' sign - something ex-wife Heather Mills banned him from doing on the grounds of its 'cheesiness'.

Even the nearby presence of Heather, the woman who appears hell-bent on destroying him, for a pre-agreed handover of their daughter Bea could do nothing to ruin his new-found equanimity as he stepped into a waiting car and on to a dinner date with Nancy.

"He is really happy and determined to enjoy life again," says one of his close friends.

"And he believes Nancy is the key."

There has been a long line of eligible women queuing up to hold the hand of McCartney since his split from Heather two years ago.

They have ranged from Bridget Jones star, Renee Zellweger, who said he was "lovely", to model Christie Brinkley.

Actress Rosanna Arquette looked set to become a particular favourite following a string of dates.

But it is Nancy, 47, possibly the most glamorous trucking executive in the world, who has emerged as the most serious contender so far for the recently vacated title of Lady McCartney.

Elegant, refined, publicity-shy and discreet, she is everything Heather is not. She does, however, have many similarities to Paul's much-beloved and still-missed first wife, Linda.

Like Linda, she comes from a wealthy East Coast Jewish home with close family ties (Paul has, in fact, totally sworn off British women since his Heather experience). U.S. television doyenne Barbara Walters is her second cousin.

Growing up with money - and being a millionairess in her own right - means that nobody could accuse her of being a gold-digger.

But nobody could accuse her of resting on her gilt-edged laurels, either - McCartney likes his women to work as well as play - and she holds both a prominent position in her family's £250 million ($500 million) trucking business, New England Motor Freight (NEMF), and is a board member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York (the city's equivalent of London Transport).

Like both of Paul's ex-wives, she is a keen charity worker, although - like one of them - she does not shout about it.

She is co-chairman of the Arlene Walters Shevell Endowment Scholarship Fund, a foundation named after her mother to help the families of people with addictions.

After a brush with breast cancer in 1996, the disease which eventually killed Linda, she also funded Hewlett House, a support centre for patients of the disease.

She and her now-estranged husband Bruce Blakeman, whom she met while studying transport at Arizona University, were a proper New York power couple - she an executive at NEMF, he a partner in a top law firm.

They had all the necessary assets - an apartment on Manhattan's exclusive Upper East Side, a townhouse in Long Island and a mansion in the Hamptons.

Bruce's family are staunch Republicans - his brother, Brad, is a strategist and close friend of George W Bush - and he was made commissioner of the New York Port Authority by the then Republican governor George Pataki.

The pair, who have a 15-year-old son called Arlen, split last year, making Nancy a particularly eligible divorcee on the New York singles scene.

Friends describe her as ambitious, intelligent and fashionable, but also "endearingly ditzy" just like ... well, you know who.

"She has always been very career oriented and is favourite to take over the family business," said one source in New York.

"But despite working in such a macho industry, she is all woman. She is very beautiful, but also takes a lot of care of herself and works hard to keep her figure trim. She has always been a clothes horse, with endless designer outfits and shoes.

"She is playful and intelligent, but not in an overbearing way. Women warm to her and men want to look after her. But she also has a steely side, and if she wants something she can be as stubborn as a mule."

She certainly won Paul's heart by playing the game both intelligently and patiently.

Nancy has known Paul for years on the East Hampton social circuit She and Linda were friends and the McCartney children nicknamed her Jackie O because she was so glamorous.

There was a falling out, however, when Nancy advised Paul against marrying Heather, who had been rude to her when they met.

"You don't have to marry everyone you date," she told him, in words that could come back to haunt her.

But last summer they bumped into each other again at a Hamptons party and gradually became close.

At first it became clear to Nancy that after the rigours of marriage to Heather, Paul was not looking for anything serious - and simply wanted to play the field.

Just how much became clear when, after spending a weekend with Nancy in Long Island in November, he was pictured a few days later on a date in London with Rosanna Arquette.

At that time, Paul seemed unable to choose between the two very different American women and eight weeks ago, just before the start of his divorce hearing with Heather, he was seen on yet another date with Rosanna.

"For quite a while, Paul had both Rosanna and Nancy on simmer," said one source close to the singer.

"Both knew about the other, but they both played the game well and did not ask him to explain what was going on. I think everyone recognised he had to go through what we have called a 'Rod Stewart' phase and date a few people after everything he went through with Heather.

"He liked both Nancy and Rosanna a lot - particularly as they were so different from Heather. But in February Rosanna made the decision for him. They were being followed by the paparazzi and Rosanna couldn't stand it - she regards her privacy a sacrosanct.

"She has had lots of relationships with musicians - and even moved to Britain to be with Peter Gabriel - and she knows what they are like with their egos. She decided that this relationship, as exciting as it was to be dating a Beatle, wasn't going anywhere."

So, the path was left clear for Nancy.

Then, the Mail can reveal, two tragic deaths just a few weeks apart brought the pair closer than they could ever have imagined.

Just four weeks ago, Nancy's beloved brother and fellow NEMF vice-president, Jon Lawrence Shevell, died, aged 50.

Sources say Jon, a former semi-professional basketball player who experimented with drugs in his youth, had been ill for some time. He died in a room at the exclusive Beverly Hills Hotel.

The cause of his death was listed as "unknown".

Paul was in the middle of his divorce hearing when Jon died, but he flew to New York the day it was over to comfort Nancy - and to say goodbye to one of his own dear friends.

Neil Aspinall, the "fifth Beatle" who was the band's road manager, chief confidant and business adviser, died of lung cancer on March 26, aged 66.

To Paul, it was yet another person he had grown up with who had died prematurely, following in the footsteps of Linda, John Lennon and George Harrison.

Friends say it gave him the impetus to push things on with Nancy.

"They both needed something to cheer them up, so Paul suggested a holiday," said one.

"Nancy agreed immediately." The pair flew to the exclusive Jumby Bay resort in Antigua, where they rented a £6,000-a-night ($12,000) private villa. It was a big step for a couple who'd had only a few scattered dates across many months.

But if this was a make-or-break trip, it worked. Onlookers said they looked more like honeymooners than two middle-aged people with three marriages behind them.

In the seclusion and peace of Jumby Bay, the pair openly kissed and held hands. They talked, laughed, went sailing and swimming, and also enjoyed just being quiet together.

"They looked incredibly comfortable with each other," said one onlooker.

"You could see that it was still a sort of new-ish relationship as he seemed very keen to impress her. But there wasn't any forced conversation or stilted moments. They got on really well and it was actually very sweet to see the pair of them looking at each other romantically."

Amid all the joy of a fledgling love affair, however, the two quickly came back to reality when they returned to New York.

Heather, predictably, is angry about the romance. She is angry that Paul has found someone so quickly after their divorce; she is angry that he went on a lavish holiday when (as she sees it) he pays a pittance for their child's maintenance (never mind the £24 million ($48.6 million) she got in the divorce settlement) and she is angry that her ex already wants to introduce the new woman in his life to their daughter, Bea.

"Heather has decided that Paul has stabbed her in the back by conducting this romance," said one friend of the former Lady McCartney. "She can see that there is something different about Nancy and she is worried about what it means for her.

"She can't see that relations between her and Paul are just about as bad as they could get - she still thinks she has influence over him and now thinks Nancy is going to ruin that.

"They had a blazing row as soon as Paul got back to New York and she told him in no uncertain terms that Bea was not to be introduced to Nancy until she said so."

But it is not just Heather who has misgivings about the relationship. Paul's children, while heartily approving of Nancy, are worried that he is again jumping in with both feet too quickly.

"As Nancy once told him, he doesn't have to marry everyone he gets involved with," said a friend of his daughter Stella.

"But Paul is an old-fashioned boy and once he has decided he is in love he wants that person to be by his side.

"He likes being looked after by a wife and he likes waking up with someone next to him. He has been talking excitedly about plans for seeing more and more of Nancy and that worries Stella, Mary and James.

"Of course, they want him to be happy - that is what they want more than anything else - but things are suddenly moving very fast with Nancy, and the kids are just telling Paul to slow it down a little."

Meanwhile, he has a very personal project to be getting on with. Over the next few weeks, Paul will put the finishing touches to an exhibition in London of Linda's photographs, to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of her death.

Linda has obviously been very much in his mind during the dark days of his divorce from Heather, and he dedicated his recent Brits Outstanding Achievement Award to the woman he loved for more than three decades.

Clearly, he once thought that his relationship with Heather could match that with his first wife. He's a little older and wiser now, but it appears a space is finally opening up for a woman who is a lot more like Linda.

We're just super excited that Brit designer Stella McCartney just launched a very cool website, StellaMcCartney.com. Clickers can browse and shop from the site's wide selection of pieces from the Spring/Summer 2008 collections, including ready to wear, and Stella's cruelty-free shoes, bags and accessories. Cool function: each item is available to shop separately or "by look", styled by Stella herself, with a video option to see the clothes in movement.

The company also offers carbon neutral delivery options for the environmentally-friendly consumer.

The rest of the site celebrates every aspect of the Stella McCartney world online including adidas by Stella McCartney, frangances, organic skincare and lingerie. A special section is also dedicated to "Stella's World" featuring behind-the-scenes videos and photos.

YOKO 'SORRY' FOR MACCA OVER DIVORCE

Yoko Ono has said that she "felt sorry" for Sir Paul McCartney over his recent divorce.

John Lennon's widow spoke about his former bandmate while visiting her late husband's childhood home in Liverpool.

She said: "I'm very sorry for him to have had to go through all that. I haven't spoken to him about that but it's a subject which he probably doesn't want to discuss with other people."

Ono, 75, also told Sky News, alluding to Heather Mills, that it was "not easy" to be associated with a Beatle.

She said: "All I can say is it's not very easy for a woman to be associated with The Beatles. I think all the wives did suffer, and I think quietly suffer. Suffer but endured, I would actually say."

She told Sky News that Heather Mills needed to "do her very best and try to survive".

She added: "I'd not just say to her but to Paul too, it's a very difficult situation for any couple to go through, especially for people who are really out in the world and their every movement is being observed."

Sir Paul McCartney looked tanned and relaxed as he showed off his tan on a night out with his girlfriend Nancy Shevell.

Unable to hide his smile, beaming Sir Paul McCartney, 65, showed off his holiday glow beside girlfriend, Nancy Shevell, 47.

Just back from their break in the Caribbean, he and the US heiress shared a romantic dinner together dinner in New York, with the former Beatle flashing his trademark thumbs-up sign to fans. (VIDEO)

Three hours - and still smiling - later they retired to their £3,000 ($6,000)-anight, two-bedroom suite at the swanky Carlyle hotel.

Ironically, bitter ex-wife Heather Mills is understood to have been holed up in a hotel less than two miles away. She is reported to be livid about the new romance and friends say she is out to break it up.

Heather was last night believed to be flying on to Los Angeles to be a judge in a Miss USA beauty pageant next week.

Meanwhile their daughter Beatrice, four, will be looked after by Sir Paul, who flew back to Britain yesterday to be reunited with her.

Heather Mills is planning to ruin ex-husband Paul McCartney's new romance.

The former model, who received £24.3 million (approximately $50 million) in their bitter divorce battle, reportedly wants to phone U.S. heiress Nancy Shevell to warn her off a relationship with the musician.

A source told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper: "Heather is threatening to call and explain the dangers of dating a Beatle."

"She had hell with the public hating her and reckons Nancy could too. Heather genuinely thinks she's doing Nancy a good turn."

Heather is believed to have felt "deceived and betrayed" after photographs were released of Paul and Nancy enjoying a romantic stroll along a beach in a private Caribbean resort.

Tuesday, Nancy was seen rubbing suncream onto Paul's back as the pair relaxed on a boat. The musician was also photographed diving into the water as Nancy watched on.

Paul, 65, and Nancy, 47, are staying in a $12,000-a-night villa at the exclusive Jumby Bay resort, two miles off Antigua.

Heather is also said to be terrified Paul is planning to have a baby with Nancy and she is worried he will spend less time with their four-year-old daughter Beatrice.

The source added: "She went ballistic when she found out. She is also terrified they're planning a baby - even though Nancy's not far off 50 - and thinks another child will detract from Beatrice."

Meanwhile, Heather is considering launching a new legal battle against Paul.

The 40-year-old vegan is ready to return to court to get the gagging order on their case lifted. Heather wants the transcript of their divorce to be made public to show Paul treated her badly her during their four-year marriage.

Her lawyer David Rosen said: "She just wants the public to have the facts. She wants people to know she was a good mother and wife. Perhaps it would be better for the public to see everything."

Rosen also dismissed claims Heather was unhappy with her divorce settlement, despite rumors she had demanded $250 million.

He said: "She wasn't disappointed, she was very happy. It was a good figure. She would have accepted a lesser sum."

Barmy Heather Mills has vowed revenge on Sir Paul McCartney - by wrecking his new romance.

Heather fears he may start a new family with Nancy Shevell, 47, and snub daughter Bea, four.

The bitter ex-model, 40, even plans to phone her to warn her off-yet outrageously claims she will be doing it for Nancy's good. A pal revealed: "Heather's threatening to call and explain the dangers of dating a Beatle.

"She had hell with the public hating her and reckons Nancy could too. Heather genuinely thinks she's doing Nancy a good turn."

Her mood will have soured further yesterday as Macca, 65, and his US socialite sweetheart continued their carefree holiday off Antigua. Nancy rubbed suncream into him as they relaxed on a boat. Later, the pop legend limbered up as they floated on a pontoon before he dived into the sea.

Heather's lawyer Gloria Allred has claimed she wishes her ex-husband "all the best in his new relationship".

But her friend told how the pleasantries hid a seething fury - and Heather felt "deceived and betrayed" because Macca told her he and Nancy were just pals. The source added: "She went ballistic when she found out. She's also terrified they're planning a baby - even though Nancy's not far off 50 - and thinks another child will detract from Beatrice."

Meanwhile, Heather is plotting a new legal battle against Sir Paul to get the transcript of their divorce hearing made public.

Although the judge branded her a liar, she believes it will unmask details of his behaviour during their marriage. Her lawyer David Rosen said: "She just wants the public to have the facts . She wants people to know she was a good mother and wife."

Smitten Nancy Shevell rubs sun cream into Sir Paul McCartney's chest as their hols hot up.

Macca, 65, lounged on a boat as 47-year-old Nancy massaged in the lotion front and back.

Then, he showed the New York millionairess how athletic he can be - with some leg exercises and a display of diving skills.

Even a tropical downpour at Antigua's exclusive Jumby Bay resort didn't dampen the romance.

Affection

An onlooker said: "They were showing lots of affection. She took care that he didn't burn in the sun, while he was handing her towels in the rain.

"They seem in the honeymoon stage of the relationship."

Paul, whose hits include Here Comes The Sun (???), videoed the carefree moments, days after his divorce fight with Heather Mills, 40.

Earlier, excited beach-goers surrounded the ex Beatle and breast cancer survivor Nancy.

A guest at the resort where Macca has a £6,000-a-night villa, said: "People are thrilled."

The childish capers, the shared jokes and the public displays of intimacy are so familiar to teenagers wrapped up in their first affair.

But when you're 65, it's all a little less dignified.

Holidaying in the Caribbean with his new flame, Sir Paul McCartney didn't seem to care.

Reinvigorated after his gruelling divorce, the former Beatle seemed bent on impressing 47-year-old Nancy Shevell with his physical prowess.

So after a yoga session, he swam across the bay, dived from a pontoon and rowed the couple back to shore before lunch at their £6,000-anight villa.

New York socialite Miss Shevell was obviously appreciative, massaging suncream into his shoulders and chest afterwards.

The couple, who have had a series of liaisons since October, are staying at the Jumby Bay resort in Antigua.

And after all that activity, Sir Paul rests while an appreciative Nancy massages suncream into his chest
Enlarge the image

A beachgoer said: "It seemed like they're very much in the honeymoon stage of their relationship because he was impressing her with his diving and she was loving it."

Miss Shevell, whose family has a £250 million ($500 million) transport firm, is separated from her lawyer husband.

Meanwhile, Sir Paul's ex-wife, Heather Mills, 40, may return to court to force the publication of documents exposing his behaviour in their marriage, her lawyer said.

Heather Mills is considering a return to court to force the publication of secret documents exposing Sir Paul McCartney's behaviour during their marriage, her lawyer said today.

David Rosen said that his client wanted to put the record straight over claims she was a gold-digger only after the ex-Beatle's £400 million ($800 million) fortune.

Ms Mills feels frustrated that a damning judgment, in which she was awarded £24.3 million ($48.6 million), was made public but full court transcripts were held back under the terms of a gagging order issued by Mr Justice Bennett.

She is considering launching a new legal battle to have all the evidence made available, allowing the public to make up their own minds.

Her action came as pictures were published of Sir Paul on holiday in the Caribbean with new girlfriend, the US heiress Nancy Shevell. The couple were reportedly seen kissing openly and sailing together in a dinghy.

According to documents leaked early in the case, Ms Mills, 40, a former glamour model, had accused McCartney, 65, of being violent towards her although Mr Justice Bennett ruled the evidence irrelevant when calculating her payout.

Mr Rosen said: "The conduct was not relevant and didn't factor in the judgment. But that doesn't mean to say it is not relevant at all to her and what people may think of her.

"She just wants the public to have the full facts of the case. She wants people to know that she was a good mother and a good wife.

"You can read from the judgment she had significantly contributed to bringing back Paul from the depths of depression and rebuilding his confidence following the death of Linda and that she felt he leaned on her."

In an exclusive interview, Mr Rosen also revealed:

· Ms Mills would have happily accepted £20 million ($40 million) - almost £5 million ($10 million) less than she was awarded by a High Court judge

· McCartney refused to settle, preferring the case to go to court

· Ms Mills had offered to sign a prenuptial agreement to limit her payout but McCartney decided against it

· Ms Mills feels "robbed" of time with her daughter Beatrice because she spent so much energy fighting the divorce

· She fears she will be attacked by 'wackos' after details of her private life were made public in the divorce judgment.

Mr Rosen, who has a reputation as a 'legal rottweiler', has spoken out after his client's reputation was left in tatters by a damning legal judgment which was made public at the end of a legal battle lasting almost two years. Mr Justice Bennett accused Ms Mills of "make belief", branded her "volatile" and described her as a "less than candid" witness. But Mr Rosen, who acted as her legal advisor during the divorce hearing and has now been appointed her lawyer, said she was a remarkable charity campaigner who deserved a second chance.

Mr Rosen, an equity partner with north London law firm Darlingtons, said today: "They tried to deal with it amicably and sensibly but it didn't happen. As I understand it, Sir Paul has always been relatively frugal with his money and he was never going to make any payment unless it was by order of the court.î

Mr Rosen, 35, insisted Ms Mills was no gold-digger - an accusation repeatedly levelled at her.

"I think she suggested a prenuptial agreement and was happy to do it but he wasn't interested," said Mr Rosen. "He thought they would live happily ever after. That also indicates she is no gold-digger."

Ms Mills represented herself during the six-day hearing which determined the size of her payout but she was helped in court by Mr Rosen after parting company with her previous law firm Mishcon de Reya.

Mr Rosen praised Ms Mills as a "highly intelligent woman" who achieved a very good settlement.

He said: "Heather certainly did slightly better than she believed she was going to. She believed it would be in the ball-park of £20 million ($40 million) to £30 million ($60 million) because that is what everyone was saying. But I don't think she was in it for the money.

"She felt she had been vilified by the press. She just wanted to turn all the negative press into something very positive to benefit those without and those who would benefit from charitable causes. She was always terribly frustrated that being married to a Beatle overshadowed her charity work.

"What people have not seen of her is the charity work she does behind the scenes, counselling people who have just lost limbs, dealing with people with drugs problems."

He told how he was summoned to see Ms Mills at her home in Brighton to discuss taking on the case, given little time to plough through boxes of legal files. He spoke of Ms Mills's kindness to other amputees. The former model had a limb amputated after being hit by a police motorbike.

Ms Mills is currently in the US with her daughter Beatrice, four.

"I think now is the time for reflection as to who she is and what she constructively wants to do in the future," said Mr Rosen.

"She feels robbed of precious time in the formative years of her daughter's development, having to focus on a court battle when all she really wanted to do was bring up her daughter.

"There is no criticism of the judge and nor can there be of his ruling. Heather's objection was to specific details of security and living arrangements being made public.

"There are a lot of wackos out there. There have been death threats."

His messy divorce behind him, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney is back in the arms of his MTA money honey.

McCartney, 65, and New York socialite Nancy Shevell are on a romantic Caribbean getaway at the exclusive Jumby Bay resort, a private island 2 miles off of Antigua, several British newspapers reported Monday.

They rented "bikes and rode all around the island," a source told The Daily Mirror. "They were laughing and looked like they were having a great time."

They are images that have infuriated Heather Mills, McCartney's second wife, who is appealing her recent $48 million divorce settlement as too low.

"Heather is not a happy bunny at the moment," a source told the People newspaper. "She thinks Paul is publicly celebrating their divorce and parading girlfriends in front of her."

Mills was also reportedly jealous of whatever the Beatles legend might be spending on his New York socialite gal pal.

"She went absolutely crazy," the source said. "She was screaming, 'I bet Paul paid for that old tart to go first class. I can't believe he's wasting money on that thing when he won't pay for his own child to go first class.'"

The friend said McCartney responded that Shevell has her own money and doesn't need his.

Shevell, a 47-year-old trucking heiress who sits on the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is legally separated from her husband, Bruce Blakeman, a Port Authority commissioner who once ran for state controller.

McCartney and Shevell first made headlines as a couple last fall when they spent three days together in the Hamptons and were photographed kissing in a car.

At the time, the former Beatle was still locked in divorce proceedings with Mills and insisted the two were just friends.

Now, with his divorce all but finalized, McCartney seems to be celebrating his new freedom.

"Sir Paul's general feeling is that he was vindicated after the court case," a friend told the Daily Mail. "A lot of what was said about him was discounted by the judge. Now all he wants is peace and quiet."

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