THE grainy images splashed across a tabloid newspaper last weekwere difficult to ascertain. But they were clear enough to show one thing: supermodel Kate Moss, one of the world's most photographed women, was snorting lines of white powder, alleged to be cocaine.
On Thursday, the Daily Mirror printed a series of photographs which saw fashion's coolest icon fall spectacularly from grace. The images showed her allegedly sniffing cocaine in a west-London recording studio as the band Babyshambles, headed by her boyfriend Pete Doherty, recorded tracks for their debut album.
According to the newspaper, which had a video tape of the alleged events, the model, who's been at the top of her profession for more than 15 years, produced a "mammoth stash" of cocaine from her handbag and chopped it out on a CD cover. It was reported she snorted five lines of the drug in 40 minutes.
Further allegations were also made that she had talked openly about using skunk, a super-strength strain of cannabis.
She is said to have told one band member: "Weed isn't worth anything. Skunk is the worst. It turns you. Too much and you start seeing the devil and everything."
Celebrities have previously hit the headlines over similar scandals and managed to survive. TV presenter Richard Bacon was sacked from children's programme Blue Peter after he admitted taking cocaine, but successfully revived his career.
Like Bacon, Moss is highly influential among teenagers - she is the face of several leading fashion brands which are designed to appeal to teenage girls - but as many sections of the press have already pointed out, she is also a mother of one.
It's not the first time the 31-year-old has found herself at the epicentre of a seemingly career-ending scandal. Despite rarely giving interviews, untold column inches have been dedicated to the supermodel since she became the epitome of the superwaif after appearing on the cover of the Face magazine at the tender age of 14.
A photo shoot, which depicted her as a painfully thin "child woman", started the storm of controversy around the whole heroin chic look. Critics warned it was promoting both anorexia to vulnerable young teenagers and paedophilia. Bill Clinton, US President at the time, was even moved to make a statement saying that the look was glamorising a once feared drug.
Her love of the party lifestyle has also been well documented. In 1998, Moss had a spell in the Priory rehab clinic for "exhaustion", saying she had been doing "a lot of work and too much partying".
During an interview two years ago with David Bowie, she admitted to having used drugs in the past, but claimed to be clean, saying: "Dabbling is fine, but when I was bang on it, that wasn't a nice time. I was miserable anyway. Drugs enhanced all the misery and I got into this spiral. I still drink, but I don't do drugs."
Following the birth of her daughter Lila Grace, Moss got back on track as Britain's top model, with a string of lucrative contracts to contribute to her estimated GBP15 million fortune. Earlier this year she won libel damages from the Sunday Mirror after it falsely claimed she had collapsed into a coma after taking cocaine.
Then it emerged that she was dating pop star Pete Doherty, a self-confessed heroin and crack addict who was once jailed for burglary. Friends and family were reported to have begged her to ditch him. At the time, close pal Sadie Frost reportedly said: "Kate has had a history of partying hard and the idea of the two of them together would be a terrible idea."
Now, it seems, those words could be ringing true. But despite the revelations, it appears as though Moss will be given a second chance by at least one of her employers. High-street giant H&M yesterday accepted an apology from the model, though they conceded it would have an impact on the company's reputation.
Moss is due to star as the main model in a campaign for the company's highprofile Stella McCartney collection which opens on November 10.
"We strongly disapprove of her actions, " spokeswoman Liv Asarnoj said.
"We think this is very unfortunate, of course, and we have strict policies for engaging models.
"They should be healthy, wholesome and sound, and we are strongly against drug abuse - we have made this clear to Kate Moss.
"After hearing her explanation and her regret we have decided for the time being to continue the campaign."
Asarnoj said the model had been "very regretful" when she met H&M officials in New York to try to salvage her sponsorship deal.
"She is a true style icon and an extremely professional and experienced model, " she added. "That is why we chose her. But, of course, this has affected us as a company. The whole thing is very unfortunate."
Meanwhile, it is unclear what action, if any, the other top-name brands which Moss represents will take. Companies such as Chanel and Burberry have been refusing to comment, as has Coty, the US cosmetics giant which owns teenage make-up brand Rimmel. But it is thought that they are unlikely to sever ties with the Croydon-born model.
According to PR guru Max Clifford, her career could remain unscathed, mainly thanks to the profession she is in.
"Damaging though this seems to be, because of the industry she is in (fashion) there is far greater tolerance in my view to this kind of activity, " he said. "I would have said that in lots of other fields it would have been the end of her career, but as a fashion model and someone who is a top fashion model, it is possible that it won't destroy her.
"Just as years ago homosexuality was the kiss of death for most careers, in the theatre it was always accepted. It seems that rock and roll, (and for) fashion models, drugs is an accepted part of that whole culture."
Clifford argued that the fashion companies would only be likely to think about dropping her if there was sufficient outcry in the media. He said he would advise her to book into a rehab clinic to boost her public image.
"What she should do in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the public is obviously to come out and say I'm fighting a battle, " he said. "Then people would be aware she is a victim of the drug, rather than anything else. That naturally would help get lots of sympathy from lots of areas."
But he added: "I don't think for one second that is what she will do. I would be astonished if she didn't do anything but put two fingers up, as that seems to be her way."
Professor Philip Schlesinger, director of the Media Research Unit at Stirling University, agreed that the allegations would be unlikely to have too damaging an effect on her career.
"The obvious risk of being a celebrity is that you get stuck on a pedestal and then you get knocked off it, " he said. "The consequences of being knocked off it are really quite unpredictable, because people can reinvent themselves and really it is impossible to say.
"While there is a market for her as a model, I would have thought it would be unlikely to have any effect. The moral outrage, I don't think, is likely to destroy her career."
However, Moss has not escaped the wrath of drug charities, who have seized the opportunity to issue warnings about the dangers of cocaine.
The class A drug is not only a favourite on the fashion scene, its use has been on the rise in recent years among the middle classes.
Earlier this year, Sir Ian Blair chose to highlight the problem when he took over as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, saying: "I am concerned that cocaine is becoming socially acceptable.
"People are having dinner parties where they drink less wine and snort more cocaine."
Drugs campaigners are concerned that celebrity scandals can add to the appeal of the drug. Alistair Ramsay, director of Scotland Against Drugs, said: "People in the public eye must be very clear that there are young people who will emulate their behaviour. I wonder how Miss Moss would feel if a young person died using drugs because they copied her?"
Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, agreed that cocaine was often viewed as a glamourous drug.
"It's very different to heroin, " he said.
"Heroin is often seen as a dirty drug and cocaine is often seen as an attractive and exotic drug. In part that reflects the fact that it is often said to be quite widespread among people in that area of [celebrity] society."
But he argued that the messages sent out by high-profile cases involving celebrities getting into difficulties with drugs were mixed.
"One is of someone in obvious difficulty and they need help, " he said. "The other is actually giving the impression that cocaine is a drug which is associated with celebrity and, in that sense, making it more attractive to some young people.
"We see that celebrities, who have ample access to these drugs and can well afford them, get into difficulties as they are in themselves very dangerous substances. That can rapidly lead to dependence and your entire life being taken over by these substances."
McKeganey said he did not think that the fashion companies should necessarily sever links with Moss. But he warned that unless she moved out of the industry, she may find it difficult to kick any alleged drugs habit.
"I don't think that just because it indicates she has problems with this, she shouldn't be allowed to work, " he said.
"That would not be a fair reaction for anyone, irrespective of the kind of job they are doing.
"But it indicates that she is in need of help and almost certainly that will require a decrease in her work.
"It may be the case that through her work she has access to cocaine and as long as those contacts remain very prominent in her life, it makes recovery much more difficult than it otherwise would be. But I certainly don't think that a modelling contract should be suspended because she has got into difficulties."
However, there is one area of her life that Moss might find it not so easy to be forgiven. Reports have been circulating in the press that publisher Jefferson Hack, the father of her two-year-old daughter Lila Grace, is prepared to go to court to seek custody, if the pictures of her snorting coke are proved to be true.
Clifford agreed that the fact Moss is a mother could make a huge difference to how her alleged drug-taking activities are viewed.
"There is genuine concern for the child - as in, that is what mum is doing and what mum is on, what is happening to the child when she is out of it and all the rest of it, " he said. "I think the whole drug taking culture has been shown so many times to be tremendously damaging, not to the person but to everybody around, particularly children and dependents.
"With Pete Doherty for a partner, it is a recipe for disaster because of what he is like, so I think there is genuinely a lot of concern for the child."
One newspaper report claimed that when Moss read the story of her alleged cocaine abuse, she sobbed: "My f***ing career is over." While it seems unlikely that will be the case, worries remain about the toll a drug habit could ultimately have on her life.
Clifford added: "I think that is one of the sad things about it. It is a young woman, obviously a very attractive young woman with everything to look forward to, who is destroying herself.
"You can't help but have sympathy. I have seen far too many people over the years being destroyed by drugs. They start off thinking they can control it and of course rapidly find out that it destroys them."
judith. duffy@sundayherald. com
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