Wincing for Winehouse

It's a gorgeous summer Friday here in SoCali, and we don't really mean to bring everybody down, but we feel like this is required reading so we're making the recommendation.

Claire Hoffman, whose journalistic chops are second to none, spends a night in Amy Winehouse's flat and comes out with a Rolling Stone feature that shows us how the multi-Grammy-winning artist lives these days and, at this rate, how she could die.

It's not judgmental, it's keenly observational. And heartbreaking.

The magazine will take some heat for publishing it (if the early online comments are any indication) because the reporter had access to unguarded, vulnerable and sometimes fairly incoherent moments with the soul singer. Assuming she didn't misrepresent herself or her intentions, and there's no indication she did, the reporter seems to have done her job the old fashioned way: go directly to the source, ask questions, pay attention, show don't tell.

The result is the train wreck we can't look away from, with details like the clutter and empty beer bottles all over Winehouse's apartment, her frequent disappearances into a room by herself, followed by more babbling, and her alarming physical state confirming all this year's tabloid tales.

Read it and weep.

A post script: After Winehouse reportedly showed up for rehearsal yesterday accompanied by a giant bottle of vodka, she did make it to the stage for a performance today at a celebration for Nelson Mandela. (She's pictured here at the show).

Another P.S.: Since we're pimping for Hoffman, check out her searing portrait of Joe "Ego Gone Wild" Francis.