Singer James Blunt has accused the now-defunct tabloid, News of the World, of paying women to sleep with celebrities in order to gather stories about their sexual performance. Blunt, who settled his legal case against News International in 2012, revealed that police provided him with emails from the tabloid showing that two “beautiful” women were employed to seduce celebrities.
Blunt discussed these revelations during his appearance at the Hay literary festival in Powys, referencing his book “Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story: a Non-Memoir.” He detailed how the women would lure celebrities to a studio flat in Notting Hill, film their encounters, and then hand over the footage to the newspaper. Blunt admitted he had met these women and had been involved with them.
The singer expressed his shock upon reading internal emails from Andy Coulson, then-editor of News of the World, who was later jailed for phone hacking. Coulson’s emails included discussions on how best to depict Blunt’s sexual performance, jokingly suggesting that he would “sing it.”
In his talk, Blunt also opened up about his close friendship with the late actor Carrie Fisher. He recounted how Fisher, who died in 2016, was under immense pressure from Star Wars producers to maintain a slim figure, which contributed to her drug use. Blunt and Fisher met in the 2000s, and she offered him a place to stay in Los Angeles where he recorded his debut album, “Back to Bedlam.”
Blunt has previously mentioned that Fisher’s daughter, actress Billie Lourd, blamed him for her mother’s death, as he was with Fisher the night before she was found unresponsive on a flight from London to Los Angeles. Fisher died days later, with a toxicology report revealing the presence of cocaine, heroin, MDMA, and methadone in her system.
At the Hay festival, Blunt explained that Fisher, who had recently reprised her role as Princess Leia in the new Star Wars films, faced significant pressure to be thin, which led her to relapse into drug use. “She had effectively killed herself by the time she got on the plane,” he said, highlighting the difficulties women face in the entertainment industry compared to men.
Requests for comment have been sent to Rian Johnson, director of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” as well as Lucasfilm, News UK, and Andy Coulson.