Elle MacPherson Wrongly Accused Her Manager Of Leaking To Tabloids

Yet another victim of the New of the World phone-hacking scandal has emerged: Elle MacPherson‘s former business advisor and friend, Mary-Ellen Field. Field testified before the official inquiry into the scandal that she was fired by the supermodel, who wrongly believed Field was leaking personal information about her to the tabloid press. In fact, the News of the World had hacked MacPherson’s voicemail. Even more strange, before letting Field go, MacPherson allegedly pressured Field into going to rehab for alcoholism — which, as the clinic staff would later confirm, she didn’t suffer from:

“I phoned Elle. For the first time ever she was really grouchy with me. ‘I can’t have you speaking to the media’, she said.”

Field said the model told her at a meeting shortly afterwards: “‘I know what’s it like to be an alcoholic.’ I was speechless.” She added that Macpherson “broke me down” until Field reluctantly agreed to attend a rehab clinic in Arizona, Meadows Clinic, used by Macpherson, describing that decision as “a big mistake.”

“Elle made it out like it was a leisure facility but it was a grade-1 psychiatric facility with men with guns in holsters parading about so it was fairly horrible.”

After Field returned from the Meadows Clinic, MacPherson fired her. Shortly thereafter she was fired from a firm where she’d been a consultant, on the grounds that clients no longer trusted her. Field says MacPherson never apologized, or even contacted her, since the hacking was uncovered. [Guardian]
Meanwhile MacPherson, who was one of the very first celebrity hacking victims identified, says she believes she’s handled the whole situation very well by never speaking publicly about it. “I believe I’ve made the right choice,” she says. “And I made that choice years ago, because I did not want to perpetuate stories. I did not want to be involved, I did not enter into the discussions whatsoever.” [Telegraph]