Amy Winehouse: How She Gets Away With It

July 20, 2007 — -- When Britney Spears purchased a Yorkshire terrier for $3,000 recently, the Humane Society sent out a missive saying the pop princess had set "a dangerous example to the public." A predictable explosion ensued over the blogosphere and across celebrity news Web sites.

But when acclaimed singer Amy Winehouse -- whose album "Back to Black" is up for one of Britain's top music prizes -- spat on fans at a concert Tuesday, barely anyone batted an eye.

Why is it that bad girl celebrities like Britney and Lindsay Lohan can't buy a pooch -- or go partying -- without stirring outrage, while other celebs' drug, alcohol and sex issues -- like those of "Rehab" songbird Winehouse -- leave the media and public largely unfazed?

The answer rests as much in the past as in the present. Spears and Lohan spent years cultivating the good girl image, and now their sex-and-drugs lifestyle captures the public both for its hypocrisy and, more importantly, for the fall from grace it represents.

"People like a good train wreck. That's just the way it is," Harvey Levin, editor of TMZ.com said. "When somebody wholesome suddenly takes a bad turn and they're hanging off the edge of a cliff, people watch."

Celebrities like Winehouse and Courtney Love come onto the scene as tattooed and aggressive bad girls, not virginal sweethearts. Their transgressions are acceptable, if not expected. But Spears and Lohan kept the public's attention for years by playing the part of the innocent girl. Their actions today are the polar opposite of those when they were at the height of their pop stardom.

In Winehouse's first megahit, she sings, "They're trying to make me go to rehab/I said, no, no, no" -- quite different from the schoolgirl and bubblegum image of Britney's "Baby One More Time" music video, or the honesty and innocence of Lohan's "Mean Girls" character.

"Someone like Britney Spears began her career selling herself as the wholesome yet sexy pop star. You don't expect your wholesome yet sexy pop star shaving her head, going into rehab three times in one week, and going out partying," said Perez Hilton, editor of an eponymously titled celebrity blog. "It's kind of a double standard but quote unquote rock stars just play by a different set of rules. You're kind of expected to be wild and crazy."

What fans do not expect is the child movie star of "The Parent Trap" to drunkenly crash her car into shrubs on Sunset Boulevard, as Lohan did this past May. Just yesterday Lohan surrendered to police to face misdemeanor charges of hit and run.