Movie Corner: Robbie Williams Checks into Rehab on His Birthday

The singer succumbs to depression and drugs and seeks professional help

By: Elena Gorgan, Entertainment News Editor

Today should have been a happy day for Robbie Williams: he is 33, a successful entertainer and has a varied and rich career to back him up. From pop boy to 'artist' in the true sense of the word, Robbie has done it all but never seemed to be able to fully enjoy the things he won after working so hard.

After breaking loose from the band that brought him on the international music stage, Take That, Robbie was forced to face the world on his own. Soon after the split was made public, he was admitted into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction. After he got out, a far cry from the slim teddy boy he was back in his Take That days, Robbie slowly established himself as one of the biggest singers of our times.

Yet depression and controversy never steered away from him. Either from an inclination to darker thoughts or from the waves his latest album 'Rudebox' made (or failed to make) in the charts, the British star is again having the same problems as before. Many say that his relapse into depression and drug abuse stem from the way said album was received by the public, especially after it was so heavily promoted by his label. Nevertheless, the music critics were not blind to the many accomplishments of 'Rudebox', one of them being that it is artistically satisfying, a truly wonderful piece of work.

Today, Robbie's publicist announced the new visit to rehab, via a press statement that left little room for questioning or speculations. 'Robbie Williams has today been admitted into a treatment center in America for his dependency on prescription drugs. There will be no further comment on this matter.', the statement said.

However, this comes only days after model Lisa D'Amato, who has been repeatedly linked to Robbie, gave a very revealing interview about their relationship to the British tabloid 'News of the World'. In it, she told the reporter that the singer was obviously one of the most troubled people she had met in her life and blamed all his 'demons' on the way the public reacted to his music.

'It was clear he was struggling with his mind. He doesn't drink, but he needs antidepressants to get him through the day. A lot of the time he seemed on edge. He would light up a cigarette, take a few drags and then put it out and light another straight away. He was very affected about what people thought about his music. He really took things to heart.', stunning Lisa told the newspaper.