Amy Winehouse's Parents Are Still In Denial

Mitch and Janis Winehouse joined Anderson Cooper for the premiere of his daytime talk show Anderson today to discuss the life and death of their daughter Amy Winehouse. While Janis was mostly quiet, Mitch spoke out about how impressed he was with Amy’s “recovery,” saying that she’d been clean for three years. Except there’s tons of video evidence that she hadn’t been, with one disastrous concert performance—in which she stumbled on stage and was so wasted that couldn’t even clap her hands properly—taking place just a month before her death. Or how about that two weeks prior to that, on her way to rehab, she’d downed a bottle of vodka and then stopped to puke in a salon restroom. That rehab stint only lasted about a week. Apparently Mitch doesn’t consider her out-of-control alcoholism was much of a problem, telling Anderson, “We really felt like we were out of the woods.” I suppose that compared to a raging crack addiction, booze—which is at least legal—can deceptively seem less detrimental. After some prodding from Anderson, Mitch did admit that the prescription drug Librium had been found in her system at the time of her death. And while Librium is used to treat alcohol withdrawal, it’s a benzo, and it just seems like a bad idea to give someone with severe addiction issues some downers.