IN THE SPOTLIGHT – ROBBIE WILLIAMS

Last Wednesday night, while Take That were triumphantly collecting their Brit award for Best British single, former member Robbie Williams was checking out a rather more gloomy vista: the facilities at the Meadows rehabilitation clinic in Arizona.

‘‘Robbie Williams has been admitted into a treatment centre for his dependency on prescription drugs,” said Williams’s spokeswoman Bryony Watts, refusing to make any further comment on the matter.

Poor reviews for Williams’s last album, Rudebox, which was nominated for Worst Album at the recent NME Awards, are thought to have deeply affected the singer. In an interview last December, Williams described how he had looked online to find negative stories about himself.