Michael Marks/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesCherie Currie of The Runaways. Cherie Currie’s life changed when she was just 15 years old. Unlike most 15-year-old girls in 1975, who were busy with homework and homecoming dances, Cherie Currie wasn’t that interested in a typical high school experience. She was more interested in making a scene. Before she was even old enough to drive, she had become one of the lead singers of the all-girl rock band The Runaways, originally formed in Los Angeles. She captivated cheering crowds around the world and was once even described as “the lost daughter of Iggy Pop and Brigitte Bardot.” But in just two short years, she’d realize that the bright lights of her newfound fame didn’t do much to cover the rock industry’s dark side. Cherie Currie’s Time With The Runaways GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty ImagesCherie Currie with her rock band The Runaways. Born on Nov. 30, 1959, and raised in Encino, California, Cherie Currie had a challenging start to life. She said her father was kind and loving, but suffered from a “horrific addiction to alcohol” and post-traumatic stress disorder from his time serving in World War II. While she said her mother was tenacious, she also said her mom was “hard to get along with” at times. Before Cherie Currie joined The Runaways, she also said she was raped by her twin sister Marie’s boyfriend “because he had a thing for virgins.” In response to the trauma, she cut her hair in a style like David Bowie’s, giving her a distinctive look as she pursued her dream of being a rock star. Meanwhile, Joan Jett, another future member of The Runaways, met record producer Kim Fowley around 1973. Fowley expressed an interest in creating an all-girl rock band, which intrigued Jett. Initially, Jett approached Currie’s twin sister Marie first about being in the band, but Marie turned her down. That led to Cherie Currie getting the job instead. Looking back, she later reflected, she had no idea what taking the job would entail. For the next two years, the rock band, originally formed in Los Angeles, traveled across America, Europe, and even Japan, spent hours upon hours in the recording studio — and they were paid little for their time and effort. “We just never had a break,” Currie recalled of her time in the band with her fellow members Jett, Lita Ford, Sandy West, and Jackie Fox. “Either we were touring, rehearsing or in the studio, and we were making no money at all. They were making a lot of money off of us.” If the grueling, thankless schedule wasn’t too much for the teenage girls to handle, the treatment they endured at the hands of their management was. Currie described the management’s behavior as an attempt to “toughen them up,” but to anyone else, it reads as flat-out abuse. Kim Fowley allegedly used to throw jars of peanut butter at the girls during rehearsals to prepare them for the rough audiences they were bound to encounter (according to Currie, there were some audiences in Britain who later threw knives at them). Fowley would also purportedly verbally abuse them and pit the once friendly and united girls against each other. “It was the abuse from Kim Fowley and our roadies that was so hard to take,” Currie said. “We got such abuse on a daily basis. They were trying to harden us to the reality of the rock ‘n’ roll world, but how could we possibly know this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be?” Cherie Currie’s Life After The Runaways Richard E. Aaron/Redferns/Getty ImagesThe Runaways performing live at CBGB in New York in August 1976. Eventually, Cherie Currie realized she had enough. She had only been with The Runaways for two years, but she was already dangerously addicted to cocaine and Quaaludes. Though she later said she was probably “destined to have problems” due to the alcoholism in her family, it was clear that her time with the band had led to her addictions spiraling out of control. “Being in The Runaways, and even with our booking agent, everybody was feeding us drugs,” Currie said. “We had adults pulling us aside putting a spoon to our noses. So did that escalate my addiction? It absolutely did. But I think that road was going to be traveled by me at one point or another.” Currie was also fed up with Fowley’s treatment. In addition, she had gotten pregnant by another one of her managers, and she decided she didn’t want to be part of the unpredictable, exhausting environment any longer. Perhaps the final straw was the feeling that the other girls in the band, particularly Jett, wanted her out — a feeling likely sparked by Fowley’s decision to constantly pit the girls against each other. “There was so much conflict over the attention paid to me as the lead singer,” Currie later recalled. “Joan was very upset and hurt, but I really thought these girls wanted me out. It was a lack of communication.” After effectively running away from The Runaways, Cherie Currie pursued a solo career, ultimately recording two solo albums. She also tried her hand at acting, even appearing alongside Jodie Foster in Foxes. However, her journey was not all smooth sailing. In fact, just two years after leaving The Runaways, Currie said that she was abducted and raped by a stalker. Horrifyingly, she alleged that the stalker had already murdered six women in Texas by the time of the kidnapping, and Currie may have potentially been the next murder victim had she not escaped in time. Meanwhile, Currie continued to struggle with her drug addiction, even freebasing cocaine, and it wasn’t until the mid-1980s that she was able to turn her life around and stay sober. She took a job at North Hollywood’s Coldwater Canyon Hospital, working as a tech in the drug and psych wards. Before long, she was working as a drug and alcohol counselor herself. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesThe Runaways posing for a portrait on the beach around 1976. “I was only 25 and a lot of these kids were the age I was when I was in The Runaways when I was introduced to drugs, so it was a good fit for me,” she said of her experience counseling troubled youths. The Candid Autobiography Neon Angel And The Movie The Runaways Cherie Currie eventually went on to publish an autobiography, titled Neon Angel, which chronicled her journey with The Runaways in her own words. She initially wrote the book for teenagers, hoping they’d use it as a “what not to do” manual, but it soon turned into a darkly detailed adult memoir, recalling her experiences with rape, abortion, and drug addiction. The memoir partly inspired a 2010 movie titled The Runaways, starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie. Currie praised both Fanning and Stewart’s performances, saying, “I thought the acting was just off the map and great. Dakota really gave it everything she had and Kristin, I’m so proud of her. She did such a great job.” Sony PicturesDakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart in The Runaways movie. However, Currie also criticized some creative liberties the movie took, like not including Currie’s rape at the hands of her sister’s boyfriend. Instead, the film seemed to imply that Currie’s interest in David Bowie was the main reason why she cut her hair in such a daring style as a teenager. “If you read the book, then you’ll know that my twin sister’s boyfriend had raped me and took my virginity,” she told SPIN. “That’s why I was angry, that’s why I cut my hair to look like David Bowie’s. I really felt that detail was important. The filmmakers didn’t. They did not want the Cherie character to lose her innocence so early in the film.” Surprisingly, the book and movie also helped Currie and Jett reconnect again after years apart. As Currie put it: “Joan and I are really getting to know each other all over again. It’s so funny, in the forward, Joan admits how angry she was with me for leaving the band and I was like, ‘What? I thought you wanted me out.’ We never talked to each after I left and it’s water under the bridge now but we both wish we had spoken before.” In recent years, Currie continues to work as a writer and musician, but she’s also taken up an unusual career as a chainsaw artist, using a chainsaw to carve pieces of art out of wood. She said, “I found it far more difficult than I thought it was going to be. It’s extremely dangerous… But I love it.” As for her past in The Runaways and beyond, she says she has a few regrets, such as the fact that the band never got back together for a reunion, but for the most part, she knows getting out was ultimately the right move. “For me,” she said, “it was the end of a nightmare.” Next, read about Angie Bowie, the eccentric first wife of David Bowie. Then, learn about rock ‘n’ roll’s most famous groupies. The post Inside The Turbulent Life Of Cherie Currie, The Former Lead Singer Of The 1970s Girl Band The Runaways appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Wikimedia CommonsVirginia Vallejo photographed in 1987, the year her affair with Pablo Escobar ended. In 1982, Virginia Vallejo was a national sensation in her home country of Colombia. The 33-year old socialite, journalist, and TV personality had just scored her own TV show after starring in a series of ads for Medias Di Lido pantyhose — which captivated the nation and brought her to the attention of none other than Pablo Escobar. Throughout their whirlwind romance that ensued, Vallejo became one of the kingpin’s most precious confidantes. She was the first journalist to get him in front of a camera and enjoyed the spoils of life nestled in the world’s most powerful drug cartel. That is, until their affair came to a dramatic end — and so did her celebrity. Virginia Vallejo’s Rise To Stardom Born to a prestigious family with an entrepreneurial father on August 26, 1949, Virginia Vallejo enjoyed a comfortable life in an otherwise tumultuous Colombia. Members of her family included a finance minister, a general, and several European nobles who could trace their heritage back to Charlemagne. After a short stint as an English teacher in the late 1960s, she was offered work on a television program, a position that became her gateway to a career onscreen. Vallejo ultimately made her television debut somewhat reluctantly back in 1972 as a host and presenter for several programs. She later claimed that it was uncommon for women of her socioeconomic status to work in the entertainment industry and that her family largely disapproved. Vallejo pushed ahead in the career anyway, and in January 1978, she became the anchorwoman of a 24-hour news program. She was soon known across South America. FacebookVallejo claimed that it was unusual for a woman of her status to work in the entertainment industry. In 1982, she drew the attention of none other than Pablo Escobar after he saw her famous pantyhose commercial. But Escobar was not just smitten by a pretty pair of legs; he had also realized that Vallejo’s influence could be of tremendous use to him. And so, despite having a wife, Escobar reportedly declared to his associates “I want her” and ordered them to arrange a meeting with her. An invitation was extended to Vallejo to visit his Hacienda Nápoles villa in 1982 — and she accepted. Her Affair With The Notorious Kingpin Wikimedia CommonsPablo Escobar started as the leader of a small cartel; soon no cocaine would leave Colombia without his knowledge. By her own account, Virginia Vallejo was immediately charmed by the crime lord. Despite his bloody lifestyle and fierce reputation, Escobar was known for his affability and sense of humor, and Vallejo would later write about this duality in her book Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar — which was later turned into a film starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. For his part, Escobar seemed equally enthralled with Vallejo, although there has always been a debate about the extent of his true feelings for her. Many people believed he was simply using Vallejo to promote his public image, which she certainly helped him do. When the two first met, Escobar was only a minor public figure, but over the course of their five-year relationship he transformed into “the most notorious terrorist in the world.” Vallejo’s reputation as a prestigious journalist was crucial in helping Escobar establish his role as a “man of the people,” which, indeed, is still how he is remembered by many of the poor in Medellín today. Vallejo herself stated that the reason she fell in love with him was “he was the only rich man in Colombia who was generous with the people, in this country where the rich have never given a sandwich to the poor.” In 1983, a year after the pair had first met, Virginia Vallejo interviewed Escobar on her new program. The interview showed the cartel leader in a favorable light as he talked about his charity work Medellín Sin Tugurios, or Medellín Without Slums. This television appearance not only brought him to national attention but helped to establish his philanthropic image with the public. When major newspapers hailed him as “the Robin Hood of Medellín,” he celebrated with a champagne toast. Throughout their five-year relationship, Vallejo experienced the high life. She had access to Escobar’s jet, she met the kingpin in swanky hotels, and he financed her shopping trips. He even opened up to her about how he and other drug traffickers had Colombian politicians in their pocket. Ending Her Career In Colombia And Fleeing To America Virginia Vallejo ended her career in Colombian media in 1994 and in 2006 moved to the United States. Vallejo’s relationship with Escobar ended in 1987. According to Pablo Escobar’s son, the affair ended badly after Escobar learned he was not her only lover. Escobar Jr. recalled that the last time he saw Vallejo was outside the gate of one of his father’s estates, where she remained sobbing for hours because the guards refused to let her in on their boss’ orders. Virginia Vallejo, unfortunately, found that as the power and popularity of her former lover waned, so did her own. She wound up being shunned by her former elite friends and blacklisted from high social circles. She disappeared into relative anonymity until she suddenly resurfaced in the United States in July of 1996. Escobar had always enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the elites of Colombia: politicians would turn a blind eye to his crimes and accept his money. Vallejo, having been a member of the Medellín Cartel inner circle, was privy to most of these secrets, and years later decided to expose the elites who had lauded then shunned her. In a tell-all interview on Colombian television, Virginia Vallejo “held up an unflattering mirror to Colombian society” and named “the legitimate businesses that launder drug earnings, the elite social clubs that open their doors to drug lords, and the politicians who exchange favors for briefcases filled with cash.” She accused several high ranking politicians of benefiting from the cartels, including ex-presidents Alfonso López, Ernesto Samper, and Álvaro Uribe. She described all of their sordid relations with Escobar, including the request from a former justice minister to have a presidential candidate killed. Virginia Vallejo had exposed the hypocrisy of Colombia’s elite (which had been demonstrated by her own social exile), but in doing so endangered her own life. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration secreted her to the United States, which offered her political asylum. On the day she left in 2006, 14 million people watched on television as she boarded the plane that would take her out of her home country. That audience was larger than that of the World Cup final of the same year. To this day she remains in the United States, fearful of the repercussions of returning to her homeland. Next, learn about what happened to Maria Victoria Henao, Pablo Escobar’s wife. Then, read about Pablo Escobar’s death and the final phone call that brought him down. The post Meet Virginia Vallejo, The Journalist Who Had An Affair With Pablo Escobar — And Made Him A Celebrity appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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