Add all of Oskar, Ivan Shapovalov and N.A.T.O's death threats together and there's a fair chance they'd still come out shy of the total racked up by Amanda "Willa Ford" Williford. Her crime was to date Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys at the height of their fame. Her bad taste in men resulted in legions of teenage girls joining ranks to harass, threaten and abuse her. Whether down to jealousy or the fear that she was going to be the Yoko of their beloved John, hundreds of Anti-Willa websites sprang up and a concerted effort was made to destroy her career. They needn't have bothered, she was perfectly capable of destroying her own career. Being touted as a post-Britney bad girl at roughly the same time as Spears and Christina Aguilera were trying to out-tart each other was badly thought out but her unforgivably bland album Willa Was Here was the icing on the cake. Rather than make a record shot through with carnal fever, like Vitamin C would, it sounded like a collection of off-cuts the studio had lying around from sessions with the acts she was trying to conquer.

She finally found something like an authentic voice on A Toast To Men (Fuck The Men) but by that time the world had moved on (to Jessica Simpson), leaving her promising-sounding Sexysexobsessive album unreleased. The last time i saw her was on a show with a pre-Supersize Morgan Spurlock convincing college jocks to eat jars of gefilte fish until they were sick in exchange for $10. Not content with debasing others, i understand she has landed a prime role in 2006's Lingerie Bowl III.

It's sad as towards the end of her music career she seemed to be developing the kind of fierceness missing from most US girly-pop stars. Further evidence of this came when she hooked up with Korea's Park Ji-Yoon for the excellent duet Nastified. Park's a huge star in her homeland but, a few fine singles aside, has always erred on the dull side. Working with each other seems to have brought out the best in both.

Buy Park's Fifth album