Amy Winehouse’s record label says she has entered rehab, even if released she may not get visa to attend 50th Annual Grammy Awards where sweep or performance could be a sticky embarrassment

By Jeffrey Jolson & Stacey Silberman

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 1/24/08 — There’s a chance six-time nominee Amy Winehouse may be watching her song “Rehab” win Grammys from the TV room at a London rehab, if her father and supporters have their way.

In the wake of a now-infamous video apparently showing her smoke crack that is now being investigated by London police, she has entered a drug rehab, according to her record label.

“Amy decided to enter the facility today after talks with her record label, management, family and doctors,” Universal Music Group said in a statement. “She has come to understand that she requires specialist treatment to continue her ongoing recovery from drug addiction.”

The singer, famous for her “No No No” line in the Grammy-nominated song “Rehab,” turned up at the Capio Nightingale Hospital in London on Wednesday, accompanied by her father, Mitch, and a bodyguard, according to The Times of London. The mental health clinic in central London is famous for treating celebrities with addiction problems.

“Your video of Amy taking drugs may well be the best thing that has ever happened to her,” her father told the media. “For all the hurt and pain, it may finally be the thing to focus her mind and convince her to get the help she needs to quit for good.”

He added “Yes, obviously I am worried about her but this video doesn’t show anything we didn’t already know before.”

Her father reportedly even asked authorities to “section” (commit) her, but was told that because she is not a threat to herself, sectioning is not possible at this time.

She is assumedly in the rehab for a standard 30-day stay, meaning she would be still be in treatment during Grammy week and the Awards on Feb. 10. Even if they give her leave to travel, not possible at most rehabs, she could still be faced with difficulties entering the United States.

She has a drug arrest on her record from a recent marijuana bust in Norway, which alone would give authorities pause, just as U.K. immigration refused admittance to Snoop Dogg to perform his London concerts.

In addition, there are those that think the latest crack pipe video would also contribute to her inability to get a visa to enter the United States. In an interview with ABC News, Bryony Gordon, a columnist with The Daily Telegraph, said that the video footage meant that Winehouse wouldn’t “be able to attend the Grammy Awards ceremony this year, because the U.S. authorities are unlikely to give her a visa.”

However, the question still remains as to whether Winehouse can pull off the slated Grammy performance with singer/producer Mark Ronson. Will this be another Britney Spears type debacle where she irrevocably embarrasses herself at an award show?

The National Academy of Recording Academy is faced with a conundrum. Winehouse could end up sweeping the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. She is up for a leading six Grammys, including all four of the top awards – Album, Record and Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

The anti-rehab hit “Rehab” is itself up for top Song and Record honors and would be what she performs for a worldwide audience – creating both an irony and an embarrassment. While the Recording Academy supports free expression it also avidly battles drug addiction through its highly regarded, and donation supported, Musicares program. It’s like the Firemen giving a Citizenship award to an arsonist.

Which makes it hard to have a drug addict in full bloom as the poster child for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. More so, as the Academy successfully argued to the Writers Guild of America, that they should forego picketing, as the 50th annual outing was just about the most important thing in the world to the Academy and its initiatives like MusiCares, which incidentally has its big fundraising dinner on Feb. 8, where it hopes to raise millions while it honors Aretha Franklin.

“We depend upon the annual proceeds from the GRAMMY Awards telecast to fund a whole variety of worthwhile programs such as our MusiCares Foundation, which literally saves lives and offers millions of dollars of aid to music people in need,” said Recording Academy president Neil Portnow in his plea to the WGA.

Even if they can prop her up for her performance of the song “Rehab” and she can stand all the way through it (not a given if you’ve followed her trail of concert cancellations, half-finished songs and rambling incoherencies), the Recording Academy would still be faced with accusations that they may have actively or inadvertently encouraged her to attend instead of seeking needed treatment. Plus they have a crack-addled trainwreck heading for her final stop as the centerpiece that history remembers about the Grammy’s 50th Birthday party.

Winehouse’s Island Records label weighed in on the mess saying, “We are deeply disappointed and upset by these latest revelations and doing everything we can to offer Amy our full support in dealing with her problems.”

According to U.K. tabloid The Sun Newspaper, Amy was videotaped while smoking crack for 19-minutes straight, after claiming to have already downed “six valium” immediately before.

In the same story, Winehouse was allegedly shown as she “took hit after hit of the deadly drug” and “snorted powdered ecstasy and cocaine” during the dangerous drug binge, which sadly, was caught on tape.

The newspaper posted the video footage in a 2:12 edited version that shows Winehouse doing the deed for the whole world to see and then turned the tape over to London police to investigate.