Flashing Lights.(English singer Lily Allen )

In February, the twenty-three-year-old English singer Lily Allen visited New York to promote her second album, "It's Not Me, It's You." Allen is an almost daily presence in the English tabloids, and her best song, "The Fear," is one of the few compelling songs about fame by a famous person. When she arrived in New York, the paparazzi were ready for her. After a morning appearance on the "Today" show, where she performed "The Fear," which has gone to No. 1 in the U.K., Allen boarded a black S.U.V. to head downtown for breakfast. She wore a loose blue top, black tights, and black suede boots with spike heels. She stands only five feet two. She has a gently upturned nose, big eyes, and bangs, and is quick to smile.

After putting on a black fake-fur coat--"If PETA throws paint on this, they're going to fucking pay the bill for getting it cleaned"--Allen settled into the back seat and lit a cigarette. And then it began. A loose cloud of photographers followed the S.U.V., some on scooters, several in cars, and the rest on bicycles. There were about twenty of them. Allen seemed neither pleased nor displeased by the attention.

She took a phone call. A few days earlier, the London Daily Mirror had published a story about Allen having had bad sex with a particular ex-lover. The piece was inspired by the lyrics of "Not Fair," from the new album:

You know I've never met a man who's made me feel quite so secure. , He's not like all them other boys, they're all so dumb and immature., There's just one thing that's getting in the way; , when we go up to bed you're just no good, it's such a shame., I look into your eyes, I want to get to know you, , and then you make this noise and it's apparent it's all over. . . ., Oh, I lie here in the wet patch in the middle of the bed, I'm feeling pretty damn hard done by, I spent ages giving head.

The Mirror claimed that bad sex had ruined Allen's relationship with the forty-five-year-old art dealer Jay Jopling. Allen demanded a retraction, and she got it--her first.

"And they paid for my legal fees!" she exclaimed. She looked out the window and pointed to a photographer on a bicycle. "Oh, God, I know him. He's the one from L.A."

This is the weather system that Allen grew up in, though it was never this intense. Her mother is the film producer Alison Owen, and her father is the comedian and actor Keith Allen, who also has a reputation for having a loose tongue. He stormed off a TV talk show in 1989 during a debate about situation comedy, shouting, "All of you, you're dead!" His more famous moments include writing a nonsensical football chant called "Vindaloo" ("na na na" are the key lyrics) and playing a drug dealer in Danny Boyle's "Trainspotting." Through her father, Lily became friendly with celebrities like the late Joe Strummer, of the Clash, and the artist Damien Hirst. "We were BlackBerry messaging last night," she said of Hirst. "I was trying to get him on Twitter, but he wouldn't do it. I signed off, 'Good night. --Dame Moody Wench.' " Her babysitter was Nellee Hooper. "He used to wear a Sex Pistols T-shirt and turn up with a skateboard under his arm. Fifteen years later, he's a superproducer." (Bjork, Gwen Stefani, Madonna.)