Lily Allen sat down with the ladies of The View, and did some straight talk about her career and her party-girl image. Lily admitted that she feared she “became more famous for being a train wreck than a singer” at one point. But Lily also took the media to task for portraying her excesses differently because she’s a woman. Lily claims, “Young women are represented in a way that isn’t true. If a girl is having a drink she’s a drunk, if that happens with a guy it’s not portrayed the same way.”

Lily does have a point – the archetypal “bad girl” image is perpetuated by a sometimes Victorian-seeming media. Guys who party are treated differently than girls who party, by the media and by gossip-consumers (like us). While acknowledging that Lily has a point, I still think the girl was a mess for a little while. But she seems to be back in good form, so good for her:

She may have just completed a sell-out U.S. tour and be currently riding high in the music charts, but Lily Allen feared her career was over after becoming ‘more of a train wreck than a singer’.

The 23-year-old, who up until recently had been making headlines more for her party lifestyle than her singing, revealed that she actually questioned whether she still had the ability to create hit music.

Speaking about her first album Alright, Still, Lily said: ‘I took a bit of a beating the first time around. I became more famous for being a train wreck than a singer. I didn’t think I was capable of writing songs and making music.’

But although the star concedes that she had lost some focus, what she won’t accept are accusations that she is a ‘falldown drunk’, ‘exhibitionist’ and ‘crazy’.

She even hinted that sexism was the reason for the tarnished image.

Dressed conservatively in a white dress with a string of pearls, she told the panel on American TV talkshow The View. ‘Young women are represented in a way that isn’t true. If a girl is having a drink she’s a drunk, if that happens with a guy it’s not portrayed the same way.’

But her reputation as a bit of a ‘boozy wild child’ was well and truly earned after famously making a spectacle herself at last June’s Glamour Women of the Year Award’s ceremony.

Clutching to her award, a worse-for-wear Lily had to be lifted to her car by a minder.

And last September she famously got into a drunken war-of-words with Elton John as they hosted the GQ Awards. In front of an audience she sipped champagne on stage until she began slurring and swearing.

When she told the audience at London’s Royal Opera House ‘now we reach a very special point in the evening’, Sir Elton replied: ‘What, you are going to have another drink?’

A bleary-eyed Lily, dressed demurely in a full-length ball gown, responded: ‘F*** off Elton, I’m 40 years younger than you, I have my whole life ahead of me.’

But these days, apart from a few night’s out partying with her hellraiser U.S. actress friend, Lindsay Lohan, Lily has remained virtually ‘scandal free’.

And the star has clearly managed to pull things together for her recent second album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, which debuted at number one in the UK charts and was in the top five Stateside.

From The Daily Mail

So is Lily really “scandal free” now? Maybe, maybe not. She’s still been doing a few crazy things the past few months, but nothing major. I think she probably went through a partying phase, as many people do in their late teens/early twenties. Perhaps it took her a few years to realize her drunken actions were being analyzed all over the world. Or maybe that was what she wanted – by creating a “bad girl” image for herself, she got thousands, if not millions of fans.

Lily Allen is shown out in NY on 4/20/09. Credit: CWNY/Fame Pictures

Here’s Lily Allen performing “The Fear” on The View.

Update: photos of Allen being carried to her car after the Glamour Women Of The Year Awards on 6/3/08