Your 15 Minutes
Whether actively or peripherally, we've all been part of the Charlie Sheen show. Not Two and a Half Men, but the media blitz he's been on since they canceled the aforementioned show for the remainder of the season, after Charlie went on a cocaine binge, ended up in the hospital, then absconded to the Bahamas. Adding insult to injury, he decided to nuke CBS, Warner Bros., and show creator Chuck Lorre on more than one radio show.
Charlie claims to be "Adonis" and have "tiger blood". That he is invincible and immune to all the cocaine he ingests and can superintend his own rehabilitation--not that he really needs it. The rest of us mere mortals just don't understand his greatness.
He has even joined Twitter and is trending toward 500,000 followers; reducing rants to 140 characters is no small feat.
I don't see anything "great" about debasing yourself and traumatizing your family and children; and apparently the LA Department of Children and Family Services has now gotten involved, and the children have been removed from his custody. But Charlie simply rages on, looking more wasted and scary with each interview, reflecting the last gasp of a dying career.
So why is the Media lapping up every word and giving us 24/7 coverage as though he is the President discussing national and world matters?
James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times aptly calls them enablers: News outlets prove able enablers of Sheen's meltdown.
"Rather than give one airing about Sheen's dysfunction and the early termination of the taping of his hit show, "Two and a Half Men," the leaders behind ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today" rolled out their segments, piece by piece, like so much rancid candy. A sort of nauseating culmination had been scheduled to air Tuesday night — an "extraordinary" "20/20" special from ABC called 'Charlie Sheen in His Own Words.'"
The problem is, we've seen this too many times before: John Belushi, River Phoenix, Chris Farley, Heath Ledger, and a host of other luminaries who thought they were larger than life--and larger than their addictions. They continue to be cautionary tales that very few in Hollywood seem to heed.
Will someone tell Charlie Sheen that his 15 minutes are up? If not, I fear that last gasp may become literal.