14 DAY TRIAL // Most of us, common mortals, believe that being a star is all about the glamour and the beautiful life, about having everything that your heart could desire for in just a matter of seconds, about living it large and enjoying every moment that you have on Earth. And so it is, indeed... so it is.
There's nothing that a celeb would want (short of becoming president or, I don't know, like, the ruler of the entire world) and couldn't possibly get. Their position as million dollar-grossing public figures grants them access to a world to which many (and, by that, I mean most) of us can only dream. But, the question that rises is, does all this come at a too high price?
Some of you may think that nothing can be too much to have this kind of power (because, at the end of the day, that's what we're talking about), others that the price one has to pay to get it is way too big. Certainly, we're not the ones to throw ideas around just for the sake of it and the last thing that we would want to do would be that of analyzing the pros and cons of a life in the limelight.
In fact, the only thing that we're interested in at the moment would be that, after carefully studying the news for the last three weeks or so, we have come to the conclusion that, for most celebrities, rehabilitation clinics have become like a second home, a place where they inevitably end up at one point or another in their career. Because, naturally, for every star out of, say, five that rise there must be one spectacular fall and, in the majority of cases, said fall is a true-live fall from Grace. The Grace of the public view, that is.
One cannot help but wonder what makes celebrities abuse drugs and alcohol or pills, and it's not our place to determine it. We'll let psychologists or sociologists do that, whichever of the two is best suited for the job. We're just observing that, along the years, while media coverage has become increasingly bigger for movie, music or fashion stars, their tendencies to 'visit' rehab have also increased. If we were to play the cynic's part, we could say that the attention placed on them is almost directly related to their private issues and failures as persons. But, again, it's not our place to opine on that.
In the past month, names like Mel Gibson, Robbin Williams and Pete Doherty have been the most pronounced when it came to celebrities taking some time off in a private clinic, as they say, or rehab, as the real term is. Recently, Pete's name has held all the headlines in all the major newspapers all over the world. As a matter of fact, not one day went by without him being mentioned for some kind of new trouble that he has gotten himself into.
The truth is that the man, as talented and gifted musician as he is, probably needs more than just a simple admission to rehab. Because what he suffers from is more serious and tragic at the same time than a mere pill-popping addiction, especially considering the great number of times that he's been a patient of those clinics.
Last weekend, he was admitted again into a British celebrity rehabilitation clinic, but nothing could keep him away from the slowly killing A-listed drugs that he so much loves. He is, in a few words, the junkie of our times. Even though not a match for The King Elvis on the musical level, Pete's fall is as spectacular as his was years ago. Or, take it another way, as Paris is the self-proclaimed 'iconic blonde' of the last decade, so is Doherty the crackhead of today's showbiz. There is no other man who could equal him on the number of performances where he played wasted or drunk, or on that of pictures of him while tripping.
And, yet, his career is more than going OK. He and his Babyshambles band are loved by thousands of horny female teenagers and considered 'cool' by punk-rock boys who don't have a clue on which world they live in. His fans even claim that Doherty is being persecuted by the British police and not being given the right to defend himself properly in the many legal suits that are filed against him. And he just keeps going lower and lower, as the media and the rest of the world stand by peacefully aside, watching him or making him look like a true 'rock superstar'.
Then comes the Jew-hating drunk actor and director, Mel Gibson, whose career went spiraling out of control a few weeks ago, when he thought of giving some police officer a piece of his mind during a DUI bust. While his behavior was unacceptable and his remarks more than hurtful to those he aimed them at, Hollywood took a stand and expressed a clear desire to shut him out for good. And that it did.
His mini-series got canceled, he was bad mouthed in all the newspapers and even threats that he would never work again were muttered. But the greatest hit he took was as a man, a respectable actor and human being. Probably realizing that he had just made the biggest mistake of his life ('F**king Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world'), Mel said that he would be voluntarily checking himself into rehab, to fix the alcohol-related problem from which he was again suffering.
Gibson apologized and some of his friends also apologized in his name or tried to save his butt, by coming up with such lame excuses as 'he was going to kill himself that night he got caught driving under the influence' or by simply stating that he is an exceptional man, who was just passing through a rather difficult moment in his life. But his fate had been sealed the moment he made those nasty commentaries and acted like a bloody fool in front of all those witnesses.
And, last, enters funnyman Robbin Williams. His exit from the spotlight may not have been that 'glorious' and 'with a bang' as the other two, but it did take place and that makes him worth mentioning. Right before the premiere of his latest thriller, 'The Night Listener', Robbin's publicist made the official announcement according to which the actor had been admitted into rehab.
The statement said that booze was always something that Williams could not fight against and that, recently, he had noticed that he had fallen a prey to it again. At least, the usually discreet man took care that nobody else, but his family, knew about his addiction prior to his going to the clinic.
Wrapping up our drug/alcohol saga for the weekend: just from the past month, anyone can say that rehab is a must-do when you're a celebrity. No matter the reason that leads to the addiction, the period of time or the kind of treatment undergone, rehab links the majority of the stars (our 'idols') to one another, by that that it has become a common 'practice' amongst them. And, then, we wonder uselessly: why?
