Given the current media frenzy around Hollywood celebrities, it is no wonder their nefarious behaviors are reported with abandon. It seems like every week another star admits to being addicted to alcohol or other drugs. Every week, some celebrity is arrested for driving under the influence.
How does this make you feel? If you are a parent of adolescent children I am sure you are not pleased with the publicity of yet another vaunted celebrity suffering from addiction issues.
Recent weeks also brought news that Scottish actor Gerard Butler (300), 42, and comedian Artie Lange, 44, both successfully completed rehab for addiction and are back working. This according to UsaToday.
Then there is the 49-year-old Demi Moore who was hospitalized after smoking something that gave her convulsions.
Australian actor Alex O’Loughlin star of CBS's Hawaii Five-0 recently announced he would take time off to get "supervised treatment" for pain drugs prescribed after a recent shoulder injury.
While Lindsay Lohan has been a poster-child for young, female, childhood actors with addiction issues, 30 years ago it was tatum O’Neal. The 48-year-old actress who won an Academy Award as a first-grader comes from a family of addicts and has long battled to overcome substance abuse. She is so hyper-aware of her addictive tendencies that she goes through supervised treatment to prevent a recurrence of addiction, to painkillers recently prescribed for back surgery.
With Lohan out of rehab and publicly vowing to stay clean and sober, and O’Neal clean and sober after many years, perhaps Hollywood will clean up its act. I keep my hopes high and my expectations low!