Youthful, polished, radiant on screen. Alcoholics, drug addicts, fragile in the city. All addicted, young Hollywood stars? The overdose death of 31-year-old “Glee” hero Cory Monteith on July 13 from a fatal mix of heroin and alcohol has cast a harsh light on the demons devouring a new generation of actors. On August 14, her colleague Lisa Robin Kelly, from another TV series, “That 70’s Show”, also succumbed to an overdose.
“These are not isolated cases, assures a famous American journalist who wishes to remain anonymous. Drugs and alcohol have always been a part of Hollywood life. “For a long time, the studios managed to hide their foals’ handicaps. But over the past few years, the addictions of movie hopefuls have made headlines online: Lindsay Lohan, 27, has more arrests than roles in her filmography; Amanda Bynes, 27, is currently in a psychiatric hospital to treat her alcoholism; Demi Lovato, 21, spent three months in rehab (detoxification).
They all started their careers very young.
What do these three stars have in common? All come from the Disney team and started their careers very young: 7 years for Bynes, 10 for Lohan, 15 for Lovato. Ideal prey. “These celebrities are sought out by anonymous people who offer them drugs and who in return enter the company of the star,” explains Hollie McKay, people columnist for Fox News Channel. Everyone benefits. Gone are the days when paparazzi showed off cocaine-laden salads at VIP parties, deals are done in private. “Drugs aren’t cool like they were in the 1990s,” continues Hollie McKay.
But they remain “easy to access and socially tolerated,” assures another Californian source. “Everybody smokes weed,” admitted Seth Rogen, one of the most famous comedians, in a recent interview. In California, marijuana is available by prescription. Some turn to cocaine or heroin. Others use the drug: actress Brittany Murphy died of it in 2009, aged 32. The privileged witness, Adrian Grenier, the star of the series “Entourage”, is preparing a documentary on the wound.
Studios may require detox
What are studios worried about? “If a star’s addiction is interfering with their work, studios can step in and require detox,” says Hollie McKay. She may also condition payment of her fee on the success of the shoot. “In some cases, insurances refuse to cover the blacklisted actor. This is what happened to Robert Downey Jr. in the late 1990s: a proven drug addict who spent time in prison, he returned to the top of the box office (“Sherlock Holmes”, “Iron Man”) after a public confession and a drastic cure. Unsatisfied, the City of Angels loves these stories of fall and redemption. American television even made a show: from 2008 to 2012, “Celebrity Rehab” followed actors (Eric Roberts), athletes (Dennis Rodman), models in rehabilitation for the VH1 channel.
Cinema also paid a heavy price: with the overdose of Heath Ledger at the age of 28 in 2008, Hollywood lost one of its most promising talents (“Brokeback Mountain”, “The Dark Knight”). Fifteen years before him, River Phoenix was also on the rise, at just 23 years old. The summer of 2013 will be one of the deadliest. The season suits itself: the filming of the series stops and their heroes are left to their own devices. On August 19, Lee Thompson Young, the actor of the movie “Rizzoli and Isles”, committed suicide at the age of 29. The investigation will tell what prompted him to such a gesture, but one thing is certain: there is something rotten in the realm of Hollywood.