While my life isn't Sheen level crazy at the moment, it is Laura level crazy. I'm working for a bit in the local Starbucks to escape the construction going on in our house. We have a leaky tub and the only way to deal with a leaky tube in a 100 year old house is basically to gut the place and start over. I'm heading to gym for a shower. Then to the bank to transfer funds. Then to the tile store. Then to the car joint to pick up the new plates. That writing article that I linked to a couple of days ago said that writers should write for six hours per day. Yeah, that's not happening right now.
I only have 5% power left on this iPad, so I have to be brief. Sheen lost custody of his two boys last night. He started a twitter account and now has half a million followers. His two goddesses gave an interview with the Post detailing their sex life. His ex-wife is a crack head.
And I thought I had a bad month.
Some questions. Is all this attention morbid? I feel a little dirty, but I can't stop reading the news on him. Do people with bipolar disorder need more services? Should his children be taken away? Does Hollywood do this to actors?
Apt. 11d 
“Does Hollywood do this to actors?”
I think that getting your child into show biz is pretty much by definition abusive. All those cute little Mouseketeers eventually jump into the skankerator and get chewed up bad (see Lohan, Britney Spears, etc). The environment is bad. On the other hand, I expect that many bipolar or ADHD people are natural high-energy, charismatic performers when they’re on, so they may be predisposed to go into singing, acting, etc. Wendy?
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Yeah, but we have Jodie Foster, Danica Keller, Natalie Portman, Mayim Bialek. And Fred Savage and Neil Patrick Harris. I think they’re OK. I think about these folks because I think that it’s an example of any high-achievement childhood (tiger woods to the tiger mom’s children to the actresses).
So, I don’t agree that all child actors are being abused. The environment is toxic, but I do think there are children who get the good out of it. They seem to be ones with functional families to start out with (economically, psychologically functional). A number of them take out time to do regular formal education. There’s a profile of Natalie Portman’s time at Harvard, a puff piece, but she is indeed an impressive achiever. Bialek has a real Ph.D. Savage graduated from Stanford.
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I think the heavy kid from Goonies got student body president at UCLA.
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Remember, drugs don’t kill people. People kill drugs.
Sorry, man: didn’t make the rules.
Just my morning strafing run in my jeans while drinking my first cup of coffee.
Because I got magic and I got poetry at my fingertips!
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“Does Hollywood do this to actors?”
All I can think of is the lyrics to some old Eagles songs: Life in the Fast Lane and Hotel California. The entertainment industry (movies, TV, music) certainly has a well-documented history on this.
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Does Hollywood create mental issues, or does the lifestyle attract people at risk for developing mental issues?
I find it fascinating how many young starlets are burning out these days. Is it drugs? Are they turning to meth to lose weight? Or is too much attention poisonous?
I must confess, I’ve reached the point at which I no longer find the skinny-skinny look appealing. The women’s heads start to resemble skulls. It may be the effect of middle age on my perceptions of other women.
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bj,
It’s a pretty big risk to take, isn’t it? For every Jody Foster, it seems like there are three Gary Colemans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Coleman
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Here is a popular career path for young singers and actresses (#1 is optional):
1. ingenue
2. sultry vixen
3. dead pool
If a girl’s really got herself in gear, she can reach #3 by her early/mid-20s.
I’m not sure what the male equivalent looks like.
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“writers should write for six hours per day”
That’s what works for him. Kurt Vonnegut said that after about four hours of work, people are good for much more than farting around. He had a pretty good writing career, too.
Everyone’s work process is different. You’re the only one who can write like you.
(Also? Writers need three things: encouragement, encouragement and encouragement. Creatio ex nihilo is hard; even God took a break after a bit of it.)
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Aw dang, botched the Vonnegut reference. It should be “people aren’t good for much more than farting around.”
Apparently I’ve been at this too long today.
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“It’s a pretty big risk to take, isn’t it? For every Jody Foster, it seems like there are three Gary Colemans. ”
But, we’d really want to look at the statistics. Are there really 3 GC’s for every JF? Or do the flame outs stand out? And, how do we count the Olsen twins? What about the kids who act but never become household names?
I still think the critical difference is a functional family. Now, one could wonder if child stars also make their families dysfunctional, but I don’t think so. I think the kids who flamed out had dysfunctional families to start out. There are parents who seem to still act like parents even when their child becomes famous (Natalie Portman’s parents) and one’s who never acted like parents, or who stop when their kids become stars.
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But bipolar disorder is genetic. A family with one bipolar member may have other relatives with the disorder. Which came first, the dysfunctional family or the genetic predisposition?
Our mental list of child stars is made up of those who made it. There are apparently many, many more children whose parents want to make them stars. I have no idea if that group is more or less dysfunctional than the smaller group of household names.
In general, giving teenagers lots and lots of money is a bad idea. Perhaps the laws intended to protect child actors from their parents should be changed so that the money’s not paid out until the star hits 30? (Hollywood drug dealers wouldn’t like that.)
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“…or who stop when their kids become stars.”
Isn’t that a problem–not knowing how you yourself would take it if your child became a star? And if your child didn’t make it big, would all the disruption and sacrifice involved be worth it? And what about peer group? It seems to me that ordinarily a lot of us would prefer to live in a van rather than subject our kids to that kind of peer group.
You’ve mentioned before that you don’t like children’s contests like spelling bees that are rote and divorced from adult accomplishment. It seems to me that being a child actor is something very similar. It is notoriously difficult for a child actor to successfully make the transition to adult roles. For most kids, even a successful run as a child actor is a dead end.
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I cannot begin to imagine how you could have a remotely “normal” family life when one child is in the acting business trying to be a star. It seems to have all the worst aspects of time suck/focus/cost that gymnastics or figure skating or dance would have. Those would include weekends full of ferrying the kid about to auditions/rehearsals/whatever; possibly pulling them out of regular school to fit in more training; no regular extracurricular activities; no time for hanging out.
And with child actors, add on the “look at me” focus. A colleague’s daughter has been in print ads from babyhood to now (she’s five). Very charismatic girl but just a little too aware of being the centre and being attractive. And that’s just a kid who’s in magazines a couple of times a year.
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Hey, can’t a girl take a vacation in peace without being called upon to comment on Hollywood? š (Just got back from 5 days in Florida.)
Btw, my issue with the CHarlie Sheen thing is that it’s all they talk about on stupid Top 40 radio, which my daughter now makes me listen to (“I’m coming home, I’m coming home… Firework! … Raise your glass… I’d catch a grenade for you.”), and really, I don’t want my daughter to know so much about that piece of sh*t human being
I’m not sure that the mentally ill are predisposed to go into acting, per se. I think the environment really is that toxic. I mean, these people do not eat, and if they do, they chuck it back up as soon as they can. Anyone would be cranky after a few months of that.
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