by
Wayne Lela
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(Author's note: This is the original, unedited version of the article, except for several small, more recent additions.)
Actors and
actresses and comedians and comediennes have exerted enormous influence
over this society via TV and cinema. Assuming we should know more about
the kind of people exerting that influence, the following. As will be
shown, drug use, prostitution (i.e., trading sexual favors for movie
roles), and mental illness are very common in Hollywood.
Various entertainment writers have drawn attention to the widespread use of illegal drugs in Hollywood. For example:
1) Roger Ebert: "Half the people in Hollywood seem to have gone through recovery from drugs and alcohol by now [1990]."1
2)
Jorge Casuso: "During the freewheeling '70s, Hollywood seemed to be
riding a coke-induced high. On screen, recreational drugs were the props
of the glamorous...[or] they were psychedelic aids in the search for
Truth....Off-screen, drugs were part of the Hollywood mystique,
seemingly taken as casually as a cocktail. Business deals were cut over
vials of cocaine."2
3)
Michael Kilian: "Hollywood was notorious [this said in 1984] for its
nonchalantly open use of the drug [cocaine] by celebrities."3
4)
Clarence Petersen wrote in 1992: Hollywood is "a mean town, run by weird
men (mostly) addicted to power, money, deals, drugs, and bimbos."4
5) Walter Scott: "A knowledgeable studio executive tells Parade [magazine in 1996] that drug use is as big---or bigger---than ever in the movie capitol [Hollywood]."5
6) Hilary de Vries, in 1998, noted "Hollywood's renewed use of drugs."6
7)
And film critic Michael Wilmington, in 1998, similarly observed that "a
sort of heroin/cocaine chic exists in today's Hollywood."7
(Drug use
in Hollywood is so "normal" one has to wonder just how corrupt the
police force and judicial system have become. And don't Hollywood's drug
users care that they are supporting murderous drug kingpins and gangs
and armies in Columbia and Mexico and elsewhere?)
Wherever
you find rampant drug use you will usually find prostitution. It's no
big secret that there are a lot of prostitutes in Hollywood. What you
may not know, though, is how many actors/actresses prostitute themselves
in order to get acting work.
Actor
Woody Harrelson admitted: "Every [acting] business I ever entered into
in New York seemed to have a casting couch....I've seen so many people
sleep with people they loathe in order to further their ambition."8
Actress
Jenny McCarthy similarly acknowledged: "L.A. [Los Angeles] is the worst
place in the world to try to feel secure. The girls that moved out
there at the same time as me, I watched them fizzle and turn into
walking on the streets at night. You see that in the movies and hear
about casting couches---which I thought were just big fluffy
couches---but you don't know till you experience it how corrupt it is. I
was the only girl in my clique who wasn't sleeping with someone to get a
job."9
Chris
Hanley, producer of over 20 movies ("American Psycho," "The Virgin
Suicides," etc.), "told his class reunion at Amherst College in
Massachusetts about the Hollywood casting process: 'Almost every leading
actress in all of my 24 films has slept with a director or producer or a
leading actor to get the part that launched her career.'"10
Entertainment
writer Peter Keough describes Hollywood as "a town where everyone is
selling body and soul for fame and fortune, and all---especially
women---are considered commodities."11
Entertainment
writer Jon Anderson: "Insecure, seeking love, terrified of abandonment,
needing public acclaim to quell their private demons, [such are] the
creatures who rise to rule over the West Coast entertainment
industry....[Former show-business writer Paul] Rosenfield offers
evidence [in his book The Club Rules] that this is a world of shallow friendships, blocked emotions, [and] upwardly mobile sex."12
Entertainment
writer Bill Zwecker: "Hollywood---a town known for rampant infidelity,
sleazy affairs, marital woes and serial romances."13
A couple
of business writers, Carol S. Pearson and Sharon Sievert, have noted
that in an "organization where it has become normal to sacrifice one's
personal life and one's ethical standards to career success...people
with deep-seated psychological problems or serious addictions often rise
to the top because pathology actually is a pre-condition for making the
extraordinary personal sacrifices and ethical compromises required for
success."14 Hollywood offers much support for that observation.
For
example, actress and comedienne Janeane Garofalo admitted: "My
self-esteem is always in the toilet....Show business attracts the people
with the lowest self-esteem."15
Actor Simon Pegg: "Part of the reason you're an actor is because you're deeply insecure."16
Actress Meryl Streep: "Anybody who picks acting as a profession is bathed in insecurity....I've had those feelings."17
Leonardo
DiCaprio, who, like so many Hollywood celebs, came from a broken home,
answered thusly a question about why he became an actor: "We're all
after love, aren't we? Love is what people are hungry for. That's
absolutely why I became an actor."18 (So many celebs are in
therapy because they look for love in all the wrong places, as a song
put it, going unfulfilled forever. DiCaprio is sadly mistaken when he
essentially equates or confuses the shallow adoration of fans with love.
Others sadly and misguidedly confuse sex with love.)
Actor
Shia LaBeouf: "Actors live dependent on being validated by other
people's opinions....The good actors are all screwed up. They're all in
pain. It's a profession of bottom feeders and heartbroken people."19
Actress
and director Katt Shea had "trauma-filled elementary schooldays. 'I
don't know why a certain kid is picked as the scapegoat,' she says,
recalling 'very, very painful' years as an outcast in grade
school....Shea admits she's 'probably socially dysfunctional.'...To
combat her fears and to do something with her life, she chose acting."20
Actor
Michael J. Fox also felt like somewhat of an outcast when young: "You
become an actor because you're a 15-year-old geek. Ten years later
you're on magazine covers because you focused your neuroses in a
malleable craft."21
Actor
Jeff Dorchen likewise admitted to feeling "geeky" when younger. He
described his fellow college arts students as "a bunch of people who,
like myself, had been geeks and weirdos in high school."22
Actor Dennis Quaid on his high school years: "I wasn't a popular kid. I spent a lot of time by myself."23
Actor
Paul Rudd: "I always felt a little bit like an outsider [in high
school]. My senior year, I got more confident, I didn't feel like a
total nerd."24
When actor Charles Durning enrolled in drama school he "was a dreadfully shy person" by his own admission.25
Actress Claire Bloom described those in the theatrical profession thusly: "we were all outsiders of one kind or another."26
U.S. News & World Report
on Steven Spielberg: "An awkward outsider in his youth,...Spielberg
found in his father's 8-mm camera a means of escape and connection."27
Actor
Cory Monteith "grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, feeling like an
outsider....'I never fit in, so I started pretending I was other
people.'"28
Actress
Charlize Theron, who's father was an alcoholic killed by her mother in
self-defense: "I always felt like an outsider [when I was young]."29
Actor
Daniel Radcliffe, in response to an interviewer's question ("Growing
up, did you have the sense of being an outsider?"), answered: "Totally!
I remember being 6 years old and knowing that I saw the world
differently from the rest of the boys in my class. I have always said
to myself there must be a reason for me being this weird."30
Outsiders,
outcasts, geeks, weirdos, neurotics, people with low self-esteem,
prostitutes, and drug users---these are the types of people who are
exercising enormous influence over our children via the entertainment
industry.
And
speaking of kids, child-actors in Hollywood are subjected to their own
special pressures. According to actor Christian Slater: "You know, I had
this belief system for many years that I had to suffer for my art....I
thought if I didn't suffer for my art, I couldn't get really deeply into
a character....That's what they teach young kids in this [acting]
business."31 All we need are more suffering children.
Actor and comedian John Cleese: "A lot of creative ability does come from neuroses, pain."32
It's not just creative ability that comes from pain and suffering, but, ironically, comedy too.
Comedian
Alan King stated this about fellow comedians: "[T]here is some form of
deprivation---a large family, an affliction, alcoholic
parents---something in early life, that creates this need to attract, to
be paid attention to, to be loved. It's been said many times, including
by Lenny Bruce: 'If it hurts, wait a minute; it'll become comedy.'"33
Billy
Crystal: "I think so much of comedy is based on an anger. We're always
looking for approval, looking for somebody to listen to us."34
Comedian
Jim "Carrey said his sense of humor 'has always come from desperation.'
This desperation for attention led to his performance debut in 3rd
grade."35
Rodney
Dangerfield: "People think comedians are happy people....It's the
reverse. When I was writing jokes when I was 15, it wasn't because I was
happy. It was to escape my reality."36
Comedienne
Phyllis "Diller thinks there is one universal thing about standup
comics. 'They usually are only children, or a child born late in life,
or someone who has suffered some sense of abandonment. Check it out.
It's true of almost all comics. Comics are searching for love.'"37
Cartoonist/humorist
Gahan Wilson: "I think it was S.J. Perelman who said that the requisite
for any humorist is an unhappy childhood....For most creative people,
there's a great deal of storm and stress associated with it, one way or
another. Mine was plenty traumatic."38
Comedy
writer Diane English: "The definition of a comedy writer is somebody
who did not have a pleasant childhood...and I can definitely put myself
in that category."39
Comedian Jim J. Bullock: "Most comedians come from dysfunctional families."40
Comedienne
Sarah Silverman on comedic talent: "It's almost like a sickness....I
think it comes from some kind of damage or some kind of need or means of
survival."41
From TV critic Neal Justin: "Many comedians suffer from depression."42
From film critic Richard Roeper: "Most of the best comics are dark, disturbed, brilliant observers of the human condition."43
To
return to the subject of child-actors for a moment, in late 2011 film
critic Roger Ebert referred to a "recent controversy about Hollywood
child sexual abuse and the victims who aren't naming names."44 There is more about this outrage in a Fox News story
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/12/05/recent-charges-sexual-abuse-children-in-hollywood-just-tip-iceberg-experts-say/. From that story:
Actor Corey Feldman, 40, himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by an unnamed Hollywood mogul, "unflinchingly warned of the world of pedophiles who are drawn to the entertainment industry last August. 'I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia.'" "Another child star from an earlier era agrees that Hollywood has long had a problem with pedophilia. 'When I watched that interview, a whole series of names and faces from my history went zooming through my head,' [said] Paul Peterson, 66, star of The Donna Reed Show....'Some of these people, who I know very well, are still in the game....The casting couch is a real thing, and sometimes just getting an appointment makes people do desperate things [like prostitute themselves].'"
I think we
can safely conclude from all the aforegoing personal testimonials and
personal observations by those in a position to know, that many
influential actors and comedians are not exactly psychologically
"normal" or healthy. Add to them the many drug-using, promiscuous,
influential rock 'n' roll stars.
Given
all that, is it any wonder sexual exploitation (i.e. promiscuity) is
becoming more and more acceptable? And extra-marital cheating a la
Bill Clinton? Is it any wonder we have an epidemic of sexually
transmitted diseases? A high divorce rate? A high teen suicide rate?
Is it any
wonder we have a high out-of-wedlock birth rate? So many young girls
becoming mothers? So many fatherless homes? "Gang-banging" kids killing
other young gang members? It seems like the patients are taking over the
asylum.
If we are
ever going to durably reverse these trends, if we are ever going to
reduce/eliminate the influence of depraved people, we are going to have
to do a much better job of learning and imparting moral truths.
But we
don't teach morality like we teach math or physics or English. We hardly
teach morality at all; and it's such a complex subject it's difficult
to expect people to learn it on their own.
As a
society, we not only need to learn how to logically defend our values;
but once we learn that, we must teach our children those logical
defenses. If we don't, we can't expect them to blindly or automatically
adopt those values. It's just not realistic.
1. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 12, 1990, "Arts & Show" section, p. 37.
2. Jorge Casuso, "Learning to say no on film," Chicago Tribune, March 5, 1992, section 1, p. 19.
3. Michael Kilian, "For Stacy Keach, Richard III heralds winter of his content," Chicago Tribune, Oct. 7, 1990, section 5, p. 6.
4. Clarence Petersen, "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again," Chicago Tribune, March 8, 1992, section 14, p. 2.
5. Walter Scott, "Walter Scott's Personality Parade," Parade, March 3, 1996, p. 2.
6. Hilary de Vries, "Happily ever after," Chicago Tribune, Aug. 9, 1998, section 7, p. 15.
7. Michael Wilmington, "'Midnight' only sometimes gutsy account of writer's double life," Chicago Tribune, Sept. 18, 1998, section 7, p. L.
8. Stephanie Mansfield, "Wild & Woody," USA Weekend, July 5-7, 1996, p. 5.
9. Cheryl Lavin, "Dumb like a fox," Chicago Tribune, Aug. 24, 1997, section 10, p. 16.
10. "News from the casting couch," Chicago Sun-Times, June 10, 2005, p. 52.
11. Peter Keough, "Taking it off takes off," Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1995, section 13, p. 3.
12. Jon Anderson, "The lackluster world of Hollywood glitterati," Chicago Tribune, April 16, 1992, section 5, p. 3.
13. Bill Zwecker, "Hollywood 'Bombshell'", Chicago Sun-Times, March 19, 2010, p. 28.
14. Jacqueline Fitzgerald, "Merlin, we beg thee, thy magic, we need some here at the office," Chicago Tribune, Aug. 28, 1995, section 4, p. 3.
15. Nancy Mills, "Real Life," Chicago Tribune, Jan. 7, 1996, section 13, p. 6.
16. Scurrilous (pen name), "The Web truth hurts," Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 3, 2008, p. 32.
17. Jeanne Wolf, "America's Favorite Stars," Parade, Nov. 9, 2008, p. 4.
18. Dotson Rader, "I Want To Stand For Something," Parade, Oct. 5, 2008, p. 5.
19. Dotson Rader, "The Mixed-Up Life of Shia LaBeouf," Parade, June 14, 2009, pp. 4-5.
20. Michael J. Bandler, "Vim & Venom," Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1992, section 6, p. 8.
21. Michael Gross, "Celebrity shakeout," Chicago Tribune, May 29, 1991, section 5, p. 3.
22. Anthony Adler, "Alone, together," Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1992, section 13, p. 12.
23. Dotson Rader, "Dennis Quaid," Parade, Sept. 23, 2012, p. 6.
24. Cindy Pearlman, "Paul Rudd tries his luck with 'Schmucks,'" Chicago Sun-Times, July 25, 2010, "Sunday Show" section, p. 4.
25. Dennis McLellan, "Honored for war stint, role on Broadway," Chicago Tribune, Dec. 26, 2012, section 2, p. 5.
26. Bettina Drew, "Husbands and Lovers," Chicago Tribune, Oct. 20, 1996, section 14, p. 3.
27. Jay Tolson, "Director With a Cause," U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 1/Dec. 8, 2008, p. 54.
28. Shawna Malcom, "Cory Monteith's Turning Point," Parade, June 26, 2011, p. 11.
29. Mark Morrison, "The Amazing Low-Key Life of Charlize Theron," USA Weekend, Dec. 9-11, 2011, p. 7.
30. Dotson Rader, "Life After Harry," Parade, Jan. 8, 2012, p. 12.
31. Cindy Pearlman, "Actor Slater gets his life together after stint in jail," Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 27, 1998, "Showcase" section, p. 3E.
32. Abbie Jones, "Cleese's clinic," Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1993, section 5, p. 3.
33. Hugh Hart, "King of the road," Chicago Tribune, Aug. 8, 1991, section 5, p. 3.
34. Richard Zoglin, "10 questions for Billy Crystal," Time, Oct. 17, 2005, p. 8.
35. Diane Joy Moca, "'Living Color's' Jim Carrey flies solo on cable," Chicago Tribune, Nov. 16, 1991, section 1, p. 26.
36. Lawrence Grobel, "One Banana Peel After Another," Parade, Aug. 3, 1997, p. 8.
37. Mal Vincent, "'A Bug's Life' gives Diller the royal treatment," Chicago Tribune, Dec. 17, 1998, section 5, p. 9C.
38. John Blades, "Dead-on humor," Chicago Tribune, April 26, 1991, section 5, p. 2.
39. Michael J. Bandler, "Creative force," Chicago Tribune, Feb. 16, 1992, section 6, p. 4.
40. Ed Bark, "Jim J., Tammy Faye an intriguing team," Chicago Tribune, Jan. 27, 1996, section 1, p. 24.
41. "10 Questions," Time, May 3, 2010, p. 4.
42. Neal Justin, "Women, anti-heroes took spotlight in 2012," Chicago Tribune, Dec. 26, 2012, section 4, p. 4.
43. Richard Roeper, "Comics: If it's unfunny, don't say it," Chicago Sun-Times, July 30, 2012, p. 35.
44. Roger Ebert, "Do we really need to see 'Tintin' in 3-D," Chicago Sun-Times, Dec. 30, 2011, "Movies" section, p. 4.
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