Having Compassion for Charlie Sheen

He is an alcoholic and drug abuser. He is pathetic. He looks like shit. And he is the biggest entertainment story in the country right now.

I take no part in the Charlie Sheen-fest on TV and in the magazines. It's all so sad and sordid, so seemy. The man is falling apart before our eyes, but he is still generating revenue for a lot of people with his self destruction.

When I think of Sheen, I think of Elvis and MJ. Dead too soon because they were addicts too powerful to be told "no." When you have hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, as has been said, you ARE GOD. No one can say anything to you that you don't want to hear.

Charlie Sheen may well be dead in a year. Or he could bounce back and get another hit show. No one knows how this is going to play out. But I know that Sheen is no different than the addicts and drunks I spend a good chunk of my week with. He is no different from me, who had to get in trouble with the police for the first time in my life in order to take a good look at my life and where I was headed.

It's all very sad, but none of us, no matter how powerful, are immune to life's foibles.