Archive for the ‘drunken-driving’ Category

Danger, Danger–Celebrity Behind the Wheel

June 15, 2007

Californians have always prided themselves on their driving skills (except when it rains and there are 500 fender-benders in three hours).  That’s why you’ll see people shaving, texting, applying make-up, reading magazines and screaming at their phones.

But it seems like someone needs to open a Celebrity Driving School.  I don’t venture to West Hollywood, especially late at night, because of the growing celebrity menace.

Accidental meetings with celebrities have always been a lure of Los Angeles, but they were fatal for the unlucky folks who encountered Prison Break’s Lane Garrison and singer Brandy.

Sure–not every celebrity crash is a fatal one.  But with Lindsay, Paris Hilton’s potentially ugly DUI, “Wrong Way” Nicole Ritchie (called that because she was arrested for DUI going against traffic on a freeway!), Halle Berry and even Mischa Barton of the OC commiting mayhem behind the wheel, maybe celebrity chronicler TMZ.COM should change their “Trainwrecks” section to “Celebrity Car Crashes.”

Watch out for celebrities when you’re on the road, or your car will may look like this.

barton-accident.jpg

Lindsay Lohan’s Life as a Car Crash

May 29, 2007

I’ve always had a soft spot for Lindsay Lohan, especially compared to the other pop tarts.  Unlike, say,  Nicole or even Brittany, her talent is not in question, and she earns her money, unlike a certain heiress.  

Our favorite of her films is The Parent Trap, where she plays charming but determined twins dedicated to getting their parents back together, but Mean Girls, Freaky Friday and even Herbie have lots of entertaiment value.

Even if we liked her best in a kid’s film, don’t accuse us of not wanting her to grow up.  Her relationship with her divorced parents has been like a car crash, and now she’s had a real one.  If anyone could say ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’  it’s her father, and to young people, hypocrisy is the greatest crime of all.

Her DUI trial (more likely the plea) will be a circus; the only good thing is that unlike Lane Garrison or Brandy (not a DUI) she hasn’t killed anyone (yet).

The partying, the lateness to work, the failed rehab, all seem a cry for help, but there’s been no one willing or able to say “No” to Lindsay and tell her “Nose to the grindstone,” as my father said to me.  Parenting is hard, but someone’s got to do it.

The personal lives of performers have been exploited for over a hundred years to promote their entertainment projects.  The situation has been reversed as millions focus on the antics of the stars, rather than on their movies.

Lindsay Lohan needs to buckle down (and buckle up) get serious about her work, and put her fame to positive use.  People love to trash Angelina Jolie and her ‘zoo’ of adopted children, but she uses her fame (and channels her own family problems) into worthy work like A Mighty Heart, and her charity work dramatizing the problems of the suffering. 

That’s a lot to ask of Lindsay, who’s still not old enough to drink legally, but it’s a way to lose the lack of self-worth that’s driving the continuing car crash.

Lindsey Lohan

Paris Hilton Not Appealing

May 18, 2007

I bet the Associated Press wishes it could write that sentence, after the AP’s noble but failed attempt not to cover the madcap heiress for a whole week. 

No, Paris is as appealing as ever. 

 

What she’s not appealing is her sentence for drunken driving.  And what’s also not appealing are what car accidents caused by drunken driving look like.