With celebrities like Nicole Ritchie, Parish Hilton and Lindsay Lohan confused by drugs, alcohol and our freeway system, it’s clear Los Angeles needs a Celebrity Drunk Driving School (CDDS) to help our region’s most precious assets learn to navigate the streets while loaded.
Perhaps could be the first instructor, due to his life-saving ability, rehab experience and driving K.I.T.T., the talking car.
Motivating young people (OK, anyone) to take responsibility for their actions is tough. It’s exponentially harder when that person apparently has substance abuse problems.
But that doesn’t mean you can blame others for your latest driving under the influence arrest, especially “the black kid.”
America is the land of second chances, if you’re willing to acknowledge you have a problem, made mistakes and are taking steps to move on That’s the first tenet of crisis communications.
People will be skeptical, especially if they’ve been burned by your lies, but if you can show you mean it, they’ll root for you. From movie star to imprisoned drug addict to movie star, Robert Downey Jr. made that transformation–and didn’t blame anybody but himself.
It doesn’t matter how much money or fame you have if you’re dead inside (or , as Pink Floyd put it) . And that’s where Lindsay Lohan finds herself, in the car wreck that has become her life.
It’s sad; I want to think of her as the little girl in The Parent Trap, that my children watched over and over again after September 11, seeking some comfort. But what she was able to give to others Lindsay apparently can’t give herself.
The people who could save her from herself, her family, unfortunately aren’t Disney characters with hearts of gold. One parent is overly familiar with jail, the other wants to be Lindsay’s party pal and ride her coattails to fame on E!
Lindsay’s too old for foster care–and I don’t know if I’d take her on for $600 a month. But I’d help her if I could.
Is jail the answer? If so, how sad. But she can’t have an ‘intervention’ if there’s no one to intervene for her.
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.
As MondayMorningMediaQuarterback suspected, Paris Hilton will actually serve more time than 80% of those convicted of similar DUI/traffic infractions. More than 72% of those convicted of similar DUI offenses serve 10 days or less; the judge in the case has mandated that Paris serve all 23 days of her sentence.
But a vemgeful public still seems to want to burn the witch at the stake: An LA Times polling question asked ”Do you think Paris Hilton deserves to do more time for her offense?” and 64.7% answered yes.
She may not have meant to do it, but Paris Hilton has already brought attention to issues of jail overcrowding, poor medical care, equitable punishment and of course unequal application of justice.
I just hope she doesn’t become a material example. The LA Sheriff’s Department has a lot to answer for with Paris; not only do they run the LA jails, but the very same department may have been profiling her in their street stops. The last thing Sheriff Baca needs is Paris dead in one of LA County’s ‘Hiltons.’
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.
