Teflon Charlie
By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 10 Comments
He trashes hotel rooms, mistreats women, parties wildly—yet Sheen’s network and fans don’t mind
TMZ.com/Splash News, BuzzFoto/Keystone Press, CBS/Everett Collection
Is there anything Charlie Sheen can do to make himself unpopular? Last Monday, the star of the world’s most-watched sitcom, Two and a Half Men, was removed from the Plaza Hotel in New York after trashing his room because of a missing watch; it led to a stay in the hospital, reports that he was on drugs (his retinue called it “an allergic reaction to medication”), and his abrupt decision to divorce his estranged current wife, Brooke Mueller. That’s just the latest in a long line of unpleasant stories about the 45-year-old actor, many of which revolve around his treatment of women. His ex-wife, Denise Richards, claimed that she underwent “a cycle of abuse.” In 2009, Sheen was arrested for reportedly holding a knife to Mueller’s throat. And at the Plaza, TMZ.com reported that he was with “a 22-year-old porn star” who hid in the bathroom to avoid his rampage after he thought his watch had been stolen. Yet he’s emerging from this new scandal the way he emerged from all the others: looking terrible, but otherwise unscathed.
Sheen was back at work on Two and a Half Men last week (TMZ said he was greeted with “fist pumps and hugs”), and Radaronline.com reported that he was “partying wildly” as soon as he got back to Los Angeles. His network, CBS, stood by him as usual; an anonymous insider told the New York Post that CBS is “quietly thrilled” because the publicity “will open up the show to a whole new segment of young viewers.” Dylan Howard, who talked to Sheen for Radar Online, told Maclean’s that “there are people around Charlie who are under no illusions that he needs to check himself into rehab and get himself clean once and for all.” Even Sheen’s father, Martin Sheen, told the Post that he hoped to separate his son “from the people he’s been around,” but there’s no indication yet that it will happen.
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They're drinking what?
By Alex Shimo - Monday, October 26, 2009 at 11:17 AM - 45 Comments
Kids seeking a quick high are downing hand sanitizer
The best way to drink hand sanitizer is straight, like whisky, and down it “like a shot,” explains Tyler, a Grade 10 student who lives in Toronto. Undiluted, the alcohol-based liquid tastes a little like “vodka and bug spray,” he adds.The alarming comment from the 15-year-old mirrors a growing number of news reports about teenagers and children drinking the antiseptic hand-cleaning products. Most hand sanitizers have an alcoholic content between 60 and 90 per cent, which means that even small amounts have led to a number of cases of alcohol poisoning in younger children. That percentage is much higher than even that of most hard liquors, giving it an appeal to kids looking for a quick high, explains Jane Wells, a drama teacher at Toronto’s after-school Care Program. Wells has come to know a lot about this subject: she discovered that a group of eight- and nine-year-olds drank hand sanitizer at school just before she took them on a school walk. When she noticed them acting strange and giggling, they first told her they had been drinking alcohol, but after some probing, confessed it was really the hand cleaner. They told her they’d been enticed by the promise of alcohol “right on the bottle,” she says. Continue…
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A new turn in our Afghan strategy
By Paul Wells - Friday, October 9, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 17 Comments
The U.S. special representative in Afghanistan would like a Canadian on his team
There is progress being made on Afghanistan, if you define “progress” narrowly enough. It has become harder to deny what a mess the country has become, so fewer people are trying to deny it. Progress.Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s Aug. 30 report to Barack Obama makes an important conceptual breakthrough. “Progress is hindered by the dual threat of a resilient insurgency and a crisis of confidence in the [Afghan] government and the international coalition,” the theatre’s top military commander wrote. “To win their support, we must protect the people from both of these threats.” For McChrystal, a careful writer, to frame his enemy and his own side as parallel threats is an astonishing admission. Continue…
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Violence is rising as job loss spreads
By Susan Mohammad - Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments
The Calgary Women’s Shelter is reporting a threefold rise in calls
So far, the fallout of Canada’s recession has been largely confined to job loss and devastated finances. But women’s shelters across the country are starting to see financial woes spilling over into violence, as reports of domestic abuse rise.The Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter has seen one of the largest jumps, with the number of phone calls to its helpline tripling in February, compared to the year before. Its counsellors say the economy is often cited as a contributing factor. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” says Lisa Falkowsky, the shelter’s executive director.
Similarly, the Vancouver Crisis Line has experienced a 36 per cent increase in calls so far this year over last year. There are also reports of a 100 per cent increase in domestic violence calls taken by police in Brockville, Ont., and the Ottawa Carleton Sexual Assault and Partner Abuse Care Program says it is getting more requests for medical treatment. Oshawa, which has experienced a heavy round of layoffs in male-dominated ?elds such as the auto industry, is reporting a 24 per cent increase in cases of violence against women in the fourth quarter of 2008 versus 2007.
