Charlie Sheen in Not Winning

Q: How much cocaine did Charlie Sheen allegedly take at his last party?
A: Enough to kill two and a half men.¹

If you are sick of Charlie Sheen, try the Tinted Sheen app (Firefox and Chrome browsers only) - it will black out all things Charlie as you surf the Web.

If you can stand a little more Charlie, I've got an interesting parallel for you, a Charlie Sheen timeline, Charlie Sheen's best quotes - so far, and a conclusion with my concerns.

Charlie Sheen's meltdown is unique in history in that it is public, ongoing, happening in real time before our very eyes, with Sheen's participation, documentation, and publicity seeking.²

At the end of the movie Scarface, Tony Montana (brilliantly played by Al Pacino), high on cocaine and full of his own deluded sense of power stands on top floor of his house egging on the killers invading his home with such gems as, "Go ahead! I take your fucking bullets! You think you kill me with bullets? I take your fucking bullets! Go ahead," as a lone assassin slowly moves up from behind him and delivers the fatal shot to Tony's back.

Now why do I draw a parallel between that scene and Charlie Sheen's very public meltdown? Because Sheen's "winning" is really losing, and he can't see what's happening all around him, and I fear something is coming up behind that might be fatal.

Charlie Sheen Timeline

Consider the following Charlie Sheen timeline:^3,4

1986 - Charlie Sheen's breakout performance as Chris in Platoon.

1990 - Charlie Sheen goes to rehab and announces he will continue to attend 12-step meetings. His engagement to actress Kelly Preston (currently married to John Travolta) ends after she is accidentally shot in the arm in their house.

1995 - Charlie Sheen is the star witness at Heidi Fleiss's (the "Hollywood Madam") trial, where he admits he spent more than $50,000 on prostitutes.

1996 - Charlie Sheen is arrested for assaulting then girlfriend Brittany Ashland and pleads no contest a year later.

1998 - Charlie Sheen has a near fatal drug overdose and his father, Martin Sheen publicly pleads for prayers for his son. Charlie is ordered back to rehab after police pull him over in LA.

2006 - Charlie Sheen and second wife wife Denise Richards have a bitter custody dispute during their divorce. Richards is granted a restraining order against Sheen after she claims he abused her and threatened to kill her.

2009 - Charlie Sheen is arrested in Aspen, Colorado on Christmas Day for felony menacing, third-degree assault and criminal mischief assault against his wife, Brooke Mueller.

Feb 2010 - Charlie Sheen checks into rehab and production on Two and a Half Men is suspended.

August 2010 - Charlie Sheen pleads guilty to assault and is ordered to rehab again. As he left the courthouse Sheen told TMZ, "I'm going to Disneyland!" TV Guide named Sheen the highest paid actor in television at $1.25 million per episode of Two and a Half men - then entering its eighth season.

October 2010 - Charlie Sheen taken to hospital after police find him naked and passed out in a room at New York's Plaza hotel, where he caused $7,000 in damage when he trashed the room during a debauch with porn star Capri Anderson as his two young daughters and ex-wife Denise Richards slept down the hall. Anderson tells the press that she had called security as she was "extremely afraid" of Sheen and had locked herself in the bathroom to escape him.

November 2010 - Charlie Sheen and third wife Brooke Mueller both file for divorce. Meanwhile Capri Anderson announces she plans to sue Sheen for battery and unlawful imprisonment and Sheen file and extortion suit against Anderson.

January 2011 - Charlie Sheen's "epic" bender in Vegas, missing his call for Two and a Half Men. Later that month, after a two day house party, Sheen is rushed to the hospital.

February 2011 - Charlie Sheen begins rehab at his own house, which he names, "Sober Valley Lodge." Two and a Half Men cancelled for rest of year following Sheen's rants. Sheen is banned from the Warner Brothers lot. Sheen's publicist resigns.

March 2011 - Charlie Sheen continues his media tour of rants and sounds like he is increasingly coming unglued.

Sheen sets record as he joins Twitter and gets 1 million followers in the first 24 hours.

Sheen loses custody of twin sons.

Sheen debuts Ustream webcast.

CBS fires Sheen from Two and a Half Men - Sheen takes to the rooftops with a machete and a bottle of "tiger blood," and rants against his firing on his "final" webcast. Interestingly, they fired Sheen after he publicly attacked producer Chuck Lorre, but not when he beat his wives. Hmmmm.

Charlie Sheen sues Chuck Lorre and Warner Brothers for millions in a breach of contract suit and tweets "#Fastball; Torpedo away... You corporate Trolls were warned. And now you've been served!"⁷

Dr. Drew announces he believes Charlie Sheen should be involuntarily committed.⁸

Charlie Sheens Rants⁴

"I'm tired of pretending I'm not a total bitchin' rock star from Mars."

"I am on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it once your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body."

"Don't be worried, don't be worried. I am grandiose because I live a grandiose life; what's wrong with that?"

On avoiding relapsing: "I just don't do it. I will not believe that if I do something then I have to follow a certain path because it was written for normal people. People who aren't special. People who don't have tiger blood and Adonis DNA."

"This Warlock is in the breach. Poised. T - minus 51 mins. Read my tigerblood dripping lips; you've been warned'

Biting the hand that fed him (Two and a Half Men producer Chuck Lorre):⁴

"I violently hate Chaim Levine. He's a stupid, stupid little man ... that I'd never want to be like."

Chuck Lorre is a "charlatan [who] chose not to do his job", a "piece of shit" and a "stupid, stupid little man".

"I closed my eyes and made it so with the power of my mind, and unlearned 22 years of fiction ... the fiction of AA. It's a silly book written by a broken-down fool."

Interestingly, the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous states that the "main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind. . ."⁶

Charlie Sheen has been autotuned - watch it here.

So let's review:

Charlie Sheen who is "winning" has lost the highest paid gig in television history, his children, three wives, his health, his freedom from time to time due to time in jail and court appearances and stints in rehab, some friends and colleagues in the business, and I fear, his grip on reality.

71% of people polled have an unfavorable opinion of the star.⁹

Early in the movie, Scarface, Tony has a telling exchange with Manny, his partner (whom he kills later in the movie):

Tony Montana : Me, I want what's coming to me.
Manny : Oh, well what's coming to you?
Tony Montana : The world, chico, and everything in it.¹

Charlie Sheen, who believes he is "special" could easily have said that and likely believes it.

Here's Charlie's scariest quote . . .

"The last time I took drugs I probably took more than anyone could survive. I was banging seven gram rocks because that's how I roll, I have one speed, go. I'm different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. Dying's for fools, dying's for amateurs."⁴

Really? Dying is for humans Charlie and a lot of us are scared for you. Will you go the way of Michael Jackson and other stars enabled literally to death? Will Hollywood greed cash in on your high profile to make as much money off you as possible? Does anyone care enough about Charlie Sheen to save him from himself? Or do we continue to let him "roll" and hope he hits his bottom and becomes teachable before he dies? Will his epitaph read, "What a shame?"

Sources:

1. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086250/quotes
2. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20040766-1.html
3. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2010-10-27-sheen_legalwoes_ST_N.htm
4. http://www.dose.ca/celebrity/Charlie+Sheen+Timeline+Crazypants+Events/4386763/story.html
5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/feb/25/charlie-sheen-show-cancelled
6. Alcoholics Anonymous , page 23.
7. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20472603,00.html
8. http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/03/09/dr-drew-charlie-sheen-should-be-committed/
9. http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/07/poll-charlie-sheen-is-not-winning/