Dr. Drew Pinksy: Media Victim Since When?

Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of such VH1 shows as "Celebrity Rehab," "Sex Rehab" and "Sober House" has made a public apology for remarks that were attributed to him and published in a Huffington Post article on December 20th. According to the article, Pinsky spoke with the Huffington Post people last week at Milk Studio in Hollywood, where he was shooting promos for an HLN talk show he has coming out in the spring of 2011 entitled "Dr. Drew," where presumably he will continue his forays into addictions as he has done on the VH1 shows.

Pinsky had stuff to say not only about Brad Pitt and Angelina, but also opined on the lives of Kelsey Grammar, Miley Cyrus, Eva Longoria, Tony Parker, Scarlett Johannsen and Ryan Reynolds.. His opinions, which he now claims were taken out of context and not supposed to be printed, are clearly based upon tabloid reports on the celebrities in question.

I guess it depends on what reports you read, but at the same time many reports are appearing that Brad and Angelina have finally decided to get married, Dr. Drew was quoted as saying Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are instead headed for a "meltdown" that will be "phenomenal."

"... we've got one person who's a heroin addict. Which is a chronic lifelong condition, period. We have another person who has said things like, "Well, Jennifer [Aniston] was into long-term relationships, that's just her way of looking at things." I mean, that demeaning attitude towards other people's emotions. Now put those two people together and you have got a really volatile situation. ..."

Then barely two days later, Pinsky gave a video interview to RadarOnline to say that the remarks were made "as though one was speculating, just going through an exercise of speculation and not some sort of analysis that was supposed to be factual or for public discourse," and he admitted that he does not know Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt.

While it is no secret that Pinsky believes "once an addict, always an addict," he has apparently never seen any type of material upon which he could reliably characterize Angelina Jolie as a "heroin addict."

"Categorically these comments were not supposed to be in the public discourse," Pinsky said, which seems a little disingenuous since he was speaking to people from a well-known celebrity gossip site. A couple of years ago, Pinksy told a New York Times reporter that he has "a pretty keen ethical compass," in response to questions that his VH1 "Celebrity Rehab" show was over the line of professionalism and was exploitative.

Dr. Drew makes regular appearances on talk shows like "The Joy Behar Show" to weigh in on all sorts of addiction problems. On Lindsay Lohan, last year, he told "Parade Magazine" that he was "convinced that something horrible is going to have to happen to her before she really gets over it and embraces sobriety," infuriating Lindsay who responded on her twitter: ""I thought REAL doctors talked to patients in offices behind closed doors ..."

VH1 is currently running the 4th season of "Celebrity Rehab" whose current "cast" includes actor, Eric Roberts (Julia's older brother), actor Jeremy London (allegedly forced to take drugs earlier this year), model, Janice Dickinson, and one of Tiger Woods' biggest mistakes, Rachel Uchitel (who reportedly left the show recently).

So obviously, Dr. Drew Pinsky has a boatload of experience with the media and knows darn well that whatever he says is going to be online before you can say "quack, quack."

I'm beginning to think that Dr. Drew has an addiction to publicity myself. Now how about all that other stuff he said about Kelsey Grammar, Miley Cyrus, Eva Longoria, Tony Parker, Scarlett Johannsen and Ryan Reynolds. He could get at least 6 more interviews out of that.

Sources: Embedded