Is anyone else pissed off watching "Celebrity Rehab"?

[Amelia G]

Well by year 2 I was set up, year 3 was all splurge.

So what do you do when you can't get hired for anything after year 2? You may have basic necessities taken care of and that is probably a relief.

But what do you do when all your former supposed friends act like you are a loser for not being the beneficiary of unlimited income forever? What do you do when you can't get hired for a security gig because you are too well known? What do you do when you get called a loser and turned away, when you apply for jobs you could happily do now? What do you do when people obviously get off on the idea that you might be having trouble paying your bills?

What do you do when you can't relate to your old friends any more and they are all pissed off because they asked you to buy them free shit, when they felt you had money, only you were trying to spend wisely? Only you didn't make any new friends because you were unwilling to spend what your peers were on going to the same places, living in an entertainment city when not on tour, going out on the town when on tour, or any of the other ways people piss their money away while attempting to make a new life?

[Amelia G]

Amelia,

Do you really think Celebrity Rehab works for these addicts? When you hire Gary Busey as the guy who's supposed to "help" them get through this, I easily see it as just another "show" trying to get ratings. Daniel Baldwin was on the first episode. You're telling me being on the T.V. show was the only way he could get help? That none of his other brothers would kick in some cash to actually get him real help? Nah....I think most of it is PR.

Like they say..."Any publicity is good publicity". That's why most of these "celebrities" are has beens....Hurting for work.

The assumption that someone else famous and paid is obligated to foot the bill for others is what lands a lot of these celebs in addictionland in the first place. Real rehab is crazy expensive. I'm actually sometimes envious of Los Angeles addicts because proper rehab sounds awesome. Take a month without responsibility, someone else worrying about your nutrition and cooking and telling you when and how to exercise, lots of people tasked with making sure you feel supported, a true vacation. And, if anyone complains about stuff which didn't get taken care of, it is socially acceptable to get moralistic on them because you were in rehab, even if they did everything they were supposed to and you dropped the ball. Only I don't have an addictive personality and I can't imagine taking a month of in reality.

A lot of semi-famous people do reality television precisely because they are too famous to get a regular job without constant abuse, but they are not famous enough to get sufficient employment in whatever they are famous for. Some people also do reality television because they want to be understood. Unfortunately for them, reality television generally does a poor job of communicating someone else's reality.

[Rockwulf]

You underestimate my ability to drop assholes like hot grenades.

I befriend cool people because they're cool. One of my buddies is a sound/guitar tech for one of the biggest metal acts touring today. He's making quite a lot of dough. He just moved into a huge expensive condo and he's got a rare-guitar collection that makes me tent my pants.

I've never asked him for a dime and I don't expect one from him. Occasionally he'll see me at the bar (the same bar he was at when he wasn't making shit) and in the course of us hanging out he might buy me a shot or two. He could lose every dime tomorrow and we'd still have the exact same relationship as we did yesterday because we're both cool people and that's who I choose to surround myself with. I have no use for false friends.

[Rockwulf]

As for jobs, It won't be as hard as you make it sound. I'll bet you anything that the majority of hiring managers in this country have no idea who won American Idol 3 years ago. And any musician worth a damn can get jobs teaching, teching, running boards, etc.

[Amelia G]

You underestimate my ability to drop assholes like hot grenades.

I befriend cool people because they're cool. One of my buddies is a sound/guitar tech for one of the biggest metal acts touring today. He's making quite a lot of dough. He just moved into a huge expensive condo and he's got a rare-guitar collection that makes me tent my pants.

I've never asked him for a dime and I don't expect one from him. Occasionally he'll see me at the bar (the same bar he was at when he wasn't making shit) and in the course of us hanging out he might buy me a shot or two. He could lose every dime tomorrow and we'd still have the exact same relationship as we did yesterday because we're both cool people and that's who I choose to surround myself with. I have no use for false friends.

I will periodically go on what I like to call a friend diet, where I cut out the unhealthy supposed friends who are dead weight or damaging. I've honestly been shocked at how many more assholes the barest appearance of cash attracts. Although I am still a friendly person, I am not easy to get next to, and I still get burned from time to time. I don't feel I make remotely enough to call out the wolves. Unfortunately, the wolf population apparently does not agree.

This means I honestly fret about money more now than I ever did when I was price comparison shopping for ramen. And I probably have about 1% of the problems of this sort someone who lost on American Idol would. I mean, I would never go on a show like Celebrity Rehab, but I would also never go on a show like American Idol. I want to succeed on my merits and not on a gimmick and I think most reality television is humiliating. Those casting directors call me all the time and I don't hook them up. Maybe if I designed the reality show. Maybe.

When I first moved to California (sorta, I was kinda couch-surfing and still considering Vegas at the time), I got a job at Barnes & Noble. I liked books. I liked people who liked books. I liked working there. I had an unpaid student loan for an expensive education that perhaps should have been able to get me something better, something good enough to pay my student loan off anyway, but I still wanted to work. Only Blue Blood magazine in print was distributed in book stores and there were people there who had sold it. And some people were really really weird at me about it. Like we were all making around $6 an hour, but they felt like I was a bigger loser than they were because, in addition to working low-end retail just like them, I had also put out an internationally distributed, critically acclaimed, glossy, color magazine.

Just the barest taste of that sort of thing I've had to deal with makes me truly believe that the people on Celebrity Rehab genuinely have way worse problems than I do.

Not that I wouldn't like a giant cash infusion. Hence the heist plans. Do you want to be the wheel man? I'm not sure any of us is a good enough driver.

[Rockwulf]

I already said "fuck the haters." I don't know how much simpler than 4 syllables I can make it.

As for wheel man, I'm in. I haven't driven a car in more than a year but it's like riding a bicycle. Actually that's a horrible example cause after riding a motorcycle for a while you jump on a bike and you look like a palsyed chimp. But yeah I'm a bitchin' driver.

[Dusk]

I think that half the "scandels" are made up or purposely leaked to the public, remember any publicity is good publicity, and celebrity rehab is a good example of this.
How many people want society to see them at what could be their worst? especially when your famous so everyone knows this when your in public but at least they got another few bucks out of humiliating them selves.
Way to go assholes.

[nathanmbailey]

I think we're all missing an important point here... Dude didn't recognize the drummer from Guns 'n' Roses! What the fuck man?

Oh, and drugs are bad or something.

[jonny.illuminati]

I will periodically go on what I like to call a friend diet, where I cut out the unhealthy supposed friends who are dead weight or damaging. I've honestly been shocked at how many more assholes the barest appearance of cash attracts. Although I am still a friendly person, I am not easy to get next to, and I still get burned from time to time. I don't feel I make remotely enough to call out the wolves. Unfortunately, the wolf population apparently does not agree.

This means I honestly fret about money more now than I ever did when I was price comparison shopping for ramen. And I probably have about 1% of the problems of this sort someone who lost on American Idol would. I mean, I would never go on a show like Celebrity Rehab, but I would also never go on a show like American Idol. I want to succeed on my merits and not on a gimmick and I think most reality television is humiliating. Those casting directors call me all the time and I don't hook them up. Maybe if I designed the reality show. Maybe.

When I first moved to California (sorta, I was kinda couch-surfing and still considering Vegas at the time), I got a job at Barnes & Noble. I liked books. I liked people who liked books. I liked working there. I had an unpaid student loan for an expensive education that perhaps should have been able to get me something better, something good enough to pay my student loan off anyway, but I still wanted to work. Only Blue Blood magazine in print was distributed in book stores and there were people there who had sold it. And some people were really really weird at me about it. Like we were all making around $6 an hour, but they felt like I was a bigger loser than they were because, in addition to working low-end retail just like them, I had also put out an internationally distributed, critically acclaimed, glossy, color magazine.

Just the barest taste of that sort of thing I've had to deal with makes me truly believe that the people on Celebrity Rehab genuinely have way worse problems than I do.

Not that I wouldn't like a giant cash infusion. Hence the heist plans. Do you want to be the wheel man? I'm not sure any of us is a good enough driver.

i can drive.. lots of driving schools under my belt....

plus i have watched oceans 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19......

i need some booze

[Rockwulf]

I already said "fuck the haters." I don't know how much simpler than 4 syllables I can make it.

As for wheel man, I'm in. I haven't driven a car in more than a year but it's like riding a bicycle. Actually that's a horrible example cause after riding a motorcycle for a while you jump on a bike and you look like a palsyed chimp. But yeah I'm a bitchin' driver.

That's not true! I just remembered that I drove my girlfriend's car home when she got shit-hammered at her birthday brunch in October! Heist on!

[One Eyed Cat]

Just book a few name shows and you already get that shit. I've lost coin on some zero draw freeloader fucks and I don't see myself as anyone in particular. I can make it back with one party but the principle remains ... Like I said: Billion or bust. It will get worse. I keep going just to keep going. Do have some name friends though too. They have been clever and frugal enough to beat the curve. None are millionaires (I don't think anyways, don't ask questions like that). All get the same silly shit. None are junkies though either thankfully. We buried those folks already.

OEC