Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Opinion: Radio Unprepared for Sheen's Meltdown

From Brian Lowery, Foxsports.com
Nobody needs to hold any bake sales for the “Two and a Half Men” star, who before the implosion earned well over $1 million an episode for the CBS sitcom. Still, he chose an unlikely medium to unleash his bizarre tirades against the producers of his show — a medium painfully ill-equipped, as it turned out, to deal with a fast-moving story outside its sweet spot in a newsy way.
Sheen began his peculiar media tour on Dan Patrick’s radio show (which is simulcast on FOX Sports), where he talked as much about baseball as his sobriety. The actor followed that up with Alex Jones — a syndicated and online host whose conspiracy theories include an active role in the 9/11 Truth Movement, of which Sheen is also an advocate. Finally, the actor closed the week by calling “The Loose Cannons” on FOX Sports Radio’s Los Angeles flagship KLAC-AM (570), where co-host Pat O’Brien gently suckled the pampered star like a newborn colt.
Throughout Sheen’s stream-of-consciousness rants, none of these hosts ever really pressed him regarding his eccentric behavior, which has included trashing a New York hotel room, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor after being charged with assaulting his wife and being hospitalized with abdominal pains in January after a party the website TMZ described as involving “a briefcase full of cocaine.” Nor was he asked about his use of what the Anti-Defamation League saw as an anti-Semitic inference in trashing his show's producer, Chuck Lorre.
The bottom line is, despite his “They picked a fight with the wrong guy” bravado, Sheen has managed to achieve the nearly impossible — going from coddled, protected star to nearly radioactive in Hollywood. Sure, there will be jobs for him, but if “Men” completely fizzles out because of his tantrums — costing the network and studio millions, not to mention the rest of the cast and crew their jobs — it’s likely goodbye, top-rated network sitcom; hello, “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew.”

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