Some actors and performers play a part in real life, and sometimes they not only play a bad guy ‘on TV’ but in reality too…
By Egon E. Mosum
Actors and other performers may enact many roles, many parts.
Some actors are known for playing mobsters, serial killers, and other evil doers. They are acting, they are performing; they are glorified puppets.
However, actors and performers play a part in real life, and sometimes they not only play a bad guy ‘on TV’ but in reality.
In the past few days from the time I am writing this article, we have seen hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs get a fifty-month sentence for two charges of ‘transportation to engage in prostitution.’
That is the most recent incident of a celebrity going to spend some poor quality time in a gated community with excellent security but poor amenities.
But there have been many prior instances where performers off stage, wound up wearing a wardrobe of orange jumpsuits or the equivalent, and that is what we shall explore in this article.
The tradition of celebrities committing crimes and winding up in jail is an old one.
Robert Mitchum, well known actor of the forties and fifties, who played a variety of low-life characters in his career, once did sixty days in jail for a marijuana charge.[1]
Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. spent some time behind iron bars for his misdeeds.
In 1997 he spent six months in Los Angeles County Jail for drug related offenses.
Now, while Downey might be able to learn his lines, he didn’t learn his lesson, and in 2000, wound up with a three year sentence of imprisonment at the California state prison in Corcoran.[2]
It appears that celebrities and illicit substances are old pals, and it seems that the marriage of the two often windup celebrating a ‘honeymoon’ in a state or federal correctional facility.
Tim Allen who starred in Home Improvement and Last Man Standing, in 1979 found a home in a cell that needed much improvement and wound up standing behind bars for twenty-eight months in Sandstone Federal Correctional Institution.
It seems our beloved thespian, according to CBS News, was also a major drug dealer, and he wasn’t acting.[3]
Tina Turner’s former husband Ike, when he wasn’t rolling down the river, was snorting cocaine, and because of that he got to spend seventeen months in jail in 1989. He didn’t exactly give up his bad ways, because in 2008, he died of a cocaine overdose.[4]
One is reminded of the quip of Robin Williams, ‘Cocaine is God’s way of saying you’re making too much money.’
Big time (and big fat) famous producer Harvey Weinstein didn’t conduct himself with sufficient decorum when it came to the female sex, and wound up with a twenty-three year sentence for sexual assault.
Danny Masterson, an actor on ‘That 70s Show’ was also the kind of guy who didn’t understand it when a woman just said no, and he was convicted of two rape charges, getting himself government housing for twenty-three years in 2023.
It is unlikely that he will engage in rough sex with women at the facility in which he is staying.
Rhythm and Blues magnate R. Kelly is another gentleman who was convicted of multiple sex abuse charges, including child trafficking. He will be composing his tunes in prison for simultaneous twenty- and thirty-year sentences.[5]
These examples highlight the potential for abuse when people are overpaid for the little or next to nothing that they really do, are idolized by fans, surrounded by paparazzi and believing the bs produced by their publicity agents.
They feel themselves to be above the law, above the people they exploit sexually or deal drugs to. They are Hollywood. They are celebrities.
They are a bunch of entitled sickos that sooner or later will run out of luck, run out of time, and run into the law.
In one sense, they are Frankenstein’s monsters created by the electricity of fandom.
In a 2021 article by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, it was reported ‘people who commit sexual abuse may also feel entitled to harass a victim because of their celebrity status, or do it as a self-serving way to feel strong when overpowering the victim. They may also feel confident that they can get away with harassing someone as a result of their social status, and feel more empowered committing the crime.’
J.L. Heinze in that article stated ‘Like all of us, celebrities have two lives — a public life and a private life...we have no idea of the lives they lead in private. We don’t know about their inner thoughts, their intimate personalities, their traumas, or the way they treat people when the camera isn’t rolling.’[6]
If we wish to consider that politicians are celebrities, the last few years have shown us that our chosen representatives can choose to commit sexual crimes too.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
You may have a wife, a daughter, a sister, or other female relative or friend.
Many of them have the potential to be victims of sexual crimes; some of them may be partial to the ingestion of certain substances which aren’t exactly good for their health.
Where there are those seeking the approval and attention of famous people, where are those who are seeking the good times of coke and smoke and those who are quick with a joke, there will be victims.
Where there are those whose ego has been artificially inflated by the press, by publicity, by financial success, and adoring fans (or voters), there are potential perpetrators of crimes.
Maybe it’s time that all of us stopped the worship of celebrities, of the famous, the rich, and the entitled narcissists that they often become, and realize that the man behind the curtain is often just a naked fool with a spoonful of medicine up his nose.
The real celebrities worth caring about are the cops, the firemen, the doctors, the lawyers (at least some of them) and the military guys and girls who deserve to be appreciated, and are trying to be the best they can be, but not by dealing drugs or committing sex crimes upon the innocent.
Remember, without fans, without voters, these celebrities are hollowed out nobodies. We give them their status, and we should demand that they give us their best, and not view us as merely customers or persons to be exploited.
[1] Actor Robert Mitchum is released after serving time for marijuana possession History.com https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/march-30/actor-robert-mitchum-is-released-after-serving-time-for-marijuana-possession
[2] Robert Downey Jr. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Downey_Jr.
[3] Tim Allen Biography 11/16/23 https://www.biography.com/actors/a45860872/tim-allen
[4] 15 Famous Cocaine Addicts 8/9/24 Project Know https://projectknow.com/blog/15-famous-cocaine-addicts-and-why-they-used/
[5] Notable Celebrities Who Have Been Accused or Convicted of Sexual Misconduct Weigand, 10/14/24 Channel 10 News https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2024/10/14/notable-celebrities-who-have-been-accused-or-convicted-of-sexual-misconduct/
[6] 11 Thing to Remember When a Celebrity Commits Assault JL Heinze 9/27/21 NSVRC https://www.nsvrc.org/blogs/11-things-to-remember-when-a-celebrity-commits-sexual-assault