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Celebrity Addicts?
Our goal is not to blame or berate, but rather to explain. Bizarre, inconsiderate, abusive, unethical and criminal conduct is often driven by alcohol or other drug addiction. When the addiction drives the behaviors, the addiction must be arrested before the behaviors have any chance of improving. Our goal is to be able to identify addiction in its early formative stages so that we can intervene and prevent tragedy, rather than react to it. Our works are totally focused on this goal.
We are also working to eliminate the stigma of alcoholism, so that we will no longer hesitate to identify it. Then, perhaps, it will be considered defamation to not assume alcoholism when the behaviors so indicate.
Doug Thorburn
Following is a list of celebrities, alive or deceased, who display symptoms of alcohol or other drug addiction and who have admitted to addiction at one time or another, or for whom alcoholism is so obvious that I would welcome a lawsuit for defamation. Note: many of these celebrities are either in recovery or, from time to time, try sobriety. Note also: misbehaviors vary from the relatively innocuous to grotesque. This is the nature of alcoholism. It is also in its nature to drive over-achievement, accounting for what I consider to be the grand paradox of alcoholism: the highly functional, over-achieving addict.
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Courtney
Love
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James
Brown
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Matthew
Perry
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Bruce
Willis
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Don
Johnson
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Henri
Paul
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Brad
Renfro
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Roger
Ebert
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Steven
Tyler
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Jack
Nicholson
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Doo Lynn
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George
Clooney
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Nick
Nolte
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Phil
Spector
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Aaron
Sorkin
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Ja Rule
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Bill
Moyers Jr.
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Warren
Zevon
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Charlie
Sheen
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Martin
Sheen
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Christian
Slater
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Keanu
Reeves
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Yasmine
Bleeth
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Tim Allen
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Gene
Anthony Ray
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George
Watson
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Paula
Poundstone
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Kerry
Collins
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John
Spencer
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Murray
Jordan
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Robert
Downey, Jr.
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Samuel L.
Jackson
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O.J.
Simpson
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Ginger
Lynn Allen
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Fred
Hirsch
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Ben
Affleck
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A.J.
Maclean
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Robert
Blake
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Steve
Earle
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Rush
Limbaugh
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Whitney
Houston
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Bobby
Brown
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Ray
Charles
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Tommy Lee
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Marty
Stuart
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Eric
Douglas
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David
Hasselhoff
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Shannen
Doherty
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Carolyn
Bessette
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Ted
Kennedy
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James
Hetfield
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Chris
Webber
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Greg "Cadillac" Anderson
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Jean-Claude
Van Damme
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Harry Christopher "Skip" Caray, Jr.
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Anthony
Michael Hall
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Oksana
Baiul
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Roosevelt
Potts
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Johnny
Depp
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Michael
Jackson
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James
Gandolfini
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Nicole
Richie
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Tom
Sizemore
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Larry
Hagman
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Michael
Lohan
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Ozzy
Osbourne
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Linda
Lovelace
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Lindsay
Lovelace
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Austin
Wiggin
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Danny
Bonaduce
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Tawny
Kitaen Finley
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Ken
Daneyko
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Ken Wahl
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Mary J.
Blige
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John Daly
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Chuck
Negron
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Don
Simpson
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Michael
Kennedy
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Ted
Turner
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Clayton
Holmes
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Demi
Moore
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Dennis
Quaid
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Jamie Lee
Curtis
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Oliver
Stone
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Jason
Robards
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Anthony
Hopkins
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George C.
Scott
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"Mookie" Blaylock
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Jim Brown
(NFL)
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John
Denver
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Juliette
Lewis
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Kiefer
Sutherland
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Robert
Pastorelli
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Jeremy
London
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Mel
Gibson
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Cameron
Douglas
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Glen
Campbell
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Yancy
Butler
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Wynonna
Judd
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Kim
Delaney
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Darryl
Strawberry
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Kelly
McGillis
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Dominique
Simpson
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Jack
Osbourne
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Kelly
Osbourne
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Dina
Lohan
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John
Larroquette
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Elizabeth
Taylor
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George W.
Bush
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Tonya
Harding
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Billy Bob
Thornton
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Michael
Skakel
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Hugo
Chavez
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Kim Jong Il
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Saddam
Hussein
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Yasser
Arafat
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Jimmy
Swaggart
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Jim Bakker
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Mark
Hughes
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Rex
DeGeorge
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The following list is one of celebrities or other public persons who, at one time or another, have displayed behavioral indications of alcoholism but for whom poor behaviors, to the best of my knowledge, have not been linked to heavy use of alcohol or other drugs and who have not admitted to having the disease of alcoholism. They have engaged in at least periodic misbehaviors because they are true idiots or fundamentally bad people, or because they have the disease of alcoholism, which would explain the behaviors. We give them the benefit of the doubt by assuming alcoholism, but that might be considered defamation of character in today's society.
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Rod
Ansell
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Patrick
Swayze
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Fabian
Basabe
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Barbara
Bush (dtr)
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Jenna
Bush
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Robert
Solomon
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Paris
Hilton
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Mike
Tyson
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Sharon
Stone
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Ann Coulter
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Halle
Berry
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James
DeBello
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Britney
Spears
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Marlon
Brando
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Debra
Lafave
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Patrick
Weld
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Jay
Overbye
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Charlize
Theron
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Joey
Buttafuoco
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Alec
Baldwin
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Barry
Minkow
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Bill
Clinton
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Anthony
Owens
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Steve
Austin
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David
Soul
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Allen
Iverson
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Robert
Mugabe
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Arthur
Evans
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James
Carradine
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L. Dennis
Kozlowski
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John S.
Carroll
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John
Stamos
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Enza
Sambataro
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E.G. "Bud" Shuster
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Carolyn
Skelly
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Marco
Pantani
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Janet
Reno
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Al
Sharpton
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Marie
Elise West
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Russell
Crowe
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Steve
Irwin
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Brian
Griese
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Ron
Perelman
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Patricia
Duff
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Linda
Wachner
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Scott Peterson
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Erin
Brockovich
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Louis
Farrakhan
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