Bret Easton Ellis on Charlie Sheen.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-12/bret-easton-ellis-how-charlie-sheen-is-giving-us-what-we-want/

What's fascinating about Ellis' article is his use of the word "Empire" to describe earnest, there-are-rules Mainstream Show Business.  Also, it deserves mention that Ellis is trying overhard to project a sort of Patrick Bateman-meets-Howard Beale status onto Sheen's recent hubris.

A friend of mine and I were driving out to Santa Monica the other day and the topic of Charlie Sheen came up--specifically what I refer to as Sheen's upcoming Spoken Rant tour (the opportunity to pay at least $35 to see and hear the kind of stuff that Charlie has given America on radio, TV and the Internet).

He said that, yes, people will go see him at first.

And then, he implied that it will be a phenomenon that won't last.

I have no reason to disagree with my friend's assessment.

London GUARDIAN: publicist and shrink debate over the continuing Charlie Sheen puablic debacle.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/13/charlie-sheen-media-mental-health

You're not likely to see this kind of discussion in American media.  Instead, most of its practitioners
think of Charlie Sheen in terms of  big TV ratings and magazine/website audience "gets"--and this will continue for the duration of Charlie's spoken-rant tour and lawsuit over the likely end of TWO AND A HALF MEN (really likely for all cast and crew besides him).

Lawrence Grobel's 1990 interview with Charlie Sheen in the old MOVIELINE magazine.

http://www.movieline.com/1990/08/charlie-sheen-guns-n-neuroses.php

Fascinating and rather sad reading--and quite prescient of the quagmire that Charlie's currently living out in his mid-40s.

New poem: SYMPATHY FOR CHARLIE SHEEN'S DEVILS

SYMPATHY FOR CHARLIE SHEEN'S DEVILS


Please allow him to introduce himself.
He's a man with wealth and no taste.

He destroye hotel rooms,

frightens women

and leaves New York in haste.


Hope you guessed his name.

Amusing you on a sitcom

is the nature of his game.



He earns a lot for not acting.

More money than what's paid to others.

When he makes a big big mess,

he's bailed out by CBS and Warner Brothers.


Hope you guessed his name.

Employing publicists to tell "official" stories

is the nature of his game.


There will be

no HOT SHOTS THREE.

Just more hookers, anger and psychic pains.

If he feels the need to stretch his talent,

he'll make another ad for Hanes.




Hope you guessed his name.

Keep watching TWO AND A HALF MEN every week

so he can continue playing his long-running game.