Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: CELEBRITY DRUG SHOCK NEWS! AGAIN.

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  • Tamara,

    I don't see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission. I've been staying right away from coverage of all this.

    New Zealand • Since Oct 2010 • 115 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Tamara,

    I don’t see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission.

    I wasn't saying it was good or right.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Phil fryer,

    I'm more with Bill Hicks on this issue,but could be there wednite !

    Laingholm • Since Mar 2011 • 34 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Tamara,

    I don't see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission.

    That's not what Russell was saying. But hell, if a washed-up pop star with a drug problem (and allegedly leaving her estate owing millions of dollars in advances) could find a way to peg out more calculated to send the media panty-sniffers into a frenzy, I can't imagine it.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    waiting to exhale...
    Whitney Houston's death was sad, if not unpredictable or unexpected, but I fail to see how it justified the entire front page of The Press World Section and at least another page since...
    It is as if the media having, undoubtedly, added to the pressures in her unravelling life have gone into overkill for their last feeding frenzy...
    Not pretty, not inspiring, just lamentable all round...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    I can't find the link again, but there was a delightfully pompous piece in The Age decrying how awful people are on the internet. Maybe there's a point there, but when the Australian media seem obsessed with concern trolling drunken football players and bed-hopping soap actors? (Surprise! adolescents with too much money, no discernible boundaries and bugger all adult supervision may not act very well while in a state of self-induced chemical poisoning.. Sticking a camera up their twats probably not very helpful.)

    Right message, perhaps, but not really the most credible of pulpits.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    I was in a house (not mine) where CNN was playing in the background. They ran wall to wall Whitney for the best part of three hours (at which time our host turned the TV off).

    After Piers Morgan had finished equating Whitney, more or less, with The Beatles, Spector, Holland-Dozier-Holland and Sinatra, they seemed able to find a steady stream of talking heads to waffle endlessly supporting this equation, pausing only to say how much they loved her.

    None of whom, of course, had been available to Whitney the night before when she was drowning in her bath or in the years before.

    The death of a junkie is always tragic but the inevitable rush to bathe in and bleed the passing by the media when said junkie is famous (and in this case was blessed with a fabulous voice) always accentuates the awfulness of such human waste.

    But they always do, and Sony's now infamous and 'accidental' (read: they got caught - they did the same with Jacko but got away with it) raising of the price of her music the day after, merely underlines the true value the media corporations intend to extract from her after her death.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    One of the smartest investigations of the celebrity phenomenon is Graeme Turner's Understanding Celebrity (Sage, 2004). Graeme, who is at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the Univ of Queensland, is updating his book currently as Understanding Celebrity Revisited

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Bell, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    Hi Craig - not sure if you're planning on it, but it would be great to see you at the taping. I've been meaning to make contact with you for a while. I'll introduce you to Chris too - he's a nice guy.... for an alcoholic.

    Wellington, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 175 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe,

    Sometimes, people are just getting high and having fun; what exactly are you treating there?

    A fine way to pass the time. Treatment is only needed when it turns from getting high and having fun to getting high to be able to do everyday life. Stopping is not the core; but staying stopped is, and having the ability to choose that option depends on whether a person's biochemistry allows them to do so. I'll watch the Kennedy with interest.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    None of whom, of course, had been available to Whitney the night before when she was drowning in her bath or in the years before.

    Yes. Rancid people.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler,

    I read a piece linked on my fb wall today (searching …) available here that mentioned JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President. Had not previously heard that.

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,

    LSD -- was he in with the Tim Leary lot?

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,

    That said LSD. Ecstasy didn't become widely used until the 80's.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    That said LSD.

    So it did.

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Hebe,

    what a long strange trip...

    LSD – was he in with the Tim Leary lot?

    well he was 'in' with Mary Pinchot/Meyer who was in with all sorts of people including the Kennedys, CIA head honchos, and Leary amongst others. she was assassinated in Washington in 1964.

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Ross Bell,

    I’ll introduce you to Chris too – he’s a nice guy…. for an alcoholic.

    I'm faintly surprised any member of the Kennedy family is at all functional. I had enough of a time getting sober and staying there, without being part of an extended family that's been soaking in the tabloid goo for the better part of eight decades. Where does your head end up when it seems every private unhappiness and act of squalour in the clan eventually ends up being dished up for public consumption?

    I've read a lot more about his Uncle John's *cough* not exactly chivalrous conduct with women not his wife than the domestic policy of his Administration. YMMV, but that strikes me as a sad and unhealthy state of affairs.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    I read somewhere, probably a Vanity Fair or similar, that the Kennedys could muster up a football team each of recoveries and non-recoveries at family gatherings.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Hebe,

    And Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem. Having Christopher Hitchens on the masthead was pretty impressive window-dressing for a magazine whose stock in trade is wallowing in human misery and degradation while pretending to be awfully concerned about it all. Feh… For all his sins, at least Rupert Murdoch is an upfront scumbag. If shit sells he'll cheerfully and shamelessly cover the Earth in booby-shaped septic tanks.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • chris,

    Whitney Spears died? damn, I loved that show.

    Hopefully not too tangentially..

    This article mentions a movement to ban smoking outside bars. 'One drug town' fundamentalism does little to reflect the comparative harmfulness of alcohol. Less punters in or around the bars is economically regressive, it doesn't adequately reflect the predilections of our society and it undermines the fostering of inclusive integrated community. Safety is in numbers. Legislators deny and marginalize social demographics instead of prioritizing the reintegration of users and restoration of social fabric.

    When legislators unreasonably oppose widespread social customs, a community is unrepresented and any education administered at the behest of legislators is skeptically regarded as lacking legitimacy by portions of society with the greatest needs.

    As citizens plonked at the feet of the God, marginalized for predilections, our identity remains uncertain, we are tempered to entreat because there is no response when we politely ask - "Do you mind if I smoke here?"

    Mawkland • Since Jan 2010 • 1302 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    nd Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem. Having Christopher Hitchens on the masthead was pretty impressive window-dressing for a magazine whose stock in trade is wallowing in human misery and degradation while pretending to be awfully concerned about it all.

    Huh? Really? Vanity Fair? Are you quite sure about that? Because that description doesn’t make any sense to at all to me.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Sigmundz,

    Didn't the msm recently run wall-to-wall coverage when Steve Jobs tragically succumbed to his cancer?

    Houston died at 48 and Jobs at 56. Way too young. Perhaps this is what creates the huge interest which in turn drives the coverage.

    Hong Kong • Since Feb 2012 • 2 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,

    I read a piece linked on my fb wall today (searching …) available here that mentioned JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President. Had not previously heard that.

    It appears to be the case. Leary alluded to it more than once.

    But JFK pretty much rattled when he walked -- painkillers (for his wartime back injury), sedatives, amphetamines, etc. All properly prescribed, naturally.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    And Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem.

    You've lost me. Vanity fair is variable in the "quality" of its subjects -- but it's always a well-written and slick piece of work. Rupe is the problem; or perhaps its the people who buy his products that are the problem.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,

    JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President

    Do you have a theory about who killed Kennedy?
    No.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

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