Celebrity rehab

Celebrity Rehab

Charlie Sheen and El DeBarge are the latest celebs to make headlines for going to rehab. Read about others who have struggled with addiction in all its forms and see what they said about their struggles. Do you have a loved one struggling with drugs or alcohol? Find a rehabilitation center near you.

Charlie Sheen

"I said stay off the crack, and I still think that's pretty good advice, unless you can manage it socially. If you can manage it socially, then go for it, but not a lot of people can, you know?"

Lindsay Lohan

"I tried to mask my problems with alcohol, cocaine and mind-altering substances. Now I'm in a place where I don't need to use anything and I can feel emotions because I choose to."

El DeBarge  

"I hate to disappoint my fans, but it is necessary for me to take the time to work on me so that I may continue to share my music and my story with everyone. I thank everyone in advance for their prayers and well wishes and hope that you will respect my privacy during this time."

Britney Spears

"There's the honeymoon phase at first. Everything is fabulous: 'Look at the wonderful trips she gets to go on; look at the wonderful people she's meeting,' then there's the ugly side of things that turns, and we weren't ready for that, either."

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

"I just don't want to be that f****** a******* sitting in the pub and someone turns around and says, 'See him there at the end of the bar. He could have made a f****** fortune, but he went over to Hollywood and he just f****** p****d it up against the wall."

Robert Downey Jr.

"More than anything I have this sense that I'm a veteran of a war that is difficult to discuss with people who haven't been there."

Amy Winehouse

"I'm either a really good drunk or I'm an out-and-out s**t, horrible, violent, abusive, emotional drunk. I'll beat up Blake when I'm drunk. I don't think I have ever bruised him, but I do have my way."

Kelly Osbourne

"I don't have any shadow of a doubt that addiction is a disease. It's in your genes. The only people in my family who don't have that gene are my mum and my sister Amy."

Miguel Cabrera

"Do you know who I am? You don't know anything about my problems."

Courtney Love

"I would just like to thank the court for allowing me these 90 days. ... [It] helped me deal with a very gnarly drug problem, which is behind me. ... I've just been playing guitar and taking care of my daughter. I want to [take this opportunity] to let the community know I'm doing great. ... I've been really inspired and have remained inspired."

Tiger Woods

"But still, I know I have bitterly disappointed all of you. I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did. I am embarrassed that I have put you in this position. For all that I have done, I am so sorry."

Daniel Baldwin

"I'm a straight-up cocaine addict. I don't really drink very much, although I have abused alcohol in the past. And I don't use any other drugs. I don't take pills. I don't do anything. I'm a … diehard coke head."

Whitney Houston

"First of all, let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let's get that straight. OK? We don't do crack. We don't do that. Crack is whack."

Mel Gibson

"After drinking alcohol on Thursday night, I did a number of things that were very wrong and for which I am ashamed. I drove a car when I should not have, and was stopped by the L.A. County sheriffs. The arresting officer was just doing his job, and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person. I acted like a person completely out of control…"

Mackenzie Phillips

"Mackenzie deserves great credit for seizing the opportunity she was given to get clean and prove she was worthy of the dismissal of her case."

Tara Reid

"Tara Reid has checked herself into Promises Treatment Center. We appreciate your respect to her and her family's privacy at this time."

My Parisian Love Never Developed

From Paris with Love

James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the personal aide to U.S. Ambassador in France. Despite being good at his job, Reece dreams of becoming a secret agent. One day James finally gets the break he is hoping for when his boss orders him to drive an American agent, Charlie Wax (John Travolta), around the city. If Reece can successfully pull this task off, not to mention survive Wax’s shoot first ask questions later style, he will become a true agent. Unfortunately for Reece, Wax’s unorthodox methods may cause him to rethink the whole secret agent entirely. As the two men travel around Paris dismantling a drug ring, they stumble upon a terrorist plot that may just cost James Reece everything he holds dear. That is, of course, if Charlie Wax does not kill him first.

On the surface From Paris with Love had all the makings of a great “guilty pleasure” action picture. First you have Luc Besson, the man behind action cinema classics such as La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional, overseeing the production as producer. Add director Pierre Morel whose last film, Taken, was my top guilty pleasure picture of 2009. Finally, sprinkle in a little over-the-top John Travolta and you have yourself a rather tasty dish.

Sadly, and somewhat surprisingly, the ingredients never melt into a satisfying meal. The question then becomes who is to blame? The answer to which is not quite as simple. Luc Besson and Pierre Morel have proven, with their work on District 13, they can offer up action packed junk food that will fill you for several hours. The action in From Paris with Love, though uninventive at times, pretty much delivers fights and explosions you expect it to. The one of the good things about Morel’s movies is that he takes time to actually show the hand-to-hand combat. Instead of opting for fast paced cut scenes like many directors working today.

If you eliminate Besson and Morel, then the axe would fall on John Travolta but even picking on him is too easy. Sure Travolta is not at that outrageous, but entertaining, level that he was in John Woo’s flicks, Face Off and Broken Arrow; but I will say that Travolta did not have much to work here to begin with. I think both Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers are victims of Adi Hasak’s awfully dull screenplay. I understand that you do not go into this type of film expecting an outstanding plot. Majority of the time you merely hope for at least a decent tale to justify all the butt-kicking. Unfortunately Hasak blunders the one element that is basic to all action comedies, and buddy flicks in general, which is to figure out who is the straight man and who is the comic relief.

If you look at films like Beverly Hills Cop, The French Connection, Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, District 13, etc. they all have various degrees of this. One partner will always be slightly more wisecracking than the other. One partner is more of a “badass” than the other and so forth. The annoying thing about From Paris with Love is that Charlie Wax often tries to be everything rolled into one. Adi Hasak spent so much time ensuring that Charlie Wax has all the best lines that he never really develops the character of James Reece properly. Reece goes from straight arrow at the beginning to bumbling sidekick for the bulk of the movie. By time Reece reaches the point where he must make a crucial decision, you have lost interest in both Reece and the film as a whole.

Speaking of Reece’s decision towards the end, this is a perfect example of a good plot device wasted. While I liked idea of the twist, in theory, it ultimately falls flat as there is nothing in the story that sustains it. Things are revealed then forgotten about for another twenty minutes. In order for the climax to have any resonance whatsoever Hasak needed to build up certain characters far more than what we are given. Although this might be asking for too much from a film that cannot even get the basic components of a buddy action film right.