Still wondering just what landed Matthew Perry in rehab last month?
Us Weekly points the finger at a dangerous cocktail of methadone, speed, alcohol and Vicodin, the same drug that has caused problems for Melanie Griffith, Michael Jackson, Foxy Brown and scads of other celebs.
"Everyone who makes it starts popping them," Courtney Love, who blamed Vicodin for her own stint in rehab, tells the magazine. "It's the new LSD -- Lead Singer's Drug. I know three lead singers doing Vicodin right now."
And perhaps one rapper. Eminem -- who has a Vicodin pill tattooed on his shoulder, has rapped lovingly about the drug in his music and features it on the cover of one of his CDs -- is also falling victim to the painkiller's effects.
"I told him that if he didn't stop taking those pills, his stomach would get all torn up," a friend of Eminem's tells the magazine. "Em told me he was pissing and shitting blood."
Yikes. Does his mother know about this?
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Busting out on time
"As you get older, there's a point where you quickly become a caricature of yourself. I have to be careful to get out before I become the grotesque caricature of a hatchet-faced woman with big knockers."
-- Jamie Lee Curtis on growing old in the biz and staying abreast of her fears, in More.
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I see nothing ...
Those of you who were heartbroken that that Chuck Barris biopic starring Johnny Depp didn't work out may find comfort in this: a biopic of "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane starring Greg Kinnear.
Sure, the Barris flick would have had spying and gonging and general bizarreness. But the Crane flick will have a few even tastier elements: sleaze, porn and ... murder.
According to Variety, the film, currently being developed by screenwriting newbie Mike Gerbosi and "The People vs. Larry Flynt" veterans Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, will focus on Crane's life after he played the wily Col. Hogan (and well after he was a regular on "The Donna Reed Show").
The actor, you may recall, spiraled into an obsession with homemade porn after he hooked up with video technician Johnny Carpenter.
Crane "wound up in this spiral of strip clubs, decadence and immorality," Karaszewski told Variety.
In 1978, Crane was found murdered in a motel room, his head beaten in with a camera tripod and a video cable tied around his neck, surrounded by more than 50 homemade porn flicks. Carpenter was charged with his murder, but was ultimately acquitted.
"We became fascinated by the story," said Karaszewski.
Really, as sleazy life stories go, it's about as good as it gets.
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In case you wondered ...
"I'm a big fan of sex."
-- Chris Isaak
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To gov or not to gov
Will he or won't he?
Arnold Schwarzenegger can't seem to make up his mind about whether he really intends to run for governor of California.
Earlier this week, his publicist, Jill Eisenstadt, told the Los Angeles Times that he'd definitely terminated his political plans. "If there were a time in the future when he did not have commitments and felt he could do more good for the country in an official capacity, he would make a determination to run at that time," said Eisenstadt. "At this time he can't and he's not."
Then, the next day, Eisenstadt took it back, saying Schwarzenegger may still run, but that he won't make a final decision for a couple of months.
I know, I know ... you can hardly wait.
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Juicy bits
Whether Whitney Houston is clean or not only she can say. But as of this week, her record in Hawaii has apparently been scrubbed spotless. According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the drug possession charges filed against Houston last year after pot was found in her purse at a Hawaiian airport have been dismissed. The diva paid a batch of fines and was due to go through a drug-abuse treatment program, but the judge determined that it wasn't necessary. Aloha, consequences ...
If you're wondering what it is between Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin, the answer, it seems, is ... teddy bears. The buddies apparently spent a recent evening together watching "Toy Story 2" at a posh London hotel surrounded by stuffed animals. "It was quite surreal -- one of the world's biggest megastars and a fading actor sitting on a bed watching a cartoon surrounded by cuddly toys," a hotel worker told the U.K. Sun. "There didn't seem to be anything sinister in it, but you'd have thought they had something better to do." At least they weren't home alone.
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