Hollywood Hellraisers!

Two and a Half Men’s Charlie Sheen was mere inches away from being locked up after his Christmas Day spat with Brooke Mueller, and so we took a look back at  the exploits of some of Hollywood’s naughtiest A-listers

Even so, everyone loves a celebrity scandal, especially those involving the law and lucky for the tabloids, hardly a week goes by without a Hollywood A-lister giving them something to drool over.

With fame definitely comes great responsibility and for some celebs the lures of an anarchic lifestyle is just too much temptation.

A sip of Jack Daniels here, a drab of heroin there, and soon enough you’ve got yourself a nasty habit.

Proving that they are human after all (well most of them) we take a look at some of the horrible histories of some of Hollywood’s Hellraisers.

We might as well start with man of the moment – Carlos Irwin Estévez.  Drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, domestic assault – Charlie’s done it all.

Here’s his timeline of terror:

In 1990 he accidentally shot his fiancée Kelly Preston in the arm – the relationship didn’t last (!)

In 1995 when Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss was brought in front of the judge, Chaz was revealed from her little black book as one of her many celebrity clients.

Charlie reportedly shelled out more than $50,000 over a two-year period on Fleiss’ hookers but when asked about the scandal he simply said: “I love sex and I can afford it.”

During the 90s Charlie was also associated with porn actresses Ginger Lynn and Heather Hunter.

In 1998 Charlie accidentally overdosed on cocaine.  Obviously he survived and was sent to rehab.

In 2005 Charlie’s second wife, actress Denise Richards, filed for divorce after three years of marriage accusing Sheen of drug and alcohol abuse and threatening her with violence.  They then enjoyed a dirty custody battle over their two children Sam and Lola but the pair have now sorted out their differences. Awww.

He’s even waded in on the 9/11 conspiracies saying that the collapse of the World Trade Centre looked like a controlled demolition.  He’s even appealed to Barack Obama to set up a new investigation into the atrocity.

But let’s bring it back to the present now.  If you’ve been following our ‘Sheen Watch’ in our Comedy News section you’ll know that Charlie spent Christmas Day 2009 behind bars in Aspen, Colorado after allegedly assaulting his latest wife Brooke Mueller.

In February assault charges were brought against Sheen but to curry favour with the judge both Charlie and Brooke decided to check themselves into rehab, with Charlie even halting production on season 7 of Two and a Half Men for a fortnight to do so.

One of Hollywood’s greatest actors, Robert Downey Jr. has had his fair share of problems.

Drugs were the vice of this Brat Packer and in the late nineties Robert frequently found him self on the wrong side of the law under drugs related charges.

Downey entered drug rehabilitation programs which always ended unsuccessfully.

In 1996 he was caught speeding down Sunset Boulevard in possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded .357-calibre Magnum handgun and rightly arrested.  That earned Downey three years of probation and mandatory drugs testing.

After failing to turn up at a number of tests he told a judge in 1999 that he had been addicted to drugs since the age of eight after been given them by his addict father and was quoted saying “It’s like I have a loaded gun in my mouth and my finger’s on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gunmetal.”

Downey was sentenced to three years at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison after repeatedly missing the tests.

He spent nearly a year at the facility until a judge deemed his ‘collective time in incarceration facilities’ qualified him for early release (oh and the $5000 bail…).

After his time behind bars Downey joined the flagging Ally McBeal, initially helping its ratings but in 2001 the creators wrote him out after he was found wandering the streets under the influence of drugs and he soon found himself in rehab once more, this time managing to avoid a jail term.

But thankfully his career took off again and since 2007 he has been delighting audiences with his portrayals of Aussie method actor Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder, Sherlock Holmes and Tony Stark aka Iron Man.

There is light at the end of tunnel.  Hurrah!

Flying the flag for the female trouble makers is Mean Girls’ Lindsay Lohan.

Around the mid ‘noughties’ cracks began to appear when Lindsay would turn up on set tired and exhausted after apparent partying all night long.

It was made public that Lindsay was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 2006 and in 2007 she checked herself into rehab.

Later that year she was arrested for DUI after she lost control of her car and running it up a curb. Police also found a ‘usable’ amount of cocaine in her possession and off she toddled to rehab again.

On form once again two months later she was again arrested for DUI, and yes she had coke on her – at least mix it up a little Linz!  She was booked on a felony charge of possession of cocaine and misdemeanour charges of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.

After a third stint in rehab, Lohan pleaded guilty to cocaine use and driving under the influence in August 2007 and was sentenced to one day imprisonment and 10 days community service. She ended up serving only 84 minutes of her sentence behind bars.  Man these Hollywood sentences are harsh…

Lindsay is still on probation and has to wear a sexy SCRAM alcohol-monitoring bracelet on her ankle.  She recently asked Chanel to bling up for her on Twitter – they didn’t respond.

After a brief turn as a lesbian with DJ Samantha Ronson, Lohan has again made tabloid headlines after failing to appear at her DUI report hearing because her passport got ‘stolen’ whilst living it up at the Cannes Film Festival.

A warrant went out for her arrest but it was withdrawn after her lawyers threw some money someone’s way.

Lo and behold though, in July 2010, Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail for failing to attend her alcohol education classes.  It probably didn’t do her any favours having ‘f**k you’ written on her fingernails in court…yet she was released to rehab after just 13 days in the clink.

Once a party girl always a party girl – we’re sure there’s more to come from this little hellraiser.

Rolling Stone once said he was “one of Hollywood’s most notorious drug addicts” – here are some of the exploits of one of the original Hollywood Hellraisers – Dennis Hopper.

In 1955 the death of Hopper’s mentor James Dean affected him so deeply it resulted in the actor causing trouble on set of From Hell to Texas refusing to take direction for eighty takes over several days.

Hopper’s iconic Easy Rider earned him a phenomenal amount of cash – enough for him to reportedly buy his own small town where he secluded himself for years.

With the money and fame came vast amounts of alcohol and drugs, an all too familiar story.

“I was doing half a gallon of rum with a fifth of rum on the side, 28 beers and three grams of cocaine a day – and that wasn’t to get high, that was just to keep going, man,” he was once quoted.

Hopper was also prone to paranoid delusions.  In the early 80s Hopper was once apparently found naked, wandering a Mexican jungle, convinced that World War Three had started and had apparently begged the police to shoot him.

After the incident he jumped out onto the wing of the moving plane transporting him home as it was about to take off, fearful that it was on fire.

Unsurprisingly not long afterward he was later admitted to a psychiatric hospital for three months.

Hopper also had turbulent relationships with the women folk.  Amid the heavy drinking, rumours of domestic abuse surfaced during his first marriage to Brooke Hayward and his second marriage to, Michelle Phillips lasted less than two weeks.

In total Hopper was married five times and despite losing the fight against prostate cancer, Hopper was resilient to the end and filed for divorce from fifth wife Victoria Duffy in January 2010 claiming that she was “insane”, “inhuman” and “volatile” and successfully managed to have a restraining order against her granted.

He died on May 29th 2010 from his cancer without the divorce being finalised.

Rip Torn – the name says it all really.  Here’s one actor you should definitely keep your eye on, if not for his own safety.

Familiar to Comedy Central viewers as GE Chief Exec Don Geiss in 30 Rock or perhaps Agent Zed in Men in Black, Elmore Rual ‘Rip’ Torn Jr. has had more than one brush with the law.

Touching 80 years of age, this Emmy winner certainly has a history of tearing things up. Let’s head back to the 70s shall we?

In the 70s Torn twatted Maidstone director and co-star Norman Mailer with a hammer after taking criticism about an interpretation of a key scene a little too personally.

Mailer didn’t help matters by biting Torn’s ear because the pair started fighting on set, whilst filming.  Part of the fight was actually included in the final cut – along with Mailer’s children’s screams.

Torn also had a run in with another of our hellraisers, Dennis Hopper.

In 1999 Hopper alleged on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that Torn had pulled a knife on him in a restaurant in 1968 when the pair were discussing a role in Hopper’s upcoming Easy Rider (the part which later – understandably – went to Jack Nicholson).  Torn however promptly sued for defamation and won $470,000 from Hopper.

And onto the drink problems…

In 2004 he was arrested for refusing a breathalyser test after crashing his car into a taxi in New York.  A jury acquitted him of drink driving despite seeing video footage of him swearing at officers.

In 2006, he collided with a tractor in New York State.  He admitted to drink driving and was fined and served a 90 day ban.

In 2009 he was given probation after being convicted of drink driving once again whilst driving in an emergency lane with a Christmas tree strapped to the roof of his 1994 Subaru estate.  Stealthy.

Most recently and sadly, but rather comically, Torn broke into a bank thinking it was his own house…with a loaded gun.  As drunken escapades go, that one’s quite impressive, especially at the ripe old age of 79!

Apparently after his key failed to open the front door, Torn seemingly broke through a window round the back and passed out.  Classy.

Rip will (hopefully) be back for Men in Black 3…just don’t let him drive the car!

“We’re not hosting an intergalactic keggar down here” – could’ve fooled us!

Here’s some of the major moments of Hollywood bad boy Mickey Rourke’s life in brief…

After a successful film career in the 80s Rourke became increasingly demanding and confrontational on-set in the early nineties and he ended up burning nearly all of his industry bridges.

His expanding ego saw him pass up roles on films like Rain Man and Pulp Fiction, his spending was out of control and eventually the industry turned its back on him.

Touching 40, Rourke returned to pursue his former career as a boxer where, despite winning the majority of his bouts, he suffered numerous injuries resulting in him needing facial reconstructive surgery.

In 1994 he was arrested for spousal abuse after he allegedly kicked and slapped his then wife Carré Otis. The charges were later dropped when Otis failed to show in court.  Rourke and Otis reconciled their differences but divorced in 1998.

The couple who met on the set of erotic thriller Wild Orchid also caused a media frenzy a few years previously when a sex scene they shared in the film was rumoured to have been actual intercourse.  Raun-chy!

In 2007 he landed a DUI charge after driving his Vespa scooter erratically on Miami Beach.  Rourke’s recollection of events was as follows: “I think I made a bad left turn and then I guess I said the F-word,”

His wife had left, his career was in tatters and all his money was nearly gone.  Rourke was on the brink of suicide.  But a lot of therapy later Rourke started to get his life back on track accepting roles in Once Upon a Time, Domino and the stylised Sin City.

But when Darren Aronofsky sought him out to play the lead in The Wrestler, Rourke described the opportunity as a ‘gift from God’.

A true Hollywood comeback kid story Rourke then found himself in front of his peers accepting the best actor awards at the Golden Globes and BAFTA.

Rourke returns as Marv in Sin City 2 and recently joined fellow Hellraiser Robert Downey Jr. for Iron Man 2.

The sprog of Donald Sutherland, little Kiefer Sutherland fancies himself as a  bit of a party animal.

Nothing wrong with that – but when there’s a paparazzo round the corner of every bar just waiting to take a drunken picture of you with your trousers down like in 2005 you should probably start to rethink your limits…

But whilst this Lost Boy is better known nowadays as CTU agent Jack Bauer in 24, in the real world Kiefer has frequently found himself on the wrong side of the law.

Like many of our hellraisers the three little letters D, U and I are all too familiar to Kiefer.

In 2004 he was arrested after failed a sobriety test and was once again arrested in 2007 and was charged on misdemeanour drunk driving charges.

But unlike some of our other Hollywood hellraisers who seem all too often to get off lightly, Kiefer didn’t escape the big house and was sentenced to jail for 48 days.

Kiefer arranged to split the sentence in two around 24’s winter break but the Hollywood writer’s strike interrupted production on the real-time series and lucky Kiefer got to serve his sentence in full like a good inmate.

In 2009 Kiefer head butted fashion designer Jack McCollough at a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was charged with assault but thankfully for Kiefey boy the charges were later dropped.

Only recently in April 2010 the night before he appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Kiefer was spotted stumbling drunk through the streets of London minus his shirt after being kicked out of Stringfellows with a carnation sticking out his trousers – obviously.

One witness brilliantly described him as being ‘absolutely screamingly paralytic’ – but to look at him the following day on Wossy’s sofa you’d never know.

If you’re a fan of karma you may be interested to learn that Kiefer may have fallen foul of a scam involving cattle.

Apparently he handed over $869,000 to a Michael Wayne Carr who was in the trade of buying steers in Mexico and selling them on in the U.S. for a profit…I don’t think Kiefer ever got his cow…