Like a car crash that clogs up the other side of the motorway with people gawking, Charlie Sheen’s very public fall has had the Twittersphere alight with quotes, comments and jokes at his expense. So what is it about celebrities’ failings that makes us want to stop and stare?
With Charlie Sheen, many people have blamed the media for stoking a fire that had been smouldering for a while. There is an element of truth in that, and several media outlets, including the radio station that baited Sheen to call him, have fanned the flames.
But no-one is forced to go in to acting, or is forced to take drugs, or insult their bosses on air. And Sheen, in his own crazy way, has revealed to us what publicists and media executives would otherwise have covered up: when celebs go in to freefall, the results are… interesting.
And interesting is right: millions of Twitter followers, and growing every day; more media coverage than Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears during their meltdowns; and, despite the loss of his $1.2m per episode for Two and a Half Men, I can imagine he will have several lucrative income streams for many years to come.
So public meltdowns: bad for your mental health, but stellar for your public profile.