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Ed Says… Should We Really Be Applauding Charlie Sheen?

PR is a funny old business. It can destroy people in one swoop of a pen, and elevate others to the heights of the Gods in another.

The unstoppable train wreck that is Charlie Sheen has been dominating the blogosphere for the last few weeks and I, among millions of others, have been laughing along with it, wondering what warlock incorporated nonsense old tiger blood will come up with next.

But, something has started eating away at my conscience: as entertainingly bonkers as Messr. "Blink and I cure my brain" is, he's still quite a dark and troubled character. This is a man who's managed to shoot Kelly Preston (albeit accidentally), terrorised a porn starlet who sought refuge in a motel closet from his insane temper, and held a knife to his ex wife's throat over the Christmas Holidays. If he was your average man on the street, he'd have been locked up long ago, and paraded through the press as an example of the basest form of human life.

Celebrity can be funny like that. Take Bill Murray and Sean Connery - both heroes of cinema, but not above giving their other halves a bit of a slap when they step out of line. And who can forget the exploits of Led Zeppelin and Motley Crue - two bands who'd have to sign a register if they got up to their on-tour shenanigans in this bright and glittering new millenium. Hell, Phil Spector had to actually shoot somebody dead in cold blood before somebody had a word with him about his gun brandishing antics (and charge him with murder, naturally). Yet, still we worship them.

After all, they're famous. They must be doing something right.

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