A victim? No, Sheen’s a selfish hedonist
FORgIVe me for not feeling the love for charlie Sheen, the Hollywood actor who went on television this week to confess that he was HIV positive. Although hailed as a hero in some quarters for his candour, Sheen only made his public admission because an American newspaper was about to do the world a favour and expose him.
The hard-living 50-year-old was also being blackmailed and claimed to have paid out millions to those threatening to reveal his HIV status. He wasn’t being noble, he just ran out of options.
He’s a sex addict, he’s a drug addict, he’s the addicts’ addict of choice. He has issues, he’s had tissues, somebody took his dummy away when he was three years old. And none of it is his fault, oh dear me, no.
Sheen knew of his diagnosis four years ago — but carried on living his car-crash life, pedal to the metal as he flew down the highway to hell. He’s had three wives, numerous girlfriends and slept with thousands of prostitutes, porn stars, lovers and call girls over the years. Financial records appear to show that he spent more than £1 million on prostitutes in one year alone after his diagnosis.
‘I always led with condoms and honesty,’ he said this week, but many of his former partners dispute this. One madam says that Sheen reputedly paid prostitutes more to have unprotected sex with him — and many women willingly did so, hoping to get pregnant by the multi-millionaire star.
He is lavish when it comes to excusing his own bad choices. He said: ‘In this difficult time, I dazedly chose the companionship of unsavoury and insipid types.’
That’s particularly hateful, suggesting that when it comes to being infected with HIV, somehow the porn stars and random party girls of recent years are not as important as the more famous women earlier in his life.
Sheen, who is also known to have injected drugs, does not know how he contracted the disease. He insists that it is impossible that he passed it on to any sexual partners — but how can he be sure? At least six women, some who had sex with him as recently as last month, claim he did not tell them and plan to sue the actor.
no wonder. His behaviour has been selfish, dangerous, wicked — and also illegal in some parts of America where people with HIV may be prosecuted for intentionally or recklessly infecting another person.
Yet somehow, with a bit of careful PR fancy footwork and a brass neck bigger than the one on the Hubble Telescope, Sheen has positioned himself as a kind of modern-day hero; a casualty himself, a cinderella-rocka-fella party guy whose simple love of a good time was what brought him low.
Putting on his best victim-face, Sheen said he hopes his opening up about his diagnosis will help others feel more comfortable in doing the same.
‘I have a responsibility now to better myself and to help a lot of other people, and hopefully with what we’re doing today, others may come forward and say: “Thanks, charlie. Thanks for kicking the door open.”’
Snort. What a steaming pile of self-serving guff from a man clinging onto the tattered remains of his celebrity by his fingertips.
Yet galloping to his rescue came the usual suspects on social media; a cyber-army of dopey idealists falling over each other to praise Sheen’s ‘bravery’; a battalion of celebbores whose knee-jerk liberal reactions failed to reflect the reality of the sorry situation.
Bette Midler has urged caution, warning that ‘HIV stigma is not a good look on anyone’. Pop star Lady gaga salutes Sheen and sees this as an opportunity for us all to learn about the ‘prevention, treatments and emotional intelligence as it relates to the stigma of the virus’. Stigma? The exasperating insinuation that any criticism of Sheen heralds a return to the HIV witch-hunts of the eighties completely ignores the fact that the main reason he has been outed is because he had reportedly been keeping his infection secret from several thousand women. He’s no hero, he is a selfish hedonist, someone who thinks of only his own gratifications at the risk of others, a man who is a disgrace to his children, his ex-wives, his family and himself.
Perhaps understandably, his father, the actor Martin Sheen, spoke warmly of his ‘courage’. What else could he do?
YOU have to wonder about the women who hooked up with Sheen, who took their chances with him even though his reputation rolled before him like a toxic fog. If he had been living under a bridge instead of being a Hollywood star, would they still have gone to bed with this debauched loser? I wonder.
Meanwhile, nobody is supposed to say anything bad, because HIV can happen to anyone, right? Right. But if you go outside in the dead of winter, without warm clothes, over and over again, eventually you are going to catch a cold.
charlie Sheen may not be the architect of his doom, but he has played a part in his own destiny. He was a man blessed with everything — good looks, talent, riches and perfect health — but who threw it all away and still won’t accept any responsibility for his fate.
Finding yourself with an HIV diagnosis might be the worst of bad luck, but in his case it is surely down to bad living, too.