Why we ignored Hoffman's drug problem while talking about others'

February 04, 2014 15:11

A story about yet another actor going into rehab for drug addiction has become so commonplace that it's no longer deemed a big hard news story, even for a seemingly sober, intelligent, well-respected 46-year-old Oscar winner not known for a life on the party circuit, writes Kaleem Aftab in The Independent, London, about Philip Seymour Hoffman's drug addiction, even as news comes in that 65 bags of heroin were discovered from the actor's home after his death.

'The list of young stars being caught up in drug scandals or checking into rehab seems endless. Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford was arrested for being in possession of marijuana. Glee star Corey Monteith died after mixing heroin with alcohol. High School Musical star Zac Efron was also in rehab last year, reportedly fighting a cocaine addiction. Such is the prevalence of drugs that a celebrity needs to be hospitalised or have a run-in with the law for the story to break in the quality press,' Aftab writes.

So much so, 'It's now become a story when someone feels the need to come out and say they don't do drugs, as DiCaprio himself recently did,' he points out.

Finally, 'It says everything about the prevalence of drug culture in the entertainment industry that when Philip Seymour Hoffman admitted to going into rehab early last summer, it barely caused a ripple in British newspapers,' he writes, here.

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