Aaron Randolph

Mrs. Smail

Eng. 101B

May 5, 2014

In “He’s Charlie Sheen, and you’re not”, Neal Gabler indicates that no matter what your opinion of Charlie Sheen is, you should at least see the correctness behind his evaluation of the relationship between the general public and celebrities. He believes there is a proverbial contract between stars and the public, we give them fame and money for entertainment as long as they don’t “go off the deep end”. Sheen seems to think this is hypocrisy because the characters he plays are often morally flexible, and in some cases repulsive in their philosophy. This personality is often for comedic purposes but Sheen correctly points out that we should expect stars to be even worse than they appear on screen. He also believes that a feeling of similarity between stars and the public is no longer what attracts the attention of people, but that dreams of having a luxurious lifestyle like Charlie Sheen keeps them entertained in a fantasy-like dream they can step into by turning on a TV.

I am somewhat in agreement with Gabler, and Sheen, in the opinion that similarity is not what attracts most people to the “starts” today. In truth most celebrities these days make terrible role models. They are certainly dolled up appearance wise for television, we should assume their morals are cleaned up for TV as well. However to the extent that Gabler tries to equate some sort of decency to Sheen because he is at least being honest about his lifestyle, I must wholeheartedly disagree. Saying that Sheen should be seen in a better light because he is honest about his lifestyle is like saying a criminal should be set free because he confesses to a crime. Sheen should face public scrutiny because he has done, and has no regret for doing, things many of his former fans find reprehensible.

Instead of equating some kind of admirable character to Sheen I would point out his former co-star Angus T. Jones, who played the kid in “Two and a half Men”. He came out and called the show “filth” and urged people not to watch it. Since he left the show because he “rediscovered” his Christian faith, he has been called hypocritical, and foolish. He says that he was a paid hypocrite when he was on the show for nearly 10 years.

Scoffers try to say he is still as bad because he still gets royalties from the show, and should have left before, but when he started the show at the age of 9 I can’t imagine he had the overwhelming fraction of choice in the deal. He certainly had to have parental permission to be on the show and choosing to leave a show that paid over $300,000 per episode by the time he left, is a difficult decision for a 19 year old to make.

Charlie sheen on the other hand, had full awareness, and choice in choosing to be on the show. He was much freer from parental pressure to stay on the show, and has left the show for far less noble reasons.  I cannot grasp the mindset that can condemn Jones, and commend Sheen. It is simply beyond me.