Smashed Stars

Welcome to this week’s fabulous Mecca Bingo Celeb Column, where you can read musings on the latest celeb news. Every week you can read a brand spanking new celeb column and then play bingo online here at Mecca Bingo. This week, we’re talking smashed stars…

A recent video of David Hasselhoff, former Kinghtrider star, acting drunk and disorderly has made its way onto the airwaves. The video shows a clearly inebriated Hasselhoff bare-chested, slurring his words and sloppily attempting to eat whilst his daughter, who is responsible for taping the incident (but not releasing it), is heard giving him an ultimatum to give up drinking. This is not the first time that The Hoff has received media attention for an alleged drinking problem; in 2002 the former Baywatch star checked in to the Betty Ford clinic for a rehab programme. This was followed by an arrest in 2004 for driving under the influence, which led to him being fined and ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service, as well as attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings twice a week for six months. This most recent incident has only served to strengthen the star’s growing reputation for being a troubled drinker.

But it’s not just The Hoff who has a reputation for hitting the bottle with a little too much vigor; unfortunately there are plenty more like him in celeb land. Some are pretty obvious candidates that we all know about, the late footballer George Best for example, but other celebs that have had problems with the daemon drink are perhaps a little more surprising.

Kristin Davis of Sex And The City fame is one such example of a celeb who has had struggles with the bottle. Although she might portray a character who has a carefree love of cocktails and all things glamorous, Kristen’s own relationship with booze has not been so untroubled. The star struggled with an alcohol addiction in the past but has now overcome it and has enjoyed fourteen teetotal years. Of her time before she booted the booze, Kristin has said: “It was leading me down a dark road and getting in the way of what I wanted to do. I felt it would be healthier for me without that obstacle, so I stopped.”

Tea time dominatrix-come-school-headmistress-come-presenter Anne Robinson has also overcome battles with the booze in order to emerge sober and stronger as a result. She might be the self-assured TV queen of botox these days, but back in the 70’s she was drowning her sorrows with drink as she struggled to cope with a failing marriage and lost a battle to gain custody of her daughter. Anne soon realised that happiness wasn’t to be found in the bottom of a gin bottle however and, with the support and encouragement of her family, she has been alcohol-free for two decades now.

Star and brains of The Royle Family, Caroline Aherne has had her fair share of struggles with the drink daemons too. After one blow-out too many, the one-time Mrs Merton fled to Australia to flee the pressures of fame and attempt to stop seeking refuge in a whisky glass. Fans will be hoping that Caroline has now overcome her drinks issues and that the talk of her resurrecting the inimitable Mrs Merton comes to fruition.  

Some of the stars who have battled with the bottle successfully are surprisingly young; Jack Osbourne for example, who said: “I got caught up in my new lifestyle and got carried away with drugs and alcohol” when he checked into rehab at the tender age of eighteen. Succumbing to an alcohol addiction at such an early age suggests that perhaps puberty in the glare of the television cameras (we’re talking here about long-running fly-on-the-wall show The Osbournes) isn’t the most sensible idea. It can’t have helped matters anyway, as his older sister Kelly has also suffered similar problems in the past. Although this might be more to do with their Dad Ozzy’s well-publicised substance abuse issues, who’s to say…

Conversely though, fame can actually be the saving grace for a star struggling to resist the call of the vodka bottle. Kelsey Grammer, of hit American comedy Frasier, is one such celeb. Towards the end of the 80’s his alcohol problems were all becoming too much to handle and the actor was fast approaching meltdown. A stable family life and his highly successful TV career helped him to come back from the brink however and conquer his drink daemons, hopefully for good.

After all that celeb chat, it’s about time we got on with some bingo action! You can play online bingo here at Mecca Bingo and read our fab celeb column every week. So come back soon and Good Luck!