Charlie Sheen 23 years ago in "Wall Street" courtesy 20th Century Fox

One man’s heart attack is another man’s shrug of the shoulders is an ancient saw.  Actor Charlie Sheen is back in a place in the news where he doesn’t want to be.  His press agent and studio publicist doesn’t want him to be there either, with an an acting-king’s fortune riding on his behavior.

The facts (according to the New York Post) are that a hotel (employee) called the cops because a guest was making too much noise in a room.  Police arrived to discover actor Charlie Sheen naked and in a frightful state amid broken hotel property.

Having more trouble than Budd Schulberg babysitting drunken F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sheen’s studio caretaker did some creative writing of his/her own with a statement claiming misunderstood Charlie was simply reacting from medication and was taken to a hospital.  It could happen to you.

Enter Dr. Mehmet Oz, fresh off the (empowering) Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference (where I attended yesterday listening to Jane Fonda tell me how to be normal).  Well, hearing about poor Charlie’s backsliding, the good doctor told USA Today moments ago that “The media tend to be very hard on celebrities who are trying to cope with a serious problem.” That’s a truth of a kind; we all agree that the media is lower than drek.

I don’t know the six-and-a-half billion humans walking the earth, but I’ll gamble there are few who don’t have problems, issues.  All have tragedies.  Most all apparently cope without acting out like brats.  Of course I feel for Charlie Sheen, but to shift the spotlight (from bad to worse behavior) to the weaseled media is grandstanding.

Is it the fear of unkind criticism that keeps humanity from seeking the luxurious, pampered, idyllic life of a film star?   Everyone daily endures horrors far worse than the media.  Is there anyone living who would trade that scary heaven-on-earth life with reporters occasionally sniping (but usually bootlicking) in exchange for your usual life of indebtedness, daily disrespect, servitude and anonymity (among other horrors)?

The larger mystery is how anyone could complain about a blessed destiny or how any public medicine man could enable it.