When Robin Williams killed himself, his spokesman revealed that he’d been suffering from depression. Cue well-meaning advice about this mysterious and deadly condition – the need to seek help, etc. Then the media caught up with his addiction: he was a recovering alcoholic and cocaine addict who’d been with John Belushi on the night Belushi died (‘comedian Robin Williams popped in and snorted a few lines of coke,’ says one account). Now we learn that Williams was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Depression, addiction, money worries: that’s a cocktail familiar to anyone in Hollywood or the music industry. And once the ingredients are shaken they can’t be separated out. For vast numbers of performers – many more than we’ll ever know about – it’s the price of celebrity.
Not fame, note, but celebrity. Senior politicians are famous, and shoulder far more complex responsibilities than actors, comedians and singers, but few of them check in and out of rehab.
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