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Perhaps feeling the hot breath of gay cowboy up-and-comer Heath Ledger on his neck in the Best Actor race, award frontrunner Philip Seymour Hoffman will appear on 60 Minutes this Sunday to add to his lead by revealing The Personal Demons He Vanquished On The Path To Oscar Glory:

Fresh out of New York University s drama school, Hoffman was lured into New York City s fast life. "It was all that [drugs and alcohol], yeah, it was anything I could get my hands on I liked it all," he tells Kroft.


But he saw the need to change early. "I went [to rehab], I got sober when I was 22 years old," says the 38-year-old Oscar nominee. "You get panicked and I got panicked for my life," says Hoffman. "It really was just that."

He also realizes that getting sober before he got famous was a blessing. It makes him look at today s young acting stars in a concerned way.

"I have so much empathy for these young actors that are 19 and all of a sudden they re beautiful and famous and rich," Hoffman says. "I m like, Oh my God. I d be dead. You know what I mean? I d be 19, beautiful, famous and rich. That would be it," he tells Kroft. "I think back at that time. I think if I had the money, that kind of money and stuff. So, yeah [I would have died]."

We're happy that Hoffman, one of our favorite actors, decided to make this campaign trail stop instead of going the clich d, undignified route of breaking down in front of Barbara Walters. Walters, we imagine, will soon be trying to induce Ledger into crocodile tears by making him consider the dark journey that lead him from the forgettable rock-and-roll jousting of A Knight's Tale to that tender, indelible cinematic moment atop a compliant Jake Gyllenhaal.