In light of Heath Ledger's tragic death—which might or might not have been related in some fashion to prescription sleep aids!—Paramount Public Relations would be more than happy to arrange an interview with one of a certain health website's many experts in Holistic Sleep Aid Solutions! Blast email attached.
Cordell Lochin, partner in L.E.S. cabaret The Box, Nolita's reservation-impossible La Esquina, and the 205 club, will soon be getting an invite-only box of his own. His other venture-a drug-smuggling ring!-has gotten him 39 months in jail, plus a fine of $35,000. Well, that explains the Box and La Esquina getting raided on the same night. Frequented by the likes of Gisele, Uma Thurman, socialite Fabiola Beracasa, Cuba Gooding Junior, artist Damien Loeb, Atoosa Rubenstein, Lydia Hearst, and Lance Armstrong, the Box hasn't been edgy for like, months. However, a drug-smuggling sentence of one of its backers might make it cool again-at least for a few weeks. [Guest of a Guest]
"This is being looked at as a possible overdose, but that is not confirmed yet," NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne said today, addressing the suspected suicide of actor Heath Ledger at a downtown apartment. According to reports, the medication found around his naked body "appear to be over the counter" sleeping pills. WNBC's sources say two bottles of sleeping pills were found near the body, one containing prescription medication and that fire officials had said the 911 caller reported a man not breathing, with a "cold" body. TMZ reports that an autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow. UPDATE: One of Ledger's close friends tells US magazine his death was shocking, but not surprising. "We saw it coming. Heath has gone though a rough road of trying to get sober."
At ten minutes to 5pm here in New York, only a few news crews had reached the scene of the loft building at 421 Broome Street, where Heath Ledger was just found dead. Just a handful of passersby were gawking at the small police presence guarding his door. But by 5, a pack of 15 paparazzi had arrived, acting far calmer than the usual frenzied pap scene, respectfully obeying the NYPD's orders to stay back. Almost everyone there, reporters both on-air and from various print outlets, collectively believed that the actor committed suicide using sleeping pills; a bottle of prescribed sedatives were allegedly found next to his bed.
Oh nooooo....Wham! songstress George Michael just signed a deal to write his memoirs! With News Corp publishing house HarperCollins no less, which makes his bitchtastic anti-Rupert Murdoch rant last year a little suspect. Groan. The thing about memoirs is, George, they work better when the public doesn't know in advance just about everything that will be in them. "People aren't stupid, they're beginning to notice that the truth is more interesting than the stories the press come up with," his manager said today. That persnickety press, always making up crazy allegations of Larry Craig-inspiring restroom romps and pea-brained drug busts.
Your Uncle Grambo spent a few days out on the Best Coast last week, trying to get a sense of what life is like on the ground out there these days (in a word, scary). I holed myself up at The Standard because, well, I've seen Ocean's 12 and I wanted to be as close to a potential Topher Grace meltdown as possible. But instead of staying out on The Strip, I thought it might be more adventurous to stay at The Standard's downtown LA location (notorious for its proximity to Skid Row, a choice place to score smack for Angelenos of all income levels). And after encountering two titans of the reality-television addiction format, Leif Garrett and Tom Sizemore, killing time there in just a four-day span, turns out I made the right choice.
Ha. After everyone on the internet watched Glenn Beck's nutty, rambling YouTube video about his mysterious surgery, we all forgot to watch his damn show on Monday. Turns out it was hemorrhoid surgery. Or as Beck referred to it, "ass surgery." The drug cocktail that sent his mind into the heart of darkness? Morphine, Toradol, Fentanyl patches, Percocet every three hours, and a synthetic morphine drip. Which explains the YouTube clip, sort of, but certainly not his outrage. Where is this hospital, in a William Burroughs novel? [HuffPo]
So it happens that one of last week's tipsters, Alex Geana, is writing a collection of short stories and poetry on pill-popping culture. (I'm sure many books have been written on Adderall.) In exchange for a promotional link, he's agreed to answer the questions you've been dying to ask about that pharmaceutical-grade amphetamine. How do I get a prescription? Will it make me creative? Will it make my teeth fall out? Where do I get it? Your questions, and Alex's useful answers, after the jump. (Excuse his spelling: he's a poet.)
"In a sample of 314 tenth-graders in a wealthy suburban community, the rate of 'clinically significant anxiety' was 5 to 9 percent higher than the national average, and among girls, the rate of 'clinically significant depression' was three times the national norm. Drug use exceeded not just national averages but that of low-income high-school kids she followed in a parallel study." [NYM]
Answer: We don't know! Like the rest of you, we've read that Brit Brit was "under the influence of an unknown substance" when the EMTs arrived at her supersized double-wide last eve (they must've convinced her that the van with the flashing lights in her driveway was really a hydrogen-powered shuttlebus to Les Deux). And, just like the rest of you, we're wildly curious to find out more deets about the cornocopia of pharms that were racing through her bloodstream. Our hasty diagnosis, after the jump.
Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.
The Los Angeles Times recently offered an intriguing report on "cognitive enhancers," the batch of attention-focusing and memory-helping drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin. (Also known as amphetamines, but that sounds so low-rent.) A 2005 survey that found 4-7% of college students had used. The real question: how many of them continued beyond graduation when they moved to the big city and took jobs at glamorous magazine companies and blog conglomerates? The LAT says use of amphetamines—sorry, cognitive enhancers—is widespread in the creative professions. Well, that's what an unprincipled drug marketer, and a headline-grubbing writer, would want to believe. The mundane reality? Probably caffeine abuse. But you tell us. Let's talk.
Scientists are hard at work on a "vaccine" that will prevent you from enjoying cocaine. That vaccine is called "New York." Psych! It's actually a drug that "stimulates the immune system to attack" cocaine molecules and prevent them from reaching your brain. The Baylor College researchers responsible for the Vaccine Against Fun are awaiting approval from the FDA for trials before the drug will finally be available to treat an addiction that, in our experience, is best cured by running out of money. [MSNBC]
Paris and Nicky Hilton's little brother, 18-year-old Barron Nicholas (he uses his middle name for his last on his high school Facebook page), wants you to know that he is a total badass. No really! This apple is totes not going to even think about falling far from the tree! Barron smokes pot! Barron drinks what might be champagne while wearing suits! The youngest Hilton tosses 'em back in his pool! Or at least, he pours Captain Morgan's down his front for the camera, but that's fine—we're sure the help won't mind cleaning it up later.
