Is that Jeff Conaway screaming?
They still don’t have the dream team of Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen, but “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew” is back for a fourth season Wednesday night on VH-1. That means another gaggle of the formerly famous and infamous aiming to get clean and sober are toxically coming to our TV screens.
So as Eric Roberts, Janice Dickenson, Leif Garrett and Tiger Wood’s main mistress Rachel Uchitel and others go through recovery reality TV style at the Pasadena Recovery Center, it’s time check in on some of the most notorious addictive personalities from seasons past.
JEFF CONAWAY
Season – The sometimes wheelchair-bound former “Taxi” star was the surprise heart and soul of season 1 in 2008. His return for season 2, after a harsh relapse and debilitating back surgery, was an unmitigated disaster that saw Drew Pinsky declaring that Conaway was no longer his patient.
Addiction – Cocaine, booze, a pharmacy of pills and, according to “Celeb Rehab,” co-dependency with his girlfriend — all leading up to temper tantrums that caused fans of the show to ask WWJCD? … and answer back “yell a lot!”
Status – Conaway had a successful fifth back operation in mid-2009 but a number of reported recent falls and injuries could see the 59-year old actor in rougher than usual shape — and you know what that could mean…
TOM SIZEMORE
Season – Burning almost every bridge in Hollywood, the pugilistic “Natural Born Killer” star, who the show’s producers had wanted ever since “Celeb Rehab’s” debut, was dragged sweating and screaming into treatment by Pinsky and counselor Bob Forrest in season 3. Sizemore came in high as a kite, fought with everyone, detoxed, fought some more – especially with former girlfriend Heidi Fleiss – and then agreed to go onto VH-1’s “Sober House” spin-off.
Addiction – Methamphetamine seems to be Sizemore’s weapon of choice.
Status – After avoiding another run-in with the law on potentially nasty domestic violence charges earlier this year, the 49-year old actor has been working regularly of late, seemingly keeping his head down and out of trouble. He has even been offering words of wisdom to Charlie Sheen, cautioning the hard living “Two and a Half Men” star to tone it down.
HEIDI FLEISS
Season – The former Hollywood Madam rolled into Pasadena in season 3. She was in pretty rough shape and still full of rage at her ex Sizemore. After several blow ups, the duo reached a temporary détente and once “Celeb Rehab” was done, moved on over to Season Two of “Sober House.”
Addiction – Like her ex, Fleiss was into Meth … plus painkillers.
Status – Back in the public eye, Fleiss swooped into the U.K.’s “Celebrity Big Brother,” but left before it was over. On Thanksgiving 2010, Fleiss’ guesthouse in Pahrump, Nevada, burned to the ground – her beloved birds were saved but Heidi seemed very fragile.
GARY BUSEY
Season – More known nowadays for his outspokenness and often bizarre backronyms, the actor who played Buddy Holly onscreen in 1978 slide into season 2 as a mentor but soon became more of a patient. Dr. Drew tried to get Busey to deal with the residue of his previous drug problems and the head trauma from his helmetless 1988 motorcycle accident
Addiction – Cocaine
Status – Still taking medication for his brain injury, 66-year old Busey, who has been off the Columbian marching powder for over a decade, has a new baby and is back on reality TV in 2011 with the next season of Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” – but truth be told, as the song says, he’s “still crazy after all these years.”
SETH BINZER
Season – The Crazy Town frontman has virtually made a career out of his addictions, returning again and again to the ever patient Dr. Drew’s care. Audiences saw Binzer in seasons 1 and 2, plus two seasons on “Sober House.”
Addiction – Seems like a bit of everything but booze and crack are the real monkeys on Binzer’s back
Status – Binzer has a new band and put out a new single this summer. Cash money, we haven’t heard the last of him … for better or worse.
