Quote of the Day

[Trigger warning for violence, abuse, harassment, misogyny, and racism.]

"None of these incidents [of violence against women] got Mr. Sheen fired from his lucrative day job as a sitcom star, not even suspended. What did? He insulted his boss. ... So the message from CBS and Warner Brothers seems clear: abuse yourself and the women around you to your heart's content, but do not attack the golden goose."—David Carr, in the New York Times.

Sheen did more than merely insult his boss; he unleashed an anti-Semitic tirade against him. Which actually only underlines Carr's point about Who's Important: Even using racist epithets wasn't a fireable offense, until they were directed at a man who makes lots of money for CBS and Warner Brothers.

Carr's piece only addresses the incidents of violence against women during the run of Two and a Half Men, but Sheen's history of abuse extends back decades:

[Sheen's third wife, Brooke Mueller, who called 911 on Christmas morning to report Sheen having threatened her with a knife] claimed he told her, "You better be in fear. If you tell anybody, I'll kill you. I have ex-police I can hire who know how to get the job done, and they won't leave any trace." Police also noted the appearance of red marks on her neck, which she said occurred while Sheen was holding her down with the knife to her throat.

Mueller's statements are remarkably consistent with Sheen's ex-wife Denise Richards' accounts of the actor's behavior, including an incident where he told her "I hope you fucking die, bitch. You are fucking with the wrong guy," and threatened to have her killed. Sheen also served two years' probation for a 1996 assault on then-girlfriend Brittany Ashland. In 1995, he settled a case out of court with a woman who claimed he'd hit her when she refused to have sex with him. And in 1990, in an incident deemed an accident, he shot his fiance Kelly Preston in the arm.

Now that Sheen's been sidelined, I guess fans of men who abuse women will have to get their fix by watching Mike Tyson's new show on Animal Planet.

[Commenting Guidelines: This thread is not an invitation to wax diagnostic about Sheen's mental health or addiction. That is off-topic. That there may be a link between his mental health and/or addiction and his expressions of violence is understood, but, aside from the fact that there is no drug nor mental illness that makes all of its addicts/patients hurt women, the topic of this post is not even really Charlie Sheen, but the entertainment industry's priorities.]