Ryan O’Neal, 67, and his son Redmond, 23, were both arrested and charged with drug possession last Wednesday after cops found crystal meth in both the father and son’s bedrooms during a routine sweep of the house. Redmond is on probation for another drug charge, which is why the police searched the Malibu home he shares with his father and his mother, actress Farrah Fawcett, who was said to have been home and sleeping at the time.

Ryan’s lawyer told the press that it was all a misunderstanding and that the drugs were in no way Ryan’s despite the fact that they were found in his room. An eyewitness quoted by the National Enquirer says otherwise. The person claims to have done drugs with both Redmond and his dad, and to know that Ryan also routinely hired hookers for his son. Ryan did have some standards, though - he told his son he could snort meth, but not smoke it. He also got his own dealer when he realized his son was hoarding drugs and keeping them from him.

The witness quoted by The Enquirer says that Ryan punched Redmond in the head right in front of him, and that he also gave him his credit card to hire hookers:

“I’ve known Redmond since seventh grade when we were doing a lot of cocaine and crystal meth…

“About four years ago, Redmond and I were doing crystal, and we took some up to his dad. Ryan scooped some up, crushed it into a line and snorted it…

“Ryan didn’t mind us snorting crystal - with or without him - but he warned us not to smoke it. He thought that was much worse, but we’d break up a sack of crystal and snort it and drink a beer with him, and then go downstairs to Redmond’s room and smoke and get high.”

For a while, O’Neal let his son - who’s been in rehab 12 times since the age of 13 - buy drugs for him from a dealer, explained the friend.

“Then Ryan found out Redmond was ’shorting’ him - keeping some of the drugs for himself or stealing his money - and he got his own dealer,” confided the friend…

“Once I slept over, and Ryan was driving us to McDonald’s…

“Redmond had been snorting coke all night. He was in the passenger seat and he grabbed Ryan’s gym towel and blew his nose on it. It made a horrible mess.

“Ryan was furious! He punched Redmond in the head so hard that he flew up against the car window and started crying.”

O’Neal also encouraged the two pals to hire prostitutes for sex, claimed the friend.

“When I was over there once, Ryan gave Redmond his credit card and said, ‘Why don’t you guys get yourselves some girls?’” the friend divulged.

“We didn’t take him up on it, but recently Redmond has been using his father’s credit card to pay prostitutes $200 a time to come to the house.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, October 6, 2008]

That’s pretty despicable if it’s true and hopefully Ryan will get some sort of court-ordered treatment after this mess. His son is old enough to take responsibility for his actions, but it’s easy to see how he got so screwed up in the first place with a drug-addicted, abusive, enabling father.

Ryan O’Neal is shown on 9/20/08. Redmond O’Neal is shown on 9/20/08. Credit: Fame Pictures

Singer George Michael has been arrested in the past for having drugs in his car and for soliciting sex in a public bathroom, but he’d yet to be arrested for drugs in a public bathroom - until Friday. Michael, 45, was arrested in a public bathroom in Hampstead Heath, a popular London park area. It is thought that he was in possession of crack cocaine. He was let off with just a caution, or a warning, which seems to be typical of this type of minor drug case in England - if Pete Doherty’s storied record is anything to go by.

Michael has been unable to drive since May, 2007, when his license was revoked for two years for an October, 2006 incident in which he was found passed out in his car with marijuana. He was also busted passed out in his parked car with drugs in February, 2006, and at that time it was also pot and poppers, or amyl nitrite. If he was found with crack on Friday it looks like he’s got a more serious problem and has graduated to the hard stuff:

The singer George Michael has been cautioned after being arrested in a public toilet for possession of drugs, thought to include crack cocaine.

“A 45-year-old man was arrested on 19 September on suspicion of possession of drugs in the Hampstead Heath area,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.

The singer was taken to a police station and given the caution for possessing class A and class C drugs.

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said drug laws needed to be “flexible”.

Asked why Michael had been given a relatively mild punishment for the possession of class A drugs, Mr McNulty said he did not know the details of the case.

George Michael has been in trouble with police before

But he added that the law provides a wide range of punishments for possession of drugs, and “circumstances and context” had to be applied.

[From BBC via WeSmirch]

The BBC reminds us that Michael has been doing relatively well in the past year. He just finished his world tour in August, and has a multi-million dollar book deal with HarperCollins for his tell-all autobiography.

The guy has long had a penchant for public sex - he was busted by the News of The World in June, 2006 with a paunchy 58 year-old unemployed guy in a public park. Michael was first pushed out of the closet in 1998 after an infamous arrest for soliciting sex from an undercover cop in a Beverly Hills bathroom. There wasn’t any mention of Michael attempting to score in this latest incident and it’s possible he was only in the park to get drugs.

It seemed like Michael had his drug habit down to just smoking pot and getting wasted, but that he’d cleaned up after his arrests and comeback tour. Maybe he’ll go to rehab now so he can achieve sobriety during his semi-retirement.

George Michael is shown performing his last concert his last concert at Earls Court in London on 8/25/08. Credit: Daniel Deme / WENN

Before writing this story, I consulted with JayBird to see if she knew some background on Ryan O’Neal so I could save 5 minutes of Wiki research. It turns out we were both kind of hazy about O’Neal’s family drama because it’s complicated. To explain it simply, Ryan has four children by three different women and 3/4 of his children have been arrested for drug-related offenses in the past three years. The family also has a long history of fighting and domestic abuse.

2007 domestic assault incident
Ryan was arrested in February, 2007 for assault against his son Griffin, 43, after he fired a gun in the house. It involved an alleged incident in which he claims Griffin tried to attack him with a fireplace poker but ended up jabbing his girlfriend instead, prompting Ryan to fire the gun above Griffin to try and scare him off. The National Enquirer’s version of the events which preceded the strange family dispute involve Griffin tying up his younger half brother, Redmond, 25, (Ryan’s only son with Farrah Fawcett) to a dog run outside the house, enraging Ryan. It is thought that Griffin put Redmond on the leash to try and keep him away from his stash.

To make matters more complicated, Tatum O’Neal, 44, is also Ryan O’Neals progeny. She is the daughter of Ryan O’Neal’s first wife, Joanna Cook Moore, and is Griffin’s full sister. Tatum was famously arrested trying to buy crack and cocaine in July of this year.

Like his other troubled family members, Redmond has some experience on the wrong side of the law. He’s on probation for DUI and possession charges after he was found with crystal meth and heroin last year. Cops were conducting a sweep today of the family home he shares with dad Ryan, 67, in Malibu. They found drugs that looked like meth in both the father and son’s bedrooms.

Actor Ryan O’Neal and his son, Redmond, were arrested Wednesday at the actor’s Malibu, Calif., home for alleged drug possession, a sheriff’s spokesman confirms.

“This morning, deputies were doing a routine sweep to make sure Redmond was adhering to his probation,” sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said. “Upon searching the premises, the younger O’Neal was found in possession of narcotics. Later, a vial of drugs were found in the elder O’Neal’s bedroom. We believe the drugs found were methamphetamines.”

Both Ryan, 67, and Redmond, 23, are being held at a local sheriff’s station in lieu of $10,000 bail each.

Redmond O’Neal’s mother is Farrah Fawcett and his half-sister is Tatum O’Neal, who was arrested July 1 in New York City for trying to buy drugs.

Reps for Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett weren’t immediately available for comment.

Redmond has a history of drug abuse, having entered rehab in 2004 for heroin abuse. This past June, he pleaded guilty to drug possession and one misdemeanor DUI charge.

[From People]

What is the issue with all these older celebrity addicts getting busted lately? It seems like so many people have drug problems for decades. No wonder Ryan O’Neal has such a bad temper and is fighting with his kids if they’re all doing meth.

All of the UK’s tabloid press is in an absolute frenzy, having suddenly decided that she’s doing sooooo much worse than before that she might not make it through the weekend. This appears to be mostly based on some especially hideous – to the point of disgusting – photos of Amy that have turned up in the last few days.

Skeletally-thin with a fag-end hanging out of her gob, bruises up her arms and a grey, ravaged complexion, Amy Winehouse looked worse than ever as she staggered about in Camden in the early hours of the morning today.

Though her spokespeople have recently been claiming she’s currently clean and sober, the troubled singer looked distinctly unhealthy as she staggered to her local pub The Monarch to play a DJ set.

She was then booed by drinkers in the night spot as she repeatedly stopped playing records to make trips to the toilet.

The dishevelled diva had already arrived two hours late for her slot.

As previously exclusively revealed by Mirror.co.uk, just last week Winehouse’s spokespeople insisted that she was fine as she had been busy working on tracks for her forthcoming album and had already finished a clutch of songs.

Sadly, it seems the pictures are telling the opposite story.

[From the Mirror]

I think they’re being a little over dramatic. I’ve definitely seen Amy look worse than this. I mean to be fair Amy could be walking around wearing nothing but a beat up garbage can and she’d look better than this, but it’s definitely not her worst state. Some days I wonder what kind of article I’ll be writing about her the next week, but it seems like Wino defies all medical logic. That’s probably exactly why she thinks she can keep going like this forever. It makes a person curious what it would take to make Amy take this shit seriously and clean up her act. And then you realize the reason it hasn’t happened is because it doesn’t exist, and nothing will get Wino to care until it’s way too late to do anything.

You’ve got to wonder though – what does she think when she’s a little less drunk and she sees these pictures of herself? Is Amy capable of feeling shame and remorse like a regular person?

Here’s Amy at the Monarch pub in London on Thursday. At one point WENN says she stuffed “a selection of record vinyls down the back of her ill fitting leggings. She also suffered cuts to her legs and hands.” Images thanks to WENN.

Pete Wentz is going to have to learn a little about the valuable lesson of oversharing. Or rather, why it’s good to learn when to censor yourself/shut your trap. The father-to-be has been extra gossipy about himself lately (a fresh batch of pregnancy hormones perhaps?), sharing that he once kissed a guy, wants to take his infant on tour with Fallout Boy, and has some legendary drunk/high/crazy stories.

And if the guy wants to be open and share a lot of his life, that’s certainly up to him. But considering his wife Ashlee Simpson is about to give birth to a child that will be a combination of Wentz and Simpson DNA, it might be a good idea if Pete be a little less open about his less sane decisions in the past. Just so their kid doesn’t think sharing stories like that is common social practice.

PETE Wentz once played a scary game of Russian roulette while in a booze-and-pill stupor. “I pulled a trigger on a gun aimed at myself,” the Fall Out Boy star and hubby of Ashlee Simpson confesses in next month’s Playboy. “My friend and I did one pull each. We’d been drinking and had taken Ambien. I feel stupid even talking about it. It’s one of the reasons I’ve never owned a gun - I’m too impulsive. I’d probably get mad and shoot someone over a part in a song or something.”

[From Page Six]

If you feel stupid even talking about it… probably shouldn’t talk about it. Especially to a magazine. Though I would agree that Pete doesn’t strike me as someone who should be a gun owner. And for about a billion reasons I hope he no longer is one.

On the one hand Pete will be able to honestly talk with his kid and say, “I did a lot of stupid stuff, here’s why you shouldn’t do that stuff too.” On the other… it’s not great knowing your dad was legendarily irresponsible/sorta unstable. Though in all fairness Pete seems to have really calmed down lately. Hopefully he’ll stick with that trend. And find a better balance between sharing stuff and bottling everything up.

Pete Wentz at the new Trump Hotel & Tower Dubai party held at the Tar Estate in Beverly Hills on August 23rd. Photographer: Rachel Worth. Images thanks to WENN.

One Day at a Time former teen star Mackenzie Phillips, 48, was busted at the LA airport last week with heroin and cocaine. The drugs were found in her possession as she tried to pass through security and it turns out they weren’t in her hand luggage as we reported earlier, but were in her pants. She got nervous during a routine patdown and told security personnel that she had drugs, saying “I’m holding.” It is also rumored that packets and balloons of drugs fell out of her pocket during the search. It’s hard to tell from reports if she gave herself away or if the drugs were found before she confessed.

Phillips has been charged with two counts of felony drug possession for the cocaine and heroin she was carrying along with a misdemeanor charge for a hypodermic needle. She has now entered rehab for the 10th time. US Weekly reminds us of some statements she’s made in the past about what a difficult and chaotic childhood she had as the daughter of a rock star:

Phillips, 48, was fired from the sitcom One Day at a Time because of her drug addiction 26 years ago.

As a kid, she says she prepared joints for her dad, John Phillips, the founder of the band, the Mamas and the Papas.

“I grew up in mansions, but everything was dirty and broken,” she told USA Weekend magazine in 1999. “Very little was going on inside except sex, drugs and rock and roll.”

Early on, she knew she had a problem.

“The first time I had a drink, it woke up the sleeping monster inside me,” she said.

The actress blew through her $47,500 weekly salary from her sitcom by buying drugs, and soon found herself searching for quarters to buy food.

In 1994, she turned her life around, appearing as a drug counselor on 90210. A few years later, she also starred on Disney show So Weird, saying the network’s producers, “embraced [her] baggage.”

“Why did I survive?” she asked in USA Weekend. “Maybe it’s to say to others, ‘This happened to me. It could happen to you.’ I don’t mind being a poster girl.”

The actress, who most recently appeared in a 2007 episode of Cold Case, has a son, Shane, 21.

[From US Weekly]

That’s really rough and maybe this will be the wakeup call she needs to get clean. Do any of you have relatives or friends who can’t kick hard drugs no matter what they’re going through? Do they go through periods of sobriety where it looks like they’re ok, only to relapse again? It must be very difficult for their family and the people who care about them.

Mackenzie Phillips is shown at the TV Land Awards on 4/14/07. Credit: Juan Rico/Fame Pictures

Amy Winehouse drinking on stage on 7/4/08. Credit: WENN

Not surprisingly, all of Amy Winehouse’s various medical issues are due to her severe drug addiction. While her family has openly acknowledged some of her overdoses, other hospitalizations have been blamed on vague things like issues allergic reactions and medications. Now one of Amy’s friends says she has brain damage that is so severe it’s brought on symptoms normally associated with schizophrenia.

[Amy had] such bad convulsions that they were “like a scene from The Exorcist”. And her body is so frail from drug use that doctors were scared she would break bones during a fit. A close pal of Amy’s laid bare the truth – warning medics said one more overdose will probably kill her. AMY’S first overdose in August last year was from cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, ketamine and crystal meth. She was advised to see a psychiatrist after displaying “multiple personality traits” that made her a suicide risk.

Her second overdose was in July – when she inhaled an “inhuman” amount of hash that left her vomiting uncontrollably and hallucinating. At the time devoted dad Mitch, 54, said it was a “bad reaction to her medication”. Medics are worried Amy’s brain was damaged by the cannabis overdose – she displayed symptoms normally associated with schizophrenia.

The pal yesterday said: “The future is bleak, bleak, bleak… She had smoked an inhuman amount of hash which resulted in acute cannabis poisoning. You have to take a s***load of pot to suffer that severe a reaction… Amy’s fits were as bad as the convulsions she had during her overdose in August last year. No one has mentioned her meth use before – but that stuff is truly nasty… She is in need of years of psychiatry and medical treatment if she has a hope.”

[From the Sun]

It’s not exactly surprising to hear that Amy is suffering severe physiological and psychological repercussions from such extensive drug use. I had a friend in high school that started out using pot and quickly moved on to harder drugs. Two years later he was in a mental hospital after suffering a severe acid trip and nearly dying. And he was truly the nicest, sweetest kid, and a good example of how addiction can be a struggle no matter your background.

Amy’s case is obviously super serious, and in a way it’s made worse by her financial independence. Most addicts would be struggling to support their addiction and stay afloat financially, but Amy has a while to go before she’ll be in that place. It makes it a lot easier to ignore everyone around you when you think you don’t need them. Unfortunately I don’t see any reason to think her behavior will change, and her friend is probably right about her next overdose.

Here’s Winehouse drinking on stage in July.

48 year-old actress Mackenzie Phillips, best known for her role on the sitcom One Day A Time over 20 years ago, was busted on possession of cocaine and heroin at LAX today. She was taken into custody after security found the drugs in her carry on luggage. There is no confirmation yet that the packets actually contained drugs, but it sure sounds like from their description:

Mackenzie Phillips has been busted at LAX for allegedly possessing heroin and cocaine. She’s in custody right now.

At 10:00 AM, officers responded to Terminal 4, where 48-year-old Phillips was being screened by TSA. During the screening process, some baggies and balloons believed to contain heroin and cocaine were recovered.

The former “One Day at a Time” star has had a long history of drug abuse.

[From TMZ]

Phillips is the daughter of The Mamas and the Papas lead singer, John Phillips, and was exposed to drug use at an early age. According to NNDB, she was fired from One Day at a Time on two separate occasions after she was late to work and so drunk or stoned she couldn’t function. The first suspension was for a season in 1980. They welcomed her back in 1981 once she got clean, but she fell off the wagon and once again lost her job a couple years later.

Mackenzie has got to be in a bad place if she’s bringing drugs in her hand luggage. Maybe this arrest will be the motivation she needs to clean up. She’s been in rehab a few times and nothing really worked long term for her. At 48, she’s looking at an early death if she keeps using.

Mackenzie Phillips is shown at the TV Land Awards on 4/14/07. Credit: Adriana M. Barraza / WENN

Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel at the GLAAD Awards on 4/26/08. Credit: Juan Rico/Fame Pictures
There’s no doubt- breaking up sucks. You cry, you eat a lot of ice cream, you talk to your friends on the phone forever, you listen to a lot of Air Supply. And if you’re Sarah Silverman, you spark up a doobie or two to numb the pain.

Comedian Sarah Silverman was feeling so low after her recent split from comic Jimmy Kimmel, she got high to get through her stage show.

Sarah and her TV host boyfriend announced their split on July 14 after six years together. And just two weeks later, on July 29, Sarah, 37, had an emotional breakdown moments before she was to take the stage at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Hollywood, Calif., say sources.

“Sarah thought telling jokes about her breakup would be a walk in the park, but she was struck with a case of the jitters so severe she didn’t know if she’d be able to go on,” revealed an insider.

“Sarah went to a comedian friend and told him she desperately needed some pot to calm her nerves.”

After taking a few hits of dope provided by the friend, Sarah managed to regain her composure and went out to perform, the source says.

“Sarah pulled it together on stage,” said the source. “Her timing was dead on and the audience responded well to the new material, which did include a few bittersweet reflections on her breakup.”

Sarah has admitted in interviews that she smokes pot in social settings and enjoys “eating pot brownies.”

[From the National Enquirer, Sept. 1, 2008]

I suppose there are worse vices Sarah could be using to cope- especially in Hollywood. I can’t really say I’m surprised that she’s a bit of a pothead. And if it makes her material more funny, who’s it hurting? What I don’t understand is, if talking about her breakup makes her so upset, why include it in her act? I think most people would understand that it’s still to soon for Sarah to find humor in the situation.

Considering it’s pretty much the best sitcom on television right now, it’s kind of surprising – in a good way – that The Office hasn’t had to deal with any major scandals. Well, until now. Cast member Craig Robinson was arrested on June 29th for possession of ecstasy and meth. He was originally pulled over for some sort of traffic violation during which officers found the drugs.

We know what the topic of conversation around the water cooler is going to be next week. Craig Robinson, who in addition to his current role as a hit man in Pineapple Express is best known as Darryl, the warehouse foreman and Kelly’s nonchalant suitor on The Office, is facing felony drug charges stemming from an arrest during a June traffic stop.

According to the criminal complaint released Friday by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, the 36-year-old actor was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of being under the influence of a controlled substance. In this case, that last “substance” allegedly included amphetamines, cocaine and cannabinoids—or any of the chemicals found in cannabis.

Robinson, whose credits also include Arrested Development , Curb Your Enthusiasm and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, was busted June 29 in Culver City, Calif., after officers pulled him over for a traffic violation and found drugs in the car, authorities said. Arraignment has been set for Aug. 21. Robinson’s rep had no comment on the matter.

[From E! News]

This story bums me out. I naively like to assume that everyone on The Office is as wholesome and odd as they appear on the show. Perhaps it’s because several of the supporting characters have the same name as the actors who play them. Or that many of the actors have MySpace pages and blogs (that it seems like they actually write) that are half them and half their characters. It really blurs the line, which I enjoy. It lets me believe Pam and Jim really are out there exchanging funny looks all day long. And now it’s kind of blown. It’s just not the same thinking the guys in the warehouse are actually doing speed.

Although it does make me think of this clip from the Drug Testing episode. Header image of Craig Robinson at the Road to a Cure Gala this past November. Images thanks to PR Photos.