Jonathan Rhys Meyers was arrested yesterday afternoon at Dublin Airport after a drunkenly yelling at a female worker. She told him he couldn’t get on the flight as he was clearly too inebriated, which angered him and resulted in his shouting, “I will get on this flight no matter what” over and over again. Rhys Meyers has been to rehab twice in the last few years – this last time in April – which he left after only two weeks. Rehab is boring after all, I’m sure it’s fine to leave because you want your freedom and to be able to go out and have lunch with your friends. How could sobriety possibly compare to that?

Match Point actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been arrested after an alleged drunken row with airline staff. The Irish actor reportedly launched an angry tirade of abuse at one female worker when she told him he was “unfit to travel” at Ireland’s Dublin Airport at around 2.30pm on Sunday.

The 30-year-old star - who was trying to board a British Midland flight to London after appearing on Irish TV show Tubridy Tonight on Saturday - repeatedly told staff: “I will get on this flight no matter what.” One source said: “After being told he couldn’t fly he flew into a temper and started screaming at this woman. She seemed to be very upset by the whole ordeal.” Police arrested the star at the airport and took him to the nearby Whitehall Garda station where he was charged under the Public Order Act with being drunk and disorderly and a breach of the peace.

Speaking outside the station after being released on bail, a disheveled Rhys Meyers said: “I said the wrong thing to the wrong woman at the wrong time.”

[From News.com.au]

It occurs to me that the problem isn’t that he said those things to the wrong woman, the problem is that he said the wrong things at all. It’s not like there’s a right person Rhys Meyers could have screamed at. He’s one of those actors who’s very face has always annoyed me. He just has this “I think I’m the greatest thing ever” air about him, and it makes me want to smack the cockiness right off his face.

Rhys Meyers is on the cover of this month’s Details. There’s a very bizarre interview with him in which he mentions his alcoholism (and how he never touches the stuff anymore) along with screaming out “PUSSY! I want pussy!” through the streets of Dublin for no apparent reason, and then burning the fake hair off his jacket sleeves with a lighter in a café during the interview. His reasoning being that it’s something to do. Alright, totally normal.

Rhys Meyers himself no longer goes to those sorts of mobbed, cacophonous venues. A notorious partier, he’s recently sworn off alcohol. “I didn’t drink until I was 25, and I never drank every day, but when I did, it was bad. It would be a couple of days that just wouldn’t work out for me, waking up with a hangover. Drink doesn’t fit into the groove of where my life is going.”

Rhys Meyers, now 30, has been in rehab twice. “I want to do really good things with my life,” he says. “And drinking is not synonymous with that. The [Richard] Burton days, the [Peter] O’Toole days, they are gone.”

[From Details]

I guess not so much. Sometimes you can just tell when people are “functional” alcoholics who will probably remain that way for life because they don’t suffer any severe consequences for it (though everyone around them often does). Rhys Meyers strikes me as one of those guys.

I wasn’t going to cover the whole “Mickey Rourke got a DUI” thing because let’s face it, celebrity DUIs are a dime a dozen these days. It’s not just the partying skanky crowd that gets them, Rebecca De Mornay got one a few days ago, General Hospital’s Kirsten Storms, and some other big and small celebs. It’s starting to seem like it’s a right of passage for them. And really, while they’re upsetting, they’re generally not all that interesting. Now Mickey Rourke was riding a Vespa scooter, which does make it a little funnier. Not funny “ha ha” funny “unusual.” But I still wasn’t going to touch the story. And then I found out it was a mint green Vespa. And that changed everything.

You’d think Mickey Rourke getting busted on a DUI would only reaffirm the actor’s badass reputation. Ditto that cops dubbed him “uncooperative” during the arrest. But the fact that he was collared while tooling around town on a mint green Vespa? That detail could hurt him. The star of Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man was arrested for driving under the influence in Miami Beach early Thursday, after cops spotted him making an illegal U-turn on his trusty scooter. He spent several hours in the Miami-Dade County Jail before posting $1,000 bond.

According to the police report, Rourke was stopped at a red light at 4:11 a.m. and then proceeded to weave across the northbound side of the street “several times” before police pulled him over. Per the report, Rourke greeted the officers with a cheery, “What the f–k did I do?” Miami Beach police officer P. Socarras, who stopped the 55-year-old, described Rourke as having “a flushed face, bloodshot watery eyes, slurred speech and a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath.” Rourke apparently didn’t see it that way. “I’m not drunk,” he told the officer, per the arrest report. “I didn’t even drink that much.”

[From E! News]

Rourke was just barely over the legal limit of .08 – he blew a 0.081. My guess is that it’ll get thrown out. The best part was when he left the police station with his shirt completely unbuttoned and flapping in the wind. A mint green Vespa and exposing your nipples on your way out of jail? What a carefree spirit!

More details have come out in the Shia LaBeouf drunken arrest at Walgreen’s incident, and it does sound just like the drug store stand down that we assumed it was. He was asked to leave the store, he didn’t, and he got arrested. There’s no mention of screaming, shoving, or tantrum-throwing, and it seems like the guy wanted to go about his business and pick up some items and the security didn’t like the way he was weaving down the aisles and told him to get out. Shia stood his ground and got some publicity out of the deal.

If you’re going to be arrested for drunken conduct, this is the way to do it. Shia wasn’t driving, he wasn’t knocking shit over, he didn’t beat anyone up, and it doesn’t even sound like he was all that rude. I like to spend my time browsing in the drug store too, so I can’t fault the guy for asserting his right to shop at 2:30 in the morning after a few drinks. Considering all the other drunken antics he could be up to, Shia is still aces in my book.

All this article says is that he was out drinking, he went to the drug store, refused to leave, then got arrested. If there was more to it than that we would be hearing about it:

LaBeouf, a rising star who is in Chicago to film a movie, was at the Underground nightclub, 56 W. Illinois St., on Saturday night and left about 2 a.m. Sunday, said Maura Daley, a club spokeswoman.

She declined further comment, but added: “His unrelated incident is very unfortunate, and we wish Mr. LaBeouf all the best…”

The 21-year-old actor who starred in “Disturbia” and “Transformers” and is the star of the upcoming Indiana Jones sequel, was arrested about 2:25 a.m. in the Walgreens at 757 N. Michigan Ave., police said.

A security guard called police after LaBeouf refused to leave the 24-hour store, said Monique Bond, Chicago police spokeswoman. He was asked to leave several times, she said. The guard signed a complaint, and the actor was cited on a misdemeanor count of trespassing, police said.

“The report does not indicate that he was with a group. [It] appears that he was alone,” Bond said. “[There is] no indication of damaging property or interfering with other customers.”

LaBeouf, a California resident, was taken to the Near North police district and posted bail about 7 a.m., police said. His next court date is Nov. 28.

[From The Chicago Tribune via ONTD]

Maybe there was shoving or screaming, but even though this is a respected paper, I have to think they would have thrown that in there if it happened. The way this scenario plays out in my head is that Shia needs some contraceptives because he’s about to get lucky and is thwarted by an over-eager security guard. He says “no, I’m not going to leave” and stays in the store, being repeatedly harassed. The poor guy gets arrested and forfeits his evening hookup, but at least we all hear about it and he starts to achieve the level of fame that he deserves.

Isn’t that the cutest mug shot you’ve ever seen? Good job, Shia, now don’t go doing it again.

If all I heard was that a celebrity was arrested for being drunk at a drug store, my money would have been on Britney at CVS. In my imagination she’s not combative despite her umbrella-wielding history, and is apprehended for opening up makeup and trying it on, discarding packages as she stumbles down the aisle.

Transformers star Shia LaBeouf was arrested at a Walgreens in Chicago over the weekend after security asked him to leave and he refused. It was 2:30 in the morning when the cops came, so maybe he’d just had a marathon drinking session and really wanted one of those little packages of ice cream they sell there. I love those, because they get you into a lot less trouble than a full pint of Ben and Jerry’s.

It doesn’t sound like LaBeouf was disruptive so much as stubborn and holding his ground. He was said to be cooperative with police and to have posted bail a few hours later, at 7 a.m.:

Chicago police say actor Shia LaBeouf was arrested at the Walgreens at 757 N. Michigan Av. around 2:30 a.m. Sunday after repeatedly refusing to leave the store.

A security guard repeatedly told LaBeouf that he wasn’t welcome and had to leave because he appeared to be drunk, police said.

When the actor refused to leave, the security guard detained him and called police.

After he was arrested, LaBeouf was “very courteous and polite,” and he posted bond before 7 a.m., police said.

LaBeouf, 21, of Glendale, Calif., was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing. He is scheduled to appear in court in Branch 29 on Nov. 28 at 9 a.m.

[From CBS2Chicago via WeSmirch]

There was an article in last week’s Star Magazine titled “Does Shia LaBeouf feel like a LOSER?” in a big all-caps font like that. They said he was upset because he never gets recognized, and that he was pissed because he was initially denied entry to the T-Mobile Sidekick LX launch party in L.A:

The 21-year-old Transformers star was denied entry because even the doormen didn’t know who he was! When the party promoters realized their mistake, they ran after Shia, and convinced him to come back - but he wasn’t happy. “Shia came back, but not before he ripped off his wristband and chucked it at one of the promoters,” says an eyewitness. “He threw a bit of a fit - it definitely bothered him.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 5, 2007]

Poor Shia. He will probably get recognized a lot more after this profile-raising drunken stand down. He is also set to star in the new Indiana Jones movie, which is due for release in the US on May 22, 2008.

Shia is shown at the premiere of Hot Rod Movie on 7/26/07 and at the Transformers premiere on 6/27/07. Thanks to PRPhotos.

Well the “Lost” curse may have struck again in the form of Daniel Dae Kim’s arrest on DUI charges last week, but at least he’s being a little more humble and dignified than some of his costars were. Kim issued an apology in which he said he was ashamed and embarrassed by his actions. He thanks those that have been supportive, and acknowledges that he has disappointed people and apologizes. This is in contradiction to Michelle Rodriguez, who abused police and has ranted for years about how unfair it is that she was punished for breaking the law.

Daniel Dae Kim, the Lost star arrested in Hawaii Thursday on a DUI charge, says he’s sorry. “I am deeply ashamed and embarrassed by the events of Thursday morning,” the actor says in a statement to TMZ. “It saddens me to know that I jeopardized the welfare of the kind people of Hawaii, a community that I love and call my home. It is my intention to cooperate fully with the police and I am grateful to them for their sensitivity throughout this matter,” Kim adds. “To my friends, family, colleagues and fans, thank you for your kind words of support. To those I have disappointed I can only ask that you accept my heartfelt apologies.”

Kim, who plays Jin-Soo Kwon on the ABC series, was arrested around 3 a.m. Thursday morning for allegedly driving drunk in Hawaii, where the show is filmed. He’s the latest Lost actor to be charged with drunk driving – Cynthia Watros and Michelle Rodriguez were busted on DUI charges in 2005.

[From People]

Well if nothing else, the guy has some good PR reps and lawyers. He also saw what Cynthia Watros and Michelle Rodriguez’s DUI arrests did to their jobs on the show… and to their careers in general. Kim’s character is much more essential to the show than Watros and Rodriguez’s, but on “Lost” no actor is safe from an angry cloud of smoke smacking them to death against a rock. I don’t know why, but to me it sounds like Kim is pretty sincere in his apology. I couldn’t find any other history of legal problems, so let’s hope this was a one time thing and he learns from it.

Michelle Rodriguez seems hell-bent on her whole “I’m the victim” “the system is the problem” line of thought when it comes to her DUI conviction. Michelle has a pretty involved rap sheet that began long before her most recent DUI arrest in Hawaii while she was filming “Lost.” In 2002, she was arrested for assault after getting into a physical fight with her then-roommate. The roommate refused to press charges. In 2003, she was charged with eight misdemeanors including hit and run and a DUI. She pleaded no contest to the hit and run, DUI, and driving with a suspended license. Want to know how much time she spent in jail? A grueling 48 hours. She also had to do community service in two New York City morgues, and finished a three-month alcohol program. As a result, Rodriguez was placed on probation for three years. So all she had to do at that point was just not drink and drive and run people over. Sounds fairly easy, right? Well apparently not so much.

Between August 24th and October 1st 2005, Rodriguez was pulled over three times in Hawaii for speeding, and given tickets for doing 83 mph in a 55 zone, 90 mph in a 35 zone, and 80 mph in a 50 zone. But did that hamper her style? Nope. Because she then decided to outdo herself and drive home (speeding, naturally) after drinking. She was charged with a DUI and eventually pleaded guilty. And you know what really says a lot about her character? Rodriguez chose to pay a $500 fine and go to jail for five days instead of having to do 240 hours of community service. Because isn’t jail always better than doing something good for others?

That arrest was a violation of her previous probation, so Rodriguez was back to jail for the probation violation as well. Though she was sentenced to 60 days in jail, she only spent a matter of hours in what I can only assume was the lady’s shower, before she was released due to overcrowding. Rodriguez also had to serve 30 days of community service and work with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, along with wearing an alcohol-detecting ankle monitor, which she repeatedly bitched about publicly, comparing the experience to George Orwell’s novel “1984.”

But Michelle’s hatred of helping others has hampered her again: it appears she hasn’t actually done all of her community service, and hasn’t done her required alcohol education program.

“Rodriguez went to court Friday to answer to the latest claims by the city attorney’s office, which said the former ‘Lost’ actress submitted a document stating she performed community service on Sept. 25, 2006, but later admitted she was actually in New York City that day. If she is found to have violated terms of her probation, Rodriguez could face between 477 to 537 days in county jail and a $2,000 fine. Rodriguez, 29, kept quiet in court as her attorney, Richard Beale, argued that she performed 30 days of community service and said ‘a clerical error’ caused the discrepancy in the paperwork.

“Superior Court Judge Daviann L. Mitchell granted Beale’s request to call two county sheriff’s supervisors who signed off on her community service forms to testify. A hearing was set for Oct. 12. In August, the judge found that Rodriguez had not completed a required alcohol monitoring program and ordered her to perform 30 days of road maintenance work. On Friday, the judge noted she had not completed the program or the maintenance work.

“Beale said she is making progress, but the judge admonished Rodriguez to take her probation more seriously. ‘I’m not impressed with your completion schedule,’ she said. ‘There were 55 people here in court today and all but very few have completed their responsibilities. They work on much less flexible schedules than you do.’”

[From Yahoo! News]

I hope Michelle Rodriguez goes back to jail. I bet she hopes so too. (In case you’re missing all the snide references - or just don’t follow Michelle Rodriguez with the macabre fascination that I do - she’s a sorta-closeted lesbian. Hence all the women’s prison and women’s shower jokes. Because I’m sophisticated like that). She’s talked a lot about how ridiculous and unfair the system is, and has written on her blog ad nausea about it. Honey, if you don’t like it, stop drinking. Stop hitting other cars and leaving the scene. Stop speeding when you knock too many back and decide it’s a great idea for you to drive home… really, really fast. Then you won’t feel like a victim of the system so much… and everyone else won’t feel like they’re about to be your hit and run victim. See how everyone wins!

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s Michelle at the Miami Vice World Premiere in July, 2006. Header image of Michelle at the Los Angeles Municipal Court in Downtown Los Angeles on Friday. Images thanks to Splash Photos.

Like the story of Vince Vaughn disturbing diners at a sushi restaurant with loud drunken complaints about his life, he was seen out at an L.A. club recently looking like crap and clearly wasted. Instead of bothering people with his sloppy behavior he tried to entertain them with it, with similar results:

Elvis Presley must have been spinning in his grave, after Wedding Crashers star Vince Vaughn crashed the stage at L.A. club Bordello to sing a boozy, out-of-tune rendition of one of The King’s classics!

An eyewitness tells Star that Vaughn, 37 - wearing what has become his trademark rumped, plaid work shirt… arrived at Bordello with a male friend at 10 p.m. on Aug. 24. “Vince already seemed a little glassy-eyed when he came into the club, but the first thing he did was to order a couple of cocktails,” said the eyewitness. “He hadn’t shaved and looked like he needed sleep…”

A rockabilly band was playing that night, and, the eyewitness reports, “after they finished a song, Vince must have decided that everyone was dying to hear him sing! He suddenly climbed on stage and talked to a band member off to the side, then grabbed the microphone and announced, ‘I’m gonna do an Elvis song!’ Everyone was excited at first since Vince is a celebrity.”

But the crowd’s oohs turned to boos almost immediately, as Vaughn’s vocal prowess - or lack thereof - filled the room. “Vince started singing ‘Little Sister,” but he was off key and seemed to stumble through the lyrics,” says the eyewitness. “The regular crowd [wasn’t] impressed at all… they actually started booing halfway through the song, an when he was through, one guy yelled out, ‘Hey Vince - don’t quit your day job!’”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, October 1, 2007]

Vaughn isn’t exactly attacking trees or removing his pants in public like Kiefer Sutherland, but he seems to have some issues with alcohol and I hope he has a designated driver or the sense to call a cab. He’s either lucky to not have been nabbed for DUI yet or responsible enough not to drink and drive. Given that it’s Vince Vaughn we’re talking about, I would say luck has more to do with it, but I hope I’m wrong.

The article in Star also had a funny inset pictorial called “Plaid to the Bone” featuring six different photos of Vaughn out wearing plaid shirts in different states of disarray.

Vaughn’s next film Fred Claus is coming out on November 9. Vaughn stars as little brother Fred to Santa, played by Paul Giamatti. Cinema Blend speculates that It could be fun adult fare like Bad Santa, or sweet but funny-smart like Elf, but it also looks like a risk for Vaughn, and if the film is too schmaltzy his career could take a nosedive. The poster is shown below, thanks to Cinematical.

Other images below are scans from Star Magazine.

24 star Kiefer Sutherland has been videotaped, photographed and witnessed in various compromising drunken situations, including performing karate in a restaurant, attacking a Christmas tree, and subsequently passing out on the floor of a hotel lobby, and taking his pants off at a restaurant. He’s pretty straightforward about his issues, and calls the Christmas tree incident his most embarrassing moment.

Now Sutherland has been popped for DUI for a second time in five years. He was pulled over at 1:34 AM in Hollywood after making an illegal U-turn last night and blew over twice the .08 limit on the breathalyzer. He was booked at 4:09 AM and got out about an hour an a half later after meeting bail of $25k. He was said to be cooperative in jail. Sutherland is due to appear in court on October 16:

TMZ has learned that “24″ star Kiefer Sutherland was busted on suspicion of DUI in West Hollywood last night, after allegedly blowing more than twice the legal limit of .08. This is the actor’s second DUI in the past five years — he was arrested in 2004. By California law, if he’s convicted, he must serve a mandatory minimum of five days in jail.

Police sources tell TMZ 40-year-old Sutherland was pulled over around 1:35 AM PST on the corner of La Cienega and Beverly. Sutherland was at the FOX Fall Eco-Casino party at Area nightclub earlier that evening. The photo in this story was taken at the event.

Sutherland, who was stopped after making an illegal U-turn, was arrested for misdemeanor DUI and transported to the Hollywood Police station. He was booked at 4:09 AM and released at 5:42 AM on $25,000 bail.

We’re told Sutherland was “cooperative and mellow” while he was in custody.

According to the L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. website, the actor is 5′10″ and weighs 150 lbs.

Sutherland is scheduled to face a judge on October 16.

[From TMZ.com]

If Sutherland is convicted or pleads guilty he faces a mandatory minimum of five days in prison. It seems like he’ll be the next celebrity to go to rehab in the hope of avoiding a stricter penalty for DUI. He should stay the hell away from Cirque Lodge in Utah. Lohan already has her hands full there with Richie Sambora, and another celebrity will just add to her already heavy workload.

Seriously, he could have killed someone and should face the penalty for his actions. It’s one thing to engage in drunken hijinks harming flora, it’s another to put people’s lives at risk.

Thanks to CityRag for the header image.

Praise Jeebus, one of the many lawsuits against Lindsay Lohan is going forward! This one is over the October 2005 crash in which Lohan hit a van that was making an illegal u-turn. Lohan was looking behind and over her shoulder at the time, but it was still ruled to be the van driver’s fault, since he was making an illegal turn. He’s sued Lohan for upwards of $200,000, and his lawyer has alleged that Lohan was drunk at the time of the crash. The lawyer’s logic is essentially that Lohan is drunk a lot, so she was likely drunk then. I’m not oversimplifying too much, that’s pretty much what the guy is saying, just in legalese. It didn’t seem like there was a good chance that the lawsuit would proceed to trial, given that it’s hard to prove Lohan was drunk at that specific time. Yeah we all know the burden of proof is much lower in a civil trial, but there’s still no evidence that Lohan had been drinking. She had just left the Ivy, and there are no witnesses that she drank during lunch there, and the California Highway Patrol said alcohol was not a factor in the crash. Still, Lindsay is a reckless person in general, both with her own body and with others. It seems likely that her own negligence had something to do with the crash – yeah the guy shouldn’t have been making an illegal u-turn, but Lohan shouldn’t have been driving forwards while looking backwards.

A lot of “accidents” have happened to Lindsay in the last couple years. Enough that it starts to look suspicious even before the DUIs and rehab and all that. Here’s a little timeline I put together of Lindsay’s last three years from Wikipedia, Hollywood.com, People, and Yahoo. Let’s recap, shall we?

2004
Car Crash – August 3. Studio City, CA. Lohan later sued.

Hospitalization – October 25th. “High fever” in Los Angeles, CA.

2005
Hospitalization – February. “Chest pains.”

Hospitalization – March 17th. Sprained ankle.

Car Crash - May 31. Fender bender.

Car Crash – June 1. “Innocent victim.” Led to a California law meant to control crazed paparazzi - holding them liable for triple damages whenever they cause a crash.

Car Crash – October 5. “Innocent victim.” Leaves the Ivy, slams into a truck that’s making an illegal u-turn. Lohan admitted she was looking behind her shoulder at the time. Lohan later sued.

2006
Hospitalization - January. Slipped on a staircase, broke a teacup and cut her leg in London.

Hospitalization - January. Asthma attack in Miami. 4 days in the hospital.

Hospitalization – July 25. Overheating and dehydration on the set of “Georgia Rule.”

Hospitalization – September. Broken wrist in New York City.

Car Crash – November 7. “Bumped” a paparazzo with her car in Los Angeles at 2am after leaving Hyde.

Car Crash – November 17 (approx). Vehicle rams into a police car in London with then-boyfriend Calum Best.

2007
Hospitalization - January 4. World’s briefest appendectomy. Seen partying until morning the day after alleged surgery.

Rehab - January 18. Checks into Wonderland Center.

Car Crash – March. Strikes a photographer with her BMW in Los Angeles.

Car Crash – March 13. Strikes a photographer in New York.

Car Crash - May 26. Loses control of her Mercedes and strikes a curb.

Hospitalization – May 26. Minor injuries related to car crash.

Arrest – DUI – alcohol. “Usable” amount of cocaine found in vehicle.

Rehab – May 28. Checks into Promises.

Car Chase - July 24. Commandeers white GMC and chases former assistant’s mother through Santa Monica. Fails field sobriety tests. Blood alcohol level tested at between 0.12 and 0.13 percent. Small amount of cocaine found in pocket of pants.

Arrest – July 24th. Arrested on felony charges of possession of cocaine, transportation of a narcotic, and misdemeanor DUI and driving with a suspended license.

Rehab – August. Checks into Cirque Lodge.

So that’s nine car crashes in three years. Three trips to rehab in less than one year. Nine trips to the hospital, all under rather dubious circumstances. At some point you realize she’s either the unluckiest girl in the world, or she has a lot to do with all these things that “happen” to her. It’s more that she’s happening to them. She’s not just some girl who accidentally has 9 trips to the hospital. Unless she has a serious and chronic disease we don’t know about, nine trips in three years is not normal. I’m guessing Lohan has probably been drunk since about 1995 onwards, and all the falling down the stairs, heat exhaustion, and broken teacups attacking her are the logical result of all the drunkenness.

On the upside, it appears that Lohan’s community service for said drunk driving, cocaine, and chasing people will include a few little activities we didn’t know about. According to MSNBC, Lohan “must complete a three-day county coroner program in which she’ll visit a morgue and talk to victims of drunken drivers.” I doubt the victims of drunken drivers will impact Lohan in the least, because that’s about other people. But maybe the morgue will give her a better idea of what’ll happen to her if she doesn’t shape up, and let’s face it, it’s all about Lindsay.

The classiness that is Fergie thinks we should go easy on Britney and Lindsay. She says they need time alone to deal with their issues and get better – and that’s completely true. But they’re not doing that. Well I guess Lindsay is a little bit, only because she’s at the point where it’s rehab far away or jail. Though she’s still been out and about, supposedly even stopping by a convenience store to buy beer while in rehab. Britney has been out partying pretty much every night for the last year or so. It’s ridiculous. If they want some privacy and to get better, stay home! Go to rehab! The problem with Britney is she’s given no indication that she wants to get better or that she even realizes anything is wrong with her or her life. So it’s good advice in theory, but the change has to start with the famous person, not with the general public for watching the famous person.

“Fergie – no stranger to tabloid attention – says she can relate to what Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are going through. And what the 20-something stars need, says the 32-year-old Black Eye Peas singer, is some breathing room so they can help themselves. ‘They’re young,’ Fergie (real name: Stacy Ferguson) said at a Fashion Rocks event in New York. ‘I was young when I went through my stuff. Leave them alone. If they want to get better, they’re going to get better on their own.’

Spears, 25, has returned to Los Angeles to rejoin her sons, Jayden, Sean Preston, who are respectively turning 1 and 2 this week, after a disappointing comeback performance Sunday at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas. Earlier this year, she spent a month in rehab. Lohan, 21, is in her third rehab program, this one in Utah, following her DUI arrest last month, for which she was sentenced to a day in jail. In a statement, she said she was addicted to alcohol and drugs and had relapsed.

Fergie, whose own time in rehab was for a crystal meth addiction, says that Spears and Lohan should ignore the media attention and focus on their problems. ‘If somebody is going to change, they have to want to do it themselves,’ she says. ‘I think it is really unfair to them when they are trying to get help. We’re all watching as a nation and commenting day by day on their rehabilitation. It’s not fair. You’re supposed to have a sanctuary, a place where you can go and not be pressured every day.’”

[From People]

If Britney and Lindsay want sanctuary, they need to go find one. It’s not everyone else’s job to make one for them. I don’t give her credit for much, but at least Lindsay Lohan has been laying low in rehab. She’s gone out a bit, but nothing like before, and she (or one of her handlers) was smart enough to go to a rehab away from Hollywood. These girls have major problems, and neither of them seem to really understand that. They don’t like the consequences – jail, bad headlines, crappy performances – but don’t seem to realize that in order to get those things to stop, they have to stop. Go somewhere far away and get your head and your life together. Most people can’t afford to do that, but both Lindsay and Britney are uniquely lucky that they can. Take advantage.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Fergie - looking like a hot mess as usual - promoting her new line of handbags at Macy’s last Wednesday. Images thanks to PR Photos.