Brigitte Nielsen, who has made a second career out of third and fourth careers, puts it this way: "People who don't have a heart are going to find it entertaining, but really it's educational and it should be looked at in that way."
The Danish-born actress is referring to her earnest participation in VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew," which premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday and costars eight other low-rung celebrities battling for sobriety. Some, like Nielsen, who had to drink half a bottle of vodka to make the initial phone call for rehab, are still winning: Almost six months after taping the program, she said, she hasn't had a drink. Others on the program, like Jessica Sierra, a former "American Idol" finalist who was arrested and jailed last month in Florida on charges of disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest, clearly are not.
Judgments were checked at the door, but in this groundbreaking case, the cameras were not. Recording devices were everywhere inside a Pasadena residential treatment facility, yielding what is being billed as television's first look inside the mystery of rehabilitation -- and all under the supervision of the only celebrity in the room without an addiction.
Whether viewers find the eight one-hour episodes that unblinkingly capture such fallen-star moments as withdrawal shakes, group therapy tears or post-meal flatulence as elucidating as a PBS documentary or as tragi-hilarious as VH1's long line of "celebreality" programming remains to be seen. But before it has even aired, the VH1 show has raised questions across Internet message boards about the ethics of violating rehab's traditional shroud of privacy in the apparent service of television ratings. Adding to the potential cynicism -- and attention, of course -- are the show's deeply troubled celebrities, who are, after all, human, and may well be hovering just inches above their lowest point in life.
It's a thought that has weighed heavily upon the show's center of calm and authority, Dr. Drew Pinsky. A physician and head of the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Pasadena's Las Encinas Hospital, the prematurely gray father of teenage triplets is known for his articulate compassion and is probably more famous -- thanks to his nationally syndicated radio call-in program, "Loveline," and numerous television appearances -- than many of his "Celebrity Rehab" patients.
