I wasn't going to add this to such a respectful thread, but some of the commentary on this in social media, FB in particular, has been despicably insensitive, even cruel. Needless to say, pointlessly so, as Minnelli has never demonstrated arrogance, hypocrisy or anything close to indifference to addiction as a disease or a lifelong personal struggle. If anything, her honesty and vulnerability have bordered on heroic. I don't think that's hyperbole.
It's the nature of our culture perhaps to kick anyone and everyone when challenged. But stepping back, the bigger issue here is the strange ambivalence about addiction. When a Houston or a Hoffman dies, the outcry generally runs in the direction of "why didn't someone help them?" I heard it repeatedly, a kind of generic finger pointing at the immediate circle and the society at large. And often the individual who died (Winehouse comes to mind.) Anyone who has dealt with addiction in their family -- and I have on two levels, a generation before and a generation after me -- knows that death is always possible. Always.
We are appalled when the warning signs seemingly go unheeded. And yet at least some of us too often giggle and find comedy in shallow commentary when the warning signs are dealt with responsibly, as Minnelli has. Sadly, perhaps that binary response -- anger when it's too late, and glib indifference when it's seriously addressed -- seems part of who are are.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 3/20/15 at 07:09 PM
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