A tale of 2 celebrity overdoses

[mercuryblues]

The death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman , reminded me of when Whitney Houston died. Both very talented. Both about the same age, both due to drug overdoses. However the public reaction to the vastly differ.

From Freerepublic on PSH



I can’t remember him in a role that didn’t impress me. I just saw him interviewed last week and he looked pretty ragged. He’s one of the very few actors I’ll actually miss.


He is very, very good. He was an asset to any movie he was ever in. He disappeared into his roles but bore scrutiny well. Look for his films and admire.

It was said Hoffman had been battling heroin addiction for quite some time--and now has succumbed to that addiction. Another famous celebrity that couldn't overcome serious substance abuse problems.... sad

Pray for his soul.

This really pains me, I love him on every level he had me follow him to.

Big, Big, BIG loss. Prayers for his family, friends, colleagues, us, everybody.

Hoffman, you were good at your craft and made us think. Will be missing you forever as I watch films you’re in.


Now comments about WH

In the end, she was nothing but a skank. A rich, but now dead, skank.

Elvis too, died near broke, drugged, and in a bathroom. But at least, he had all 10 of his front teeth.

The lady was about to go in the studio to record the Christmas chestnut "All I want for Christmas are my 11 front teeth!"
maybe she was bobbing for enamel



You're seriously that dense? Her autopsy drives home and reinforces the fact that Christie ordered the flags flown at half staff for a lousy, celebrity junkie. The defenders of his action wanted to reserve judgment until the autopsy because they were defending the fact that she had *cleaned-up* her life.

Color me stupid but I didn't even know she was a schvatza until I saw a picture of her in an article associated with her death.

To be fair. FR does have some comments mourning the passing of Whitney. They are far,far outnumbered by comments like these.

[CBGLuthier]

1. You are aware that she was not white and that those folks are racist assholes, right

I think going to that shithole to take the cultural temperature might be a mistake.

I also have seen, here on DU, that Fox Nation commentators were glad to see the NY liberal dead. Mr. Hoffman that is.

[Lost_Count]

7. You ever think that someone could...

... be utterly unimpressed by the death of a drugged up has been for a reason other than race or gender?

[Ohio Joe]

10. You think FR is not a group of racists?

Are you shitting me?

[leftynyc]

16. That sewer known as free republic

is well known for their contempt for anyone who is not a white Christian - unless they're trashing Democrats - the allen west's are the "good ones" who they parade around like trophies. Those people are barely human.

[morningfog]

17. Easy, there. You are letting your mask slip. Tick tock, tick tock.

[Lost_Count]

19. Ehrmegerd....

Is it really so scandalous to suggest that someone might have reasons to not care about Whitney Houston other than racism or sexism?

My goodness...

[morningfog]

22. Not necessarily.

[CreekDog]

23. We understand that you want us to give deference to the opinions of FR members

we get that, really.

[Brickbat]

2. Race and gender make a big difference to a lot of people.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I see the two standards of "mourning" celebrity deaths as more

sexist rather than racist.

You take the accidental deaths of Elvis, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi, Lenny Bruce, etc. and there are sighs and words of regret and condolences.

Janice Joplin, Judy Garland, Amy Winehouse, and Whitney Houston, also victims of accidental overdoses, are treated with the attitude of women can't handle drugs and/or alcohol, therefore women shouldn't do drugs like the big boys. Their legacies are trivialized by their deaths. I don't see the same standard applied to the dead male celebrities. (Big exception: Marilyn Monroe seems to have gotten a free pass.)

[Orrex]

4. Whitney Houston was a years-long trainwreck before her death

Hoffman was still enjoying critical and professional success immediately prior to his overdose. I think that this also plays a major role in the public's reaction to their deaths.

If Robert Downey Jr. had died while scraping bottom in the 90s, I suspect that society's response would have been generally unsympathetic. For that matter, if Justin Bieber were found dead of an OD tomorrow morning, do you think that the internet would be overrun by well-wishers?


There's a lot to discuss in the different reactions to male vs. female drug-related deaths, but direct comparisons between Hoffman and Houston strike me as misplaced.

[mercuryblues]

5. well of course

you must be right. It all has to do with her celeb status at the time of her death. Nothing at all to do with her race or sex.

[Orrex]

6. well of course

that wasn't my assertion at all, so you either didn't read my post or you didn't understand it.

A celebrity who dies after a long downward spiral will get different media treatment than a promising celebrity who dies while on the way up.

Despite your apparent wishes, I didn't claim that race or sex don't play a role in the media's coverage; I simply asserted that they aren't the only factors, and drawing one ne comparisons between celebrities is problematic.

[Aerows]

11. Look at Amy Winehouse

She was also on a downward spiral, and I don't think anyone was exactly surprised when she died of an overdose. I don't think anyone will be surprised if Lindsay Lohan ends up that way, either. Cory Monteith, though, was a shock because he was on his way up, as was the death of Heath Ledger.

If Justin Beiber goes that way, it won't be a huge shocker.

[mercuryblues]

18. Why thank you for that.

I must have completely misunderstood this:

There's a lot to discuss in the different reactions to male vs. female drug-related deaths, but direct comparisons between Hoffman and Houston strike me as misplaced.

What did you really mean then? I understood it to mean that sex had nothing to do with the vast difference of the comments.

Personally, I think one of the biggest factors is race. The racial slurs they used make that pretty clear. The fact that WH was a female also allows a certain segment of our society to believe that she deserved to die for whatever reason they conjure up in their little minds.

Instead of discussing you dismissed the reasons given in a post above, with your alternative opinion. Her star status was not something I had considered. Sure it could be a small part of it, just not a major reason.

[Aerows]

21. But we aren't FR

and we have different opinions than they do. Trying to hoist us up on *their* petard is incorrect. We aren't them, and we aren't the "Democratic counterpart" to them. We are DU.

[Orrex]

24. Aerows has already given a great answer

However, I'm happy to help clear up your misunderstanding.

You asked about this statement:

There's a lot to discuss in the different reactions to male vs. female drug-related deaths, but direct comparisons between Hoffman and Houston strike me as misplaced.

(Emphasis yours)

As I noted in my first post, Hoffman was at the peak of his career, with growing critical, artistic, and commercial success and enjoying the widely-held impression that his best work was yet to come. His current addiction was not widely known and he died while still ascending.

Houston died after more than a decade of scandal amid a destructive and very public battle with addiction. Her career had diminished greatly from her peak, and her greatest successes seemed far in her past. She died at the end of a protracted downward spiral.

You are eager to present this as the media's unfair handling of a white male celebrity versus a black female celebrity, and if we were talking about two celebs of equal critical and professional standing, then that might indeed be the primary issue. Instead, we have a case of a successful celebrity dying in his prime versus a waning pop star dying long after her best days.


It would strengthen your claim if you could provide an example of a greatly diminished white male star whose death due to drugs was treated with media reverence. Otherwise the comparison between Hoffman and Houston is very weak.

[Nye Bevan]

9. You can pretty much generate any narrative you want by quoting selectively.

Freerepublic on Whitney Houston:

Sad she was very talented unlike alot of Pop “singers” these days....Remember seeing her videos in the 80’s...

Rest in peace, after a talented but troubled life. This is so sad.

A tragedy. She was beautiful back in the 80s. I pray she came to know Christ before she died.

When I first saw her back in the ‘80s I thought she was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. Way too young and way too bad.


Freerepublic on Phillip Seymour Hoffmann:

A dopehead in Greenwich Village died of an overdose? Not the first time that’s ever happened.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was obviously torn and lost-—and his Reality/Truth was totally skewed and distorted by lies, that could not fill his Soul.

An actor dead from of a drug overdose in Greenwich Village? Nah, can’t be. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Another talented junkie throws his life away.

Is it surprising a man who cannot commit to the mother of his children couldn't commit to staying away from drugs?

Drug overdose ... what an idiot.

Like the old 70s anti-drug commercial said, “Why do you think they call it DOPE?”

The way the guy’s being hailed, you’d think he cured a disease or created a useful algorithm. Celebrity worship.

One less Lib advocating my disarmament. No loss.

[hughee99]

14. Well said! If you're going to pick and choose comments from almost any message board

you can make it seem to support any argument.

[Orrex]

15. Excellent post

And I salute you for having the stomach to endure FR long enough to quote from it.

[mercuryblues]

20. but what is the ratio

Of negative to positive?

When I was there yesterday, it was polar opposites.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. Graciousness regarding the death of any non-uberconservative has never been FR's strong suit

Let's not forget how they reacted to Nelson Mandela's death. They basically made him out to be Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot all rolled into one.

[malaise]

13. Ding ding we have a winner

[Warren DeMontague]

25. No shit. PSH should really check his privilege.

I mean, except for the being dead part.