This may have been the most ill thought out reality show ever. Besides Brigitte and that girl who 'claims' to have a weed addiction, these people need serious help. And bullshit antics from Daniel Baldwin and Kinicki do not help.

The officer was white.

I think that closes This Week in Jez quite nicely.

Why is she talking about leaving when she is obviously not ready to leave? Is filming over so they're sending them all on their merry way? Good luck! We're obviously evil tv executives so we give fuck-all about your real problems!

I don't believe that a mere food fight was such a cause for alarm (the music and the rehab techie's heartbroken look were too much). It's also tough to determine if Jeff Conway is having actual drug fits or is simply being a Hollywood ham. You gotta love sensationalism.

@ThaKadinskyPapers: I disagree. It's much better done than it could've been, and I think it portrays addiction honestly. But yeah, that f'in Baldwin guy was a stroke.

@blondegrlz: No, they were given the option of continuing in a sober living facility, and what they're grappling with is either going into sober living, which they all clearly need, or going home where there are no rules but instead the temptation of relapse.

I can't understand how any of them think they'll magically be void of cravings or temptations after only 21 days (at least that's how long I understood them to be there w/o the sober living facility).

@broad: oh I think we're seeing their addiction struggles in a very real, very raw way. I just don't think having a set of cameras there among people who appear to have deep seated emotional and attention-seeking issues is the wisest method of treatment. And while I'm not a fan of Dr. Drew's I have to commend him for his efforts, but I don't think he can do it all himself. That group could use a therapist for each patient.

In other news: Hi! How've you been?

@broad: What's the difference between this house and a sober living facility (besides the cameras)? I'm not being snarky, I really don't know the difference.

@CookiePuss:

Clarification: Not saying they think they will be, rather it seems like a waste of time to only treat an addiction for three weeks before re-entry.

@ThaKadinskyPapers: (smiles) Eh, all right. It's freakin' cold and I'm broke, but you know ... You?

And yeah, you're right -- it is a pretty raw thing, but no more raw than "Intervention," which I also have a sick, sick love for. I kinda think that anyone with an addiction probably shouldn't do it on camera, to be perfectly honest.

@CookiePuss: In sober living, they get to leave the facility for work and stuff, but it's still heavily regulated (i.e. group meetings, etc.)

I mean, blondegrlz.

@broad: I also love Intervention, but it's more about showing how an addiction screws up your life. They don't really show the actual treatment, you just get a little update at the end (and when it's not good news, I always cry!). It's not invasive in their actual therapy.

Boy, Jeff Conaway looks creepy now. He was pretty cute on "Taxi". Sad how things turn out sometimes.

@blondegrlz: Intervention, it is not. Celebrity Rehab is for shock value and entertainment only.

And with that, I'm outta here!!! Have a great weekend, all you hairy dykes ;>

I cannot really say how I feel about this show. I have an extremely difficult time reconciling the fact that while Dr Drew is trying to help, it is still showing this terrible disease as entertainment.

@broad: agreed. I know they always say they forget about the cameras after a while but I tend to think if I was locked up in rehab where it would be difficult enough to focus and face the issues that landed me there in the first place, that I would prolly find the cameras a huge distraction. I guess I just can't imagine delving into all my demons and shit knowing someone is zooming in on my face for dramatic effect.

Same thing with 'Intervention', only you know, they're all cracked out so they can be tricked into thinking they're on a show about 'addiction'.

@broad: I'm good, finally off work for a bit but I'm all kinds of grumpy about winter. Effin' single digit temps, effin' snow - blargh.

@NefariousNewt: You think? Shock value I can buy, but I don't know that I'd go so far as calling it "entertainment." With treating several people at once, I think it's condensed much more than "Intervention," therefore making it seem more "made for TV." But I still contend it could be much worse.

@ThaKadinskyPapers: I know, right? I'm over all the ass-cold myself. And I DESPERATELY need a change of scenery, even if it's for a weekend.

I keep waiting for "camerawhore" to be listed as an addiction. It clearly is.

My 2 brothers combined have been in treatment upwards of 50 times. I'm riveted to this show, for filling in the blanks I have in my bros' life stories (one is dead-alcohol). I think it's reasonably well done. They were all offered extended treatment. They should have all accepted. Except for Mary Carey, none of them had a place to go anyway. The place she had is probably not great for sobriety.

Wait, she was sentenced to a year for pulbic drunkeness and insulting a cop? Someone please tell me I missed the real crime she committed. Please.

I really, really feel for the girl. I want her to clean up and get sober and get on her feet. Sigh. She is the only one of the bunch I actually really want to make it.

@dingosmom1: I agree. (And so sorry about your brother.) One of my PR firm's clients is an addiction treatment company, so the inside view of treatment, while obviously Hollywood-ized, is a total eye-opener.

"According to the report, Sierra said 'Fuck you, nigger' several times to one of the officers.The officer was white."

Ha! LOVE IT! I once said "nigga please" to one of my white friends & he just had this look on his face like what.the.fuck? it's fun messing with our lighter brothers sometimes.

Is it sick or sad, or maybe a combo thereof, that I totes understand JS's thought process that she tries to explain? And also, that dude in the hat...well, he's just a jerk. In a fucking hat.

My fiancee was in a treatment program 5 yrs ago, and he is fascinated by the show. (but he does NOT like Intervention. He says nobody can quit any bad habit until they want to, like a stereotypical stuffy old boss who won't approve suggestions unless he thinks it's HIS idea). He said CR is a realistic portrayal of group, people in lying to themselves and all. He believes strongly in graduating out through a sober living place, where they can go make a living but have to be back at night by a certain time, continue with group therapy, stay in that safe zone, etc.

I would think going home when your sobriety is still so fragile would be a total waste of the time you just spent. You have to get used to the reality of living sober, and not going back to your old hangouts with your old friends, etc. A friend who has been sober for 4 yrs said the hardest thing for her was accepting that she had to make a new circle of (sober) best friends, and step back from her old circle.

I think one of the telling things about Jessica's commitment to the show was when she explained her manager had broached two projects she'd had trouble deciding between, Oxygen's Bad Girls Club and this show. She was worried about which kind of sensationalized TV to be making from the get-go and I think she felt in character the entire time. Would the very fact of being on TV make any actor feel like they could just act their way out of their addiction?

I feel like a lot of what Jessica went though on the show was real, not acted. However, she is still in that place between being an addict and sober. One part of her may be saying, "I'm going to get out of here, booze it up, and make some more reality TV to sell records! YEAH!" the other half of her may be saying, "I just want to feel loved for once. I need to commit to recovery." She's between those two places right now and probably feeling both sides at once.

There's a reason why she chose to go on this show instead of doing something else for attention. I will be surprised if a single participant on this show remains sober, the odds aren't in their favor, but that doesn't mean that at least a fraction of who they are isn't committed to recovery.

I like both CR and Intervention. CR is not as trainwreck/can't look away as Intervention and it shows a different part of the process. If my kids were just a little bit older, I'd make them watch both, but especially Intervention, b/c sometimes the way people act on that show is scary, scary. If its still around in a couple of years, my son will be watching it.

I have a very good friend who always says the same thing whenever someone is in the paper or the news doing something tragic, bad, stupid, etc. He says "we are all one bad decision away from being that guy". That's what both those shows always make me think of, and I thank God I didn't try this or that when it was offered in my younger days. Cause, I can't eat just one m&m. I eat the whole bag.

Is anyone else just stunned by the instance of crack addiction in 40+ yr olds who just started it? We have a friend in his 40s who is now a crack head. I can't get my head wrapped around it. He's been to rehab 2-3 times so far. My husband had to participate in the intervention. This is not something I ever expected to happen to our friends. Maybe our friends' older kids, but not our friends. We are not in our 20's partying every night. Late 30's and 40's married with kids of all ages. This happened after high school during my 20's to some friends, but 20 yrs later, it is freaky.

Like Dingosmom, I've dealt with addiction in my own family too. I feel weird watching this show, but it has helped me to see what goes on in a rehab center. I was appalled this week by their behavior though - man, they're all in their 20s and 30s, and 50s in the case of Jeff Conaway, but they act like they're about 14. But, given that they say emotional growth stops at the time someone starts using, it's not surprising. [candyonthecape.blogspot.com]

I feel sorry for pretty much everyone on celebrity rehab. Except Ricco Rodriguez, that guy is a douchebag.

Does anyone else think Jeff Conaway needs to scrape off his leech of a girlfriend or he's never going to get healthy?

@randomthoughts: Wow, that is freaky. I can't say that I personally know anyone in that age group who has a crack problem, but it does make you wonder. I hope your friend can find his way.

@BlueFairy: Conaway definitely needs to get rid of her. That relationship is nothing but bad news.

The fact that this show only offers three weeks of "recovery" is a joke. Rehabs that last 28 days are ridiculous enough, but the only way anyone who goes through a program stays clean- unless of course they're really, really motivated- is at least a 6-month residential program, and the statistics start getting decent after a year, year-and-a-half. At the end of three weeks, your head is still really scrambled; you are barely starting to wake up. Opiate addicts are generally still going through long-term withdrawal a year later (i.e., sleep patterns, body manufacturing its own endorphins, lessening depression)

@BlueFairy:

OMG, yes, Vicki, that dirty, thieving gypsy, has got to go! Attention whoring considerations aside (cause Conway has that in spades), he really did make a startling physical recovery over the course of the show. He looked so human on the boat to Catalina, and so different from the dead man walking (wheeling?) that he was when he showed up. And the fact that she not only planned on keeping drugs in the house he was living in, but brought shit TO THE REHAB boggles me--she's supposedly in love with this guy, can't she see his profound positive transformation after only 3 weeks? Or I guess that's just addiction, she can't see past her own next dose or drink or whatever. But she's clearly not ready to make any effort toward her own recovery, and it's going to kill that poor dude.

Gypsies.

There's got to be some sort of reunion/update coming, right?

@Cheffie: Whoa, whoa whoa whoa WHOA! Who said anything about Vicki being a gypsy!?? And why on earth would that have anything to do with Jeff's and her addictions!?? Yeah, she's scummy and an obvious detriment to Jeff, but her ethnic group (if she even IS Romani) has NOTHING to do with anything.

Wow, that's just outright ugly.

@all y'all: Agreed,Vicki spells doom for Jeff. Drew needs to spend some serious time in breaking that relationship down if he's going to have a remote chance at helping Jeff in the long run.

What is up with Drew walking out of group in next week's episode? Isn't that practically a violation of his Hippocratic oath? It's a little embarrasing to admit, but I'm genuinely curious about how that will play out.

Um... in that still shot jessica looks EXACTLY like me. That was a scroll-down heart attack for me right there.

@Cheffie: Racist much? (Or was this bashing not so much racial as ethnic?) I wonder what response you'd get for a similar slur on those of Jewish faith, for instance? Or an African-American. Anyway, bashing Gypsies is off base. No ethnic group can be held accountable for Vikki Skanki.

@Cheffie: Seriously-- you have a problem. You will find no friends here with that attitude. And you're lucky you trotted out that racist shite on the weekend-- less Jezzies around to call you out on your hate.

It is true that living with an addict is trouble for a recovering one, and the first upset/bad day/fight, he (Jeff) will be right back to where he started, and where she (Vicki) is more comfortable. They both need to be in treatment, or it just won't work. She will bring him down, he can't bring her up, not unless she wants to, and even then, it would be a difficult road.

@Cheffie: Whoa there. You're not going to find people receptive to your slurs of ethnic groups here. That sort of hate is truly unacceptable.

Vicky clearly needs her own help...who in there right mind would bring vodka spiked vitamin water to a rehab facility, not only is it really stupid, its also shows she doesn't want Jeff to recover.

@messygirl: me too! how could he just walk out? all addicts must go through a freak out period before they leave, isn't this just par for the course?