I was watching The Kid the other day with my girls. Bruce Willis plays a spin-meister whose job is damage control for ill-behaving famous figures. Well, it seems to me there’s a trend of damage control in real life of late…

First, rep. Mark Foley and Mel Gibson blamed alcoholism and entered rehab. Then Michael Richards, Mike Tyson & Isiah Washington both entered rehab for “psychological counseling” for whatever blame I don’t even understand. Now SF Mayor Gavin Newsom blames his affair on alcoholism and enters rehab. How convenient…

The first thing these guys do is announcing something like “I take full responsibility…” and then follow up with “I have a problem and I will seek help by checking myself into a rehab.” Makes you think if they’re all using the same image consultant. You can’t help but chuckle every time this same old tactic is employed by somebody famous.

These are desperate attempts to drum up public sympathy. I for one do not have any for these characters. They cannot be excused of their behavior just because they “acknowledge” they have a problem. There’s virtually no courage in this kind of “acknowledgment.” The majority of them are not even “owning” up to their problems– they got caught, for Pete’s sake! Plus, owning up to one’s behavior does not automatically means sympathy. They are adults, not kids…

Furthermore, using “going to get treatments” shifts the emphasis on the behavior from a character flaw issue. To a degree, these are attempts of distancing oneself from one’s own demons– a behavior is more treat-able than a character flaw. So ironically, this “taking responsibility and getting treatment” tactic actually removes the responsibility of the act itself in my opinion. Ultimately in the above cases, rehabs were used by these individuals to get a handle on their images and avoid the consequences.

Psychological counseling may help with behaviors, but how does it or anything else help with something inherent as a character flaw? Is that possible? Treatment is a way of getting help, not a convenient excuse for bad behaviors or character flaws!