As we all woke up Sunday, we learned of the tragic news of Glee star Cory Monteith's death in a Vancouver hotel. We all swirled towards the initial thought: drugs and alcohol. The actor had been very open in the past with his struggles with addiction, but maintained a sober lifestyle and by all accounts, was one of the kindest, hardest working young people in Hollywood. So what happened?
TMZ speculates that he may have been living some sort of double life (this is backed by some of his friends and family, apparently), being the clean cut Hollywood heartthrob while in LA, and a hard partying drug user back home in BC. Apparently, he couldn't escape his addiction when he was around his friends and family (and enablers).
Come Tuesday, the coroner's office released its findings: heroin and alcohol killed the young star. But what is it about fame that hooks people? In Monteith's case, he was sober before becoming famous, so his addiction was there before Hollywood came a courting. With yet another tragic loss of a bright star, I wonder if it's true that artistic, intelligent people can often fall victim to addiction because of their ability?
Clearly there are lots of celebrities who became addicted after they became famous, but in this case, the addiction happened before, yet seemed to rear its ugly head again. Hollywood is a sick machine that we all readily buy into (even me) even just by buying an album or going to a movie. We vote for people's popularity with our wallets and I'm sure that takes a strong emotional toll on those with an artistic temperment.
I don't think we'll ever really know what happened in Monteith's case, other than the fact that he worked in an industry that is not very helpful of those with addiction. Some are lucky and survive (like Robert Downey Jr) but most are not. Those who do manage to pull themselves back from the brink seem to have long, illustrious careers: something it seemed Montieth was poised to move towards. The hard part now is explaining to his young fans what happened to him and have talks about drugs and alcohol that many of us as parents may not have been ready to have.
So, spill it! What were your reactions to the news of Cory Montieth's death?
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