Kevo Blog

Rehab was once reserved for that special moment when one realized that they had hit rock-bottom. It offered a last bastion of hope for those who had stumbled past their limits: the celebrities that had been caught with drugs and hookers in cheap motel rooms, their mug-shots plastered across CNN.com, their hair always slightly askew to the left, faces puffy from a weekend bender, and eyes vacant, and bloodshot. It was a sanctuary, restricted from the outside world where drastic measures were taken to combat the addict’s degenerative disease of alcohol, drug or gambling abuse. A few years ago, it was only the drug-addled antics and subsequent busts that made headlines, and ne’er a peep to follow. Courtney Love has gone several times, and the mention of her sentence was announced, but her ensuing stay in rehab was always kept under the radar. Ben Affleck went for gambling addiction, I think, but no one talked about it much. Whitney Houston has yoyo-ed in and out several times without much of a fuss. Yasmine Bleeth’s mug-shot still haunts her to this day, though I never heard what steps she took to combat her “little problem.”

Robert Downey Jr. has gone multiple times, but really all I can remember is his jail time, his pretty picture and his ankle bracelet – but no rest and recovery time.

In fact, we all have friends, and relatives that have had to try it out, and it has always been kept very hush-hush: a time for that person to build a foundation for the rest of their lives, and hopefully someday emerge a better person for the experience – with just a little skeleton rattling in the closet.

However, recently, instead of keeping celebrities’ habits and following payment-to-said-piper out of the public eye, stints of drug abuse and ensuing layovers in Promises, Wonderland, or the ubiquitous Betty Ford are strewn across the evening news, inviting all who dare care to track the addiction-recovery process of their beloved miss-stepped star. Now this is all well and good. It gives the public a taste of how rampant addiction is in today’s Starbuck’s Venti Mochachino with a Ritalin chaser world and how difficult recovery can be, proving to all that there is no need to paint one of your own sheep black for their mistakes.

But I have to take a step back and wonder: is the way of the rehab quickly devolving into a career move? And when did it become an option to move so boldly? Specifically, if a celebrity’s reputation has been marred by too much excess, can they just be shipped off for a leisurely 30-day vacation to get “clean,” and then emerge as bright and shiny as a sober Sunday morning?

Though I never thought I would be writing these words in my life: I think it all started with Pat O’Brien.

This once prominent man in the celebrity world, known for hosting the half-hour gossip show, “The Insider” where he interviewed movie and television stars about their private and public lives, spearheaded this entire obscure hide-out/blow-over campaign back in March of 2005. After an embarrassing string of dirty voice-mail messages became public, which expressed O’Brien’s insatiable taste for hookers, cocaine and adventurous sex, this beloved gossip-hungry host checked out of reality and into rehab to avoid the damaging viral revelations that spread like wild-fire across the internet fields. He claimed that the reason for his lascivious manner, naughty language (I want to f**king go crazy with you”) and his penchant for offering up his member to coworkers (A gay male producer said that O’Brien once said to him, “I have a gift for you,” and when asked what, O’Brien allegedly answered, “Bend over”) was directly caused by his addiction to alcohol and cocaine. So, he hid for awhile, became a national joke for 30-days as everything unraveled, and then upon his exodus, “The Insider” immediately welcomed him with open arms and a light slap on the ass – problem solved.

Furthermore, in late July of 2006, another one of our favorite celebrities, albeit a much more respected one, ran into the same dirty mouthed slip of the tongue. Though, instead of wanting to penetrate various orifices of his colleagues, Mel Gibson simply wanted to eradicate all the Jews in the world.

Gibson was arrested after driving drunk on the Pacific Coast Highway in his hometown of Malibu; but where the situation became devastatingly more serious was when an obliterated Gibson began to preach to the cause of anti-Semitism, which not only insulted the police officers (one happened to be Jewish, and the other Gibson referred to as “Sugar Tits”), but also served to alienate an entire peoples.

This black-out landed him shortly thereafter in, you guessed it, rehab. His excuse for this condemnation? He has an issue with alcohol abuse. Though, pictures did surface from that night, which clearly illustrated to the world that a significant amount of alcohol was in fact being abused, Gibson most likely decided that he had hit his career rock-bottom with his alarming tirade, and had to take some drastic action or potentially be excommunicated from the Church of Hollywood. In fact, most of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles dines on Matzah and Kosher meets, so passing the blame onto something that can be and has been blamed for so much was Gibson’s only shot at redemption – short of traveling to every Jewish temple in Los Angeles and handing out cookies for Yom Kippur. Though everyone eventually accepted Gibson’s excuse, many still doubted his claim of alcoholic excess and thought it was more of the deep-seeded-hatred-of-Jews sort of excess.

Both of these perpetrators used rehab to rehab there public and reputation-damaging mistakes, and not to fight any aforementioned degenerative disease. Doesn’t that kind of undermine the sanctity of rehab’s purpose?

Now, the fun part: our beloved Celebutards. Lindsey Lohan started her 2007 with a stint in rehab following months of speculation regarding her drug and booze binges, and one very notable reprimand from Morgan Creek Productions CEO and super producer, James G. Robinson who delivered a strongly-worded letter to the 20-year old starlet’s people, accusing her of “all night heavy partying” making up “bogus excuses,” and threatening to take action to recover any “monetary damages.” Her crime? Repeatedly failing to show up to set on time, and giving the bogus excuses of “dehydration” and “exhaustion.” Her behavior continued on unchecked until she found herself in Wonderland in Los Angeles after the world watched and speculated about the severity of her addition problem. Though her original intention seemed genuine enough, she went on to threaten rehab’s benefit to everyone else. She announced to the press through her publicist to “please respect my privacy at this time.” Though privacy is not what she got. In fact, she was photographed out of the facility many times for shopping trips, car-repairs and a little rest and relaxation away from her supposed rest and relaxation, which only served to alienate her fellow Wonderland attendees with her antics, and single-handedly proved to make a mockery of the entire recovery process.

Lohan was supposed to go away to rehab, and then come back with a dependable, insurable movie star image, and a clean reputations – that didn’t happen. In fact, the day she left rehab, she was out at a dance club in Los Angeles (dancing and drinking water, natch), and then a few weeks later she was seen with alcohol at a New York drink spot, dancing along to the famed Amy Winhouse song, “Rehab,” as she sang, “They tried to make me go to rehab, and I said no, no, no.”

Onto our ill-fated iconic pop-queen who checked herself into rehab, and out again, and in again, and out again, three times (3x!) before she actually decided to stay. At the urging of her manager and family, (and, as she said in a statement, not by her own accord), Britney Spears was at the end of her glitter encrusted rope when she was finally shipped off to Promises in Malibu. The world watched Spears unravel from her “Be All You Can Be” buzz-cut, to her tacky, hastily chosen tattoos, and the umbrella bashing of an innocent SUV and rehab seemed like the only option.

However, again, the process was negated: she was allowed to leave the grounds several times, she received special treatment, paparazzi were given tips from moles in the facility and photos were taken of her on the grounds, and she began a romantic relationship with a man while she was there (which is so unbelievably against all policy’s of rehab: no dating in the first year). To top it all off, Spears decided she didn’t need help anymore and up and left a week early and was seen out and about shortly thereafter. Though Spears claims that her issues stem from either Bipolar or Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, using drugs and drinking every night with Paris Hilton at various clubs does not really help those psychiatric disorders, and in fact, Spears should have had enough respect for the institution of rehab, and its ability to help your life; apparently, Spears’ rock-bottom is lower than shaving her head, and a few tacky tattoos. I believe, however, if she were to stay straight the public would welcome her back into their loving, warm, iTunes-addicted arms and throw her on the top of the pop-queen heap once again.

Thus rehab is more than just a place to recover, but a place to transform in the public eye. Go away for 30-days and the drunken, weaving, sunken eyed caterpillar is now a… well, you know. But all these stars checking in, and debasing the nobility of the institution, it might just give the American public the impression that is doesn’t work.

Last and certainly least: Jesse Metcalf.

Never heard of him? Oh, well let me refresh: Jesse Metcalf is a D-list actor playing opposite Eva Longoria, on the hour-long melodrama, Desperate Housewives – merely a pair of biceps and some washboard abs. He never was thought of much, by the supermarket tabloids, or the American television viewing public. Then, it was announced on March 19, 2007, that Metcalfe entered rehab to be treated for alcoholism, and his face was plastered all over the gossip rags and entertainment outlets for days. His publicist could have made this a private affair, but decided to announce it to the world. Why? So his client could move up in the ranks of stardom and join the Lohans and the Spears, and maybe even the Gibsons.

I see a growing trend: what once was a sanctuary for people to recover their lives, their loves, and maybe even their homes and businesses, has turned into a publicists’ tool to recover their client’s career, and in the same fell swoop, recover their own paycheck along the way; but more than that, with the old habits of some of the stars (Lohan/Spears) coming back so quickly, the entire process has become somewhat of a joke in the meantime.

I guess when it comes down to it, I might have to go to rehab someday folks (well, you may have to too, but I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt), don’t ruin it for us common decent drug abusers who actually need it to become whole again – if you don’t want to “go to rehab, no, no, no,” then just don’t go. And publicists, drug addiction and alcohol addiction are very private things; they are a point of weakness, helplessness, and distress that many people wrestle with everyday of their lives. If you marginalize the institution with movie stars and iconic teen-queens bouncing back and forth and in and out like playground kick-balls, you’re going to destroy it for the rest of us hard-working recovering addicts. Let your client’s decide when the time is right to get their lives together, and Celebrities, don’t use rehab as a $75,000 rest and relaxation vacation. It’s no party to try and sober up and stay straight, so stop showing up uninvited like it is.

Brit-Brit’s Bipolar Adventures: Chapter One

I understand that everyone has been fixated to their television sets or compulsively refreshing their internet connections, breathlessly waiting for what Britney Spears is going to do next – ignoring your work, your own children, and possibly your own sanity – in order to find out why this once Iconic Pop-Queen of the Universe™ has been so horribly derailed from her post and ended up the ambassador of Crazy-Town (just narrowly beating out Tom Cruise, of course).

Well, I think I may have an answer: she’s Bipolar (or the less politically correct, Manic-Depressive). Now I know you’ve heard this one before, but coming from someone who has a little bit of experience with the matter (no, you cannot see my credentials), I will lay out my hypothesis for you.

First, let me mention that Mania is a state that must last for four-or-more days in order for the person to truly be qualified as “Manic,” (references below) and this Manic state only has to happen once in one’s little life in order for one to be Bipolar, though I have a feeling that Brit has had more than one Manic Episode.

I have listed my hypothetical evidence below, and categorized it in numerical-list form using the symptoms of, specifically Mania, as to not hurt myself or anyone else:

1. Elevated Mood, Euphoria, Hyperactivity: She seems to be consistently pretty stoked out, I mean, even with the whole possibility of losing her kids and having a severe drug problem, don’t you think? And um… here:

Pre-Crazy:

Little-Crazy:

Crazy-Crazy!

2. Extreme Irritability, or Aggressive Behavior: We all have seen the photos of her taking all of her umbrella related qualms out on her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s automobile, but if you’ve forgotten, here’s the picture, bald and all:

3. Racing Thoughts and Talking Very Fast, jumping from one idea to another; Distractibility, Can’t Concentrate Well: Well, on April 4, 2007, a site reported that Spears had a meeting at the William Morris Agency recently, and they were told she “met with a number of agents about mapping her post-partum career… she was all over the place. She wants to do this and that, but she had no focus, no plan. After she left, the agents were shaking their heads.”

This just about nails it, don’t you think?

4. Recklessness, Poor Judgment, Impulsiveness: I’m going to go ahead and say that a) shaving your head, b) getting several tattoos, c) putting your house on the market for sale, and d) bouncing in and out of rehab, within just a few days qualifies as recklessness, poor judgment and impulsiveness. But just in case that isn’t enough:

Changing into a dancer’s outfit for all the club-goers and the world to see, seems pretty bullet-proof impulsive to me.

5. Little Sleep Needed; Abuse of Drugs, Particularly Cocaine, Alcohol, And Sleeping Medications: Abuse of drugs? Let me count the numerously reported ways that her alcohol and drug abuse have reared their ugly little heads in the gossip columns and supermarket tabloids in the past few weeks: excessive Ecstasy and Cocaine use (if you’re a friend of Paris Hilton’s this comes naturally folks), excessive drinking, excessive plain old staying out all night and partying, night after night after night, excessive… well, you get it.

6. Provocative, or Intrusive Behavior, and Increased Sexual Drive: Besides the count them, three (3!) times she went commando and then spread her legs for all the paparazzi to see, while exiting various types of expensive automobiles on her way to various upscale (we’re sure) clubs, thanks to the wonder that is Issac Cohen’s (her very short-stinted model-ex boyfriend) mouth and tiny, tiny mind, we have thus: “She loves sex and is incredibly adventurous. She was totally happy when we were locked in each other’s arms. But once the sex stopped Britney was like a little girl lost, unable to cope. She would lie like a limp rag doll in my arms and and say, ‘Why can’t everyone leave me alone?’ and, ‘What have I done to deserve this?’”

Oh, and by the way, the ending part of that straight-from-the-horses-mouth-quote kind of touches on the “Depressive” part, of Manic-Depressive. Though as all books have stated, in order to be Bipolar per se, one must have one-or-more Manic phases in one’s life… Again, I’m proving the Mania here, the depression comes naturally with Brit – I’m sure.

7. A Lasting Period Of Behavior That Is Different From Usual: Granted we really haven’t seen much of the Brit-astic women in the last few years (except for some baby-fumbling outings), but I’m going to go ahead and say that partying every night with Paris Hilton, flashing her unmentionables, buzzing her skull, getting some ink, popping in and out of rehab faster than Nicole Richi pops Vicodin, getting a string of new boyfriends, and attacking a poor-defenseless SUV with a similarly poor-defenseless green umbrella might be “A lasting period of behavior that is different from usual,” wouldn’t you say?

In addition, to the numerous pictorial and hypothetical evidence pointing to Brit-brit’s Manic tendencies: and I quote: “over 2 million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with bipolar disorder… it is found that 60% of the respondents (to a bipolar survey) reported an onset of the disorder symptoms before the age of 19… it often takes between five to eight years from first symptoms to diagnosis,” and from my experience (again, no, you cannot see my credentials) symptoms of bipolar become more apparent into your mid-twenties, and most cases are diagnosed around the age of 25. How old is she again? If you can remember her vagina-flashing extravaganza (I am not going to offer pictures because really though, who could forget), those indiscretions happened right around her 25th birthday.

And evidence before that? Well, her quickie marriage to Jason Alexander in Las Vegas, and her even quicker annulment; her impulsiveness to wrangle in her now famous faux-pas backup dancer extraordinaire Kevin Federline; and her desire to have children before possibly not being thoroughly ready for them; and I’m sure if I think a little harder about it (which I’m not going to do), I can find numerous other occasions.

Again, folks, this is just a theory of course, so I will not readily offer my lawyers phone number, but instead of rehab, she may just need some plane old actual prescribed medication, and not previously imbibed self-medication sort.

Thanks for listening to my little prescription addled mind, and Britney, don’t feel so bad, you’ve now joined the ranks of greats: Carry Fisher, Scott Weiland and his wardrobe burning wife Mary, Virginia Woolf, Axl Rose, Sting, Ben Stiller, Jim Carey, Robert Downey Jr., Robin Williams, Tim Burton, and the list goes on.

And, above it all, when she gets her bald-head on straight, I know that I will be sending her a welcome back to reality basket adorned with Starbucks gift-cards, and Lithium scripts.

Kate Hewitt

References:
Adult Bipolar Disorders, Mitzi Waltz, 2002
Survey of Bipolar Members, J.D. Lish et al., National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association, 1994

Thank you for supporting Kevo and all your great contributions to the site. Kevo has discovered some pretty good writers over the past couple of months. We will be offering you articles and blogs about famous people written by select guest bloggers. We hope you enjoy them. Please let us know about this is new feature as it rolls out and I look forward to any of your comments about… well… anything related to Kevo! All the best.

Scott Farrell
CEO
Scott@Kevo.com

I just read the story about Keith Richards, and I don’t care what his publicists say, he totally snorted those ashes. I mean, I love the Stones, always have; and if Keith stated that he snorted his father’s ashes with some blow. He did.

I met Mick and Keith many years ago back stage at a Stones gig. One of my favorite celebrity encounters for sure. Keith must have really been close to dear old dad. Gives me a warm feeling. Really warm.

Anyway, I started thinking about it some more. What do you get when you combine a dead celebrity, Ebay, a really hot fire, and a really hot party? A charity event, that’s what.

So what does a dead celebrity do when they’re dead anyway besides get on a lot of magazine covers? They get buried or cremated. What a waste. Why not parcel up dime bags of their ashes, sell them on Ebay and have the proceeds go to global warming or some such cause. Al Gore has gotta love this idea. It might be in his next campaign or DVD.

I mean there has got to be boatloads of fans out there that would love to snort a bit of Keith with their next 8 Ball while Exile on Main Street is playing. And for a good cause none the less. This is a new cottage industry.

Or maybe a bit of Anna Nicole topping my Jack and Coke. Give me a double and chalk up another donation for Jerry’s Kids.

Here’s another benefit; the ashes are fat free. I mean this is low cal stuff. NutriSystems should get into the act. Would you pay $5.00 extra for your NutriNouish meal laced with a bit of Princess Di?

Once the star does the organ donating thing; do divas donate? Not sure, anyway, once they rip out whatever they rip out, they trash the rest so Make a Wish and mix it with your next dish.

We have a new list: Most desired ashes to mix with a fatty. Who’s on your list?

Keith Richard’s Kevo

Rane Aaron – Kevo Guest Blogger at large

The blog is updated, with a sexy new look. Ok back to work….

We just patched Kevo up with the long overdue features of Edit/Delete for the following:

• Images
• Pages
• Feeds
• Channels

If you remove the default image, another image is selected as default.

A removal is also a contribution, and subject to community approval.

Administrators have access to a “delete profile” functionality which we will soon pass off to users with higher karma, this will enable duplicate profiles to be removed and in conjunction with tools to move content around make the information more organized.

There is also a post duplication check in place now. If you submit a contribution that is already pending, the system lets you know that and takes you to the already pending contribution (so that you can rate it).

Stay tuned for more.

Things are ramping up within the company and we’re looking to bring on at least two top-level web application developers. Check out the full posting Kevo’s Web Application Developer. If you want to contact me directly about the Job, send an email to will 4t Kevo dot com.

We’ve got another set of big things brewing, but have posted a few smaller changes in the meantime. The first thing to note is that of the +300 pending changes (that is pending changes made in the last x days), 90% are changing the default image. Why are people clicking the link “(default)” so much? well, its interesting anyway. We just hid the button from non-logged in users so that the pending updates screens contain more useful information.

It has been interesting to see how people do activities related to images about 10 to 1 compared to text (biographies and sub-pages). More on that later…

For more than the last month and a half the Kevo tech team has been working on continuing to execute our grand vision of creating the best place for people to find and share information about famous and prominent people.

Today, we’re one step closer.

We’ve just uploaded a significant update, but let’s get right to the point:

• news feeds from around the web

you can add a feed from any news source or blog about a person and have Kevo syndicate and compile that information

• new design

we’ve visually simplified kevo , increased the accessibility of the information and lots of other user interface enhancements in all sections

• customized user updates

for any profile you’ve selected as your favorite, you will not receive a list of recent updates, pending updates, and news related to those people. You also can organize and categorize your favorites with tags.

• channels sorting by tags

you can drill down in each channel with a tag cloud specific to that channel

• profile tagging has been moved to the user pages

The success of del.icio.us and its tags is because it makes tagging a selfish activity. A user will tag things with more quality because its how they organize their own collection of links. We’ve applied the same philosophy to kevo and now your favorite profiles are tagged and categorized in your user pages, then on all other pages you can see tag clouds which were created by many users tagging profiles.

Categorization has been renamed and simplified into just channels. The sub category functionality has been replaced with the ability to tag things and create folksonomies

• addition of multiple page types

A user can now create blog and feed type content on any profile. A blog syndicates its own RSS feed of its content.

• Significant enhancements to see recent and pending updates

Our entire karma and rating system was upgraded and integrated into the overall site architecture better. Its now very easy to see items , rate and comment on them in one single page which is now called “recent updates” for approved items and “pending updates” for pending items.

Each profile, profile page, image, and user has their own “recent” and “pending” sections so you can keep a keen eye on everything that is happening within kevo, rate and comment on it.

(in a cool ajax fashion)

• Topics

Users are now able to create a general topic about any profile in the community section of that profile. Let the gossip commence! Additionally, topics can be seen in the main community tab and comments made on any contribution are related to the profile of that contribution.

In the next week we will begin doing marketing of the site and releasing a “launch” press release. Keep tuned and would LOVE to hear your (yes you) feedback.

GeekEntertainmentTv
Just posted a video interview they did of me a few weeks ago. Everyone go check it out!

Also, We’re working on a very large build that will be coming out next week that will include the beginnings of our news aggregation and a *gasp* new design.