Friday, March 04, 2011

goodbye, charlie

Article first published as Goodbye, Charlie on Blogcritics.

I am not fond of watching trainwrecks. I don't follow gossip sites. But the walking self-destruction machine that is Charlie Sheen is pretty hard to avoid these days. The guy shouldn't be pandered to by the media, but his off-the-wall declarations have started a new cottage industry in the internets - his quotes translated to New Yorker cartoons, cats, even baby sloths.
Chuck Lorre vanity cardsTwo and A Half Men

But beyond all the hype and the misery that is sure to follow, there is something that Charlie has said that has given me pause. Beyond pissed off that the show producers dare to think that he isn't well enough to film, he is demanding a raise from what he makes now, about $2 million an episode, to $3 million. “Look what they put me through ... I’m underpaid right now, sure ... When you look at the money they’re making, it’s ridiculous.”

It's hard to wrap my mind around it. Charlie Sheen has been making $2 million dollars an episode for Two and a Half Men. I've never seen the show. I can barely watch ads for it. I don't know anyone who has seen it. Or admits to watching it. Do you? Two and a Half Men, in its eighth year on television has already filmed sixteen episodes. Who on this planet, tiger blood or not, deserves to make $2 million dollars for just part of a yearly job that they do? Seriously. Are lives being saved? We know it might just be the opposite.

$2 million dollars. $2 million dollars. $2 million dollars. What's the national debt again? $2 million dollars. $2 million dollars. $2 million dollars. ...

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