OT, but probably of interest

[squiggle-bat.livejournal.com]

Craig Charles: crack addict?

Bloody Hell, I opened up the paper today and was confronted with a full page spread on how Craig Charles was caught doing crack cocaine and reading porno mags while being driven around.

The original article is here: Though it's from the Mirror, a red top shock-tabloid with intent to find the most slanderous gossip about soap stars possible.

The exclusive snaps show Charles on a four-hour bender in the back of a car travelling from London to Manchester after he completed his stint as host of a funk show for the BBC digital radio channel Six Music.

Evening Standard (where I found it) says this:

The grainy images show the Liverpool-born actor making a makeshift crack pipe from empty beer cans. He becomes gradually more wild-eyed and dishevelled and eventually slumps down across the car seats.

And the BBC site says:

And the BBC said Charles would not host his radio show on 6 Music while managers talk to him about the claims.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. the poor guy, he's screwed himself over royally.

xposted to my journal

Comments

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

I know... I was really angry this morning, an emotion quite alien to me. I don't quite know why. Now I'm just worried for him. :/

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

Ja, we've been talking this over in a friend's journal. There is little to say beyond the inadequate Not Good. On so many levels.

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

I think part of it is that there is some tabloid yellow journalism going on, and he's going to get dragged through some mud (I mean, is porn illegal now? hello, *raises hand* guilty). But crack ain't hard candy, and if that's the case, there's some business going on that has to be dealt with.

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. (How many times have I said that today? Heh.)

[zekkass.livejournal.com]

Bad Craig. Please don't get yourself into trouble...*is worried*

[merry-loon.livejournal.com]

.... Well. There goes my disgust, pity and betrayal rations for the day.

[shivvlan.livejournal.com]

Talking about shocking. o_O

[beetle-breath.livejournal.com]

Well, perhaps this will be a slap in the face? Some good may come of this.

*gives up trying to be optimistic & just hopes Craig doesn't fuck up royally*

[kirke-novak.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* Moron... middle life crisis, anyone?

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

Really, its his life, and I don't see it being anyones business. But of course, if he has done something illegal he needs to take the rap for it, celebrity or not. First and foremost, extremely stupid, knowing what kind of scrutiny his life is under.
Something in the BBC article made me curious and I just have to ask if anyone knows more about this: someone I know once told me that one of the RD actors had been accused of raping a woman, and that this was ridiculous because the actor in question was gay and he was therefore cleared (not that rape has anything to do with sex). The article says this was Craig? Wouldn't that have been all over the tabloids?

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

It was Craig, and it probably was, at the time. He was cleared, but not because he was gay! I never heard that before...

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

Well, at the time I heard it, I didn't really have much idea who any of the actors was, had only seen a few episodes, and I just assumed this was general knowledge. At one point when I knew the series better, I thought about who of them it might be, but I have to admit as candidate for being gay, Craig was at the bottom of my list. Haven't thought about it for a long time and would never have asked around here if it hadn't been for the article hashing up the old story, and I just got so surprised I had to ask. You don't know what it was that cleared him? It must have been more than a mere accusation behind the charge if he spent months in jail.

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

I read up on it when I found out about it about - hm - a year ago, I suppose, but I can't remember if the articles I found said anything spesific.

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

You're not going to get cleared from a rape charge by either claiming to be or actually being gay. *shakes head* Price of tea in China?

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

Not in general, I agree, but it could help depending on the circumstances of the rape. Like claiming to be date raped by a man who never dates women, or pointing out the wrong guy, etc.

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

But that'd be a case of mistaken identity or outright lying. If a man goes out with a woman and go back to her place and she claims date rape, it'd be a severe miscarriage of justice for him to get out of it by just saying he's gay.

I have pretty strong (unrelated to each other) feelings on sexual identity and sex crimes, though. ;)


(FWIW, I'm in the camp that sees sexuality as a continuum with a fair bit of flexibility, which is why I write slash.)

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

Agree with that. And rape is not about sex anyway, so yes, being gay would not stop a man from raping a woman.
But I was not really arguing that it was a way to avoid a rape charge, only that the person relating it to me obviously thought that it was a wrongful accusation from a women who did not know the actor in question was gay. And the last seems rather unbelievable now that I know who it was (despite earlier discussions on the list, this is about the real life person).

[laurenthemself]

It was Craig, and he was cleared of the rape charges. I don't know why, though.

[squiggle-bat.livejournal.com]

Piecing together from various articles over the Internet (accuracy not garunteed)

Craig, a friend, John Peploe, and a third man, Roger (who was never traced) were accused of taking cocaine, indecent assault and the rape of Craig's ex-girlfriend (Esther Harman) at her Clapham flat in July 1994. Craig denied the charges, saying he had visited her, but on the spur of the moment after celebrating his fiancee's birthday, to get a bacon butty. He spent 3 months in Wandsworth Jail, where he suffered abuse from the other inmates. He was denied bail until he was attacked (but not injured) by an inmate using a homemade knife. He stayed with Liverpulian relatives until the time of the trial as part of the bail conditions. Snippets from tabloids say he was greeted by his girlfriend and taken off in a chaffeur driven limo. The two week trial was held on Feb 1995. They were cleared as no forensic evidence had been submitted for the rape, though he admitted to taking the cocaine she offered him. The jury took only 90 minutes to find him not guilty.

This website has newspaper articles about the trial itself, including one Craig wrote himself in the Guardian (5th down):
http://www.eskimo.com/~onan/tardis/SotRT_News_012.html

Here's the others I looked at.
http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/5849/rd/craigc.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3055859.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/08/99/edinburgh_festival_99/411618.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Charles
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/tv/british-comedy/general-faq/part3/
http://www.eskimo.com/~onan/tardis/SotRT_News_004.html

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

There's a bad joke here, but in deference to the gravity of the thread, I'm just going to swallow it. I will say that I'm damned if I'm going to let any of this ruin slash and enjoyment therefrom, however.

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!
No reason why it should. This is about the fandom, we can not expect everyone involved in it to be perfect, especially since nobody is perfect. (and who has not made a mistake in their life?)

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

*doesn't even want to think about the articles that would appear if self were being followed by yellow journalists*

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

Ok, I checked myself. Apparently the usual, no evidence except woman's story and the jury didn't believe her. I also read somewhere that she later admitted telling a lie, but that was only one source.
Anyway, we should get back to our regular program. Sorry for derailing things further from topic.
Interesting thing I didn't know though, was that the rape case is part of the reason for the long delay in producing series VII. Question is what this event now may mean for the plans(?) of a movie.

[squiggle-bat.livejournal.com]

Heh, as if there needs to be more reasons for a delay.

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

I think it was delayed because he was in prison, and so actually unable to act, rather than it being a moral issue or whatever. Of course, he was proved innocent, so it SHOULDN'T be a moral issue. But you know how the media business can be.

This though... Who knows? I just really REALLY hope he accepts the help he has been offered (just read that he apparently was offered re-hab by the Corrie producers) and that he gets better. This is no way to live.

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

Yes, I also understood it was because he was simply not available, and that the producers believed in him. But I guess they could not take a chance starting anything as long as he was out on bail either. Even if they did not beleive the claim, he could get convicted.
I would also think in this case it would not as much be the morals as much the producers wanting to risk a drug addict as the movie lead. In showbiz things usually comes back to money...

[ekisa-himani.livejournal.com]

I hope Craig gets help too, although I can't really see him turning it away. He's not stupid and he'll know about the Kate Moss scandal, how something like this can damage his career. I still feel a bit put out, though, that he was daft enough to do it...