So a video has come out of Angelina Jolie high on heroin 15 years ago, and she’s reportedly suing the Daily Mail over it.
How did this happen? Apparently her drug dealer at the time, Franklin Meyer, was in her apartment dropping off some heroin and cocaine (that’s good service) and had permission to videotape her having a conversation with her dad, actor Jon Voight. It’s not clear which she felt was more offensive: that the video shows her reportedly on heroin or that it shows her on the phone with her dad.
Box Office Flop
I’ve watched the video and, my friends, let me tell you—there is nothing interesting about it. She’s pacing around and talking about housing or something. I mean she’s on the phone with her dad. Are there any more boring conversations? If it were a tape of me talking to my dad, I’d say, “It’s pretty hot here,” and he’d say, “Yup, it’s getting pretty warm here, too.” An awkward pause would follow. Then, he’d tell me to get my oil changed and then after 10 seconds, he’d say he’d “better let me go.” That’s what a dad phone call is. It’s hardly newsworthy, even for a giant movie star.
The Clip That Won’t Die
This video has surfaced before. It was originally leaked to the National Inquirer in 1999 and was a follow-up to a story then. So apparently this is some kind of zombie video: it just won’t die. Perhaps it’s destined to surface every few years and someone will get sued over it, and it will receive absolutely no public upset or outcry, then it will quietly go away again until it resurfaces once more to be received by widespread disinterest.
When the Mail posted the video, they added their own headline “Bloodshot hollow eyes, emaciated arms and rambling on the phone: Haunting video of Angelina Jolie the heroin addict.”
Who is it haunting? Absolutely no one.
Next, Please
The Daily Mail can post or not post the video. Jolie can sue or not sue. But one thing is clear to me: nobody cares if Angelina Jolie did heroin over a decade ago.
I understand that she’s suing to protect herself, and she probably doesn’t want her kids to see the footage, but really, no one cares what anyone was doing 15 years ago, unless they were a doctor or pilot or possibly the president. But this is outspoken movie star Angelina Jolie. She’s Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, she’s the star of Maleficent. Lives aren’t exactly depending on her temperance. This is a real stretch at a tabloid scandal. It’s sort of like posting a headline that says Laura House Can’t do Math! with a video of me in third grade trying hard to solve seven times six.
Nobody cares.
Nothing Tops the Blood Necklace
Also, wasn’t this around what I think of as Angelina’s “Billy Bob Thornton years”? Didn’t she wear a vial of his blood around her neck? I hardly think a little heroin usage use tops that. In fact if she weren’t on heroin then, I might be more concerned.
Clearly, heroin is a dangerous drug, and if that were the point of releasing the video, it would make sense. And hey, it’s a reminder that Jolie may be a role model in more ways than we already think of her as a role model; you simply don’t hear about all that many people who screw around with hard drugs to the point that they have a dealer, let alone a dealer who’s such a pal that you’re cool with him videotaping you during your family phone time, and don’t end up having their lives deteriorate into unmanageability. But giving the Daily Mail credit for trying to educate the public about the dangers of drugs is even more ludicrous thank thanking Billy Bob for letting us know that weird people like to eat orange food. The Mail’s message doesn’t seem to be anything more than, “Hey, we got this video of someone famous and are always into the idea of capitalizing on someone’s betrayal.”
Look, Daily Mail, I know your bread-and-butter is to shock and sensationalize. But can’t you shock and sensationalize something that’s actually shocking and sensational?
Photo courtesy of Angelina-Jolie.jpg: www.promiflash.de – Bitte bei Bildverwendung auch Link setzen derivative work: Born Slippy (Angelina-Jolie.jpg) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons (resized and cropped)
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