OWEN WILSON'S DARK SIDE
by Maggie Van Ostrand
Owen Cunningham Wilson's suicide attempt of August 26th has been confirmed by TMZ and Extra, who accessed the 911 call allegedly made by Wilson's younger brother, Luke.
Wilson, through his rep, has released a statement, "I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time." That means we shouldn't ask how his wrists are healing or how many pills he actually took and how long had it taken for him to build up an immunization to them. We should especially not ask why he chose two such girly suicide methods.
Nonetheless, there's something disarmingly honest about Owen's outright attempt to plug himself, which tells the entire world the true meaning of low self esteem.
One wonders why he's playing girly games like Lindsay, Britney, Paris, and Nicole, who appear to flaunt the "almost suicidal but not quite decided" act.
If you really want to whack yourself, why not do it in a dramatic way, one that attracts attention, like 40's movie siren Lupe Valez who was found dead after drowning in the toilet.
You've gotta admit, when it comes to suicide, slow or fast, the stars of yesteryear knew how to do it and make it last. The big sleep for the big stars.
They say women rarely do themselves in like a man, and generally choose a method that will leave their looks in tact. For instance, famed photog Diane Arbus seems to have used both favored methods. She not only took pills, but also slashed her wrists, leaving her face in tact. Cheyenne Brando, on the other hand, did it the man's way: she hanged herself, but only after several attempts to off herself the woman's way: pills.
Carol Landis, another 40's star, overdosed on sleeping pills when Rex Harrison dumped her; Peggy Entwistle in 1932 jumped to her death from the H in the Hollywood sign; Capucine who starred with Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther jumped from her 8th floor Swiss apartment window leaving her estate to three cats; Kurt Cobain left nothing to chance and blew his brains out, as did two of movie and recording star Bing Crosby's four sons; Spalding Gray jumped off the Staten Island Ferry into the East River, probably influenced by his favorite film, Tim Burton's Big Fish; Lois (Three's Company) Hamilton who not only took pills but tied a plastic bag over her head in case she changed her mind; and inventive Poet Vachel Lindsay who simply drank a bottle of Lysol.
The most imaginative female suicide was probably that of Virginia Woolf, who filled her pockets full of stones and walked into a river.
Here's Owen, with The Darjeeling Limited coming out in a month, and Drillbit Taylor, Outsourced, and Marley and Me all coming out in 2008, surviving a romantic fling with Kate Hudson, and able to perform equally well in dramatic as well as comedic roles. He was sitting on top of the world, not meant to leave it.
Someone who had control over Wilson, could have made an appointment for him with Sigmund Freud, except Freud succeeded in achieving the big sleep like the psycho star he was -- morphine -- leaving us to wonder what kind of advice he gave his patients.
#####
|
