The REEL Addict 

I usually wish to veer away from turning into a Bill O’Reilly soap box moralist, ranting with vitriolic foam forming at the corner of my mouth, but with the news that yet another celebrity – this time Thomas Jane – was pulled over for drunken driving, enough is enough.

I enjoy the occasional alcoholic indulgent night out as much as the next social drinker, but driving drunk is just simply not acceptable. It’s morally reprehensible. I don’t care so much about the whole argument that celebrities who drink and drive are proving to be bad role models. I care that in doing so they are risking other people’s lives. They want to risk killing themselves in a driving accident, fine. That’s their prerogative. But in doing so they risk other peoples’ lives more than their own. All the more so if, like Jane, they are speeding. Even more so if their license has already been suspended, and they’re not supposed to be driving in the first place.

What I just don’t get is why these celebrities don’t just leave their car wherever they are and call a private limo service or a cab like the rest of us plebeians. They can afford it. Hell, call your publicist or agent. They’d probably rather pick you up at 4:30 in the morning than deal with the publicity nightmare this kind of thing leads to. There is absolutely no reason for celebrities to be driving drunk, when they have a handful of alternate options. Just because you’re someone famous, doesn’t give you the right to bloat your ego to the point where you think it’s okay to drive while drunk with a suspended license, and worse, to feel there will be no repercussions for doing so. Sadly, often there aren’t. Or at least not severe enough ones. However, the recent cases of Paris Hilton and Keifer Sutherland’s hopefully indicate a turning of the tide. I say keep it going. People who unnecessarily risk other people’s lives deserve to face the consequences, whether they are famous or not. That’s something Thomas Jane, who played The Punisher (a “superhero” who punishes immoral criminals), should understand.