For the third morning in a row, Charlie Sheen was on NBC's "Today Show" Wednesday.
This time, the self-destructing star of CBS' "Two and a Half Men" was "live," waiting on-camera throughout the first half-hour of the morning show to talk about how his previous two days of interviews led to police seizing his twin sons, Max and Bob, who are about to turn two.
The boys' mother got a court order to get them out of the house that Sheen's currently sharing with two women he calls his "goddesses." The house has also been full of cameras over the past few days as the troubled star went on the offensive against his network, the producers of his hit TV show and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Of course, you know the story. It's all over TV, radio and the internet.
He's even joined Twitter, sharing more of his odd comments, including this last night: "My sons' are fine... My path is now clear... Defeat is not an option..!."
Sheen's story made network prime time Tuesday night, with ABC offering its version of NBC's interview. CNN's Piers Morgan had him Monday night.
And, yes, people are watching. Sheen gave Morgan his best ratings since is show started last fall, some 1.35 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research numbers.
Make no mistake, nobody thinks this is the most important story of the week. Libya led off Wednesday's "Today," and Sheen didn't show up until the show's second hour.
But it's hard not to watch a man who, as psychologist Jeff Gardier told CNN after Monday's first round of Sheen interviews, is "in the middle of a breakdown."
That raises the question of what responsibility TV has in providing a platform for a guy who at least appears to be coming apart.
It's hard not to watch his crazy talk of having "tiger's blood" and being on "a drug called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body."
None of us will be surprised to wake up to news of a tragic final chapter in this pathetic story of substance abuse.
On TV: ABC announced the next "Dancing with the Stars" celebs: Kirstie Alley, radio personality "Psycho" Mike Catherwood, wrestler Chris Jericho, actress Chelsea Kane, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ralph Macchio, model Petra Nemcova, Percy "Romeo" Miller Jr., Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers, "reality" TV performer Kendra Wilkinson, and daytime talker Wendy Williams.
- It's Steve Carell's last week on "The Office" set, and Mindy Kalling is tweeting scenarios for Michael Scott that were never used.
- TV Land has ordered a third season of "Hot in Cleveland."
- TBS has decided not to order a second season of "Glory Daze."
An "Idol" reminder: Here's a reminder that Milwaukee's Naima Adedapo performs tonight at 7 on Channel 6, along with 11 other female semifinalists on Fox's "American Idol."
On Thursday, viewer votes will leave 10 finalists and judges will pick as many as three "wildcard" finalists.
And Fox has posted this video of Adedapo performing, "Put Your Records On":
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
