Retired JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, Actor Randy Quaid, Florida attorney Scott Rothstein and Seattle attorney Anne Bremner make public their (likely) alcoholism.
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Flight attendant Steven Slater, 38, who was described by his attorney, friends and family as a likeable sort who did his job well, until he didn’t and used a JetBlue plane’s emergency chute to leave his job—permanently, with two cans of beer in hand. Slater claimed a gash on his head occurred during the flight, but several passengers said the gash was there before the flight took off and told reporters he spoke rudely and used expletives during the flight. As clues 4 and 7 under “Supreme Being complex” (“regularly uses foul language” or, in this case, uses such language in an entirely inappropriate setting, and “has a ‘rules don’t apply to me’ attitude”) in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics: Using Behavioral Clues to Recognize Addiction in its Early Stages suggest, odds are he had relapsed (he was a known alcoholic, reportedly in recovery) sometime before takeoff and may have been sloshed during the entire flight.
Actor Randy Quaid, 60, and his wife Evi Quaid, 47, facing burglary charges for squatting in a Santa Barbara, California, house they had sold years ago and causing $5,000 in damage to the guest house. In a separate case, they faced charges of defrauding the San Ysidro Ranch in nearby Montecito in September, 2009 of more than $10,000, along with conspiracy and burglary, after using an invalid credit card, for which Evi pleaded no contest. Despite being Dennis Quaid’s older brother and having won a Golden Globe Award, a nomination for an Emmy for his portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson in “LBJ: The Early Years,” becoming well-known for his roles in the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” movies and “Independence Day” and no doubt bringing in some pretty decent cash for his “Capital One” commercials, Randy has obviously been squandering enough of his funds to create some severe financial disarray. A clue as to its cause comes from a private detective, Becky Altringer, who was hired by Evi to investigate purported murder threats against them. Altringer claims Evi is hiding Demerol addiction from Randy and she “fears for Randy’s life,” believing Evi may kill him. The behavior so frightens the PI that she filed a restraining order against Evi, citing “drug abuse and mental instability.” Incredibly, we have found no proof of alcoholism (even if the evidence is overwhelming) in Randy, despite staying married to Evi for over two decades and claiming to have lost more than $10 million due to a purportedly “diabolical plot to steal his multi-million dollar fortune” by his “most-trusted financial advisers” and his bank. The couple, according to Quaid, is now in “big trouble with the I.R.S.”
Florida attorney Scott Rothstein, 48, who was sentenced to 50 years for selling stakes in phony employment-dispute settlements that ranks as South Florida’s likely largest-ever Ponzi scheme at an estimated $1.2 billion. Known for lavish spending, Rothstein owned several mansions and many toys, including a 20-foot ice bar, detailed in the November-December 2009 and January-February 2010 issues of TAR. Rothstein said in court, “I am truly and deeply sorry for what I have done. I don’t expect your forgiveness….I am ashamed and embarrassed.” He told the judge in a letter it was all a façade to feed his “ego and greed….I did all I could to increase my power, to keep the myth alive, to feed the beast I had created, and to try to keep myself above the law.” Just like any other likely alcoholic; but he was in a position to create far more damage to others than most.
Seattle attorney Anne Bremner, pleading guilty to DUI following an arrest after being pulled over while driving on three flat tires (not mentioned as a clue to DUI in Get Out of the Way! How to Identify and Avoid a Driver Under the Influence, but who’d a’thunk it?). Before the plea, her attorneys seemingly did all they could to created a news black-out, going so far as to identify Bremner only as “Jane Doe.” Incredibly they argued the records of the arrest, during which she called an officer a Nazi and threatened “I will sue your ass” and “it’ll be bad for you guys,” would damage her professional reputation and should be kept private. She claimed she was a victim of a hit-and-run crash (not mentioned until well after the arrest) that left her with a head injury, the effects from which could easily be confused with drunkenness. Not if you can find the 911 call on the Internet, it can’t. Since she refused a breathalyzer at the time of the arrest, her blood alcohol level could not be determined. However, based on admissions thus far, we can try. She said that everyone at the semi-monthly gathering of female judges and attorneys from which she was driving home “had one cocktail before dinner” and drank “under two glasses of wine each” with the meal. Let’s see…if she weighs 120 pounds and assuming “one” cocktail contains two shots of hard liquor, her BAL would have clocked in at (.03 per cent x four “drinks” = ) .12 per cent…minus .015% per hour, which (assuming the drinking began at 7pm) would have brought her BAL down to .045% at the time of her midnight arrest. Uh, that didn’t work. Message to Ms. Bremner: Most people think they’re legally bombed after three drinks and, well, you and I know it just ain’t so. Please do the world a favor and get honest about your consumption and the fact that the legal maneuverings you and your attorneys tried to pull, along with your confabulated stories, were the sort of manipulative tactics common to those having the disease of alcoholism.