"Sober Companions"

April 4, 2002 4:25 PM

"Sober Companions" or "Minders"are basically high-priced babysitters for celebrities with drug or alcohol problems. At $2500 a day, would you be willing to watch over, say, Yasmine Bleeth?
posted by mr_crash_davis (14 comments total)

And if that doesn't work out, you can always be a baby wrangler.
posted by donkeyschlong at 4:38 PM on April 4, 2002

I sure would. But I think you can't hire just any old sober guy or girl to do the job. You're really meant to hire a specialist in psychology and health (who may have had problems with drugs in the past). Could any sane individual handle Tommy Lee without years of experience? I think not.
posted by skinsuit at 4:41 PM on April 4, 2002

A blatant example of "milking the cash cow" and then throwing the cow away, both literally and figuratively when you are done with them.

The role of the "minder" is clearly defined, keep the "talent" working until such a point as the producers (record, film, television) have made their money. After that, the talent is on their own. They don't work for the talent. They don't care about the talent. They are babysitters. I can't imagine the type of psychologist / psychiatrist that would think this falls in the realm of adequate medical care. They seem to be saying, "Hippocratic oath be damned, I'm going to make some money."

Treating people like disposable razors seems too callous to even consider and almost guarantees a return to self-abusive behavior once the "minder" leaves.

Sad, sad, sad.
posted by dewelch at 4:54 PM on April 4, 2002

hold up, how does accepting a wrangling assignment equate doing harm?
posted by NortonDC at 5:41 PM on April 4, 2002

Some people have too much money for their own damn good.
posted by adampsyche at 6:10 PM on April 4, 2002

Michael J. Fox has been making the rounds, touting his book, and pointing out how liberating (yes) his Parkinson's has been. As a celebrity, he says, you enter "the land of eternal Yes", but Parkinson's was a permanent, incontrovertible No.
posted by dhartung at 6:32 PM on April 4, 2002

Hide the booze, it's Mr. Belding!!
posted by Settle at 6:56 PM on April 4, 2002

You wouldn't happen to know if there's a market for drunk companions, would you crash? Y'know for those celebs who don't have what it takes to party hardcore, but need dangerous freinds to keep up their hep image? I'm eminently qualified and I could use the cash.
posted by jonmc at 9:28 PM on April 4, 2002

"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, Mr. Afleck, Sir."
posted by dong_resin at 9:37 PM on April 4, 2002

dude, i would SO be the sober companion of wil wheaton.

that would RULE.
posted by jcterminal at 10:31 PM on April 4, 2002

This is assuming that the "minders" can actually keep off the sauce/blow/what-have-you themselves. I remember hearing that Don Simpson (producer of "blockbusters" such as Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, etc.) reportedly had had his doctor staying with him to help "treat his drug addiction".

The sad postscript was when the doctor was himself later found dead (floating in Simpson's pool) of a drug overdose, and Simpson OD'd five months later.
posted by scribblative at 11:23 PM on April 4, 2002

For $2500 a day, there's not much you couldn't get me to do...
posted by esch at 1:01 AM on April 5, 2002

dewelch: You could say the same about counselors who work for schools or companies, hired to help the employers/students/members etc. sane, or merely to be there for them if they need help.

And, as NortonDC alluded to above, you don't seem to know what the hippocratic oath says.
posted by bingo at 2:10 AM on April 5, 2002

i'll do it as long as i can have an endless supply of drugs and alcohol.
posted by donkeysuck at 3:51 PM on April 5, 2002