Pink News: Ch-Ch-Changes

Funny, originally Pink News had a somewhat different take on this story...

'Accused of being gay,' eh...

Jan Moir Watch: Oh Mr Sheen!

Daily Mail, natch.

Didn't see this coming!

From the woman who brought you; Stephen Gately: A Strange, Lonely And Troubling Death.

Charlie Sheen: Shame

Back in 1982 when developing AIDS was viewed as a death sentence, I attempted suicide when I discovered I was HIV positive.

After hearing so many terrifying stories of long, agonising deaths, I just couldn’t face it.

But society’s ignorant response was almost as frightening.

Fortunately my attempt to take my own life failed and thankfully we’ve moved on from the hysterical reaction to AIDS in the 1980s.

Advances in medication and a more open-minded society have helped, but the Government is cutting funding for HIV services, there are new diagnosis every day and not everyone responds to the medication which combats the virus.

Now Charlie Sheen hasn’t helped the struggle to combat the stigma and misinformation that still surrounds the illness.

His claim that it would have been “impossible” to pass it on to other people is particularly damaging...

I understand the difficulties surrounding someone in Hollywood admitting this and it’s appalling to hear he’s been blackmailed.

Though going public about his status could have contributed towards normalising the condition - an important step in combating the spread of the virus.

Sheen is only admitted it because he was forced to do so.

It all contributes to a warped perception of the illness and turns HIV back into the sinister secret it was viewed as 30 years ago.

Joanthan Blake, also of LGSM (note the Pits & Perverts t-shirt), in the Mirror.

Bit of an odd one this, especically when you consider the Mirror's role in trying to (force) out Charlie Sheen, their awful 'Hollywood HIV panic' angle, and the incredibly shitty Fleet Street Fox article; The Hollywood actor with HIV deserves everything he gets - and worse.

But bear in mind this is in the Mirror and may only be very loosely based on what Jonathan said. 

PS A less judgemental piece from Independent Voices...

Hollywood HIV Panic: Oh, It's Charlie Sheen!

There you go, 'panic' over.

Maybe we'll go back to scaremongering about chemsex now?

NB Dan Wootton has not taken credit for the Mirror's story this time.

PS And the Telegraph re-run This is what it's really like to live with HIV (first published in April).

PPS What is HIV? The Express finds out!

Update: Fact-checking the [US] media on Charlie Sheen and HIV - and more on 'inflammatory media coverage'.

Melanie Phillips Watch: Stephen Fry Must Die!!!

"The actor and comic Stephen Fry is considered by some to be a national treasure who adds greatly to the gaiety of the nation," The Daily Mail's fruitcake fumes in her column today.
Obviously Mr Fry's real offence is his "gaiety", but do go on Melanie...
"It’s a role to which he self-consciously plays up as raconteur, wit and genial host for any TV occasion. But why, then, does he feel compelled so egregiously to abuse this privileged position?
"At the weekend, a preview was published of a self-regarding interview to be transmitted on TV in June in which Fry talks about the fact that he was addicted to cocaine for a period of 15 years.
"Did he express any concern or remorse about this addiction, any insight into the harm it may have done to his health or career — or indeed, to anyone else in his life? No, there was not one syllable of regret..."
Not so much as a "Soz"? What a bastard!
Phillips continues seemingly without pausing for breath - or indeed thought;
"If this is what Fry thinks passes for wit, then the drugs he has taken have clearly affected more of his brain than might be thought."
Phillips is on very shaky ground here, as the column dutifully turns into one of her hilariously incoherent rants that then goes on to take badly aimed swipes at Kate Moss, John Galliano, Charlie Sheen and Oliver Stone.
What on earth could Melanie Phillips be on?