Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Checking out: Why celebrities die in hotel rooms
Toronto Sun ^ | July 20, 2013 | Thane Burnett

Posted on 07/20/2013 4:21:15 AM PDT by rickmichaels

When Cory Monteith died alone in a room at Vancouver's Fairmont Pacific Rim last weekend, he took up permanent residency in a sad but famous corner of popular culture: A celebrity registry of bitter suite ends.

Fortunate stars that grow old naturally can look forward to meeting their maker covered by monogrammed sheets and framed by pictures of their younger-selves on nearby walls. Their families will gather to remember and mourn — perhaps later to fight over the estate.

But troubled and addicted celebrities are continually found by demons as they sit alone, not sheltered inside fine homes or a back seat of a limo or even beyond the velvet ropes of a RIP section. Instead, it's — time and again — in the rented accommodation of a hotel room. A transient space designed as a stopover.

In hotels in countless cities across different continents, the final scene has been played out before. Not just for the stars, of course, but often for suicide victims who we will never read or talk about.

Through the lobby and into the elevator. Then down the hall, past the ice machine and then a key-card swipe that welcomes you with a green light.

Magazines fanned on a desk. TV remote waiting patently by the bed. Fresh, white towels piled next to instructions on what to do with dirty ones.

A room that seems like home, but is only clever set dressing. Privacy that is assured but slightly impersonal.

And a number on a door rather than a name on a mailbox.

New York-based addictions counsellor Stephen Lewis says he teaches users — especially heroin users — to use a buddy-system.

"We talk about doing it in pairs and never being alone, so there's someone to call 911," he explains.

Away from others, he adds, there's also a potentially toxic mix including shame, doing a higher dose and especially after rehab, not having the same tolerance.

Other than his addiction, Monteith — reportedly very giving with a low-key Canadian style — seems an odd addition to the usual rouges gallery of celebrity hotel deaths.

After a day of partying hard, comedian John Belushi did one last speedball in 1982 at the Chateau Marmont on Hollywood's Sunset Strip. INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, under the influence of drugs and alcohol while inside Sydney's then-Ritz-Carlton Hotel in '97, wrapped a snakeskin leather belt around his own neck with such force the buckle cracked.

The registry of those who rent a room to die-for is voluminous, including Sid Vicious, David Carradine and Janis Joplin.

It hardly surprised anyone when fame-monster Anna Nicole Smith died in a Florida hotel room of an overdose in 2007. It was almost a natural death for her.

Monteith seemed better destined for a familiar room circled by family at an old age.

Even the hotel rooms themselves take on the smear of celebrity.

After Whitney Houston died in one of their bathtubs last year — cocaine swimming in her system — Beverly Hilton officials took the room out of service. The L.A. management even unscrewed '434' from the door.

"I think there's an element of boredom and the anonymity of a hotel room ... along with the disease of addiction," says Scott Michaels, who nine years ago founded Hollywood's Dearly Departed Tours, which takes visitors on rides to last stops of the stars. That includes hotels, such as the one where Joplin died -- her music playing in the tour bus as it rolls by.

Michaels says being an actor — sitting and waiting to deliver moments of dialogue — can be a boring life.

"In a hotel room, you close the door and draw the drapes and let loose."

Couples take off to lodges because it sets a romantic atmosphere. Celebrities often seek a different kind of escape, reasons Michaels.

A room taken for a night doesn't judge, he says, and it doesn't cast guilt.

It's also continually wiped clean of hints of the faceless, transient tenant who last checked in. Then checked out.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: annanicolesmith; beverlyhilton; canada; chateaumarmont; corymonteith; davidcarradine; fairmontpacificrim; hollywood; inxs; janisjoplin; johnbelushi; michaelhutchence; sidvicious; sunsetstrip; vancouver; whitneyhouston
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

1 posted on 07/20/2013 4:21:15 AM PDT by rickmichaels
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

And the best part...your family doesn’t get to clean up the mess.


2 posted on 07/20/2013 4:29:54 AM PDT by Artie (We are surrounded by MORONS)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels
Celebrity must be an awful thing to experience.

It's the pressure of taking one's self too seriously.

3 posted on 07/20/2013 4:33:01 AM PDT by LoveUSA (God employs Man's strength; Satan exploits Man's weakness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels
Makes me think of the old pre-code film "Dinner At Eight" where John Barrymore commits suicide in his hotel room because he is an over-the-hill aged actor with a drinking problem. He "takes the gaspipe"


4 posted on 07/20/2013 4:42:17 AM PDT by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LoveUSA

“DO NOT EVER SPEAK TO ME OR ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME OR ANYONE WHO KNOWS THEM “ Kanye West is in yet another meltdown

Kanye West
FELONY Suspect for Attempted Robbery
http://www.tmz.com/2013/07/19/kanye-west-felony-attempted-robbery-suspect-lax-paparazzi-attack/


5 posted on 07/20/2013 4:43:28 AM PDT by RummyChick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

If you live in a toilet, most likely you will die in one.


6 posted on 07/20/2013 4:47:34 AM PDT by Venturer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

I can think of several celebrities who need to check in and never check out...


7 posted on 07/20/2013 4:50:50 AM PDT by Popman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

Shouldn’t Mike Bloomberg, or Congress, or somebody be clamoring about the need to micromanage the lives of celebrities? /S


8 posted on 07/20/2013 5:02:34 AM PDT by paint_your_wagon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

Who was the American author who famously said right before his death (he was not a suicide), “Born in a damn hotel room, now I’m going to die in a damn hotel room”? That’s a paraphrase.


9 posted on 07/20/2013 5:04:12 AM PDT by OldPossum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels; mikrofon; Charles Henrickson

Death’s Suite Embrace


10 posted on 07/20/2013 5:08:05 AM PDT by martin_fierro (Motel Hell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

Reminds me of the line in Hotel California “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave”.


11 posted on 07/20/2013 5:11:07 AM PDT by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OldPossum
Eugene O'Neill
12 posted on 07/20/2013 5:13:08 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

Isn’t this why the Gideons put Bibles in hotel rooms?


13 posted on 07/20/2013 5:13:13 AM PDT by jocon307
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

“Velvet ropes of a RIP section”, what’s a RIP section? It would make more sense if he said VIP section. Don’t people proofread anymore?


14 posted on 07/20/2013 5:31:52 AM PDT by jonsie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

It may just be as simple as a hotel room is the only place they can go to be by themselves.


15 posted on 07/20/2013 5:41:33 AM PDT by Average Al
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

I always figured it was because they were out of their local area and didn’t have any idea the local dope was a lot stronger.


16 posted on 07/20/2013 5:45:02 AM PDT by Proud_texan (Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then. - PK Dick)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Average Al

Maybe they’re buying drugs in an unfamiliar city and unsure of the toxicity or purity of what they consume. Who knows...


17 posted on 07/20/2013 5:45:39 AM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: jonsie

Considering the subject of the article, that’s an easy enough of a substitution for an editor to miss.


18 posted on 07/20/2013 5:58:01 AM PDT by Bob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: jonsie

*snorgle*


19 posted on 07/20/2013 6:12:27 AM PDT by Tax-chick (No pun intended, no punishment ... If I offended you, you needed it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: rickmichaels

Ask anyone who works at a five star hotel the number of people who checked for good at them.
It’s a dirty little secret at fine hotels,


20 posted on 07/20/2013 6:17:44 AM PDT by ncalburt (Amnesty media out in full force)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson