CSI’s Gary Dourdan avoids jail time
On Monday, April 28, CSI star Gary Dourdan was arrested in Palm Springs, California. He was asleep in his car and when a police officer approached, he found Dourdan disoriented. The actor was arrested after the cop found cocaine, heroin, Ecstacy, miscellaneous prescription drugs and paraphernalia in the car. Despite pleading guilty to drug possession today, Dourdan will not have to do any jail time. In fact, in the deal his lawyer struck with prosecutors, Gary will get treatment for his drug problems. Basically, he lucked out.
“Once Gary completes 30 hours of a diversion program, his case will be entirely dismissed,” said his lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, in a statement to The Associated Press. Dourdan won’t have to do any time in a drug rehab facility or behind bars, so all things considered, he’s very, very fortunate. He could have faced up to three years or more in jail .
Gary has already departed CSI, and in the season finale, his character was seemingly killed in a point blank shooting. However, when Jorja Fox returns for the fall premiere, Dourdan is reportedly in the show. And not as a ghost. So, now that he won’t be doing time, he’ll have time to film scenes for CSI and, presumably, wrap up the unfinished business of the CSI crew exposing the corrupt under sheriff.
The Simpsons: All About Lisa (season finale) - VIDEO
(S19E20) “Applause is an addiction, like heroin or checking your e-mail.” — Sideshow Mel
Well, another season of The Simpsons has come to an end. As with the last few seasons some stuff was good, some was okay, and the rest should have gone back to the Writers’ Room for further revision (”Treehouse of Horror”, anyone?). Most of the weak stuff landed in the first half of the season for some reason — maybe everyone was tired from the completion of The Simpsons Movie. The second half picked up steam, thanks to some solid episodes featuring Lisa and Bart.
Luckily, The Simpsons ended on a strong note with the Lisa-centric season finale. Once again going back to the on-going theme of how success can corrupt Lisa, we were treated to an episode featuring her turn to work with the famous Krusty the Clown. I say ’her turn’ because older brother Bart had worked for Krusty in the past. And, like Bart, Lisa usurped Krusty’s fame to become the star of the show.
You would think Krusty would have learned his lesson.
The situation on how Lisa became famous was different from the way Bart did. With Bart, the success was unintentional — it stemmed from a catch phrase (’I didn’t do it’) that swept the country. With Lisa, it was more a manipulation of Krusty that permitted her to rise to the top and become Springfield’s Entertainer of the Year. Of course, with that fame comes consequences.
If you didn’t realize it already (and I’m sure you did, because you are an intelligent lot), this episode of The Simpsons was loosely based on the Academy Award-winning film All About Eve, albeit, with a few changes. In Eve, Margo Channing (portrayed by Bette Davis) takes fan Eve Harrington, (Anne Baxter) under her wing. In this episode, Krusty took Lisa on as his intern because of her determination to get Bart added as one of his Krustketeers. In Eve, the eventually successful Ms. Harrington takes one of her fans under her wing — starting the cycle that Margo began. In The Simpsons, Lisa realizes the error of her ways at the end of the episode and tries to get Krusty back into the good graces of his fans.
The connection between this episode and the movie was the manipulation by both Eve and Lisa. In the movie, Eve’s goal was to take away everything that Margo loved — her career, her boyfriend, her friends — through manipulation and deception. On The Simpsons, Lisa went the way of deception to woo the sponsors away from Krusty and to her talents as a clown; learned at the heels of Springfield’s main clown. Again, this is something fans of the show expect from Lisa. There has rarely been a time that some type of fame and glory hasn’t made Lisa do something against her own beliefs. In fact, when you look at all of the times that she has pushed others aside for her own selfish desires, she is more Eve than Eve is Eve.
While this was a Lisa-centric episode, it was also one that heavily featured Krusty the Clown. We haven’t really seen Krusty in a major role on The Simpsons in quite some time. So, it was fun to see him at his most Krustiest. He was really on the rampage during this episode — showing the viewers all of the traits that we have come to enjoy. This was also an opportunity to see more of Krusty’s television past as he was celebrating his 4000th episode (’I never thought I would make it past 400 episodes’). It was hard to tell if the older versions of the Krustketeers were really old or just recently grown up. If recently grown up, that means Springfield didn’t have color television until much later.
This episode also featured the heavy presence of Sideshow Mel, who was the narrator of this installment as well as Lisa’s guide through the rigors of stardom. We don’t get to see or hear too much of Mel. It seems that he has the same type of theatrical and cultural background of one Sideshow Bob; yet, he seems more comfortable in his role as Krusty’s sidekick. He also seems to be one of the more grounded characters on The Simpsons, which made him a good moral compass for Lisa.
Now, before we close up shop for the summer, a brief go-around on the other events that happened during ’All About Lisa’:
- A rare parenting moment between Homer and Marge. Through an agreement, Homer spoke to Bart about his clown issues in exchange for Marge to handle talks about piercings and strange feelings.
- Gabbo’s back! The last place we saw the wooden dummy that brought Krusty down was in The Simpsons Movie. You know, the appearance of Gabbo may have been a bit of foreshadowing to the fate that Krusty would encounter this episode.
- Comic Book Guy has returned, and is still in the Android’s Dungeon. I believe that this is the first time viewers had ever seen CBG with his hair down. And, should probably be the last time. By the way, for those non-comic book fans, the ’Radioactive Man vs. Muhammad Ali’ comic that Bart wanted in exchange for his Krusty products was a sendoff of the 1970s DC Comic ’Superman vs. Muhammad Ali’.
- The second story of the night wasn’t that bad at all. We don’t see Bart and Homer bonding too much these days. So, having them collect coins was a good touch by the writers. Nice how Homer was able to get the ’Kissing Lincolns’ penny from Mr. Burns.
- Drew Carey — Hmmm. The animated version of Drew just didn’t have the right feel to it. Perhaps because the real life Drew is shaped like an animated character.
- Bart doing Carrot Top shtick at the auditions for Krusty. I enjoyed his impression of a Jack-o-Lantern.
That’s all, folks. Next time on The Simpsons — we begin season 2-0. See you then.
Dourdan could return to CSI next season
Two surprises hit me when I read this article about CSI at The Chicago Sun-Times: one, Gary Dourdan might return to the show next season, and two, next season could be the last for the series.
As you’ve already heard, Dourdan was arrested the other morning for possession of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and prescription drugs. Seems that the cast and crew have been worried about Dourdan for quite some time and now want to help him even more. I guess sometimes someone has to hit rock bottom before someone intervenes.
But the even more interesting news is that Dourdan might return to the show next season, at least here and there. He was let go from the show a few weeks ago and wasn’t expected to ever be on the show again. But now he might be asked back to film some episodes for the (rumored) last season of the show. You would think that suspected drug use and a departure from the show would mean that there would be no chance he would come back, so this is a twist on the usual scenario.
On a related note, a quick plea to CBS: if this really is the last season of the show, could you do me a favor and not replace it with yet another CSI spinoff?
CSI star arrested for drug possession
CSI star Gary Dourdan was arrested at 5:21 AM and charged with suspected possession of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and maybe other drugs as well.
He was arrested in Palm Springs, CA when police saw him sleeping in his car early in the morning. When they got to the car and investigated further, Dourdan was arrested for the above offense. He’s out on bail.
This arrest will trigger approximately 327 different jokes about the CSI gang helping him and tests being done on the car, etc. Now we just have to figure out whether he’s leaving CSI (official word is that Dourdan and the studio came to an understanding on his departure) because of his drug use or (as Keith wonders) he’s doing the drugs because he’s leaving the show.
Chicken, egg.