Dr. Drew Pinsky
The doctor is in. Dr. Drew Pinsky has made it his life mission to cure Hollywood of its various demons and addictions, one celebrity at a time. The practising physician has become mainstream famous for his role in the VH1 reality series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which airs in Canada on MuchMoreMusic.
Currently in its fourth season, the show has drawn kudos from some in the medical community for detailing the rehabilitation process; others have criticized it for its pop-culture approach. Either way, Celebrity Rehab has spawned the spinoffs Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew and Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House.
To his credit, Pinsky isn't new to the healing game: The son of a physician, he was in his final year of medical school when he began hosting the call-in radio talk show Loveline way back in 1984. Dr. Drew still dishes out relationship advice on Loveline - widely syndicated across the United States and Canada - and in recent years he's been a regular contributor on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live and Entertainment Tonight.
Dr. Drew spoke to us by phone from Los Angeles last week.
What was the original inspiration behind Celebrity Rehab?
[Head counsellor]Bob Forrest came in my office one day five years ago and said, "I'm so sick of our treatment being portrayed in the media as some sort of spa experience. We have to do a TV show." That was what turned me around on this whole concept. We do exactly on this show what we do in our professional lives. This is how it happens.
Is the show constructed to allow viewers to see themselves in these celebrities receiving treatment?
Absolutely. My original intent was to show that we treat celebrities no different than anyone else. The celebrity aspect is just the bait to bring people in so they can learn about themselves.
Are there boundaries set as to how intrusive the reality-TV process is in the treatment?
It's a documentary. There are dozens of cameras going all the time. They do not turn off. As for what goes on the air, those decisions are made by the executive producers and the networks.
What's the success ratio from the first three seasons?
The percentage of success has been nothing short of remarkable. These are people not interested in treatment; they primarily come to me because they want to be on TV and they want to make money. And in spite of that distorted motivation they get better. I would say nearly every person we've treated has felt as though their life has been changed by the experience and many of them are still active in sobriety.
What's your response to people who condemn the show for sensationalizing addiction?
That just doesn't make sense. We are in fact the contrary of that. We're a documentary about people's lives; they just happen to be celebrities. It may look like that on the surface, but it's something far deeper inside. That's a case of people just looking at the headlines and not watching the show.
Have technical innovations made addiction recovery more complicated?
Cellphones, social networking and the Internet rags have made a big difference. With this current group, when we would give them their phones for a specified period of time, to check in with family or whatever, they would immediately go to TMZ and other websites, and then they would define themselves by what was being written about them, which was ridiculous. It was very destabilizing and problematic for the treatment.
Is it frustrating for you to see the show trivialized by the tabloid press?
My hope is that the consumers of that sort of press are confronted with a mirror a little bit. These are the people you're making fun of, these are the people you're bullying and writing horrible things about, and they are humans and in harm's way and suffering, so pay attention.
On the current edition, you treat former Tiger Woods mistress Rachel Uchitel for love addiction. Is that common?
We did a whole show on love addiction. What you'll see with love addicts is that as they get further along in their recovery, they start realizing that chemical substances play a bigger role than they realized.
Have you had any experience dealing with addictions in Canada?
I know there's a lot of alcoholism up in Canada. I used to work with the Canadian health-care system. About 15 years ago, they used to send their alcoholics to us. You guys didn't have sufficient resources to treat the alcoholics, so they'd fly them down to us. We'd go pick up busloads of them.
This interview has been condensed and edited.