It seems like a lot of families have one child that is a problem. Reiner and Singer's other kids were fine, but Nick had a lot of mental health issues. Maybe it was genetics?

The last remaining relative I had was my little brother. I tried and did everything I knew, what friends knew, what relatives knew, what doctors knew to help him. He did not murder but I was afraid of him by the time I stopped him from all those threats etc and he died laying on his back outside his car on a cold winter night.

It is a hard thing to live with even when you are certain there was nothing left but what you did. The threats are the final call and make it easier but still, I feel so terribly sad for them all, including the remaining brother. It must be hell living with that kind of mind fuck going on.

I guess it is amazing there is not more tragedy given what you have witnessed.

I don't say much about what I know, saw and dealt with because it can sound like gossip and name dropping (and BS). I liked working on the defense side because I genuinely like people. The stalkers freaked me out worse than the gossip and rehab stuff because stalkers are unpredictable and numerous. People have no idea what celebs put up with, especially young female stars, because rule #1 is "Don't ever mention your stalkers." It just makes them worse. Celebs aren't allowed to complain about fame and all the unseen crap that comes with it because "they asked for it"

I was born into the business and there are many good people in it but the bigger dynamic is vapid sensationalism and distortion of reality. It attracts borderline personalities and delusional people. My mother was working as an actress when I was born. By age 4 I was going with her to gigs and auditions mostly to keep the producers from hitting on her (or worse). We had a hand signal worked out for me to interrupt whatever was happening. Her career ended. During college my own career began. I was Assistant Script Supervisor and stuntman on a TV stunt show that shot at Sunset Gower. Inside those 20-foot walls it was business but right outside on the sidewalks it was hell on earth. Eventually I moved to NYC where it is much more sedate and sane.

There is a saying among the famous -- "Fame is like a tiger that comes to your door every day and the day you have nothing left to feed it, it eats you."

I have nothing but respect for those who don't get eaten.

I have heard rumors along the same lines you are describing.
So while it is shocking to hear, it is not surprising.
Add huge amounts of money on top of the narcissism, drugs, psychosis, it is a recipe for disaster.

It is just as well your mother left the business.

I had no idea about the stalkers for young female stars.
What a crazy world we live in.
NYC is sane and sedate. Jebus.

late stage syphilis is tied to 'delusions of grandeur' in which the sufferer comes to believe they are bound for fame or tied to someone famous. It used to be more common in the 1930s and 40s before treatments improved; Hitler is the most famous example from that era. But that isn't the only path to stalkerism. By boss at the studio was in his 70s and told me stories about the 1940s -- this stuff is not new and there used to be fewer celebrities so more stalkers and mentally ill people had fewer targets. Some of the craziest incidents happened to Shirley Temple.

I worked security at the 1984 Olympics and ran down a guy who had slipped in without a ticket. He had really bad energy and was angry with me right away. Spoke to me in German and then got even angrier when I answered in German. I was bumping bodies with this guy and I was unarmed. Watching his hands and waiting for LAPD to come to us. They took him and my boss there later confirmed that I did the right thing. Turned out the guy was stalking Steffi Graff who was barely 15YO at the time. Nine years later he stabbed Monika Seles during a televised tennis match in Hamburg. My blood went cold when they showed that guy's face on the news. Not the kind of face and hairline you forget. I don't know if he had a knife when I stopped him but it definitely seemed like a possibility.

NYC is generally a good place for celebrities to live because people don't hassle them or behave the way people in LA do. John Lennon is of course the notable exception but his attacker came from Hawaii to do what he did.

NYC is a much better place for the rich (and everyone else) to raise their kids than LA is.

I ask because I cannot think of anyone more delusional.

I had no idea about the prevalence of the stalker situation.

I was aware of the mental illness in Hollywood from the performer standpoint.

You need to be somewhat crazy to be a good actor (be able to assume other personalities, etc.)
and to love all the fame and adoration.
Plus the adoration causes more narcissism.

But I had no idea about the widespread stalker issue.

From time to time we get a glimpse when a famous star has a stalker enter the home etc.
And there is publicity about it.

I would think tertiary syphilis would not be an issue with modern medicine.
But I guess they must be mentally ill to begin with not to get treatment.

I had no idea about Shirley Temple being victimized.

Explains why some stars live outside of Hollywood.

Why do you think LA is so crazy, and NYC is more sane?

unless or until they are tested. "Congenital" syphilis. A spirochaete, like Lyme, the borrows into tissues and the brain. Both can be asymptomatic for long periods of time. And both can produce vague yet dramatic symptoms -- fatigue, brain fog, periodic fevers, sore throat, weight loss -- stuff which is not automatically thought of STD or syphilis. Btw, my vet says Lyme can be transmitted sexually. I believe her because the mechanism is the same as syphilis AND she's the best vet I have ever met.

The stigma of syphilis and questions about HOW someone got it, naming partners, etc. can be a barrier to seeking treatment also.

I think the term "narcissism" is used too generally but I know what I think you mean. So no matter what we call it, I think it is useful to go down one level and look at what's under that. Trauma. And wanting to reinvent yourself because of that trauma. That's often true for stalkers and it can be true for actors. IOW your own childhood was so shitty and traumatic that you want to be someone else. Or, you feel so thrown away that you have to imagine yourself as someone well known and loved. Your denial is proportional to the trauma so it can be much less extreme. For example many actors are the children of alcoholics so they learned acting and self-denial as survival skills.

>Why do you think LA is so crazy, and NYC is more sane?<

The true history of L.A. is not very long, 1900 to the present, and not well known. It was run for decades by something known as "The Combination" as in combination of organized crime and corrupt law enforcement / elected officials. There was/is a lawlessness that turbo charges itself. The film business has always been a good way to launder crime money. Until very recently it was a cash business with no auditable merchandise. The IRS and everyone had to take their word for it. If they said they sold 1000 tickets or 10 tickets there was no way to prove otherwise...until the Feds audited DeLorentis by sending an agent into sit through 6 showings of a film and count how many people were there. Delorentis was laundering coke money through the film business.

Anyway, this corruption / underground stuff continues the present there. But Hollywood is the kicker. It is a distorted fun house mirror. And it attracts lost people daily. There are huge walls around the studios but the hordes are right outside the walls. So there is this weird polarized co-existence but it all feels a bit dystopian and dangerous. Darkness isn't "on the edge of town" -- It's right in the middle. When OJ or Nick Reiner did their crimes they bought meth from street dealers, not from celeb dealers. Long story but there is a whole dynamic that exists because drug use is so social. If they are buying meth it means they are too broke to buy coke therefore they don't want their friends to know therefore they go to street dealers. That is how they arrested Nick Reiner -- he was went to South Central (near USC) to buy meth and they didn't know what he had done in Brentwood, they just arrested him for buying.

NY on the other hand is full of rich people, most of whom are 1) not in the entertainment industry and 2) want to remain unknown to the general public for many reasons but often including everything I have detailed above. It is a much older city, much more european than LA. Big families, roots, connections, neighborhoods that are social. Rich kids and upper middle class kids are very social, competitive and professional. There is a big sobriety and health trend.

I once went to a workshop and the presenter talked about the psychopathy of Hollywood actors.
The narcissism, borderline personality disorder, multiple personality disorder, dissociative disorder.
All the things you are discussing. So we have this group of people in a town built on crime, drugs, and
entertainment. A recipe for disaster.

Yes NYC is a different animal altogether.

Thank you for this discussion.
Hollywood does a good job of hiding the darker side of their town.