CBS announced Thursday they were suspending production on Charlie Sheen's hit sitcom Two and a Half Men after Sheen called into a radio show and ranted against the show’s producer. Sheen called show creator Chuck Lorre a “clown” and (inexplicably) repeatedly used Lorre’s Jewish birth name, Chaim Levine. Sheen responded to the suspension with an open letter to Lorre, calling him a "little maggot" and saying he wishes the executive producer "nothing but pain in his travels." Meanwhile, Sheen’s ex-wife Brooke Mueller has moved back in with him, Mueller’s mother said Thursday, bringing the couple’s almost-2-year-old boys with her.
A lost show. An alleged cocaine-fueled orgy. Rampage at the Plaza. Sheen's scandals never seem to end. Watch Sheen's 12 stupidest moments below. Plus, Sheen's 10 worst quotes from his recent tirade.
1. Prelude: Life Soon to Imitate Art
Four years before the actor’s first real-life scandal, Sheen played a bad-boy drug addict—who still manages to lure ladies—in the 1986 hit comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. While his screen time was brief, the young Sheen’s slimy charm manages to break Jennifer Grey’s (aka Jeanie Bueller’s) tough exterior, resulting in a spontaneous smooch-fest in a police station. Attraction is a bitch, huh?
2. It Begins With a Bang
Sheen’s first high-profile scandal came in 1990, when news broke that then-fiancée Kelly Preston had been shot in the arm. No, no, it’s not what you think. According to Sheen, he’d slipped a .22 in his pants pocket the night before, when he thought (mistakenly) they were being burglarized. He then promptly forgot about the weapon and left his pants in the bathroom. The gun went off the next morning when Preston went to move his clothes—with shrapnel hitting her ankle and wrist. Shockingly, the couple split soon after.
3. Why Get for Free What You Can Pay For?
Five years later, Sheen’s name became further tarnished when he confessed to being a client of “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss. In fact, he became the only celebrity to fess up to using Fleiss’ services—reportedly spending $50,000 on her call girls. Sheen would suffer the further indignity of seeing the life of Fleiss transformed in this made-for-TV movie, Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss.
4. Sheen Assaults Porn-Star Girlfriend, The World Shrugs
No “gun in my pocket” excuses could save Sheen when, in 1996, he was accused of assaulting porn star Brittany Ashland—reportedly throwing her on the kitchen floor and splitting her lip. (He later pleaded “no contest,” landing him a year's suspended sentence, two years' probation, and a $2,800 fine.) Things went downhill from there, as Sheen bounced in and out of rehab following drug overdoses and DUIs.
5. Dept. of Bad Ideas: Sheen Gets Married
Sheen married actress Denise Richards in 2002. By April 2006, Richards had filed for divorce, claiming, among other things, that Sheen was addicted to porn, gambled excessively, patronized prostitutes, wanted to keep firearms in their living room, and posted an image of his manly regions on the Internet. Sheen denies everything, calling the claims " laughable and inane." In this clip, Richards shares nasty emails that Sheen apparently sent her, two years after their divorce.
6. Bonus: Even in Ads, Sheen Crashes and Burns
How Charlie Sheen managed to star on a hit comedy—and even shill for a product as wholesome as Hanes underwear—after all his crimes is something of a mystery. In this 2009 commercial for the latter, Sheen wrecks his Benz and destroys private property… which everyone finds hilarious! Yes, until recently, the actor seemed to have cultivated something of an immunity to bad press.
7. The 911 Call Heard ‘Round the World
Charlie Sheen may have been able to deflect past scandals, but last year, his bad boy ways started to catch up with him—starting with then-wife Brooke Mueller’s terrified 911 call, broadcast around the globe. The model/actress phoned the cops after Sheen allegedly threatened her with a knife; Sheen was subsequently arrested in Aspen on felony charges, spending Christmas in a Colorado jail. The couple subsequently split, and in the divorce papers Sheen cited the infamous night as the end of their relationship.
8. Rampage at the Plaza Hotel
A porn star, drugs, nudity, and a police escort to the hospital: By October 2010 Sheen was at it again. Police busted the actor after a now-notorious episode that included shouting and throwing furniture in a posh New York hotel room, with a porn star/escort barricaded in fear in the bathroom and ex-wife Denise Richards across the hall. His publicist chalked the episode up to an "adverse reaction" to drugs, but the 22-year-old escort, Capri Anderson, feels differently. On November 22, 2010, TMZ reported that she filed a criminal complaint against Sheen, alleging that he became violent and verbally abusive with her, and that she was never paid her $3,500 fee.
9. Richards: I Have a Lot of Faith in Charlie
After visiting Sheen in the hospital post-Plaza rampage, a calm and collected Denise Richards told Joy Behar that her m.o. is to protect her and Sheen's daughters. When Behar asked her how Charlie was doing, she declined to answer with a laugh, saying "I'll let you ask Charlie."
10. Charlie Fights Back
Sheen didn’t sit around and wait for Anderson’s criminal complaint against him to gather momentum and snowball him back to jail. The same day Anderson pressed charges, Sheen filed a lawsuit against her for extortion. Sheen claims Anderson tried to blackmail him for $1 million; alleges that she stole his $165,000 watch; and calls her "an opportunistic pornographic film star and publicity hungry scam-artist." Watch Anderson’s teary interview on Good Morning America, hours before she took her case to the NYPD.
11. Cocaine, Porn Stars, Real Housewives, and Rehab
Four months after the Plaza debacle landed Sheen in the hospital and brought his name back into the headlines, the troubled star was rushed to the hospital yet again in January 2011. Although he was reportedly suffering from severe abdominal pains due to an old hernia injury (made worse after he laughed too hard at the TV), TMZ later reported Sheen allegedly had a " briefcase full of cocaine" delivered to his Los Angeles home the night prior to the hospitalization. TMZ also claimed Sheen partied with two porn stars, among many women, for 36 hours prior to neighbors (and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills stars) Adrienne Maloof and Dr. Paul Nasiff calling 911 on his behalf. The day after, Sheen was released from the hospital and announced his decision to enter rehab. Sheen's attempt to overcome his alleged addiction, however, seemed less serious after he told Radar Online, "People don't seem to get it...Guy can't have a great time and do his job also?"
12. CBS Pulls the Plug
Nearly a month after his female- and drug-related addictions surfaced with the alleged 36-hour bender, Sheen now finds himself finally paying for his faux pas. After the Two and a Half Men actor announced his plans to enter rehab, CBS (along with Warner Bros. and the show's executive producer) said in a joint statement: "We are profoundly concerned for his health and well-being, and support his decision." Sheen went on an unofficial publicity tour to prove his sobriety for the past month. But on Thursday, an incredibly confident Sheen took on Two and a Half Men's creator Chuck Lorre, calling him a clown and a turd on the radio and then, a "contaminated little maggot" in a letter to TMZ. But Lorre and CBS put a stop to Sheen's antics— Two and a Half Men was suspended Thursday night.
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