Brian Damage
11-12-2010, 10:27 PM
With online, TV and print reporters in full pursuit of details surrounding Demi Lovato's breakdown and trip to rehab, former teen star Patty Duke would like to urge restraint: "Be quiet and let the girl figure it out. These are people, these young girls," she tells PopEater. "Some of them can build a shield against the negative media, but most of them can't -- and it hurts."
As for what Lovato and other troubled young personalities, including Lindsay Lohan, are going through now, "I relate to it completely. What I don't relate to is when help is offered and they don't take it. That's what makes me crazy," says Duke. "The part of me that understands psychology and psychiatry tells me, 'No, they're not at their bottom yet.' It may be my bottom, but not theirs."
Duke knows of what she speaks, of course. Back in the '60s, it was she who was America's Sweetheart, the beloved, Oscar-winning child actress (for 'The Miracle Worker') who became the jaunty teen star of her own hugely popular TV show -- who then grew up and melted down before the public's eyes.
LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 12: Recording artist Demi Lovato attends the 2010 American Music Awards Nominations Press Conference held at The Mixing Room at the JW Marriott Los Angeles at L.A. LIVE on October 12, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. According to reports November 2, 2010 Lovato checked into a treatment center for emotional and physical issues. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Demi Lovato Snapshots
After her image-altering role in the 1967 cult fave 'Valley of the Dolls,' her bizarre behavior, wild partying and high-profile romances sold forests' worth of tabloids. Eventually, she gained control of the bipolar illness at the root of her troubles, and with therapy found some healing for the agonized childhood she wrote about in her best-selling 'Call Me Anna' memoir. She was also able to resume her distinguished career, including serving as Screen Actors Guild president.
"When I was in San Francisco, there was so much stuff out about Lindsay Lohan, I thought, 'I've got to write her a letter," she continues, referring to her 2009-2010 stint as Madame Morrible in the San Francisco company of "Wicked." "But then I didn't, because I didn't want to make anything worse."
What would she say to Lindsay now?
"That there is a safe place. There is a safe place inside of each of us, and when we finally go there, we find out that we can find other safe places, outside of us. And I'd say that having gone through -- well, I don't know what she was doing. I don't live with her. But whatever substance she may be using, it's giving her a false insight."
Duke actually sat down this day to discuss Lifetime's Nov. 29 'Unanswered Prayers' movie, inspired by the Garth Brooks hit, and her role as the mama of Samantha Mathis' character. Mathis plays the wife of Eric Close, whose world is rocked by the return to their town of his high school flame, played by Madchen Amick.
But when the subject of Lovato's troubles is broached, Duke's rebuke is immediate: "Crap! The rumor mill should give it a rest."
At 63, Duke, who goes by her birth name of Anna in private life, divides her time between work stints and her home in Idaho, where she has now lived for 21 years. Of her fourth marriage, to Michael Pearce, she says, "Mike and I are coming up 25 years -- pretty good for a bipolar lady. We're partners. We do everything together. Others might call it codependency." She smiles. "But it works for us." The mother of actors Sean and Mackenzie Astin and 22-year-old adopted son Kevin (a chef), she eagerly dispenses details of how well her children and grandchildren are doing.
Duke still laughs like a teenager on occasion, and it's easy to see the charisma that captured the nation's heart nearly a half century ago. She'd like return to TV on a regular basis. "I know it sounds nuts, but I'd like to be in a series again," she tells us. "I'm putting that out there now."
Besides acting and personal appearances, Duke does a fair share of speaking engagements related to mental health issues -- her story serving as a beacon of hope to others coping with such problems. "I hope it does. What I want to be to them is a glimmer of who they can be if they choose to get balanced. It's been about 28 years since my diagnosis, since the beginning of the medication," she says. "I still go to see a psychologist. You'd think by the time you get to be almost 64 it would all be resolved, but just out of nowhere something will come up and I'll think, 'Oh, my God.'
"Every day is not perfect for me. I get sad sometime,s but there's a reason for it. It's not that other kind of depression that lurks, waiting to bring you down. I feel ecstasy, but not the kind like when I bought several Mercedes in one day when I didn't have any money." She laughs. "But I paid the consequences for it. I paid and moved on."
http://www.popeater.com/2010/11/12/patty-duke-demi-lovato-lindsay-lohan/
As for what Lovato and other troubled young personalities, including Lindsay Lohan, are going through now, "I relate to it completely. What I don't relate to is when help is offered and they don't take it. That's what makes me crazy," says Duke. "The part of me that understands psychology and psychiatry tells me, 'No, they're not at their bottom yet.' It may be my bottom, but not theirs."
Duke knows of what she speaks, of course. Back in the '60s, it was she who was America's Sweetheart, the beloved, Oscar-winning child actress (for 'The Miracle Worker') who became the jaunty teen star of her own hugely popular TV show -- who then grew up and melted down before the public's eyes.
LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 12: Recording artist Demi Lovato attends the 2010 American Music Awards Nominations Press Conference held at The Mixing Room at the JW Marriott Los Angeles at L.A. LIVE on October 12, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. According to reports November 2, 2010 Lovato checked into a treatment center for emotional and physical issues. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Demi Lovato Snapshots
After her image-altering role in the 1967 cult fave 'Valley of the Dolls,' her bizarre behavior, wild partying and high-profile romances sold forests' worth of tabloids. Eventually, she gained control of the bipolar illness at the root of her troubles, and with therapy found some healing for the agonized childhood she wrote about in her best-selling 'Call Me Anna' memoir. She was also able to resume her distinguished career, including serving as Screen Actors Guild president.
"When I was in San Francisco, there was so much stuff out about Lindsay Lohan, I thought, 'I've got to write her a letter," she continues, referring to her 2009-2010 stint as Madame Morrible in the San Francisco company of "Wicked." "But then I didn't, because I didn't want to make anything worse."
What would she say to Lindsay now?
"That there is a safe place. There is a safe place inside of each of us, and when we finally go there, we find out that we can find other safe places, outside of us. And I'd say that having gone through -- well, I don't know what she was doing. I don't live with her. But whatever substance she may be using, it's giving her a false insight."
Duke actually sat down this day to discuss Lifetime's Nov. 29 'Unanswered Prayers' movie, inspired by the Garth Brooks hit, and her role as the mama of Samantha Mathis' character. Mathis plays the wife of Eric Close, whose world is rocked by the return to their town of his high school flame, played by Madchen Amick.
But when the subject of Lovato's troubles is broached, Duke's rebuke is immediate: "Crap! The rumor mill should give it a rest."
At 63, Duke, who goes by her birth name of Anna in private life, divides her time between work stints and her home in Idaho, where she has now lived for 21 years. Of her fourth marriage, to Michael Pearce, she says, "Mike and I are coming up 25 years -- pretty good for a bipolar lady. We're partners. We do everything together. Others might call it codependency." She smiles. "But it works for us." The mother of actors Sean and Mackenzie Astin and 22-year-old adopted son Kevin (a chef), she eagerly dispenses details of how well her children and grandchildren are doing.
Duke still laughs like a teenager on occasion, and it's easy to see the charisma that captured the nation's heart nearly a half century ago. She'd like return to TV on a regular basis. "I know it sounds nuts, but I'd like to be in a series again," she tells us. "I'm putting that out there now."
Besides acting and personal appearances, Duke does a fair share of speaking engagements related to mental health issues -- her story serving as a beacon of hope to others coping with such problems. "I hope it does. What I want to be to them is a glimmer of who they can be if they choose to get balanced. It's been about 28 years since my diagnosis, since the beginning of the medication," she says. "I still go to see a psychologist. You'd think by the time you get to be almost 64 it would all be resolved, but just out of nowhere something will come up and I'll think, 'Oh, my God.'
"Every day is not perfect for me. I get sad sometime,s but there's a reason for it. It's not that other kind of depression that lurks, waiting to bring you down. I feel ecstasy, but not the kind like when I bought several Mercedes in one day when I didn't have any money." She laughs. "But I paid the consequences for it. I paid and moved on."
http://www.popeater.com/2010/11/12/patty-duke-demi-lovato-lindsay-lohan/