Shade of the Week: Heather Locklear
Things aren’t looking good for the Queen of the 90s.
There was a time in Hollywood when Heather Locklear’s name was at the top of the food chain. Her days on Dynasty and Melrose Place made her a household name and her bitchy antics on Melrose show allowed her to be on every red carpet, every magazine cover and every party. Along the way her success started to dwindle. The carpets got fewer, the magazines stopped calling and Heather got older. She went through the same thing most actresses go through in Hollywood: her time was essentially up.
Her name still holds some merit within Hollywood and everyone will still get nostalgic over her career but her substance abuse and string of arrests have made it hard for her to get roles due to her tainted image. Heather has been to rehab six times and it clearly hasn’t worked. It seems her troubles started or at least came to surface 10 years ago after her doctor alleged she was suicidal in March 2008 and her DUI in September of the same year. Then in 2012, her sister called 911 because she was taking prescription drugs and alcohol. This has clearly been a pattern for years and her recent drama is just a reaction to the prolonged substance abuse and her declining mental health.
2018 has probably been Heather Locklear’s worst year yet. I don’t know how you can get worse than two arrests, several charges of police battery, two stays in rehab, an involuntary psych evaluation, choking your parents, threatening suicide and a possible overdose - just in five months! In February she was arrested after she assaulted three police officers who came to her house after her brother reported her and her boyfriend having a fight. She then threatened to shoot them if they came back again and was then arrested but made an easy transition to rehab. At this point, I thought her finally getting a diamond and appearing on RHOBH was a great idea. Yes, she had a little hiccup with an arrest but if The Countess could come back from it anyone can! I thought it could be her come back story and America could get to know her and put her at the forefront of pop culture once again. Can you imagine how great that would be? That was until the shit really hit the fan.
Following her stay in rehab it was reported she was doing better until last week when she was put on a three-day psych evaluation after she threatened to kill herself because she believed her boyfriend was cheating and choked both her parents. What the actual fuck. That isn’t even all of it! A week later she was arrested again after a disturbance at her house where she punched a cop and kicked an EMT, resulting in her second arrest for police battery. Still not done. After she was bailed out she went home, overdosed, and then went back to the hospital.
This is just so sad. Fuck shade of the week, this is SAD of the week. In her most recent mugshot, she looks like a shell of the powerful woman she once was. Her life has become dark even for reality TV and she needs to fix her life which the Housewives wouldn’t allow her to do. If you’re choking your parents, overdosing and assaulting any 911 worker who comes your way then obviously something is up. I don’t even have a solution for her because rehab didn’t work, no one is going to hire her after this so I’m stuck. I also feel for the family who must be at their wit's end. She’s currently in rehab (I think) but she can’t properly get the help she needs until she wants it for herself. When you read her track record back it sounds hilarious and way too dramatic but it's also a clear indiction that she is not okay. Does a stable person choke their parents?! I just can't get over the image of her hand against her geriatric mom and dad's throats.
Her life has officially become an episode of one of the melodramatic soap operas that she worked on in the 90s but America loves a comeback story so hopefully when Heather is ready she can put down the wine, stops popping pills, gets her best blowout and makes her return to TV because even though the entertainment business inadvertently caused her breakdown, for an actress who was as big as she was I think working and being back in the spotlight is the only cure, once she’s been reformed of course! I'd still love a RHOBH apperance but there's no way Bravo would go for that in her current state, maybe season 10?
