Check into re-hab, say three "Hail Marys" and receive PR absolution (the only important kind)

Hell hath no fury like a middle aged actress spat out and scorned by a youth obsessed Hollywood.

WTF, I click on a Reg article and get redirected to the website for Heat. Better scan your scripts for trojans.

:p

Dude! Blade Runner! Rachael!

I'd still hit it.

sod the eee model picture..

get a photo of sean young dressed as catwoman!

You think anyone reading Heat would know who she was?

Charles,

Better scan your PC for trojans! ;-))

Cheers,

(A different) Charles

Better scan your own Hosts file...

Funny that.

I thought any dependency on a substance was a means of escapism, a fear of the (ir)rational world, and an inability to cope with every day life.

Is this disease contagious? Congenital? Or do we just want to give these folk some reason for how they feel which isn't "You're a waste of space. Man up a little."

Blade Runner was awesome.

aaand I'm outa here.

This is nothing new. She's had a rep since the beginning. She was the subject of a restraining order from another actor, possibly Scott Glenn, after she started pursuing him. Just another flake, but a good looking one.

Make that James Woods. I can never tell him from Glenn and Skerritt anyway.

She's fine with getting naked for the slightest reason, likes a drink, and dressing up in homemade catwoman outifts.

My kinda girl. She should move back over here, i'm sure to us brits her drinking is merely "healthy" rather than slapping the old Alky tag on when you have so much as a can alone.

Since when is Alcaholism a disease? How do you catch it? Is it viral or bactarial?

It is an addiction, like so many others. Calling it a disease makes it sound like she picked it up from a mosquito or something...

That was Sean Young in Stripes? Never knew that. I knew the dark-haired MP was hot as hell, but didn't realise it was her! It's the cute girlyness next to Rachel's stiff demeanour that just didn't click I guess. Also good as the Fremen girl in Dune or course. Yeah ok, I just looked up IMDB, I admit it, but wow, 48 eh? Who'dathuinkit?

Also @ other Anon, I agree, "disease" my arse.

Psychological problems, such as substance addiction are still considered diseases by most physicians and enlightened people.

If you want to be pedantic (which it appears you do).

Disease

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=disease

an impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning

Alcoholism

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=CDu&defl=en&q=define:Alcoholism&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

A disease that includes alcohol craving and continued drinking despite repeated alcohol-related problems, such as losing a job or getting into.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it, but not with tobacco, you could develop the disease of nicotine addiction.

I suspect Ms Young's actions were a test designed to provoke an emotional response.

For those who don't know about Alcoholism; here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism. I'm pretty sure other sources will say the same.

Medical institutes indeed call it a disease; as once you finally came away from it; you can NEVER touch alcohol again; else you will revert back to being to how you were. You brain becomes dependant on the chemicals, thus this is not a condition as you are not born with it; nor is it hereditary.

Getting sucked into your own hype should also be a disease :-/ That can do things to your brain aswell; asuming you have one to start with.

...and while on the subject of FIT forty somethings, let me introduce you to Mary Louise Parker, the other reason (other than being a great show) to watch 'Weeds' .

www.imdb.com/name/nm0000571/

it's a shame she's not into a tipple or catsuits.....

Looks like Anons don't know what diseases are.

For instance, I have recently been diagnosed as having Menieres Disease, and I can assure you, I didn't get it from listening to a toilet seat, as fun as that sounds.

The worst aspect of Alcohilism-as-disease is it's the only disease for which courts will order you to believe in jeebus or go to prisum.

"You think anyone reading Heat would know who she was?"

Wins a prize for actually making sense: Heat magazine's Celeb search hasn't heard of her, lol.

I don't know why, but MLP was far hotter in WW than Weeds for some reason.

To answer the pedants:

1. You can contract it socially

2. You can pick up vulnerabilities to it genetically

3. It is neither viral nor bacterial, but psychological

4. if "man up and get over it" was enough, then it wouldn't be such a global problem, would it?

I'm assuming that the above posters think all addicts are weak, and just like a drink: though that may make the posters feel clever, it's not the case.

Going back to previous stories: Maybe Tom Cruise is a replicant. Could it be that all Scientoligists are replicants? Sounds logical to me!

Anonymous for obvious reasons.

All conversations degrade to this type of subject matter. Sorry.

First the quote

"Her PR firm announced yesterday: "Sean Young voluntarily admitted herself yesterday to a rehabilitation center for treatment related to alcoholism. It is understood that Young has struggled against the disease for many years." "

PR companies are paid by their client to type and write this puke, but really when has alcoholism been a disease? A Disease is a virus, as Ash said, it's not really contagious it's not airborne (further studies may be required, a grant for research would be nice) it certainly isn't DNA dependent. So it's a psychological issue of stimulant= feeling good - making an idiot of yourself in public/losing your driving license (cus you were that stupid) = losing your job, losing money, stealing to pay for cheap cans of stella and so on.

Can a poor person be an alcoholic? Can an actress whom not many people would know unless they saw blade runner and liked it and realized twenty years after the fact, realized who it was come be called a famous thespian enter a rehab without press attention?

As a fellow human being, I wish here well in overcoming her demons - if she believes she has any.

Me, I'm going to the pub. It being an evening. It being a day off. And of course there's darts as well.

and so am I. I'm a bloke with a good few miles on the clock and I STILL look better than she does and I get hit on by both men and women half my age.

Must be the beard ...

"You think anyone reading Heat would know who she was?"

<boggle> You guys think anyone *reads* Heat?

// this is just my internal questions comming out on forum, for discussion.

"a condition of abnormal functioning", doesn't that make just about everything a disease at some point. We're all just abnormally functioning monkeys or something? If I smash my finger in a car door is that a disease? If you've had it for years, wouldn't that be normal? And apparently even though I smoked for years, I must not have had the disease form of it (was quitting abnormal?) as I can smoke a cig and not be forced back into smoking.

It seems we have the start to a definition, but it appears to be intentionally vague. A little to PC for my taste. I think people should call it a bad habit.

There is world of difference!

'alcholism' = you cannot last a day, an hour even, without alchol - usually typified by bottles being hidden everywhere...

'likes to drink a bit' = hey, it's raining outside, the temp is 5 degrees, "no, mate, drank too much last night, still suffering...."

A real alcholic never gets a hangover, they never stop drinking! - and they would brave freezing rain to get a fix...

Medically speaking the correct term for alcoholism is certainly "disease". It may be something like the medical definition of "leg" which is different from the usual one, but anyway "disease" is the correct word.

Here is a video of the person who got heckled by Sean Young:

http://reporter.blogs.com/goldrush/2008/01/video-exclusive.html

He seems to be a rather boring man. I'd be tempted to heckle him myself.

I wonder if the DT's will make her dream of electric sheep

And the first step is admitting you have a problem......

Not that you have a "disease". You admit that you are an addict and are powerless.

I don't care how many people quote wikipedia (yeah, great source) or online dictionaries regarding the status of alcoholism as a disease.

Calling alcoholism a disease is an insult to truly ill people.

To answer some points:

"You can contract it socially"

LOL hilarious. Lets also call vandalism a disease, because weak minded sheep who cannot control themselves or their impulses can contract that socially too.

"You can pick up vulnerabilities to it genetically"

Can we have some proof on this one please. If ones parents are alcoholics, then one may follow the pattern due to learnt behavior, but there is no proof for a physical, genetic factor.

"It is neither viral nor bacterial, but psychological"

Agreed, but just because a person is psychologically weak, it doesn't justify a "disease" tag. Mentally ill perhaps, but not diseased.

"I'm assuming that the above posters think all addicts are weak, and just like a drink".

Actually, I DO feel that they are weak, and yes, they did start and continue drinking because they liked a drink. Nobody starts on the road to alcoholism because the don't like a drink.

Most of us who enjoy a drink have the psychological strength and sense not to abuse it - it's not like in this day and age that the dangers of alcohol are a big secret.

Calling alcoholism a disease is a way of excusing it. If its called a disease, you can imply that the person had no choice about it.

People prefer to call it a disease rather than an addiction because they want to avoid the negative impression addiction implies.

Hardly admitting you have a problem is it. Oh well, back to step one for you.

I like a drink.

You have a drink problem.

He/she is an alcoholic.

I have a problem with that,its called two hands and one gob.

Being a female 40-something actress in Hollywoodland must be difficult. Unless you are one of (Angelica Houston | Glen Close | Meryl Weep) you've got no chance of a gig. Bravo to her for enjoying a drink and speaking her mind once in a while.

Your ignorance is showing, look at a dictionary. If you caught a disease, then you would have an infectious disease. Infectious diseases are merely a large sub-class of diseases. Mental illnesses are also a sub-class.