Gore Vidal

The following are excerpted from a review by Charles McGrath of ‘Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal,’ by Jay Parini appearing in The New York Times on November 29, 2015.

"We get once again Vidal’s lonely childhood with a monstrous, alcoholic mother ... "

"Readers hoping for more lurid details — Vidal, unable to open a bottle of Scotch, smashing it against a fireplace and guzzling from the broken neck, or lunging so abruptly for a bottle that his suspenders snap and his pants fall down — will have to turn to [another book published earlier this year.]"

CC Sabathia bares soul on his 3-year spiral of alcoholism

 ... This past Oct. 4, after a bender that turned a weekend in Baltimore into a 48-hour stretch in which the large lefty’s mind went blank, Sabathia finally understood he was an alcoholic in desperate need of immediate help.

That was a Sunday, and the Yankees were completing the regular season and preparing to host the Astros at Yankee Stadium two days later in the AL wild-card game.

Sabathia walked into the Camden Yards visiting manager’s office and told Joe Girardi, trainer Steve Donohue, pitching coach Larry Rothschild and director of mental conditioning Chad Bohling he was leaving the team and headed for help at Silver Hill, a Connecticut alcohol rehabilitation center.

 http://nypost.com/2015/11/06/cc-sabathia-bares-soul-on-his-3-year-spiral-of-alcoholism/

Jimmy Fallon

 ‘He’s a mess’: Insiders worry Fallon’s partying is getting out of hand

by Dana Schuster

He’s one of NBC’s biggest success stories — keeping “The Tonight Show” at the top of the late-night ratings with bouncy show tunes and campy games.

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Jimmy FallonPhoto: FilmMagic

Now Jimmy Fallon is also one of NBC’s biggest worries.

On Oct. 24, Fallon was stitched up at a hospital in Cambridge, Mass., after falling — and dropping a bottle of Jägermeister — while receiving the Harvard Lampoon’s Elmer Award for Excellence in Humor. “I threw the bottle and then I landed on broken glass,” a bandaged Fallon recapped on his show the following Monday. “There [were] pools of blood everywhere.”

It’s the party guy’s third injury in four months, and sources say NBC is worried that Fallon’s drinking has turned excessive. And while they’re not doing anything about it — yet — “It’s gone from being a whisper to a chatter,” says one industry insider of Fallon’s over-the-top behavior.

More.