Home and Away's Culture of Cocaine, Sex

[Stephanie]

FORMER Home And Away actor Bryan Wiseman tells The Sunday Telegraph that the recent Jodi Gordon and Lincoln Lewis scandals are but a hint of the cast's behind-the-scenes party culture.

I'm surprised the stories of sex, drugs and alcohol abuse haven't gotten out earlier.

Drugs are common. A lot of people do it, apart from the older cast like Ray Meagher (Alf Stewart).

Generally speaking, the younger cast members come in, they like the lifestyle and they have drugs offered to them.

I'd go to parties and nightclubs, and I didn't ever have to pay for it. It was offered to me.

I got addicted to it (cocaine), and it was very, very hard to come off the stuff.

It's a part of the culture and, especially if you're a younger cast member, you get caught up in it.

There are no role models. If they're in a series and suddenly shoot to fame, they're on the cover of TV Week. It's very easy to get caught up in all of that.

These guys don't realise they may come out of the show and never work again.

It's commonplace in the green rooms. Some of the kids would turn up, they hadn't been to bed all night, they didn't know their lines.

I'd like a dollar for every time I'd go in there and an actor would have a script beside them, checking their lines between takes and we'd all have to cover their scenes.

They'd say, 'I went out last night, had a few snorts, racked up, took some pingers, pills, that sort of stuff.' It was talked about very, very openly.

And some of them would turn up on the set with it still in their system. Because some hadn't been to bed, to keep themselves awake they'd do a few more snorts of cocaine to get them through the day.

It was well known that if you want a good performance in that instance, you'd have a few lines. It was extremely common.

I'm surprised this hasn't come to light earlier because I've partied with a lot of people over the years and the things we used to get up to, if a photo was taken, it would have been splashed everywhere. But I guess it is a common law that you don't speak about it.

I've been to the Logies a few times, and everyone gets trashed. There's a lot of drugs that goes on there, especially in the toilets.

Then, when actors or celebrities are found in the gutter, nearly comatose, and one of the paps takes a shot, TV networks actually pay a lot of money to take the photos and do away with them to cover it up.

I think that's why it hasn't come out until now. If any scandal breaks out, they need to do their best to nip it in the bud. They're just trying to protect their show.

It's a big business for them.

My advice for parents is to keep a stern eye on their kids on the show because it's very easy for them to get caught up in it.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story...0-10229,00.html

[Ryan]

Before anyone asks Dr. Wilson from 1998-2002.

[lolajaney]

To be honest the sex and drink don't bother me as long as it is legal and consensual. Lincoln shouldn't have done what he had done but I suppose that it is part of him maturing that he will make stupid decisions and no doubt he will make more as we all do in the future.

But they should try to stop the actors using cocaine, herione, lsd, crystal meth etc etc as these are illegal drugs and shouldn't be used at all, especially as a lot of these drugs tend to be heavily linked to other illegal activities such as voilent crime and there is often links of illegal drugs funding terrorism.

They should be dealing with cast members using disciplinary methods as showing them getting away with it tarnishes the shows family image and also sends out a message that they don't condone these actions.

[emmasi]

Before anyone asks Dr. Wilson from 1998-2002.

Never heard of him. Perhaps he's hoping that someone will remember him if he tattles on all his former friends and colleagues.

People do drugs, people have sex randomly. It happens. It's not the picture of morality, and you don't want your kids growing up to do it, but it happens. And if you really want to avoid it, do all you can to make sure that your kids are loved and appreciated for who they are, and that they know they don't need to do these things to be cool or to run and hide from life. Most of all, they don't need to blame their own choices and actions on strangers who's personal lives would not be an issue if the media didn't always drag it up and shove it everyone's faces for the sole purpose of creating self-righteous hypocrites who think that celebrities should be as plastic and flawless as the make-up and scripted lines can make them appear.

This guy says he was offered cocaine. Keyword: offered. It was his choice to take it. If you're stupid enough to take hard drugs for no other reason than you've heard the cast of Home and Away do it... then maybe that's just Natural Selection at work.

[Ryan]

He's also famous for sleepwalking through London with just a pair of pants on.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0...5012985,00.html

[superman's girlfriend]

These guys don't realise they may come out of the show and never work again.

He's out of work since home and away.

[claire_louise]

This guy says he was offered cocaine. Keyword: offered. It was his choice to take it. If you're stupid enough to take hard drugs for no other reason than you've heard the cast of Home and Away do it... then maybe that's just Natural Selection at work.

In his case I agree with you - he was older and probably should have known better. But I can see how a lot of the younger cast get drawn into it. No matter how well brought up you are, how secure your family unit is etc, kids that age will always want to fit in. If they're suddenly thrown into a group of people who they've seen and admired on tv for years, they're going to want to impress them. Add to that the pressure of being thrown into the limelight and working a full on schedule when you've maybe only just come out of school and you can see why they end up doing these things. I wouldn't say it was necessarily their fault, but it needs to be addressed. If what this guy says is true it's a miracle there haven't been overdoses and all sorts of other scandals already.

[Dan F]

Bless, the washed-up actor wants some attention.

Minor and very forgettable character who hasn't been in the show for 7 years, who certainly wouldn't have really had anything to do with the cast in his capacity - hardly a person who would have the valid insider knowledge

Take a look at his IMDB to see how successful he is.

Silly little man.

[SummerBayLocal]

I don't see the point of this article. What exactly was this man trying to do? Was he trying to make it sound the the cast and crew are bad people and that the Lincoln Lewis and Jodi Gordon debacles were just a small bit of what goes on 'behind the scenes'?

[emmasi]

This guy says he was offered cocaine. Keyword: offered. It was his choice to take it. If you're stupid enough to take hard drugs for no other reason than you've heard the cast of Home and Away do it... then maybe that's just Natural Selection at work.

In his case I agree with you - he was older and probably should have known better. But I can see how a lot of the younger cast get drawn into it. No matter how well brought up you are, how secure your family unit is etc, kids that age will always want to fit in. If they're suddenly thrown into a group of people who they've seen and admired on tv for years, they're going to want to impress them. Add to that the pressure of being thrown into the limelight and working a full on schedule when you've maybe only just come out of school and you can see why they end up doing these things. I wouldn't say it was necessarily their fault, but it needs to be addressed. If what this guy says is true it's a miracle there haven't been overdoses and all sorts of other scandals already.

I guess if the point of all this was to actually help the actors to get or keep themselves clean, I wouldn't mind so much, but I am eternally bitter about the media and can't see how putting people with problems under a public magnifying glass could possibly be helpful to anyone, let alone those who are supposed to be sensitive and impressionable to the opinions of others. Imagine yourself as Jodi or Lincoln, with half the country labelling you a creep or a druggie. Is that going to make you feel good about yourself and inspire you to take care of yourself? It wouldn't do that for me. It would just make me angry and not care about trying to impress everyone by doing the "right thing." It would have the opposite effect, and I guess that's what the media wants. The more times a celebrity gets into trouble, the more articles they can sell. The system works!