People in the News for MAy 29, 1998

Friday, May 29, 1998 | 11:32 a.m.

We were somewhere near People in the News, on the edge of this Charlie Sheen item, when the drugs began to take hold. Of Charlie Sheen, that is. Despite his vow two years ago to give up drugs and booze, being a clean Sheen is apparently more difficult than the actor thought. He was in a Los Angeles court Thursday to answer for his apparent May 20 drug overdose. Appearing thin and pale, an apparition from a know-your-dope-fiend poster, he was accompanied by such members of the celebrity rehabocracy as Sean Penn, and by his father, Martin Sheen. The alleged drug use violated his probation (stemming from battery charges filed by his ex-girlfriend a year ago) and Sheen, 32, was sentenced to various drug treatment centers until July 1, when his hearing on the overdose incident is scheduled. In the meantime, he will have to wear an electronic monitoring device. Sheen says he wants to curb his "destructive appetites," but while he talks the detox, he has yet to walk the walk, other than walking out of a rehab center Saturday. He readmitted himself the next day.

Misc.

Why, you ask, are the Spice Girls a big deal? For the same reason it's such a big darn deal for the Knicks to win, or to work and love and strive and have children and then die and decompose into eternal nothingness? No one knows! Nonetheless, the Spice Girls are as dearly important as life itself, which makes rumors of dissension among them all the more troubling. Ginger Spice -- the fiery redhead who recently displayed her Spice rack in the pages on Playboy -- is rumored to be leaving the group. She didn't perform in the Girls' last two concerts, ostensibly because of a flu. Tabloid reports, however, say she had a "blazing row" with the other members and walked out, perhaps for good. One can only shake an angry fist at the vast, uncaring cosmos and demand, Why? Why? While the vast, uncaring cosmos won't reply, a Spice Girls spokesman had this to say: "She's had to take a couple of days off, that's all I know." By now, the person who asked why the Spice Girls are a big deal is sorry.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets