Nick Carter Opens Up About "Excessive" Drug, Alcohol Use

Thursday February 19, 2009

Nick Carter opens up about his battle with drug and alcohol addiction in an episode of the Ellen DeGeneres Show that airs today.

"I would either go out at night or party [while on tour with the Backstreet Boys]," Carter says. "I didn't do a lot of morning drinking or anything of that sort. It would sort of be an occasional thing, but a lot of occasions that I would kind of make excuses to just go out to drink and party. It would be excessive."

Drugs "kind of came later in life," Carter continues. "Alcohol kind of kicked it off and then, once the alcohol kind of wasn't doing it for me, I would lean on other things."

Carter, 29, says he couldn't stop despite "rude awakenings, warning signs, DUIs.

"I got the DUI and I realized that it was wrong," he goes on. "I decided to go and sort of punish myself. I went to the classes, did the community service and did everything that I was required to do. Then I would end up in a situation where I was like, 'Ok well I'll stop for six months and then after that, I would feel like it's OK to get back into it.' And sort of fool myself in a way."

The singer credits a healthy lifestyle with helping turn his life around.

"Working out definitely helped my self esteem, and it definitely made it easier for me to kind of push it aside," he says. "I just started replacing drinking and the parties...with healthier things like sports, video games."

Carter -- who was diagnosed with a weakening of the heart muscle called cardiomyopathy -- is sober now.

"My goal in life is to be the best person that I can be and try as hard as I can," he says. "I make mistakes, but...I realize that I'm human and...I don't punish myself for those mistakes.

"[I] continuously try to be that better person," he adds.

SOURCE: USMagazine.Com

Being a celebrity doesn't just mean having your birthday cake and eating it too, you also get thousands for being there

By RON CORBETT

The way I see it, the world can be divided into two groups of people. Those who know Nick Carter. And those who don't.

I am in the former group, and I take no particular pride in it. For those who don't know Nick Carter, he is the youngest member of the Backstreet Boys.

He has a younger brother named Aaron and the entire Carter family was briefly featured on a reality television series called House of Carters. It ran on E! for eight episodes.

He is widely regarded as the "heart-throb" in the Backstreet Boys. This is saying something. The boy band is comprised of five heart-throbs, all of whom have had their personal lives writ large on the pages of supermarket tabloids.

He has dated a string of aspiring actresses and debutantes, the most famous being Paris Hilton. One girlfriend, Kathy Griffin, said he was functionally illiterate and had trouble ordering from a menu. When the story broke, Nick Carter gave an interview to CosmoGirl, in which he confided his favourite book is The Celestine Prophecy.

Now, the reason I know so much about Nick Carter is because I am addicted to supermarket tabloids. Again, I take no particular pride in this.

I have blamed my wife for this addiction, but truth be told, she could disappear from the planet tomorrow and I would still be buying supermarket tabloids on the pretence I am doing it for her.

I know the names of all the Jolie-Pitt children. I know how to accurately gauge the various bumps on Nicole Richie's stomach. I think it is shameful, what Madonna is currently doing to A-Rod.

So I was excited, when the publicist for Tila Tequila nightclub in the Byward Market phoned me up last week and told me Nick Carter was coming to Ottawa. To celebrate his birthday no less.

I hung up feeling grateful for the news, but also wondering why Nick Carter was coming to Ottawa to celebrate his birthday. Which shows, despite my addiction, how sadly ignorant I am about the actual life of a celebrity.

---

"It's a three-night birthday celebration," says Abbis Mahmoud, the owner of Tila Tequila nightclub. "He's in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. We're pretty lucky to have him. Tickets are only $20."

Mahmoud keeps talking: Tells me he has just inked "celebrity appearance contracts" with not only Nick Carter but also the Pussycat Dolls and Lady GaGa; has staff flying out to London and Paris next week, to scout out possible nightclub sites for this new business.

Finally, when it is my turn to talk, I ask a stupid question: "So what do they do at the nightclub?"

Mahmoud seems momentarily taken aback.

"Well, they're there. You're in the same room as Nick Carter. You can tell your friends about it. Have pictures taken. That sort of thing."

I still don't get it.

"You pay money for that? There's not a performance? They don't give a show?"

Mahmoud speaks to me as if I am a child.

"Not usually. They're just there. It's an appearance."

And I swear, it was only then that Nick Carter coming to Ottawa made any sense to me. My Lord, he was getting paid. He was milking his birthday for money.

It seems for celebrities like Carter, on those days when giving a live performance may seem a terrible bother, or when you need a break from the solo album Wikipedia says you have been working on for the past six years -- it is good to know you can make a little coin by just showing up somewhere and being Nick Carter.

Or being Nicole Richie. Or being Paris Hilton. Or being Kim Kardashian (who remains the most perplexing celebrity of all. Aside from the recent acquisition of a star-athlete-boyfriend, is there any reason I should know her?).

I don't understand the idea, but it seems a lot of other people get it. Mahmoud says the nightclub was packed when Carter arrived a little past midnight on Jan. 30. He posed for photos. Kindly consented to having drinks bought for him. Was gracious and happy throughout the evening.

"Nick loves Ottawa," says Mahmoud. "He finds the people friendly, and the girls beautiful."

Well, there you go. Call the tourism bureau.

Before ending the interview, I ask one final stupid question.

"So how old is he?"

"He doesn't want me to say," says Mahmoud, a little sheepishly this time, perhaps realizing the absurdity. "That was the one thing he was real specific about. He didn't want it on the cake. Didn't want anyone talking about it."

Seems like a strange request for a man who was born only 29 years ago, on Jan. 28, 1980, but there you have it.

Happy birthday Nick, from all your many fans in Ottawa.

SOURCE

Grammy Awards: Why Not Backstreet Boys???

"The very successful boy bands Backstreet Boys and N'Sync have never been honored with a Grammy"
Why?????
Well, lemme start from the beginning, Backstreet Boys
are one of the best bands from America. They have seven studio albums up to date and they are FRIGGIN' Awesome!!!!!! But they have Never Ever been honored with a Grammy....Why????
It just doesn't make sense. Like, for example: The band, Coldplay has won three Grammies, but (Forgive me Coldplay Fans ^-^) it's not like they deserve it, maybe they do...But what happens to bands which have talent??? Why are the critics being so unfair??? Hasn't anyone heard their songs????? The voices, the music, the beats, are PURE bliss. Or has that time gone when you appreciate good music? One of my friends has said that Coldplay did not deserve the Grammies they got, because when they sing, it sounds like they are screaming. Now, I don't exactly agree, because they do have talent and potential but, it just highlights the unfairness of today's listener. just because they have never ever used swears and kept their songs clean?
Has almost everyone started judging song by their explicit content??? Not everyone, mind it...k?

But it just sucks when a band you have grown up listening to, seen how their talent is blossoming and becoming more mature and better with every single, the band which have real talent aren't being recognized. It Sucks......

Regards
Crimson

SOURCE

Hallmark Channel to Premier 'Love Takes Wing' on Saturday, April 4, 2009

When a frontier town is devastated by an unknown illness, a young woman must stand up for those who need her help the most, even if it means standing alone. Academy Award, Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy winner Cloris Leachman (“Malcolm in the Middle”), Sarah Jones (“Big Love”), Haylie Duff (“Backwoods”), former Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson and Patrick Duffy (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) star in the Hallmark Channel Original Movie “Love Takes Wing,” premiering Saturday, April 4 (9/8c). Golden Globe nominee Lou Diamond Phillips (“Stand and Deliver”) costars in and directs the seventh entry into the film series based on the hugely popular Love Comes Softly novels by Janette Oke.

Wounded by the recent death of her husband, Dr. Belinda Simpson (Jones) arrives in the tiny town of Sikeston to take up the post of town physician. Once there, she discovers that many of the town’s residents, including children at an orphanage run by Miss Hattie Clarence (Leachman), have fallen ill to or died from an unknown ailment. Soon, Belinda begins to worry that she is in over her head, despite reassurances from her best friend, Annie (Duff), and the town blacksmith, Lee (Jordan Bridges, “Turn the River”).

Unfortunately, the residents of Sikeston aren’t as trusting of Belinda’s abilities as a doctor – mainly because she’s a woman. As well, many of them don’t even want her to help the orphans, who they blame for infecting the rest of the town. Indeed, they would be happy to see the orphanage close altogether. Opposed by what seems like the entire town, Belinda must trust in her abilities, her friends and her faith to guide her.

“Love Takes Wing” is an LG Films Production in association with Larry Levinson Productions and Faith and Family Entertainment. Larry Levinson is the executive producer and the co-executive producers are Randy Pope, H. Daniel Gross and Michael Moran. Kyle Clark and Stephen Niver are the producers. Lou Diamond Phillips directed from a script by Rachel Stuhler, based on the book Love Takes Wing by Janette Oke.

SOURCE

Nick Carter: I Don't Want to Die

During the decade boy-band heart-throb Nick Carter spent abusing drugs and alcohol - typically downing half a bottle of hard liquor a night, often followed by what he calls a "bump" of cocaine - there wasn't anythingh that could make him stop. Not a 2002 arrest after a Florida bar brawl or a 2005 arrest for DUI. Not his ballooning weight, which shot up to 224 lbs in 2006, or the self-loathing he felt after a May 2008 trip to Russia, when he competed with locals to see who could down the most Sambuca. "There were things happening, proving that maybe what I was doing was out of control, all sorts of crazy stuff," Carter admits. "But every time those red flags would come up, I'd appease people in my inner circle and make them think everything was alright."

Even when it became clear that everything was most definitely not all right - last spring, during the European leg of the Backstreet Boys' tour, he began experiencing a mild discomfort in his chest - Carter would not stop partying. "I was thinking, 'Something is physically wrong with me,'" says the 29-year-old singer, who in June went to Ft. Lauderdale cardiologist Richard Polakoff for two days of medical testing. But the night before his results were due back, "I went out and I just went nuts," he recalls, staring out at the Pacific Ocean through the windows of his high-rise condo in Santa Monica. "I drank so much and did a bunch of blow. I felt like I was trying to kill myself - because I didn't want to get the results."

Carter had good reason to be afraid: The years of abusing his body had left a buildup of toxins in his heart, weakening the muscle so that had difficulty pumping blood. This condition, known as cardiomyopathy (see box), is the same one that led to the death of singer Andy Gibb and killed actor Chris Penn - and Carter learned it could kill him as well if he didn't get clean and sober. "My doctor said, 'You need to change your lifestyle. I don't want you to end up like that,'" Carter says. "I was like, 'I don't want to end up like that either.'"

In the eight months since his diagnosis, Carter has indeed taken dramatic steps to turn his life around. He has lost more than 30 lbs. (see box) and - with the exception of a few slips early on - stopped drinking and doing drugs. "I don't want to die," he says. "I don't want to be that person people read about and think, 'That's sad that he couldn't stop it and killed himself.'"

Yet Carter admits that committing to a clean lifestyle remains a daily challenge, perhaps because his self-destructive behavior was a lifetime in the making. The oldest of five children born to Robert, 56, and Jane, 49, Carter says alcohol was always around when he was growing up in Jamestown, N.Y., where his family owned a bar called the Rebel Yell. "If you want me to be honest, I had my first drink when I was 2 years old," says Carter.

Easy access to alcohol was only part of the story. As revealed on the short-lived E! reality show "House of Carters," family life for Carter and his siblings - Bobbie Jean, 27, Leslie, 22, and twins Aaron and Angel, 21 - was tumultous. "There was a ton of fighting between my mother and father," he says. "The kids would be thrown into the middle, to choose sides." The dysfunction only intensified after Carter found success as "the cute one" in the Backstreet Boys, which he joined at age 12. "Fame is a lot of pressure, especially when you're responsible for your entire family," he says. "Financially, emotionally - everything."

And while he was out touring the world, his home life was falling apart. Not only his parents' marriage breaking down, but rumors - never proven - had started to surface that the Backstreet Boys' former manager Lou Pearlman was behaving inappropriately with some of his boy-band charges. (In 2007 Jane Carter told 'Vanity Fair' that "certain things happened and it almost destroyed our family" but stopped short of specifying how it affected Carter, who did not want to discuss Pearlman with PEOPLE.)

SOURCE: People Mag | Thanks to misha_bsb for the script

Carter Sober Again After Brush with Death

Former pop idol NICK CARTER faces a daily struggle staying sober after doctors warned the BACKSTREET BOY a booze binge could kill him. The 29-year-old sought medical help last year (08), after suffering from chest pains.
Doctors in Florida diagnosed him with cardiomyopathy; a build up of toxins that prevents the heart from pumping blood efficiently.

The condition was blamed on the years of binge drinking and drug taking that had caused Carter's weight to balloon and his health to deteriorate - and medics warned him he'd end up dead if he didn't stop.

He tells People magazine, "My doctors said, 'You need to change your lifestyle.'

"I don't want to die. I don't want to be that person people read about and think, 'That's sad that he couldn't stop it and killed himself.'"

Eight months on, the star has dropped all the extra pounds and cut drink, drugs and fatty foods out of his diet - but he admits he finds it hard to stay clean. He confesses he has lapsed and "started to drink a couple of glasses of wine, and I couldn't control it" - but credits his doctor with helping him stay sober.

Specialist Dr. Richard Polakoff tells People, "Once you get this condition, it can get progressively worse until the heart is extremely weak. But if he abstains from alcohol and other substances, I think we can get his heart back to normal."

Source: ContactMusic.Com