I’ll admit it - I’m one of those people who, while at work or in the computer lab at school, tries to sneak a click at the infamous TMZ Web site just to get caught up on the latest celebrity gossip.

Lately, however, it’s been the same old story. Everyone in Hollywood seems to be getting treated for something in rehab, but maybe it’s just a new publicity stunt used to boost celebrity fame. British pop singer Amy Winehouse has definitely made a profit out of treatment with her 2007 hit song “Rehab.”

Celebrity drug use has always been a problem. Actors are prone to drug addiction because they have the money and the access. Fame opens up a world that could either be dangerous or profitable.

Many celebrities have fallen into the glamorous life and have become spoiled with the ability to get whatever they want, whenever they want it. And when I hear another crazy rehab story it makes me think, how could they let this happen? Are they really doing this just to get attention?

Magazines like People have also reported on celebrity drug use and the many ins and outs of rehab. Over the past two years, many of the most ill-behaved celebrities have been seen on the covers of magazines tying to deal with their struggles to overcome drug and alcohol abuse.

Young celebrities caught up in the Hollywood party scene are surrounded by easy access to many drugs. Even the celebrities who look innocent aren’t.

Eva Mendez and Kirsten Dunst, two celebrities with a clean image and whom I would have never guessed to be addicts, both entered into rehab this past month and suddenly popped up everywhere in entertainment news.

Last summer, Lindsey Lohan gained popularity on many magazine covers when she crashed her black Mercedes and received a DUI in Los Angeles. The next weekend she was on almost every magazine cover and entertainment Web site looking passed-out in the passenger’s seat of a friend’s car with a pale face, her head tilted to the side and her mouth wide open. Also hanging from the rear-view mirror of the car were three sobriety medallions from rehab treatment that each indicated 30 days of sobriety. So much for that.

Then the tabloids went crazy to capture Lohan’s out-of-control party habits that led to her long-needed treatment at a facility in Utah.

Another celebrity who has become the most photographed woman in the world right now, because of poor decisions like shaving her head and smashing cars with an umbrella, would have to be the jaw-dropping life of Britney Spears. Articles on MSNBC, Fox News and E! Online, just to name a few, have all ran stories on Spears’ attempts to find help.

Celebrity rehab has even found its way into the business world. Business Week, a Web site dedicated to getting the latest business news, issued a blog on March 27, 2007, by its columnist John Fine using Spears’ rehab drama to criticize other media companies. “Anyone thinking that the fast-growing site TMZ.com is strictly takedown or gawker central (that’s gawker the concept, not gawker the site) evidently hasn’t seen the valentines they’re sending to the nation’s best- known rehab doll,” he said.

Also, a new reality show called “Celebrity Rehab” has aired this year on VH1. It documents the rehab journey of eight celebrities treated by Dr. Drew Pinsky, who is the medical director of the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Southern California. Drew also had a previous show called Loveline, in which he issued advice to questions dealing with relationships and sex.

With the pressure of the media constantly looking over their shoulders, celebrities face extreme pressure on how to maintain their image. Seeing a celebrity enter rehab because they have been depending on drugs and alcohol to calm their nerves should be seen as a chance for them to turn their life around and not as an opportunity for people to make money.

Some celebrities are lucky enough to hit rock-bottom and come back up again, but then there are cases like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley who leave us as legends. So as the saying “sex, drugs and rock and roll” goes, celebrities these days are surely living up to it.

Anna Torres can be reached at atorres@statehornet.com

You can see how Vh1’s Celebrity Rehab sounded like a great idea. It’s simple: combine America’s celebrity obsession with the current trend of self-redemption-themed reality TV shows, get yourself some B-level stars with substance abuse problems (no shortage of those), and put them through the recovery ringer with Dr. Drew Pinsky. It practically produces itself.

Genius, right? Only not really.

There are a number of flaws in Celebrity Rehab’s design, not the least of which is the fact that Dr. Drew might be the biggest celeb on the show. The rest of the cast includes Brigitte Nielsen, pro wrestling’s Chyna, the singer from Crazy Town, Kenicke from Grease, a porn star, a girl who was briefly on Family Matters, and the least famous of the Baldwin brothers.

Oh, and MMA fighter Ricco Rodriguez is also coming to the party late, hopefully with an explanation of why he tried to auction off his UFC heavyweight championship belt on Ebay (my money’s on cocaine).

In other words, when talking about this show with your friends you would likely put air quotes around the word “celebrity” the same way you do when talking about your cousin who is working as a “dancer” to put herself through “college”.

It begs the question: where does entertainment end and exploitation begin? Watching Celebrity Rehab is strangely compelling – the way watching people struggle with addiction often is – but it has little to do with the fact that these people are (according to a very broad definition of the word) famous. It’s more like a watered-down version of A&E’s Intervention.

The fact that this show features celebrities really only encourages us to revel in their pain and feel better about seeing their broken lives on display. To a degree, that’s understandable. Celebrities in our society make a deal with the devil. They receive money, undue adulation, a false sense of accomplishment, but in exchange they give up certain things, like their privacy.

The drug and alcohol-addicted celebrities on this show, however, are really just messed up people who may or may not be using their “recovery” as a way of revitalizing their careers. It’s like everyone is using everyone else in this sordid game. Maybe that’s why I feel a little dirty after watching it

Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant! @ 4:30pm, 12am
Ahh, Season 2… can you smell that? It’s another ripe installment of lost dignity, loosely orchestrated comedy, and, if we’re lucky, cameos from people we all collectively know as “That One Guy from That TV Show” or “That One Other Guy.” Let’s see if Scott really grows up this time ’round. Sweet moment alert…he proposes to his girlfriend Rene the right way this time!

Palestinian hip hop group DAM, which has spawned a cult following and a small army of imitators, was featured here in a new film at the Sundance Film Festival on the emerging Middle East music scene.

“Slingshot Hip Hop” by director Jackie Salloum offers a peek into contemporary life in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Middle East hip hop culture inspired by the political rants of US rappers such as Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur and Eminem.

Rapper Mahmoud Shalabi from the village Akka, is featured in the documentary, as is female hip hop duo Arapeyat. The movie also highlights the work of the group Palestinian Rapperz (PR) among others.

Critics said Palestinian rap groups offer an alternative form of resistance against “Israeli occupiers,” reinforcing entrenched Palestinian views of pre-1948 history.

Their message has left audiences and critics wondering if the new music might not simply reinforce longstanding cultural differences.

But Salloum offers a different take.

“Palestinians are steadfast and a very proud people,” she said in an interview with AFP.

“When I visit my family in the West Bank, the situation just gets worse and worse. But these rappers gave me hope,” she said.

The filmmaker said the rap groups often bring positive messages to youths, encouraging them to express their anger through rhymes, not violence.

And although they are not topping the charts in Israel, they have attracted a small, leftist Jewish fan base. “It’s still underground, but it’s getting through,” said Salloum.

“Palestine’s First Lady of R & B” Abeer, who is also in the film, established herself in hip hop singing on the song “Born Here” with DAM. She has collaborated recently with Los Angeles-based Palestinian-American rap crew The Philistines, and also is working on a solo album.

DAM meanwhile, recently launched a small record label to distribute Arab and Palestinian music.

Salloum first heard Palestinian hip hop on the radio — the song “Meen Erhabi” (”Who’s the Terrorist?”) by DAM — which launched the group’s stardom in the region.

She decided first to make a music video for the song, later to make her documentary “Slingshot Hip Hop,” which shows scenes of rappers Tamer, Suhell and Mahmoud in their early, awkward recording attempts and their politicization during the Second Intifada.

By embracing rap “a form of music that is among the most popular around the world — the music of the oppressed and the marginalized — it’s easier to sell their message to young Palestinians,” Salloum said.

“It’s having a huge effect on the new generation,” she said.

Salloum added, however, that some Palestinians do not agree with the music.

“There might be a tiny few who don’t like it. Some say, ‘Why are you dressed that way? You shouldn’t wear baggy clothes.’ At one show, some kids protested (on religious grounds).”

At one point in the film, a female rapper’s family is threatened against appearing on stage again.

In the movie, the rap artists encounter crushing poverty, difficult cultural boundaries, daily border checkpoints, and other obstacles.

“They’re also always broke,” Salloum said. “It took them five years to make an album, they’re struggling financially, and there is no music infrastructure available to them,” she said.

“Hopefully, that will change.”

 Singer/songwriter Jewel has a new label and a new genre to boot. The artist has signed a multi-album deal with newly launched Nashville-based independent Valory Music Company and will pursue success on the country charts.

Jewel, who has cut five of her six albums in Nashville, says country has always been in her plans. “I’ve been wanting to do this record my whole career,” she tells Billboard.com, “but my label was always scared of country music. I’ve always had country songs on my records.”

Jewel, who previously recorded for Atlantic Records, has sold 14.8 million albums in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. She has scored seven top 10s on Billboard’s Adult Top 40 chart, including two No. 1s, “Foolish Games” and “You Were Meant for Me.”

“If I had been discovered now, living in my car in San Diego, I think I would have been signed as a country act,” she maintains. “As a singer/songwriter and as a storyteller, I’m old fashioned. I like a beginning middle and end to my songs. That’s pretty much just country radio now.”

Scott Borchetta, the president and CEO for Nashville-based independent Big Machine Records, is launching Valory. The label’s name is a variation on country icon June Carter Cash’s birth name, Valerie June CarterAlong with Jewel, whose album was produced by Big & Rich’s John Rich and is expected in the spring, Valory is also home to new artists Justin Moore and Jimmy Wayne.

Borchetta launched Big Machine in 2005. The label is home to rising star Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood and Jack Ingram, among others. It also handles promotion for Garth Brooks, whose current single “More Than A Memory” is one of four new tracks on his forthcoming “The Ultimate Hits” (Pearl).

Though she lives in Texas with bull-riding star boyfriend Ty Murray, Jewel has spent a good bit of time in Nashville over the last few years. Earlier this year she hosted the country reality show “Nashville Star” and she has made a number of appearances at Muzik Mafia events. She co-wrote and dueted with new artist Jason Michael Carroll on “No Good In Goodbye,” which appears on his debut album, “Waitin’ in the Country” (Arista Nashville). And she will be a presenter on the Country Music Association Awards show with Murray on Nov. 7.

“She’s just one of the best singer/songwriters in any genre,” Borchetta says, adding that a move to country is “a natural progression for her.”

Overall, Jewel says fans won’t hear a big difference in the new album. “It won’t sound like a huge, crazy departure,” she says. Among the songs due to make th cut is “Perfectly Clear,” a longtime concert staple and fan favorite that she has never recorded. “It’s sure enough a country song,” she says.