Phillip Seymour Hoffman Dead At 46

[AdamSmith]

Compelling meditation on addiction by Russell Brand:

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/mar/09/russell-brand-life-without-drugs

[Guest Paragon]

quote name="MsGuy" post="107542" timestamp="1391541816"]

I apologize, Paragon.

It was ill-mannered of Sucky and me to hijack your thread, not to mention disrespectful of the subject.

I'll do my best to avoid doing it again.

Since there is room here for those wanting to discuss travel or escorts or post porn pix, why is it not possible to have a serious thread without others intruding on it to show us how funny they are or how uncomfortable they might be with anything serious in its topic? Room for everyone, as they say.

[wayout]

For what it may be worth if one believes the source. Perhaps another dimension to the person and likely no one will ever fully know all the things that contributed to his untimely and unfortunate passing....

Identity crisis victim... 'I was Philip Seymour Hoffman's gay lover and saw him freebasing cocaine the night before he died,' says writer who found his body

• David Bar Katz, 44, has made the sensational claim in an interview with The National Enquirer that he was involved in a gay relationship with Philip Seymour Hoffman
• The screenwriter and father-of-four claims that he was in love with the Oscar winner
• Claimed to have seen the star freebasing cocaine the night before he died on Sunday
• Another family source claimed that Hoffman, 46, was confused over whether he wanted his family life or heroin
• Hoffman split from partner Mimi O'Donnell before Christmas and left their $4.4 million family home in Manhattan
• The couple had three children and were together for 14 years
• Friends reportedly claim the confusion over his sexuality and his drug use destroyed his relationship with Mimi
• New York City's Chief Medical Examiner has said that Philip Seymour Hoffman's cause of death is 'pending further studies'

By James Nye

PUBLISHED: 08:59 EST, 5 February 2014 | UPDATED: 13:27 EST, 5 February 2014

Tragic Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman was involved in a gay affair with the man who discovered his body according to an explosive new interview.

Playwright David Bar Katz, 44, has spoken to the National Enquirer to allege that the troubled actor was his lover and that he saw him freebasing cocaine the night before he died in his West Village drugs den.

Friends allege that the 46-year-old Capote star's confusion over his sexual identity caused his relationship with the mother of his three children, Mimi O'Donnell to collapse and fueled his destructive spiral into drug addiction.

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Friends: Philip Seymour Hoffman with David Bar Katz (center) who has claimed he was involved in a gay relationship with the Oscar winner. The two are pictured here in 2008 at New York's Terminal 5 for a gala benefit for the musical, We Will Rock You with another friend (right) George Liberato

'We were homosexual lovers. We had a relationship,' said David Bar Katz to the National Enquirer on Wednesday.

Katz claimed that he had seen the drug addled actor take heroin on a number of occasions, 'but I never thought his addiction had reached that level,' claimed Katz.

'We were planning to go to the Super Bowl together and have a really nice day. This is so terrible.'

The interview given by Katz contradicts his first and only statement up until today in relation to his long-time friend's death.

On Monday, one day after Hoffman was found in his underwear with a needle sticking out of his left arm on his bathroom floor, Katz claimed to be shocked at the circumstances.

'I saw him last week, and he was clean and sober, his old self,' said David Bar Katz, who found Hoffman along with the actor's personal assistant, Isabella Wing-Davey and called 911.

Adoring: This image from the Facebook profile of Philip Seymour Hoffman's alleged gay lover David Bar Katz was posted yesterday with the caption 'He is so beautiful' above a picture of the actor he is now using as his cover photo. On Wednesday, Katz claimed in an interview with the National Enquirer he was involved in a love affair with the Oscar winning actor

Tragic death: Philip Seymour Hoffman with his partner of 14-years and the mother of his three children Mimi O'Donnell as they walked around the streets of Manhattan in 2011 and (right) a grieving Mimi (left of picture) arrives at an Upper East Side funeral parlor to plan Hoffman's wake and memorial with the actor's assistant Isabella Wing-Dave

Struggle: Mimi O'Donnell - Philip Seymour Hoffman's long time girlfriend and mother of his 3 kids looks visibly shaken as she leaves the apartment they once shared on Wednesday

Final preparations: Mimi O'Donnell keeps her self covered as she continues getting Philip Seymour Hoffman's funeral ready as she visited ST Ignatius Loyola Church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan this morning

'I really thought this chapter was over.'

The staggering claims from The National Enquirer are in stark contrast to the public image of Philip Seymour Hoffman before his death as a loyal father and loving partner.

Despite being notoriously private about his personal life, he was a regular figure around the $4.4 million West Village apartment he lived in with his partner of 14-years, Mimi, 46, and his three children, Cooper, 10, Tallulah, 7 and Willa, 5.

Neighbors reported him to be friendly and unassuming and unlike other, more high-maintenance celebrities who live the area.

But two weeks ago, talented Hoffman - star of Moneyball, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Boogie Nights - admitted to a complete stranger that he was a heroin addict and just before Christmas told another stranger on the street that his addiction would kill him.

His relapse had seen him attend rehab in May of last year, but friends said that the star was unable to stay clean.

Allegations: This is David Bar Katz arriving at the home of Mimi O'Donnell on Tuesday in Manhattan after Philip Seymour Hoffman died on Sunday. An interview published today carries a direct quote from Katz in which he claims to have been the gay lover of the Oscar winning actor

Father-of-four David Bar Katz (left) has claimed in an interview on Wednesday that he and tragic Oscar winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman were gay lovers despite his 15-year marriage to Julie Merberg, (right) and that he saw the actor freebasing hard drugs the night before he died

They said that this, coupled with his confusion over his sexual identity, ended his 14-year relationship with O'Donnell before the holidays.

'Philip fell back into heavy drug use soon after he got out of rehab and he never stopped using,' said another source close to the family to the National Enquirer.

'His drug use, and his ambivalence over whether he was straight or gay, drove a wedge between him and Mimi and broke them up.

'One part of him wanted a normal family life while another part wanted heroin and the gay life.'

'Philip moved to Greenwich Village because it is the center of New York's gay community. The kids stayed with Mimi, but Philip saw them all the time.'

Hoffman met O'Donnell in 1999 on the set of the play, 'In Arabia We'd All Be Kings', where she was working as a costume designer.

While happy to engage with fans on the streets of Manhattan, Hoffman was asked about his shyness once.

'Somebody wanted me to talk about my personal life,' Hoffman told The Independent in 2012.

WHO IS DAVID BAR KATZ THE MAN WHO DISCOVERED PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN DEAD AND CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN HIS BOYFRIEND?

Philadelphia born screenwriter and playwright David Bar Katz, met and became friends with Philip Seymour Hoffman through their work in the late 1990s at the LAByrinth Theater in New York City.

Married since 1998 to Julie Merberg, Katz has four sons.

He is the grandson of Lawrence Katz, who made his fortune as the owner of a business that developed the technology to mass-produce seamless stockings and pantyhose.

His father, Harry Jay Katz is a well known raconteur and playboy around Philadelphia and in 1995, infamously found 35-year-old former teacher Valerie Sheridan dead in his hot tub after a long night of partying.

Harry Jay Katz was cleared totally of any wrongdoing, but rumors surrounding the circumstances have continued.

David Katz is best known for writing the 1997 film, The Pest - starring John Leguizamo, who is mutual friend of Philip Seymour Hoffman's and Katz's.

He also helped with re-writes on the 1996 Kurt Russell action film, Executive Decision and the 1997 sci-fi fantasy movie, Spawn.

Katz co-wrote and directed the show FREAK - which was put on at the Cort Theater on Broadway and which was nominated for two Tony Awards.

He is also a member of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company.

He has had six plays selected for their annual Barn Series Festival between 2006-2011 - which Hoffman was involved in.

On the pressures of being a father and his frequent travels, Hoffman was equally thoughful and claimed to be blessed.

'It's hard for anybody who works a lot and has children,' Hoffman told People magazine about being a father in 2007.

'But I wouldn't trade it for anything. When you become a parent, you look at your parents differently. You look at being a child differently. It's an awakening, a revelation that you have.'

Unable to keep his inner demons and drug problems under wraps, Hoffman's addiction began to affect his work on the set of Hunger Games, claims The National Enquirer.

'No one discussed Philip's drug addiction in front of him, but the studio knew during filming there was a risk,' said a source with knowledge of the film set.

'Philip was often passed out on the set before his scenes. His ongoing addiction was common knowledge to everyone on set.'

Indeed, as he was promoting his films Gods Pocket and A Most Wanted Man at the Sundance Festival two weeks ago, Hoffman looked drug addled, disheveled and admitted to a stranger he was a heroin addict.

Another friend who spoke to the magazine said that Hoffman's acting choices - playing a gay man in Boogie Nights and an addict in the Broadway play, Long Day's Journey into Night - may have reflected his inner turmoil.

'Philip's entire career pointed toward a gay lifestyle and drug addiction,' said the friend to The National Enquirer.

'I have to wonder if those roles didn't lead him down some dark, dangerous abyss in his personal life.'

It was on Sunday morning that Katz received a frantic phone call from Mimi O'Donnell after the 46-year-old actor failed to collect Cooper, 10, Tallulah, 7 and Willa, 5, from her at 9am as arranged.

Katz phoned Isabella Wing-Davey to get her to come down to the $10,000 a month apartment that Hoffman was renting on Bethune Street in New York's fashionable West Village.

The two of them made their horrific discovery at around 11.30am and phoned emergency services at 11.36am to come and try and save the stricken star.

He was declared dead on the arrival of the paramedics and removed from his apartment at around 7pm on Sunday evening.

Katz found the star of Almost Famous and The Ides of March dressed only in his shorts and t-shirt, with a hypodermic needle sticking out of his left arm.

He was still wearing his spectacles.

In and around the luxury two bedroom apartment were distressing signs of Hoffman's drug problem.

Police sources have indicated that up to 70 used and unopened bags of heroin were dotted around the home - as were photographs of the Oscar winner's children.

Indeed, sources close to the couple have revealed the battle behind closed doors that was carrying on for Mimi and Phlilp.

'She clearly wanted him around, but she wanted him healthy,' a source close to both the dead star told The Daily News on Tuesday.

Before today's scandalous gay revelations, it was thought that Hoffman's addiction caused O'Donnell to kick him out of the $4.4 million New York City family home he shared with her and his three children around three months ago.

'It was known that he was struggling to stay sober, and girlfriend Mimi O’Donnell had given him some tough love and told him he needed some time away from the kids and to get straight again,’ a Hollywood source said according to the New York Post.

Hoffman went into rehab and was released just before Christmas. He started going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Perry Street in the upmarket Manhattan neighborhood of the West Village.

'He was a gentleman,' said 58-year-old Eddie Donohoe, a regular at the meetings to the New York Daily News.

'He was like a regular guy. He'd be polite, well-dressed, very sociable to people. Have his coffee, hang out with the guys across the street, answering the guys' questions.'

But then suddenly, just before Christmas he stopped going to AA and instead started frequenting the Automatic Slims bar.

'He was drinking liquor, always alone, sitting in the window,' a source said. Other times he would drink in the White Horse Tavern - famed for being poet Dylan Thomas' favorite watering hole.

$1,200 taken out in six withdrawals:

'He'd come in late at night alone, sit at the bar and have a cocktail and not really talk to anyone,' said playwright Marc Spitz.

And as police go through his cellphone records and computer, new details have emerged of how the actor bought the drugs which ended his life.

Surveillance footage from his local convenience store which allegedly shows a 'very sweaty' Hoffman withdrawing $1,200 in six separate transactions and handing it to two men carrying messenger bags.

Sources with law enforcement have revealed that no cash was found in side Hoffman's West Village apartment on the Sunday he was found dead surrounded by 70 bags of heroin and 20 used syringes.

The New York Post has spoken to a witness who said that Hoffman secured his fix from two men outside of a D'Agostino's a stone's throw away from his West Village apartment on Saturday night.

And on Tuesday, suspected heroin dealers were arrested at a Manhattan drug den on Tuesday night following a tip-off that they may have sold the deadly drug to Hoffman.

Robert Vineberg, 57, and Thomas Kushman 48, were arrested in the police swoop and charged with felony drug possession.

Musician Max Rosenblum and drama student girlfriend Juliana Luchkiw, both 22, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor drug possession.

The gang were arrested at 302 Mott Street in the pricey Nolita district of Manhattan at 7.30pm after police received a tip-off that Hoffman had been sold heroin at the address a few months ago

None of the packages had the 'Ace of Spades' stamp found on bags at Hoffman's home, a police source told the New York Post.

Neighbors told The National Enquirer how the actor had seemed awfully depressed recently.

'I saw Philip a couple of months ago and I almost didn't recognize him. He was unshaven and he didn't look very happy,' said Gwyne Duncan, 45, a painter who lives across the road from Hoffman.

Another neighbor, Nathan Driver, who often saw Hoffman in the neighborhood, said that, 'He had a big heart, but it always seemed a bit heavy.'

Barbara Myers, 73, who lived next door to Mimi and Philip when he was still at the family home said that it was all just tragic.

'He was a genius. Just a lost, wonderful soul. A great guy. A doll. Always looked like a shclepper, baseball cap and hair this way and that, riding around on his bike.'

In an eerie coincidence, just the day before Hoffman's death, several news outlets wrote stories reporting a hoax claim that the actor had died.

'I almost believe Philip had a death wish,' said another source to The National Enquirer. 'He was too deep, too private, too sensitive.

'It's like all the craziness of celebrity was just too much for him.'

[Guest Paragon]

According to the NY Daily News, Katz has denied ever speaking to the Enquirer. Moreover, he has filed a $50 million lawsuit against them for saying he did. Katz denied the entire gay aspect of the story to the News. I am not saying he is telling the truth, I just don't know. It seems like something an opportunistic person might do, but if that describes Katz, someone who knows would have to say.

[AdamSmith]

Russell Brand: Philip Seymour Hoffman is another victim of extremely stupid drug laws

In Hoffman's domestic or sex life there is no undiscovered riddle – the man was a drug addict and, thanks to our drug laws, his death inevitable

• • Russell Brand
  • The Guardian,
  • Thursday 6 February 2014 10.05 EST

Philip Seymour Hoffman: 'The troubling message behind his death, which we all feel without articulating, is that it was unnecessary and we know something could be done.' Photograph: Jamie Simonds/Bafta/Rex

Philip Seymour Hoffman's death was not on the bill.

If it'd been the sacrifice of Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber, that we are invited to anticipate daily, we could delight in the Faustian justice of the righteous dispatch of a fast-living, sequin-spattered denizen of eMpTyV. We are tacitly instructed to await their demise with necrophilic sanctimony. When the end comes, they screech on Fox and TMZ, it will be deserved. The Mail provokes indignation, luridly baiting us with the sidebar that scrolls from the headline down to hell.

But Philip Seymour Hoffman? A middle-aged man, a credible and decorated actor, the industrious and unglamorous artisan of Broadway and serious cinema? The disease of addiction recognises none of these distinctions. Whilst routinely described as tragic, Hoffman's death is insufficiently sad to be left un-supplemented in the mandatory posthumous scramble for salacious garnish; we will now be subjected to mourn-ography posing as analysis. I can assure you that there is no as yet undiscovered riddle in his domestic life or sex life, the man was a drug addict and his death inevitable.

A troubling component of this sad loss is the complete absence of hedonism. Like a lot of drug addicts, probably most, who "go over", Hoffman was alone when he died. This is an inescapably bleak circumstance. When we reflect on Bieber's Louis Vuitton embossed, Lamborghini cortege it is easy to equate addiction with indulgence and immorality. The great actor dying alone denies us this required narrative prang.

The reason I am so non-judgmental of Hoffman or Bieber and so condemnatory of the pop cultural tinsel that adorns the reporting around them is that I am a drug addict in recovery, so like any drug addict I know exactly how Hoffman felt when he "went back out". In spite of his life seeming superficially great, in spite of all the praise and accolades, in spite of all the loving friends and family, there is a predominant voice in the mind of an addict that supersedes all reason and that voice wants you dead. This voice is the unrelenting echo of an unfulfillable void.

Addiction is a mental illness around which there is a great deal of confusion, which is hugely exacerbated by the laws that criminalise drug addicts.

If drugs are illegal people who use drugs are criminals. We have set our moral compass on this erroneous premise, and we have strayed so far off course that the landscape we now inhabit provides us with no solutions and greatly increases the problem.

This is an important moment in history; we know that prohibition does not work. We know that the people who devise drug laws are out of touch and have no idea how to reach a solution. Do they even have the inclination? The fact is their methods are so gallingly ineffective that it is difficult not to deduce that they are deliberately creating the worst imaginable circumstances to maximise the harm caused by substance misuse.

People are going to use drugs; no self-respecting drug addict is even remotely deterred by prohibition. What prohibition achieves is an unregulated, criminal-controlled, sprawling, global mob-economy, where drug users, their families and society at large are all exposed to the worst conceivable version of this regrettably unavoidable problem.

Countries like Portugal and Switzerland that have introduced progressive and tolerant drug laws have seen crime plummet and drug-related deaths significantly reduced. We know this. We know this system doesn't work – and yet we prop it up with ignorance and indifference. Why? Wisdom is acting on knowledge. Now we are aware that our drug laws aren't working and that alternatives are yielding positive results, why are we not acting? Tradition? Prejudice? Extreme stupidity? The answer is all three. Change is hard, apathy is easy, tradition is the narcotic of our rulers. The people who are most severely affected by drug prohibition are dispensable, politically irrelevant people. Poor people. Addiction affects all of us but the poorest pay the biggest price.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's death is a reminder, though, that addiction is indiscriminate. That it is sad, irrational and hard to understand. What it also clearly demonstrates is that we are a culture that does not know how to treat its addicts. Would Hoffman have died if this disease were not so enmeshed in stigma? If we weren't invited to believe that people who suffer from addiction deserve to suffer? Would he have OD'd if drugs were regulated, controlled and professionally administered? Most importantly, if we insisted as a society that what is required for people who suffer from this condition is an environment of support, tolerance and understanding.

The troubling message behind Philip Seymour Hoffman's death, which we all feel without articulating, is that it was unnecessary and we know that something could be done. We also know what that something is and yet, for some traditional, prejudicial, stupid reason we don't do it.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/06/russell-brand-philip-seymour-hoffman-drug-laws