A few months ago, actress Kirsten Dunst checked herself into Cirque Lodge (the former treatment center of model patient Lindsay Lohan) for what many assumed was treatment for alcoholism.  She’s been well-known to have problems with alcohol, enough for the tabloid press to give her the unfortunate nickname “Kirsten Drunkst”, and she’s been known to dabble in drugs.  Well, she’s now saying that she wasn’t in there for a problem with drinking, but for treatment for depression:

“I didn’t go to Cirque Lodge for alcohol abuse or drug abuse,” the actress, 26, tells E! in a new interview. “I went there for depression.”

She says “it was a good six months before I decided to go away.

“I was struggling, and I had the opportunity to go somewhere and take care of myself,” she continues. “I was fortunate to have the resources to do it. My friends and family thought it was a good idea, too. But I didn’t know where to go. My doctor recommended Cirque Lodge.”

There’s just one problem with this admission…you can’t get into Cirque Lodge unless you have an addiction that you want to control.

From their own website, they talk about drug and alcohol rehab here:

Cirque Lodge is an accredited addiction treatment center located in Sundance Utah. We are one of the nation’s most exclusive drug treatment centers providing services for alcohol and drug rehab. We were named by Town and Country magazine as one of the top drug and substance abuse treatment facilities. Individuals or families needing immediate addiction treatment, drug rehab or alcohol rehab should call us at 1-877-997-3422. We are known for providing effective drug and alcohol treatment for individuals and families suffering from the disease of alcoholism or drug addiction.

Cirque Lodge, Sundance Utah is a private world-class residential drug rehab and addiction treatment facility. Our alcohol rehabilitation and drug rehab program is offered in a private mountain setting. Cirque Lodge derives its name from the beautiful glacier-carved Cascade Cirque high in the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains.

And here:

Cirque Lodge is a private drug rehab program and is not contracted with any government agencies.

And here:

Treatment for addiction should not be a one size fits all program. It takes a number of programs and therapy types to provide the answer. Addiction is not something that can be miraculously cured, so avoid drug rehab programs that tell you such. Addiction treatment takes time and a conscious effort from the individual to be achieved. At Cirque Lodge, our drug rehab program is based on the 12-step modality created by Alcoholics Anonymous. The 12-step method functions as a good basis for continuing focus after leaving rehab.

And here:

Cirque Lodge drug rehab center, located in the mountains of Sundance UT, provides the ultimate in effective alcohol rehab and private drug treatment. Our exclusive mountain facility offers the privacy and attention to detail found only in the finest treatment centers in the world. At Cirque Lodge, we develop an individualized treatment model that will meet the needs of each resident in our treatment center. Our drug treatment program focuses on helping people struggling with alcohol abuse as well as drugs. For the best drug rehab facility available, Cirque Lodge is the choice of professionals throughout the world. Call us today for a free consultation and review. Recovery begins with the first step, and that step is a phone call to one of our experienced and caring staff members. Call 1-877-99-REHAB today.

And from their admission guidelines page:

Treatment:
Drug Addictions, Alcohol Addictions and other Substance Abuse issues

Basically, while I found tons of information relating to drug and alcohol abuse, I found nothing that said they treat depression on its own, just as it relates to drug and alcohol abuse and as part of treatment for those addictions.  It would appear that the first criteria to be met for admission is drug or alcohol abuse.

Look, I’m not ragging on Kirsten, or anyone else who struggles with either drugs, alcohol, or depression.  If you are someone who is having a problem with depression, there is no shame whatsoever in going to a medical professional for treatment, counseling, and/or medical intervention.  Likewise, if you find yourself struggling with an addiction, there is absolutely no shame in going to a treatment center and receiving help for that addiction.

But there is a problem when someone checks themselves into a clinic specifically for addictions, and then claims it was for depression.  One of the first rules of any sort of treatment is admitting you have a problem and being honest with yourself, whether that be about addiction or depression or whatever.  There seems to be the implication here that treatment for depression is somehow more “accepted” and less stigmatizing than treatment for addiction, and it appears on the surface that Kirsten isn’t exactly being honest with the public.  She may have indeed recieved some depression therapy in Cirque, but by their own admission statement you cannot be admitted for depression alone.  I ain’t sayin’, I’m just sayin’.

No, it’s probably none of our business what she checked in there for…but since Kirsten has felt the need to make this announcement, it has now become part of the public domain to be commented on.  Had she not said anything, I would not have said anything either.  It is unfortunate that there is still this stigma around receiving treatment for addiction, when individuals attempting to put their lives back together should be supported.

I sincerely wish Kirsten all the best, and I hope she can emerge from this a better and happier person, whatever it is she is dealing with.  It just seems to me that she needs to be honest with herself, before that can ever happen.

I swear, half of Hollyweird is in rehab and the other half is in denial about needing it.  The latest starlet to check in is Spiderman’s main squeeze, Kirsten Dunst:

The 25-year-old has checked into the Cirque Lodge in Sundance, Utah, according to America’s Star magazine.

Her decision to seek help follows a week of hard-partying at the Sundance Film Festival in nearby Park City last month.

Last week, Dunst’s spokesperson denied her “erratic behaviour” at the Festival, insisting: “Kirsten is fine.”

A source told The Star: “She desperately needed help.

“She seemed to be intoxicated when she checked in because she was acting really erratic. She was extremely emotional, constantly breaking down in tears.

“She not in a good place right now, but thankfully, she’s getting the help she needs.”

Apparently, the past several months have been rough on her…she broke up with her long-time boyfriend, and somebody broke into her hotel room and stole some very pricey things, including digital cameras and an iPod.  Rumors flew at Sundance that she was not in a good place due to her strange behavior.

Regularly villified by celeb bloggers, she’s been nicknamed “Kirsten Drunkst” by some on the internets (and you know who you are), as well-known for her hard-partying ways as her movie roles.  I’ve found articles on her actions that go back as far as 2005, and they might go back farther.  I hope she can find the help she needs to battle her demons…remember, Cirque Lodge was the recent home of Lindsay Lohan, who is still battling the occasional slip in sobriety.

Now, if she’d just comb her hair and do something about those teeth…

Spider-Man is probably the most popular man in our house.  Without exaggerating, we have somewhere near 100 Spider-Man related action figures.  My son dressed like Spider-Man for Halloween and in his little toddler-brain, Spider-Man will save him from all the brain-eating zombies, Doc Ock and Green Goblin pumpkin bombs out there. 

But even with all that power and might, the hardest thing Spider-Man’s had to do: kiss Kirsten Dunst.  I am not surprised.  But before I let the snaggletooth insults fly, let’s put that quote in the right context.  Actor Tobey Maguire, 31, who has played the webbed-hero for all three movie (Spider-Man 3 comes out May 4th) is featured in this week’s Parade Magazine where he opens up about that famous kiss (hailed as one of the steamiest at the time), his difficult and lonely childhood, and his future with five-month-old daughter Ruby and fiancee Jennifer Meyer. 

Maguire on Spidey kissing Dunst:

“Probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do as Spider-Man was kiss Kirsten Dunst. When we shot that scene where we kissed in the alleyway and I was hanging upside down, it was really late at night, it was raining, and the whole time I had rainwater running up my nose. Then, when Kirsten rolled back the wet mask, she cut off the air completely.”

I totally understand what Tobey’s saying.  Whenever I see pics of Dunst it cuts off my air too – just in a different way. 

Tobey also talked about his childhood growing up with parents who were very young, 18 and 20, and the inherent challenges they faced raising a child when they were practically children themselves:

“They were just babies,” he says of his parents, “doing whatever the heck they thought they should be doing. I always felt that there were people in my life who cared about me—that I was special to them. It’s very complicated. But the truth of the matter is, I realized at a young age that I was responsible for myself. My feelings of love or security or happiness—they were all in my own hands. I had plenty of difficult, emotional and scary times as a kid, but I don’t dwell on it.”

Proving that some successful Hollywood stars are truly grounded and have a handle on their fame and wealth, Maguire seems to appreciate what he has, but that those tangible items aren’t who he is:

“Growing up the way I did, I had a very serious ambition to make some money, to have some security and comfort in my life,” he adds. “When I first started being successful at this, financially speaking, I was very conservative with my money. That was definitely a product of where I came from. You know those Lotto winners who win big and then blow through all the money? That would never happen to me. I just never wanted to put myself in the position where my spending was so huge that I had to keep making movie after movie. My mentality about that has changed a bit,” Fame and fortune aside, Maguire adds: “I feel like you could drop me anywhere in the world, anonymously, and I’d figure out how to survive.  If you stripped away everything I’ve got—the money, the fame, the possessions, everything—I know that I’d find a way to get along, because, basically, that’s what I’ve had to do all my life.”

This perspective has certainly had an effect on how he approaches be a father to his child Ruby and what he would like to see for her future as a child of a huge movie-star:

“But I’m at that stage where I have to start thinking about where I want Ruby (his 5-month-old daughter with fiancée Jennifer Meyer) to grow up and go to school. And even though L.A. is pretty laid-back, maybe it would be a good idea to try a different, less ambitious kind of atmosphere.”

It’s nice to hear about movie-star who acts like a real person.  For more on the incredible Tobey Maguire, check out Parade’s full interview. 

I don’t know when it happened but Kirsten Dunst just isn’t working for me anymore.

I realize that I am the last remaining human to admit this.  Maybe it’s a failure on my part somehow, I just don’t know. But whatever it is, I am unable to understand her appeal.

It doesn’t help that Kirsten Dunst has become more universally hated than the one hot girl at fatty convention.  Let’s face it, I am not an island, I could only withstand the peer pressure so long.  I AM HUMAN DAMMIT!  And to be perfectly honest people, Kirsten Dunst is…well…she’s fug in ways I can’t understand.

Maybe I was under some kind of Spider-Man spell.  She looked hot in that dress when Doc Ock had her all chained up and her bazongas were all full, wet and busting through her dress.  Wow, that sounded vaguely arousing.  I am not aroused okay.  Anyway, since that time I have watched Spider-Man 1 and I have watched Spider-Man 2 and I am over it.  She is not pretty.

You know what, her ass doesn’t even try.  Dirty blonde hair, pale skin, pointy teeth and a sour expression are not the key ingredients to hot.  They are the key ingredients to urban legends involving tales of the undead who feed on the flesh of the living.  And my nightmares.

So call me a sell out, call me shallow, call me short-sighted, okay, that’s enough name-calling jackass.  Bottom line:  Me and the Kikster, we’re through.