The high price of fame

I thought Cory Monteith’s problems were behind him.

Working the red carpet, you often don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors with celebrities. They’re there to promote their movie or TV show and usually have big smiles for you.

But fame being what it is, some of them struggle to cope.

Take Cory Monteith, the young Canadian actor who played Finn In TV’s hit musical comedy Glee. The 31-year-old actor was found dead in a Vancouver hotel room following a heroin and alcohol overdose.

He leaves behind his girlfriend and Glee co-star Lea Michele.

I met him loads of times on the red carpet and he was a lovely, thoughtful young man. When he was a teenager he had a problem with substance abuse which everyone thought he’d conquered, so my heart sank in March when it emerged he’d been battling drug addiction again. He’d been checked into rehab and fans of the show prayed he’d recover.

Glee has been great to watch and I’m a big fan who would have thought we’d see a successful musical on the small screen? It was a real game changer. Hard to say whether it’ll be as good now, but however the makers decide to carry on without Cory, I’m guessing they’ll do it with a song.

I phoned some friends in LA last week to let them know how I was getting on during my wee break back here in the UK.

They were telling me things have been strange in the US since the case of black teenager Trayvon Martin.

If you haven’t been following it, Trayvon was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a member of a neighbourhood watch group in Florida.

He had spotted Trayvon, decided he was up to something and followed him. There was an altercation and Trayvon was shot and killed, while Zimmerman claimed it was self-defence.

Predictably, Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder, which infuriated the black community. There have been bad-tempered protests all over America ever since.

It’s strange that there are still so many problems with race. I’ve lived in New York, then Los Angeles, where race doesn’t seem that much of an issue.

My American friends tell me I just see the cosmopolitan areas of the East and West Coast.

It’s different in Middle America, where tensions still run high from time to time.

It’s also the height of summer, which certainly doesn’t help. You’ve probably noticed it here, with the hot weather.

At first, everyone is chuffed about the sunshine but, after a couple of days, people get irritable and anxious.

The US media doesn’t help either, it’s very opinionated in comparison with our “straight” British-style news.

The US networks could certainly use a Trevor McDonald or a Huw Edwards right now.