The Price of Fame

Detective Carter, where are you?

You thought I was going to post a picture of Robin Williams, didn't you. This post is about Robin Williams, but I'm going to start with someone who really made me laugh; Chris Tucker.

I first discovered Chris in The Fifth Element, my very favorite SciFi flic. He's starred in some of my favorite movies besides The Fifth Element (all of the Rush Hour franchise) but hasn't done a lot of work because he doesn't agree with the parts he's been offered. Chris is a born-again Christian and does not want to play a part that compromises his Christian beliefs. Chris has huge financial difficulties ($12 million tax debt) and is paying it off and Chris knows he can't overcome this issue by himself. He leans on God to help him. You can't believe how much I admire that.

There's actually several Christian celebrities in Hollywood that have the guts to say "No" when offered a roll that compromises their Christian morals. Probably the most well known Christian in Hollywood, Chuck Norris, also refuses to compromise his morals. But to many the most attractive temptation is fame and adulation, and they'll do anything to reach it.

As the Preacher in Ecclesiastes warns us: fame, fortune, wisdom, pleasures of every sort are just trying to grab the wind if we exclude God from our lives. For Robin Williams his Christianity was little more than a punchline, at least in public. When asked by by James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio “If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say at the pearly gates?” Robin made a couple of jokes, I'll give him that, he's a comedian, then he got serious and said "If heaven exists..." and cracked another joke. Unfortunately Robin Williams trained himself that God is a punchline, not a lifeline.

A higher power was guiding Robin for years, and it wasn't God. Robin described what happens to him on stage to James Kaplan in US Weekly, January 1999 (page 53)

“Yeah! Literally, it's like possession ‑ all of a sudden you're in, and because it's in front of a live audience, you just get this energy that just starts going…But there's also that thing ‑ it is possession. In the old days you'd be burned for it…But there is something empowering about it. I mean, it is a place where you are totally ‑ it is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where you really can become this other force. Maybe that's why I don't need to play evil characters [in movies], 'cause sometimes onstage you can cross that line and come back. Clubs are a weird kind of petri dish environment. I mean, that's where people can get as dark as they can in comedy ‑ in the name of comedy, be talking about outrageous stuff and somehow come out the other side. I mean, that's one place where you really want to push it” 

Here is Robin Williams telling the world that he was being possessed, becoming "this other force" and he's not alone to describe being posessed. Jimi Hendrix, Alanis Morissette, Carlos Santana, Claire Danes, Denzel Waashington, all know that their talents come from something that is not themselves. They imply that they are channeling "a muse" while other entertainers are more honest about it:

“I can’t explain it to you man. I go through my Rain Man, and I just start mumbling. I got possessed by the spirits. My soul is possessed by devils. - Jay-Z

“We were doing witchcraft, trying to make witchcraft music.” - Brain Wilson

“I’m gonna abandon my spirit to them, which is actually what I attempt to do. You work yourself up into that state and you fall in supplication of the demon gods.” - David Lee Roth

"I have a fairly adequate knowledge of Satanic forces.” - James Dean

“I met the spirit of music. An appearance of the devil, on a Venice canal, running. I saw Satan.” - Jim Morrison

“It’s like being possessed: like a psychic or a medium. I felt like a hollow temple filled with many spirits, each one passing through me, each inhabiting me for a little time and then leaving to be replaced by another. It’s amazing that it just came to me in a dream. That’s why I don’t profess to know anything. I think music is very mystical. When the real music comes to me, it has nothing to do with me ‘cause I’m just a channel. It’s given to me and I transcribe it.”  - John Lennon

“Sometimes I feel like I’m possessed with a multitude of demons. I know I have demons. I’m 30 different people sometimes. Once my job is done on the film, it’s just not any of my buisness. I stay as far as I could as possible. I don’t like watching myself. He’s up there/demon.” - Johnny Depp

“I attempt to connect with my muse and go on demon rides.” - Keanu Reeves

“I was directed and commanded by another power. The power of darkness … that a lot of people don’t believe exists. The power of the Devil. Satan.” - Little Richard

“I’ve got many, many demons that affect me on many, many levels. A few years ago, I was convinced of that – I thought I truly was possessed by the devil. I remember sitting through the Exorcist a dozen times, saying to myself, ‘Yeah, I can relate to that. I really wish I knew why I’ve done some of the things I’ve done over the years. I don’t know if I’m a medium for some outside source. Whatever it is, frankly, I hope it’s not what I think it is - Satan.”” - Ozzy Osbourne

There's so many more entertainers that use terms like "channeling spirits" and calling their possessors "a muse" but sadly it's all the same thing, if you're filled by an entity and it's not the Holy Spirit, it's always a demon. Even the worlds most famous satanic authority Anton LaVey (founder of the Church of Satan) admits there's no other choice available:

"An old meaning of demon used to be closer to muse - a guiding, inspirational spirit. You've got quite a legacy of Satanic writers, film producers, and directors who have made their own pacts... As Satanism grows more mainstream, whether people agree with our philosophy or not, our standards and ideals will prevail.” - Anton LaVey

Why do demonic powers use so many entertainers? Simple: because the demonic goals are to promote evil and sin, and increase mankind's rebellion against God. Ephesians 2:2 perfectly describes Satan's plan as "...the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." 

Robin Williams has said that he used cocaine to calm himself down. If he considered the maddening rush of cocaine a mellowing agent then he must have been in constant torment by demons. How unfortunate it was that Robin chose to make fun of God instead of turning to Him and begging for release from his demonic torment. He may have ended up like Chris Tucker - not nearly as famous, probably just as broke, but he would have a Savior to lean upon when times were darkest.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Corinthians 3:17)