Reality Roll Call

If you watched last night’s episode of The Real World: Hollywood you witnessed a disturbing meltdown of Joey Kovar, as he relapsed into alcohol abuse. Whenever any addict is put in a position that tempts using, and one of the favorite pasttimes on The Real Road is lots of drinking, things get real ugly real fast and this was no different. Joe, was urged by a naive Dave  to have “just one drink,” and he would keep an eye on him. Uh huh. Clearly, the “good tv” that the producers and casting hoped for was about to jump off.

Of course, it didn’t end at one drink. Joe, who at the time was only four months sober, and not because of any professional treatment, went on a binge that was more intense than all of Real World: Hawaii’s Ruthie’s benders put together. He drank as much as he could afford out at the bar, and then came back to the house, and drank everything in sight. Bottle after bottle of beer, and a magnum of wine, all with Dave’s name written on them. How important is booze to you when you have to label it so no one touches it? And, when the girls asked him to settle down because it was now 8:30 in the morning and they wanted to sleep, he went off into a rage, destroying the house, threating violence, and packing his clothes.

Before he could hurt anyone or himself, and before an ambulance or the police had to be called, Joe passed out. When he woke up, still somewhat drunk, the houseguests tried to talk to him about his problem. All he wanted to do was go home. He pointed out that he wasn’t like that until he entered the house. He was somewhat correct. He was an addict when he entered the house, but he wasn’t using. He was put around the people, places and things that were likely to push his buttons.

The producers of the show then stepped in, and offered to send Joe to rehab for 30 days to get help. This is something that it was totally within their responsibility to do, especially since they do enough screening of potential castmates to know this was going to happen. It seemed like they manipulated this kid by making him think he could handle a situation that they secretly hoped he couldn’t handle, just for the sake of ratings. And if that is not the case, then they are pure idiots.

As you know from the post we wrote last summer, Joe ultimately ends up leaving The Real World Hollywood house. But as of last month, things were looking up for him, according to sources. His teacher while he was on the show, improvOlympics’ Charna Halpern offered him free classes in the iO in Joey’s home town of Chicago. Hopefully, he takes her offer and immerses himself into it, while he works on finding peace in his life.