Sheen media blitz heads to Twitter after TV shows

[March 02, 2011]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The public's fascination with Charlie Sheen's melodrama showed no sign of slackening as his new Twitter account took only hours to attract more than a half-million followers.

On Tuesday, the day production was to resume on CBS' "Two and a Half Men" after a break for Sheen's personal troubles, his Twitter postings were the only fresh entertainment starring the actor -- unless news interviews also counted.

The Charliesheen Twitter account, which had been verified, featured a family-friendly photo of him and porn star Bree Olson, smiling and holding up bottles of chocolate milk and juice over the caption, "Winning! Choose your vice."

Another picture showed Sheen and a fake cake illustrated with an Oscar statuette bearing his face and "Oscar 2011."

"Winner! 2012," says the caption, apparently an optimistic prediction of glory days ahead in theaters for the "Wall Street" and "Major League" film star of the 1980s and early '90s.

Sheen, who joined Twitter the day after his publicist, Stan Rosenfield, resigned, had posted just a few tweets by Tuesday night. They included a one-liner about Chuck Lorre, the "Two and a Half Men" executive producer who's taken the brunt of Sheen's attacks in an escalating dispute with Warner Bros. Television and CBS.

"Just got invited to do the Nancy Grace show ... I'd rather go on a long road trip with Chuck Lorre in a '75 Pacer," Sheen tweeted.

After giving the actor a break to seek rehabilitation following wild partying and three hospitalizations in three months, Warner and CBS announced last week they had decided against resuming production on the remainder of the season. They cited Sheen's conduct and comments.

CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves said Tuesday the loss of eight episodes this season isn't causing financial pain for CBS in the short term, because paying for fewer half-hours than planned of the expensive sitcom is "financially a gainer."

Moonves told an investors' conference in San Francisco that he hoped TV's top-rated comedy would return to CBS, adding, "We'll see."

"Going down the road ... I don't know what's going to happen," Moonves said, then took a poke at Sheen's ongoing media tour. "He's on the air quite a bit these days. I wish he would have worked this hard to promote himself for an Emmy."

Sheen, 45, has been nominated four times for lead actor in a comedy series for "Men," but has never won.

He has found ready outlets at TV networks and other outlets eager to air his often-outrageous comments.

"Are we tired of Charlie Sheen? ... Or is it the kind of thing we can't get enough?" David Letterman asked Tuesday on his CBS late-night show. "If you thought you were going to see 100 wrecks a day, would you take a lunch? It's kind of like that, isn't it?"

Asked Tuesday on NBC's "Today" about reaction to comments in which Sheen called himself "a total rock star from Mars," among other startling descriptions, he shrugged off the reaction.

"I am grandiose because I live a grandiose life. I'm tired of being 'aw shucks.' That's not me. ... What's wrong with that?" he said.

Sheen also had high praise for the two women living with him, whom he called "goddesses."

"These women don't judge me. ... They don't lead with opinion. They don't lead with their own needs all the time," he said.

Asked if the pair help care for his children, which include nearly 2-year-old twins with Brooke Mueller, Sheen replied, "Oh, yeah. If I can't be there, they're there, and it's like everybody helps out. ... There's nothing broken here."

Sheen asserted he isn't using drugs, saying "drug tests don't lie" and presenting recent test results with "the word 'negative' is, like, printed, like, 18 trillion times."

"Don't remember, don't care," he said when asked the last time he'd used drugs.

He has rejected attempts by his family, including father Martin Sheen ("The West Wing," "Apocalypse Now") to intervene in his life and told them, "'I appreciate your love and your, and your compassion, if that's what you want to call it.'"

"I'm not interested in people treating me like a 12-year-old," Sheen said.

Sheen has left open the possibility for reconciliation with most of those he has attacked in recent days. But when it comes to getting "Two and a Half Men" back on the air, he has made clear he wants it on his terms.

"I'm just going to keep pressing the truth. ... And everybody's going to win because they followed, guess whose plan?" he told "Today." He did not address whether that plan includes Lorre.

On Monday, Sheen told The Associated Press he wasn't satisfied with Warner's payment to the crew for four of the eight unfilmed episodes. He said he would lobby for the other four and that compensation for co-stars Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones was "next" on his to-do list.

Also on Monday, Sheen told NBC he would return to the show. "I'm a man of my word, so I will finish the TV show. I'll even do season 10, but it's -- at this point because of psychological distress, oh my God -- it's three mil an episode, take it or leave it."

Following the comments, his attorneys said Sheen would finish the show at his current pay rate, which is $1.8 million an episode. The attorneys said Sheen would be seeking a raise to $3 million an episode if he were to do a 10th season, which would begin in the fall and run through spring 2012.

[Associated Press; By LYNN ELBER]

Entertainment Writers Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles and Jake Coyle in New York contributed to this report.

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