Stringers, ERs, Police Scanners and the Celebrity Wing of the LA Jail

There are many things I don't miss about Los Angeles. Stringers are one of them.

The street outside the Reiner residence was a series of cameras on tripods, one every 6 feet or so. A flock of vultures. Each of them pointed toward the gate of the property and trying to avoid showing the camera set-ups to their left and right. Known callously in the media business as a "gang bang". This kind of thing happens quickly after every celebrity murder or death in Los Angeles. Feigned concern trying to mask a vampire-like appetite is what you see on the faces of the stringers as they record their segments. They know the game. They talk about how the murder was done in graphic language punctuated by brief impersonations of mourning. It is bizarre. Dissociative and disturbing.

There are people sitting in cars right now waiting for the next one. Listening to police scanners. Some of them sit near Emergency departments of hospitals or they have nurses who will be paid for tips on who was brought in, what the injuries are and whether the police are involved.

LA County has a celebrity section in their jail. It is used for celebrities and their family members who would not be safe in the general population of the jail. Famously the Menendez Brothers and OJ were in side by side cells until Robert Shapiro demanded that the Menendez brothers be moved away from his client because they were a bad influence. It's normal somehow. Like the Green Room of a TV show where celebs chat before going on camera.

All of this has gone on since the days of Fatty Arbuckle or earlier. The major studios have mini hospitals inside the studio gates and private police forces to contain scandals that can be contained. The stringers are selling their video to a different division of the giant media conglomerate than the division which promotes the stars' next film, TV appearance or Netflix deal. One division gets eyeballs for the good stuff, another for the downfalls. Those camps of stringers at the gates of the Reiner residence will be visited by B list celebs and would-be experts, sent by their agents to further their careers by getting into viral clips being generated there -- "Go to Chadbourne and Sunset ASAP! Bring flowers to lay at the gate. Talk to the stringers!"

It is a vortex of sickness. An extra tough place to succeed in rehab. I don't ask "How could this have happened?" but rather, given that environment "How come this doesn't happen more?"