DON'T TOLERATE, CODDLE CELEBRITIES

I wish to register annoyance at the indulgent attention that USA TODAY and
the rest of the media pay to rich fools such as Robert Downey Jr. -- and
other showbiz and sports celebrities I need not name -- who have blown
repeated shots at the best drug rehab money can buy (''Downey hit with drug
charges,'' Life, Nov. 27).

These sorry junkies deserve neither feature space nor sympathy. Such free
publicity can only encourage them. The media should save its efforts for
crack babies and others who truly had no choice in becoming addicted.

And surely, sports and performance-media bosses can find equally good
players from among the thousands of athletes and actors who are not drug
addicts.

Ezio Moscatelli
Columbia, Mo.