THE 13TH STEP TO THE STARS

"Sober companions" help ensure that a concert tour or movie shoot goes
off without a hitch by keeping artists from their addictions.

As partygoers circled around, Tim Tankosic watched a beautiful woman
expertly smuggle a pack of drugs to the movie star. It was exactly the
kind of temptation that Tankosic, a highly paid "sober companion," was
hired to ward off.

Soft-spoken and cerebral, with a homey, unaffected air, Tankosic
prefers to see himself as a motivational helper rather than a drug
cop, so he was relieved when the actor handed him the unused drugs as
they left the party--no hassle, no fuss.

"I said, 'Thanks for doing the right thing,' " said Tankosic, 45, who
declined to identify the actor or any of his other clients. "I said,
'It's everywhere, isn't it? It's going to be like this for the rest of
your life.' "

Only in Hollywood, where the rich employ a platoon of helpers to
insulate them from the vagaries of daily life, would there be a
full-time, paid position as a "sober companion"--also known as a
"minder" or "clean-living assistant."

It's difficult to imagine a Fortune 500 company hiring a baby-sitter
to make sure the chief executive officer didn't snort cocaine before a
shareholder meeting. But film and rock stars are distinct creative
talents, one-of-a-kind performers who can make or break $100-million
movies or drive the profits of huge record companies. For some of
them, addiction has followed fame.

In the days of Judy Garland or even John Belushi, studio flunkies and
concerned friends kept stars working by pouring coffee down their
throats or hiring bouncers to keep the drug pushers away. Today's
corporate Hollywood insists on more reliable methods. Minders are the
front-line workers, paid as much as $5,000 a week to keep fragile
performers sober and functional.

Some recovery specialists see the practice as a quick fix that shields
the corporate bottom line while doing nothing about the underlying
causes of addiction. The minders, they say, are hired to protect the
film rather than the star.

Actor Robert Downey Jr. and comedian Chris Farley employed
baby-sitters on movie sets and are said to have stayed clean for the
duration of the filming. But Downey later relapsed, and the 300-pound
Farley died of a drug overdose in 1997.

Despite these discouraging outcomes, celebrity baby-sitting is a
growth industry. Among the reasons: Addiction is not stigmatized the
way it once was. Entertainers are encouraged to confront their
problems and enter recovery programs. And the insurance industry is
insisting on preemptive steps to minimize the risk that a star's
relapse will delay or scuttle a multimillion-dollar film.

A representative of the San Francisco-based Fireman's Fund Insurance
Co., which underwrites more than half of all movies produced in this
country, said that as many as 20% of the films he has insured since
last summer included a high-risk artist with drug problems.

Brian Kingman, a broker at AON/Albert G. Ruben Insurance Brokers, who
secures cast insurance for such studios as DreamWorks SKG and Warner
Bros., has a matter-of-fact attitude toward the issue.

"When there's a known substance abuse problem, you normally talk to
all of the artist's handlers, the personal doctors of the artist, the
managers and lawyers, and you basically roll up your sleeves and say,
'How can we put together a system or a product where we can package
this particular actor to the insurance marketplace so we can get cast
insurance?' " Kingman said. "We might have a substance abuse counselor
with this particular actor that is on the set and with the person 24/7."

Tankosic, a freelance writer and former addict who has a medical
degree and extensive counseling experience, is usually hired by the
artists and paid by them or their production companies. He is an
independent baby-sitter, not associated with any treatment center.

"The point is to be a rock," he said, "a friendly face, a reminder of
recovery, a safe person."

The emotional support Tankosic lends his clients is not significantly
different than what members of Alcoholics Anonymous provide for one
another for free. However, many of the tasks he performs are unique to
the baby-sitter industry.

On a typical movie location, Tankosic lives with the celebrity in a
home far from the hotel that houses the rest of the cast and crew. In
the morning, he rises with the star and they meditate together. After
breakfast, he accompanies the star to the set, and then to a support
group meeting typically held in a trailer. They might go to another
such meeting that night.

During off-hours, Tankosic said, he tries to make sure the star has
fun, although he steers him or her clear of "slippery places"--any
locale where drugs or alcohol are available.

Many minders are former addicts, well-practiced in identifying the
lying that usually accompanies addiction. Some bar their charges from
speaking to anyone on a movie set other than the director and key
production personnel. Others refuse to let the client out of their
sight. These minders sleep in the same room with the artist and
thoroughly search every bathroom, even looking inside the toilet tank,
before the celebrity is allowed to enter.

Deanna MacDonald, senior entertainment underwriter for the New
Jersey-based Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., said the practice of
hiring sober companions is on the upswing. "That will become more
common because the insurance industry is tightening up," she said.

One of the top minders in the business said he had been employed by
every major manager in the music business. This minder, interviewed
before jetting off to an undisclosed movie set to work with an actor,
declined to be identified in print. Discretion is a critical part of
the job, he said.

"I'm like a wisp of smoke."

Charges Up to $40,000 a Month for Services

Baby-sitting stars in recovery is a business of referrals, with most
originating from organizations such as MusiCares, the health and human
services arm of the Grammy organization, or high-end drug
rehabilitation facilities. In the last five years, three rehab centers
have popped up in Malibu, charging as much as $40,000 a month for
their complete services, which can include a sober companion.

One of the Malibu centers, called Promises, treated actor Ben Affleck
for alcoholism and Charlie Sheen for a cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The center helps match sober companions with stars or anyone else
willing to pay.

"A lot of what we do is individualized treatment. We get people who
require those kind of sober buddies," said Richard Rogg, executive
director of Promises. "They'll take them to meetings, make sure
they're not drinking. They'll drug test them. The goal is to connect
them with 12-step programs wherever they are."

Passages, a new treatment center operating from a $10-million estate
in Malibu, recently began offering a two-week program for celebrities
who crash in the middle of filming movies.

At a cost of $42,000, it includes rapid detoxification to break the
chemical addiction, and psychological therapy, as well as massage,
acupuncture and gourmet food. At the end of the two-week treatment,
the actor is accompanied back to the set by a recovering addict with
five years of sobriety training, no criminal record and a price tag of
$2,500 a week.

"We send the client back to the set with someone--a companion. If they
go into the bathroom, he goes in first to check for drugs," said
Passages founder Chris Prentiss. "He sleeps in the same room with them
until the shoot is over." Passages has been marketing the service
directly to insurance companies.

Essentially, baby-sitters are the movie industry's version of
catastrophic coverage. Kingman said the two-week package is
worthwhile, if you do the math. "Rather than abandoning a $20-million
film, why not spend $50,000 for this program?" he said.

The baby-sitting itself? "It's a very boring job," said Dallas Taylor,
a recovering addict who played drums with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
from 1969 to 1971.

About 15 years ago, Taylor and friend Bob Timmins began helping the
families and friends of music and film stars confront their loved ones
about their addictions. They also pulled together a handful of minders
to go on the road with recovering artists and accompany them to at
least one support group meeting each day. Taylor, based in Santa
Monica, oversees this loose network of well-compensated
acquaintances.

Taylor said that heroin addicts need at least six months of inpatient
treatment to recover, but that some high-profile artists have 50
people depending on them financially. They can't afford to stop performing.

The climate on a rock tour or movie set can be particularly hard on an
artist who is trying to navigate the world soberly, possibly for the
first time in years.

"A lot of the times the guys who aren't sober are ripping you for
having to get sober yourself," said Taylor. "It's not a supportive
environment at all. But you've got a movie that has to be brought in
on time and on budget. It's not reality that someone can postpone a
movie."

That's why sober companions are so valuable.

Some minders try to insulate their clients from the temptations and
social pressures of the set. Warren Boyd, a compact, muscular drug
counselor, runs Wavelinks, a new treatment facility in Malibu, and has
accompanied recovering addicts on about 10 film shoots.

Using military language to describe his task, he said he always
secures the perimeter around the star and discourages any contact that
is not strictly work-related. The point is to reduce the psychological
stress on the recovering addict and protect him or her from prying
eyes.

Boyd refused to identify any of his clients, but several sources said
Robert Downey Jr. enlisted him in his recent battles with addiction.

The media's harsh glare has given insurance companies leverage in
their crackdown on drug-addicted celebrities. Not only have insurers
mandated the hiring of sober companions, they demand drug-testing
through the course of filming for high-risk actors. Those who balk are
usually shown press clippings reporting their drug problems.

Sometimes, lawyers hire minders to keep celebrity clients clean while
they await sentencing for drug offenses. Richard Cole, a drug
counselor and former manager of the rock band Led Zeppelin, said he
was hired in 1996 by Downey after a Malibu judge insisted on a minder
as a condition of Downey's probation.

"I made it quite plain to Robert that if he screwed up, that I was
going to tell the judge," Cole said. He accompanied the actor on the
sets of "In Dreams," and "Wonder Boys," even sleeping in his hotel
suite. Downey's business managers paid Cole up to $1,500 a week.

Michael Grillo, head of physical production for DreamWorks SKG, which
produced the 1999 thriller "In Dreams," had never seen a sober
companion before that film. "It worked really well for us," he said.
"We didn't have any problems with Robert. He was totally clean when he
was working for us."

Centers Criticized as an Expensive Gimmick

"In Hollywood, you're as good as your gross," said addiction
specialist Joe Takamine, former chairman of an American Medical Assn.
task force on alcoholism. "The studios squeeze what they can out of
them like a lemon and then say, 'Now, go do your thing and fall down.'
What happens after the picture?"

Takamine is skeptical not only of the minders, but of the plush rehab
centers that promote their use. He believes they are expensive
gimmicks that cater to celebrities' narcissism.

"I wouldn't send a sick puppy there," he said. "Their definition of
detox is massage or riding a horse. They are catering to the rich and
famous."

He noted that Affleck, while in treatment at Promises, left to accept
a Teen Choice award at Universal City in August. "You create a feeling
in some of these places that you're unique," Takamine said. "That's
what many of them die from--terminal uniqueness."

Rogg, the director of Promises, called Takamine archaic and said
Affleck went to the awards ceremony with a qualified staff member.
Friends, family and business associates are often reluctant to
confront celebrities about their lifestyle.

"People have a vested interest in keeping someone rich happy," said
Dan Beardshear, a former counselor at the Betty Ford Clinic. He cited
Chris Farley as an example.

"I urged [his associates] to put an intervention together. They said,
'We don't want to ruin his career.' But, hell, he had already fallen
off the stage a couple of times."

Farley eventually did try to get sober. Harold Owens, an addiction
recovery specialist for MusiCares, worked as his minder on at least
one unidentified film.

"The producers on the film said he had to have somebody with him. That
was the condition for him working," Owens said.

After the film was over, Farley relapsed, and in December 1997 he was
found dead in his Chicago apartment of an overdose of cocaine and
morphine. He was 33.

But in the right circumstances, a sober companion can help an artist
beat addiction, said Jim Stillwell, executive director of Impact, one
of Los Angeles' oldest rehab facilities, whose clients range from
ex-convicts to celebrities.

"If you have somebody who's demonstrated a commitment to recovery, and
using this sober buddy to enhance that person's participation in the
recovery activity while they're on the road, then you're getting bang
for the buck," Stillwell said. Baby-sitting a recovering star is not
easy work.

Prentiss, founder of the Passages treatment center, tells of
celebrities who tried to bribe their minders, offering as much as
$50,000 to look the other way while they sneaked a drink or a snort of
cocaine.

Minders can succumb. Cole, who kept Downey clean for a few months,
suffered a relapse after 15 years of sobriety. He recently got hooked
on Vicodin while taking it to ease the pain from bone spurs in his
shoulder and back.

In January, Cole checked himself into a sober-living house in West Los
Angeles.