The Sober Buddy Doesn’t Come Cheap

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Nikki Finke is a toughie and a funny writer. She writes about Hollywood with a scorched keyboard in LA Weekly. She pointed out a new trend in LA that’s bubbling up to the mainstream.

“Hollywood is now indulging in a different kind of rehab substitute. It’s intense and round the clock sober companionship, aka “The Sober Buddy”. Rather than spending the standard 60 to 90 days in a clinic like Promises or Betty Ford, the actor or actress or exec hires a sober companion to keep on track. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, this coach by your side makes sure you stay clean.

Such intense monitoring doesn’t come cheap, as ABC News– which claims Owen Wilson has a sober buddy — found out from Douglas Caine, founder of Sober Champion with offices in LA, NYC and London. Caine says his prices range from $450 to $1,500 a day for care. as it happens, art is imitating life: Jim Carrey is supposedly still linked to a Universal project in development titled Sober Buddies to play a court appointed “sober buddy” to a hard-partying businessman needing an alcohol-free biz trip to Vegas.

The glitch? The sober buddy falls off the wagon himself. Then again, Carrey’s recent projects do have a habit of falling apart.”