"Charlie Sheen Crazy Like a Fox"

The article “Charlie Sheen Crazy Like a Fox” was published in the March 14, 2011, edition of the magazine Star. The magazine specializes in celebrity fashion, gossip and news. Therefore, the audience for Star would be people who are interested in reading about celebrities and their lives. I think this audience would be mostly younger people, and more females than males.

The author of the article used kairos because he wrote it during a time when curiosity about Charlie Sheen was peaking. It was exactly the time that people wanted to know more about Sheen, and the author took advantage of that opportunity. The author persuades his readers that Sheen may have gone off the deep end, but he may end up having the last laugh when all is said and done. This was seizing an opportune moment because it helped to answer the public’s question, “What will happen next?”

The main argument of the article, as stated above, is that Sheen lost his show Two and a Half Men but is planning on getting back at CBS and those who he feels have wronged him during his career. The author warns that Sheen may have some hidden tricks up his sleeve. The article targets the incredulity that many people are feeling about what is going on with Sheen, feeding into that emotion by elaborating more on the situation.

The relationship between text and images is also important in this article. The text of the article is interrupted by a huge picture of Sheen with his ex-wife and his two current 24-year-old girlfriends on vacation. This reminds readers of the fact that Sheen is living with these two young women, one of whom is a porn star and the other a model for a marijuana magazine. There is also a picture of Sheen with his kids, which plays into the concern that many people may feel for the children in this situation. The words “crazy like a fox” in the headline are important because, first, they are saying that Charlie Sheen is crazy, and second, they are comparing him to an animal. Other word choices in the article, including the phrases “increasingly bizarre,” “totally unhinged,” and “running off the rails,” contribute to the article’s assertion that Charlie Sheen has lost it.

The sources for the article include Sheen’s own statements during the multiple interviews he has given, and an “insider” who seems to know that Sheen’s next move will be to expose those who have crossed him during his career. The interviews are credible, because those are Sheen’s exact words, but I can’t say how credible the “insider” source is. I think one should always be cautious when considering information delivered by an anonymous insider.

I think that, overall, the effect this article has on Sheen’s persona is that it reinforces the fact that Sheen has gone crazy. This article didn’t expose anything that people didn’t already know, but it contributed to the feelings that the public has about Sheen.

On Star’s website, bright pink is a predominant color, which is important because it draws the reader’s attention to certain parts of the page, and also is appealing to young women, a large part of the magazine’s audience. One of the ads on the page was for Urban Dealight, a coupon website that is popular among young people.