Jason Donovan still 'tempted' by drugs
Jason Donovan has admitted that 'temptation is always there', 12 years after he quit drugs. The Australian star said cocaine made him feel like 'the master of the ball' while he was taking it. Talking to former newspaper editor Piers Morgan on his Life Stories show, he spoke about the night he collapsed during Kate Moss's birthday party at the Viper Room club in Los Angeles. The former Neighbours star said: "I'd been in Sydney taking drugs and then I flew to LA. I got hold of some coke there, I'm jet-lagged, it's an extremely strong consistency of the drug and I spent my entire time in the hotel room. The only time I went out was to the party." Jason was eventually taken away in an ambulance and said: "It was an embarrassing situation to be in, but I was a drug addict at the time. "I just went back to the hotel, after they'd checked me out of the hospital and got back on it." The star, who described red wine as his biggest sin now, said: "Temptation is always there with everything in life, you know, it's how you approach things and what's important and, maybe in a funny way, I love a glass of wine now and I can still enjoy it." The programme, on ITV1 tonight (Friday), also features an interview with Jason's friend Phillip Schofield, who said he thought his drug use would lead to 'tragedy'. He said: "Jason was at the time quite often chemically assisted. On a couple of occasions I went out for lunch with him and the next day he wouldn't remember where we'd been or the fact that we'd met up." See the full interview on Piers Morgan's Life Stories: Jason Donovan on ITV1 at 9pm.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.