Actors as Role Models?

CNN recently shared a poll where many people thought that Charlie Sheen should be removed from his hit show because of his actions off the stage ... drunken craziness...  This has also come up recently with Mel Gibson losing his job on the sequel to "The Hangover", the reprimand from parents associations about sexy photos of 17 year old Miley Cyrus and talks about whether Lindsey Lohan can resurrect her career after her rehab stint.   I am not condoning any bad behavior, but these people are ACTORS!!!  If their off stage antics does not effect their ability to do their job than why should any of us care?  Most actors did not choose the career because they wanted to be role models to us all, they choose it because it would give them the Hollywood life that we all grew up envying (or maybe they like to act).  Either way, they don't care about how there actions effect you and they shouldn't. 

The ones who want to be role models participate in campaigns to help young children or causes they believe in.  We can respect that, but we can't hold everyone in Hollywood to that standard.  Are we so naive as to think that Cary Grant never got drunk and trashed a hotel room or that Judy Garland wasn't a drug addict who had been confined to a mental institution... oh wait, that happened.  Is it that we have forgotten that even the icons in Hollywood were part of the Hollywood stigma, or is it just that TMZ was not there to catch the every mistake?

Get over it.  We choose who our role models are and good role models effect our lives more than just on or off the screen.  Role models should inspire us to be more and to acheieve great things.  But even good role models may fail and hopefully we can learn from their mistakes and be better for it.  Of course it would be nice if the people we see and sometimes idolize were perfect. but no one is perfect, we are just lucky that no one follows us around 24/7 with a camera.