Recently Lindsay Lohan was praised by a judge for her compliance with legal orders in her probation. Lindsay is the most recent in a long line of celebrities to not only display bad behavior, but try to skirt the consequences. Every time the news reports another famous personality gone wild I find myself saying “what, again?” out loud.

There are the surprising but understandable fits from respectable stars that result from paparazzi’s infringement on personal space. Sure, I get that. Given the same situation I think any of us would eventually feel pushed to a corner and respond with similar defense for our privacy and basic respect.

Then there are the old faithful celebrity geysers that erupt rather reliably, entertaining us beyond their over paid roles. Consider Alec Baldwin, possibly the standard for anger management and inappropriate parenting. Over the years Russell Crowe and Sean Penn have displayed rages and who can forget Mel Gibson and his recent spousal abuse charges?

More notable for the taped evidence is Charlie Sheen, now the poster boy for anger mixed with crazy, and Christian Bale for his 2008 tirade on a set that made for great radio station foder.

Now there’s Nicolas Cage who seems to be devolving before our eyes with financial trouble and spousal abuse arrest reports adding up like college credits.

Men do carry a tendency for a stronger anger reaction due to the presence of testosterone, but that doesn’t leave the ladies with a hall pass. Gems like Liza Minelli and her spousal abuse charge, Courtney Love’s complete lack of self-control and Lindsay Lohan, or LiLo as I hear it now, prove that women are capable of as much absurd behavior and anger as their male counterparts.

Why does this happen to the people we put on pedestals? That could be part of the problem. Culturally we place a lot of importance on people reaching the zenith of fame and then sadistically seem to wait for them to crumble under the pressure of the images they are faced with living with. I believe they crumble under the pressure. Then comes the coping skills brought in to deal with the pressure: drugs, shoplifting, adrenaline junkies. Mix that in with organic mental disorders that are present to begin with and now you see the crazy whirlpool of instability that keeps the late night monologues in business.