Entertainment
DWTS’ Sharna Burgess Recalls Smoking Meth at 17 After a Knee Injury on September 27, 2023 at 4:49 pm Us Weekly

Dancing With the Stars’ Sharna Burgess is getting real about her experiences with drug use — including smoking meth as a teenager and changing her life.
“I was gifted this moment of clarity of I could change my life and I was meant for more. I hope that those moments happen for everybody,” Burgess, 38, said of her decision to get sober on the Tuesday, September 26, episode of iHeartMedia’s “Old-ish” podcast with cohosts Brian Austin Green and Randy Spelling.
The dancing pro explained that “the universe” offered her a “moment of clarity” during a party in her native Australia where people were smoking meth.
“I was 17 years old, and this was at the end of probably being awake for three days,” Burgess recalled. “We were sitting out [in] the backyard of someone’s house, and a crack pipe was being passed around with meth in it, and we were all taking hits of it.”
It was then that she felt that a higher power gave her a sign. “I saw everybody sitting opposite me with complete clarity of what my future looked like. Here I was, 17 years old, high, awake for three days,” she said. “Watching 20-somethings and maybe even young 30-somethings passing around this crack pipe just waiting to get a little bit more out of it.”
She added that this wasn’t new behavior for her at the time. “I had been smoking meth now for a little while, not every day, but just on and off because it was new,” she claimed. “This was over 20 years ago. It wasn’t as, may I say, as dirty as it is now. It was a newer drug and a lot cleaner. So, it’s not like I had it, and I was hooked and I was on it every day. But it was definitely, at that time, a party drug and around all the time, and I was partying pretty much three to four days a week.”
However, while seeing a bunch of people older than her partying alongside her, Burgess felt like she was getting a glimpse of a future she didn’t want. “I realized that I had come from being an Australian champion ballroom dancer,” she explained. “I represented my country at the World Championships. I was an athlete, the best in the country at the time. And because of a knee injury, I fell off … But I realized how far I’d fell and how much I needed to get back to that person, that this was not what I was meant for.”
At that moment, Burgess thought, “I am here for a reason. I am here for more.”
She moved to Melbourne to find a new environment away from her social group to focus on her career. “I got given that blessing of a moment to see where I was at. And that was where it all changed for me, and I understood: I need dance back in my life,” she explained. “I need to get away from this space because if I am around it, I will go back to it. I have no willpower around this, if it is around me I will go back to it.”
She quickly turned her life around. Burgess went on to move to London at 18 to appear in several dance tours before doing several international versions of Dancing With the Stars. She joined the American DWTS as a troupe member in 2011 before becoming a pro in season 16. Burgess took home the mirrorball in season 27 with Bobby Bones.
Moving stateside was pivotal to her career as well as her search for love. She met Green, 50, in Los Angeles and the two welcomed baby Zane in June 2022. They announced their engagement earlier this month.
Green said he’d never heard her tell this story before. Both told Us Weekly earlier this month that nothing was off-limits on their new podcast.
“We haven’t come up against anything that’s off the table,” Burgess told Us on September 21. “I think naturally there’s things that we won’t share when it comes to a certain subject. We are definitely keeping some things in our space, but we went into this knowing that we wanted to be vulnerable and transparent so we can give people that opportunity to see, ‘oh wow, the things that I’m going through aren’t just me.’”
Burgess previewed the addiction episode at the time, telling Us: “That was a really interesting one to visit, as Randy and I said on it, to go back to what feels like a past life that you have a glimpse of, but not difficult in the sense of, I don’t want to share it. I feel like we’ve really come in here knowing this is what we’re wanting to do and we’re ready for it.”
Dancing With the Stars’ Sharna Burgess is getting real about her experiences with drug use — including smoking meth as a teenager and changing her life. “I was gifted this moment of clarity of I could change my life and I was meant for more. I hope that those moments happen for everybody,” Burgess, 38,
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Entertainment
What We Can Learn Inside 50 Cent’s Explosive Diddy Documentary: 5 Reasons You Should Watch

50 Cent’s new Netflix docuseries about Sean “Diddy” Combs is more than a headline-grabbing exposé; it is a meticulous breakdown of how power, celebrity, and silence can collide in the entertainment industry.
Across its episodes, the series traces Diddy’s rise, the allegations that followed him for years, and the shocking footage and testimonies now forcing a wider cultural reckoning.

1. It Chronicles Diddy’s Rise and Fall – And How Power Warps Reality
The docuseries follows Combs from hitmaker and business icon to a figure facing serious criminal conviction and public disgrace, mapping out decades of influence, branding, and behind-the-scenes behavior. Watching that arc shows how money, fame, and industry relationships can shield someone from scrutiny and delay accountability, even as disturbing accusations accumulate.

2. Never-Before-Seen Footage Shows How Narratives Are Managed
Exclusive footage of Diddy in private settings and in the tense days around his legal troubles reveals how carefully celebrity narratives are shaped, even in crisis.
Viewers can learn to question polished statements and recognize that what looks spontaneous in public is often the result of strategy, damage control, and legal calculation.
3. Survivors’ Stories Highlight Patterns of Abuse and Silence
Interviews with alleged victims, former staff, and industry insiders describe patterns of control, fear, and emotional or physical harm that were long whispered about but rarely aired in this detail. Their stories underline how difficult it is to speak out against a powerful figure, teaching viewers why many survivors delay disclosure and why consistent patterns across multiple accounts matter.
4. 50 Cent’s Approach Shows Storytelling as a Tool for Accountability
As executive producer, 50 Cent uses his reputation and platform to push a project that leans into uncomfortable truths rather than protecting industry relationships. The series demonstrates how documentary storytelling can challenge established power structures, elevate marginalized voices, and pressure institutions to respond when traditional systems have failed.
5. The Cultural Backlash Reveals How Society Handles Celebrity Accountability
Reactions to the doc—ranging from people calling it necessary and brave to others dismissing it as a vendetta or smear campaign—expose how emotionally invested audiences can be in defending or condemning a famous figure. Watching that debate unfold helps viewers see how fandom, nostalgia, and bias influence who is believed, and why conversations about “cancel culture” often mask deeper questions about justice and who is considered too powerful to fall.
Entertainment
South Park’s Christmas Episode Delivers the Antichrist

A new Christmas-themed episode of South Park is scheduled to air with a central plot in which Satan is depicted as preparing for the birth of an Antichrist figure. The premise extends a season-long narrative arc that has involved Satan, Donald Trump, and apocalyptic rhetoric, positioning this holiday episode as a culmination of those storylines rather than a stand‑alone concept.
Episode premise and season context
According to published synopses and entertainment coverage, the episode frames the Antichrist as part of a fictional storyline that blends religious symbolism with commentary on politics, media, and cultural fear. This follows earlier Season 28 episodes that introduced ideas about Trump fathering an Antichrist child and tech billionaire Peter Thiel obsessing over prophecy and end‑times narratives. The Christmas setting is presented as a contrast to the darker themes, reflecting the series’ pattern of pairing holiday imagery with controversial subject matter.
Public and political reactions
Coverage notes that some figures connected to Donald Trump’s political orbit have criticized the season’s portrayal of Trump and his allies, describing the show as relying on shock tactics rather than substantive critique. Commentators highlight that these objections are directed more at the depiction of real political figures and the show’s tone than at the specific theology of the Antichrist storyline.
At the time of reporting, there have not been widely reported, detailed statements from major religious leaders focused solely on this Christmas episode, though religion-focused criticism of South Park in general has a long history.
Media and cultural commentary
Entertainment outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Forbes, Slate, and USA Today describe the Antichrist arc as part of South Park’s ongoing use of Trump-era and tech-world politics as material for satire.
Viewer guidance and content advisory
South Park is rated TV‑MA and is intended for adult audiences due to strong language, explicit themes, and frequent use of religious and political satire. Viewers who are sensitive to depictions of Satan, the Antichrist, or parodies involving real political figures may find this episode particularly objectionable, while others may view it as consistent with the show’s long‑running approach to controversial topics. As with previous episodes, individual responses are likely to vary widely, and the episode is best understood as part of an ongoing satirical series rather than a factual or theological statement.
Entertainment
Sydney Sweeney Finally Confronts the Plastic Surgery Rumors

Sydney Sweeney has decided she is finished watching strangers on the internet treat her face like a forensic project. After years of side‑by‑side screenshots, “then vs now” TikToks, and long comment threads wondering what work she has supposedly had done, the actor is now addressing the plastic surgery rumors directly—and using them to say something larger about how women are looked at in Hollywood and online.

Growing Up on Camera vs. “Before and After” Culture
Sweeney points out that people are often mistaking normal changes for procedures: she grew up on camera, her roles now come with big‑budget glam teams, and her body has shifted as she has trained, aged, and worked nonstop. Yet every new red‑carpet photo gets folded into a narrative that assumes surgeons, not time, are responsible. Rather than walking through a checklist of what is “real,” she emphasizes how bizarre it is that internet detectives comb through pores, noses, and jawlines as if they are owed an explanation for every contour of a woman’s face.
The Real Problem Isn’t Her Face
By speaking up, Sweeney is redirecting the conversation away from her features and toward the culture that obsesses over them.
She argues that the real issue isn’t whether an actress has had work done, but why audiences feel so entitled to dissect her body as public property in the first place.
For her, the constant speculation is less about curiosity and more about control—another way to tell women what they should look like and punish them when they do not fit. In calling out that dynamic, Sweeney isn’t just defending herself; she is forcing fans and followers to ask why tearing apart someone else’s appearance has become such a popular form of entertainment.
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