By M&C Smallscreen Feb 9, 2008, 2:17 GMT
Pat O'Brien is an elder tv reporter who dishes on the celebrities in rehab - and now he's joining them.
Pat O'Brien - © Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos
People magazine reports that O'Brien, host of the syndicated news magazine "The Insider" has entered an undisclosed rehabilitation facility.
"O'Brien and his doctors felt this is the best course for maintaining his sobriety," the show said in a statement.
A show spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the prepared statement.
Viewers last saw O'Brien on Wednesday's "The Insider."
O'Brien has had embarrassing exposed problems in the past.
In 2005, he entered an alcohol rehabilitation center just as a tsunami of bad publicity emerged surrounding the release of a series of very naughty tape recorded messages he allegedly made to a woman.
"Let's just [expletive] have sex and fun and drugs and go crazy," he said in one of the tapes.
O'Brien sought help from Dr. Phil McGraw.
"I started drinking in the late ‘60s. I kept drinking, and it really got to a DEFCON 3 level the past couple of years," he told McGraw in a special that aired on CBS.
"I fled because I was dying," he added. "Thank God on some level this happened, and I'm not dead."
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