Cocaine, always the hobgoblin of those with way too much money and not enough sense, is in the news this week, as Mackenzie Phillips pleads guilty to drug charges, Mindy McCready is released from jail for violating a probation she’s on for illegal prescription painkillers, and the couple who filmed Amy Winehouse doing crack cocaine (okay, so, maybe this star doesn’t have so much money) pled guilty on their own drug charges.

Mackenzie Phillips is up first, the infamous actress who, back in 1984, was forced to leave the soap opera, “One Day at a Time,” over her drug problems. Well, she was arrested in August after flying into LA International Airport, and apparently carrying a very large quantity of drugs with her. Phillips pled guilty to the ensuing charges, and she’s now about to enter yet another drug rehabilitation program, as a part of her sentencing. Phillips, of course, is the daughter of Mamas & Papas lead John Phillips, and was recently acting in the Disney Channel’s series “So Weird,” as a rock star mom. Well, how appropriate.

Mindy McCready, of course, was just let out of jail, where she was for 30 days for violating probation. She’s on probation from a 2004 drug charge. Apparently the singer’s been serving a suspended 3-year sentence since 2004, for getting prescription painkillers illegally. She was apparently falsifying her community service records, which was the probation violation that got her into jail. She was released early from her 60-day sentence because of good behavior, and having done janitorial work in jail. Well, Mindy… I guess that’s a step up. Lay off the vicodin, please.

Finally, the couple that filmed Amy Winehouse apparently smoking crack cocaine and sold their video to The Sun, a British tabloid, Johnny Blagrove and Cara Burton, plead guilty this week, and they’ll be sentenced later this month. There wasn’t enough evidence for police to pursue a case against Winehouse, but the couple who supplied her with the drugs were, obviously, fair game. Apparently they’ve been supplying lots of celebrities with drugs, including cocaine and X (more usual celebrity fare, no?), not just Winehouse. Then again, considering that Winehouse’s most popular song is called “Rehab,” it seems like this couple really didn’t have to try so hard to show her as a bit of a druggie.

“They tried to make me go to rehab but I said ‘No, no, no…’”

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