By Lynn Elber
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves described the future of crisis-ridden sitcom “Two and a Half Men” as uncertain while star Charlie Sheen spoke of a drug-free life with two “goddess” girlfriends at his home dubbed Sober Valley Lodge.
Moonves, interviewed at an investors’ conference Tuesday in San Francisco, said he hoped TV’s top-rated comedy would return to CBS, adding, “We’ll see.”
Sheen’s personal woes and public tirades against producers of “Two and a Half Men” reduced the show’s season, but Moonves said CBS isn’t suffering financially in the short term because paying for fewer episodes than planned of the expensive sitcom is “financially a gainer.”
“Going down the road … I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said, then took a poke at Sheen’s ongoing media tour. “He’s on the air quite a bit these days. I wish he would have worked this hard to promote himself for an Emmy.” Sheen has been nominated four times for lead actor in a comedy series for “Men,” but has never won.
Meanwhile, Sheen, 45, was a guest on Howard Stern’s radio show Tuesday, discussing his career as a Hollywood playboy, after a return to NBC’s “Today.” The actor kept up his aggressive public relations campaign against the network, producer Warner Bros. Television and critics of his style.
Asked on “Today” about reaction to previous comments in which he called himself “a total rock star from Mars,” among other startling descriptions, Sheen shrugged off the reaction.
“I am grandiose because I live a grandiose life. I’m tired of being ‘aw shucks.’ That’s not me. … What’s wrong with that?” he said.
Sheen had high praise for the two women living with him whom he calls “goddesses.”
“These women don’t judge me. … They don’t lead with opinion. They don’t lead with their own needs all the time,” he said.
Asked if the pair help care for his children, who include nearly 2-year-old twins with Brooke Mueller, Sheen replied, “Oh, yeah. If I can’t be there, they’re there, and it’s like everybody helps out. … There’s nothing broken here.”
Sheen asserted he isn’t using drugs, saying “drug tests don’t lie” and presenting recent test results with “the word ‘negative’ is, like, printed, like, 18 trillion times.”
“Don’t remember, don’t care,” he said when asked the last time he’d used drugs.
He has rejected attempts by his family, including father Martin Sheen (“The West Wing,” ”Apocalypse Now”) to intervene in his life and told them, “‘I appreciate your love and your, and your compassion, if that’s what you want to call it.’
“I’m not interested in people treating me like a 12-year-old,” Sheen said.
Sheen joined Twitter on Tuesday, a day after his publicist, Stan Rosenfield, resigned. Though there are several fake Twitter accounts, this one has been verified as authentic by Twitter. Sheen had more than 160,000 followers by Tuesday evening. His Twitter bio: Unemployed Winner.
The first message he posted was a photo of himself and porn star Bree Olson smiling and holding up a bottle of chocolate milk and a fruit drink. It was subtitled, “Winning! Choose your vice.”
Sheen has left open the possibility for reconciliation with most of those he has attacked in recent days. But when it comes to getting “Two and a Half Men” back on the air, he has made clear he wants it on his terms.
“I’m just going to keep pressing the truth. … And everybody’s going to win because they followed, guess whose plan?” he told “Today.” He did not address whether that plan includes series executive producer Chuck Lorre, whom Sheen has repeatedly slammed.
On Monday, Sheen told The Associated Press he wasn’t satisfied with Warner’s payment to the crew for four of the eight unfilmed episodes. He said he would lobby for the other four and compensation for co-stars Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones was “next” on his to-do list.
Also on Monday, Sheen told NBC he would return to the show. “I’m a man of my word, so I will finish the TV show. I’ll even do season 10, but it’s — at this point because of psychological distress, oh my God, it’s three mill an episode, take it or leave it.”
Following the comments, his attorneys said Sheen would finish the show at his current pay rate, which is $1.8 million an episode. The show had eight episodes left to film in the 2010-11 season when CBS and Warner Bros. shut down production last month following Sheen’s erratic behavior and comments. The attorneys said Sheen would be seeking a raise to $3 million an episode if he were to do a 10th season, which would begin in the fall and run through the spring of 2012.
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Entertainment Writers Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles and Jake Coyle in New York contributed to this report.
