Over 20 years ago Melanie Griffith checked into rehab for the first time after getting too into the Working Girl lifestyle. You know, the typical 1980s office antics: mimosas for breakfast, three-martini lunches, and a hearty steak dinner with the other execs washed down with 10 Maker’s Mark Manhattans, 20 lines of coke, and 3 glasses of red wine for health. It’s a trap anyone would get in, especially if you’re nursing a broken heart. At the time Melanie, then 31, had just endured a divorce from Stephen Bauer the year before and was left all alone with nothing but the movie role that would rocket her from fledgling starlet to superstar. Melanie said of that time in her life:

“What I did was drink myself to sleep at night,” she said. “If I wasn’t with someone, I was an unhappy girl.”

So, in 1988 Melanie Griffith entered rehab, and then fled into the arms of her ex husband Don Johnson. They got remarried and created a baby together, but the love didn’t hold because, ironically, Don started boozin’ it up too much. Never one to be alone for long, Melanie went straight from her divorce in 1996 to Don to a marriage with Antonio Banderas that same year.

Since 1988 Melanie’s shadow hasn’t darkened the door of any rehab or detox center until now. She’s checked into Lindsay Lohan’s former stomping grounds Cirque Lodge for what her representative says is nothing more than a kind of checkup scheduled years ago. She must have been on the “take two Valium and call me in 20-years to make sure you’re sober” plan.

Here’s what Griffith’s rep Robin Baum had to say:

“She is there to reinforce her commitment to stay healthy. This is part of a routine plan that was designed between her and her doctors years ago.”

This is a little too weird. This isn’t like your annual eye or gyno exam. There’s no reason to go to rehab unless your drinking your dinner and/or powdering your nose at inappropriate intervals.  Of course some “sources” told Star Magazine that very thing: claiming that Melanie’s full stop jumped off the wagon, and it’s straining her marriage. One of the sources said that that Antonio is just saving her life again, as he’s done numerous times before:

“Melanie’s struggling right now, but Antonio has been checking in on her as much as he is allowed, making sure she gets back on her feet. Without Antonio in her life, I honestly believe Melanie would be dead.”

Come on Melanie, it’s okay to fess up to still being a booze hound on occasion. Everyone needs a little help now and again.

~ Carrie Glass

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