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Cameron Douglas

 

 

 

 

 

Kirk Douglas, left, son Michael Douglas, center, and grandson Cameron, right, starred in the 2003 film "Running in the Family."

Cameron Douglas, (31) son of Michael Douglas and grandson of Kirk Douglas, has appeared in court in New york on drug charges.

"I must admit that my immediate reaction when I learned of my son's crime was one of guilt," his mother Diandra wrote in one of several letters from supporters asking a federal judge for leniency at a sentencing, scheduled for Wednesday 14th April 2010. Douglas' mother — 12 years younger than his father and the daughter of a diplomat — had the couple's only child at 22. At the time, she possessed "a striking immaturity about her," wrote family friend Patricia Sullivan-Webb. Said actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, married to Michael Douglas: "My stepson is a caring, considerate, worthy human being, but nevertheless the disease that he has for years tried to combat did take over again."

Several letters say Cameron Douglas was left in the care of nannies while his father put his acting career first. His mother became so fanatical about wildlife preservation, she tried keeping an ocelot in the family's New York apartment until it bit Cameron and was sent back to the preserve, Sullivan-Webb said.
Douglas grew up "in the shadow of mythic forebears, and the embarrassment and scrutiny of the paparazzi," wrote Nancy Hersch Ingram, Diandra's godmother. "He was a very sweet and shy boy. ... That he somehow needed to be 'somebody' was evident, but who should he be?"

By 13, Douglas had been shipped off to boarding school and began smoking marijuana. As his parents' marriage fell apart, he turned to cocaine. A series of rehabs and relapses followed. He later dropped out of school and went to New York where, despite his habit, he found some success as a DJ in clubs. A friend who hired him, Jen Gatien, wrote that he was "an absolute hit" behind the turntables.

He also landed some film roles, including one in 2003's "It Runs in the Family," starring his father and grandfather. (His "unforced portrayal is less the caricature of a jerk than something that feels like a channeling of his own genuine, though flawed humanity," The Washington Post wrote in a review.)

For three years, DEA officials say, Douglas supplied over five pounds of meth to New York dealers — a large amount for a city where the drug has mostly a niche market in the gay community and on the club scene. The city has averaged about 14 pounds in seizures since 2005. Federal agents, alarmed by an influx of Mexican-produced meth being smuggled into California, were investigating suppliers there when DEA cooperators helped put Douglas on the radar. A criminal complaint filed last year said that in one deal in 2006, an unnamed cooperator shipped cash under a fake name to Douglas at a California hotel. A few days later, it said, Douglas delivered a pound of methamphetamine to the cooperator at a Manhattan hotel.

Douglas' lawyers say he came to New York last summer hoping to "clean up." He moved into the luxury Hotel Gansevoort in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. His drug addict girlfriend Kelly Sott moved with him — a recipe for more trouble. "Her emphatic commitment to Cameron led Kelly to adopt the same drug habit that he had acquired — in her mind their joint drug addiction made tighter their emotional bond," according to court papers filed on her behalf. Last month, Sott was sentenced to time served after telling a judge she'd kicked drugs while behind bars.

Agents arrested Douglas on July 28 at the Gansevoort. He was given house arrest at his mother's Manhattan apartment, but was thrown in jail after Sott tried to smuggle him heroin inside an electric toothbrush — an offense that led to her own guilty plea on drug charges.

He was subsequently sentenced to 5 years in prison.