Lionel Richie on rehab centres...

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Lionel Richie has branded celebrities who casually enter rehab "cliche".

The Dancing on the Ceiling singer - whose own adopted daughter Nicole entered a California rehab facility for heroin addiction in 2003 after being charged with possession of the drug - believes too many stars check into facilities for trivial reasons.

Lionel said: "I think it's a cliche to say, 'I'm going into rehab. I bumped my foot today - rehab, I hit my head on something - rehab. "

The 57-year-old maintains his own daughter needed to go to rehab and some showbiz pundits believe his comments were aimed at stars who visited rehab after making bigoted comments. One publicist said: "It seems to me that he's referring to Mel Gibson or Isaiah Washington. If that's the case, that's really unfortunate."

Nicole is currently awaiting a court hearing after being charged with Driving Under the Influence. The 25-year-old has pleaded not guilty despite confessing to the officers who stopped her while driving in the wrong direction on a California highway that she had smoked marijuana.