MTV Show May Have Put DJ AM Over the Edge

Now that MTV is running the DJ AM reality show Gone Too Far—in which the recovering addict helped other addicts get clean—the question is tough to avoid: Did the show bring him too close to his demons and contribute to his death? It "could certainly have been a relapse trigger for Mr. Goldstein," a drug rehab expert tells the New York Times. "It crosses all of our minds," adds the network's president of programming.

In an interview posted, and since removed, on MTV's website, DJ AM himself recalls picking up a crack pipe in one episode. “I realized my palms were sweaty and I was like, wait a minute, this is not smart for me to be holding this.” One friend thinks the answer is more nuanced, placing more blame on the plane crash Goldstein survived in 2008. He needed painkillers, which set him on a dark path, and suffered severe anxiety. “I think the plane crash killed him,” he said. “It just took a year for it to do it.” (More Adam Goldstein stories.)