Jason LaVeris/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Charlie Sheen: condom king?
The actor made a surprise appearance Monday night in New York City at a promotional party for a new condom called HEX. Sheen, who disclosed his HIV-positive status earlier this year, was chosen to be the “face” of the new brand.
“What business does a man who has five children and HIV have hawking a contraceptive?” the New York Times quoted Charlie as saying, before adding he said he “wished he didn’t have one of those things.”
Steve Thomson, chief marketing officer of LELO [lee-loh], which makes the condom, tells the New York Times in an email that Sheen was “the perfect choice…a tragic reflection of the current situation in sexual health of today, but more importantly, a symbol of change with the strength and the courage to confront key issues head on.”
In a promotional video on LELO’s website that’s part advocacy, part rambling Violent Torpedo of Truth, Sheen reflects wistfully about some of the choices he made, and how his diagnosis has led others to seek protection — and treatment. “When I went public…People started coming out of the shadows, and walking through the fear,” Sheen says, “and that was powerful.”
“What may feel live five seconds of inconvenience,” Sheen warns of not wearing condoms, “can lead to a lifetime of potential grief and suffering.”
The actor explained, “people still wanna be like me…but there’s a little detail they want no part of — And they can avoid that, by using this.”
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