Christopher Polk/Getty ImagesJust when we thought Charlie Sheen and his bizarre rants had gone away for the summer, His Highness has returned!
Sheen is making the media rounds ahead of Monday's premiere of his highly anticipated Comedy Central Roast, which as it happens will air on the same night Two and a Half Men 2.0 debuts with Ashton Kutcher in his place.
So is the troubled actor still "winning?" Let's ask the man himself.
First up, a mellower and slightly more humbled Sheen tampers the crazy talk in a taped interview with the Today Show's Matt Lauer set to air Friday.
During the sit-down, Lauer asked Sheen if he regretted last spring's manic public outbursts—including bashing his employers at CBS and Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre, prompting questions about rampant drug use and his eventual firing.
After months of touting his porn-star "goddess" girlfriends, spewing a slew of T-shirt friendly catchphrases and touring the country in a one-man show to horrible reviews, though sell-out crowds, the thesp confessed his tirades were something he just couldn't help.
"It was one of those things where the planets were aligned, perfectly or imperfectly. I said some stuff and then it caught such traction globally and instantly that I couldn't really put out the fire," said Sheen. "I had to keep fueling it."
In retrospect, the actor said slogans such as "tiger blood" and "Vatican Assassin Warlock" may have been just a teensy bit over the top.
"I don't know, the tiger blood," reflected Sheen, "it was so silly and people took it so seriously and I figured, all right, I'll continue to give the people what they want, you know?"
He also admitted that there are past moments he "would have amended a little bit."
When quizzed by Lauer whether he has had a drink or done drugs recently, Sheen insisted he was "absolutely" sober and "calmer" these days.
"I don't really keep track of the time," he noted. "It's been awhile, because I feel like, without getting into my feelings about AA and all that stuff, if you're walking around hanging on to your time, it's only a matter of time before it goes, you know?"
Perhaps having a new television show to look forward to is agreeing with him. Sheen recently signed a deal with TBS to develop, produce and star in a new sitcom called Anger Management tailored around his chaotic persona. He's also signed on to star alongside Jason Schwartzman in the indie flick A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charlie Swan III, to be directed by the latter's cousin, Roman Coppola.
Sheen acknowledged that some film and television executives may be hesitant to hire him given his past behavior, but insists he's "100 percent" trustworthy when it comes to fulfilling his professional obligations and plans to prove it by his "actions."
As for getting canned from Men, Sheen offered up one of of his trademark analogies.
"It was like being shot out of a cannon into another cannon and then being just shot out of that one," said the actor. "It was like from one moment to the next I didn't know what was going to happen...I don't believe in fear and defeat is not an option and I had to live by those mottos regardless of how I felt."
Sheen also added that he's patching things up with ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller and has been spending more time with his kids, which has straightened out his priorities and given him a new outlook on life.
"That's where the life is, you know, it's in those quiet moments," he mused. "It's not the giant TV deal or the big party or the award or whatever, it's the memory of your child's smile at the end of the day that sort of brings that one lonesome tear, you know that tear."
We bet dad Martin Sheen and brother Emilio Estevez are happy to hear that.
Sheen will also be a guest on Thursday's Tonight Show With Jay Leno and has an upcoming appearance booked for The Wendy Williams Show on Monday.