Was Lamar Odom High While Filming Keeping Up With the Kardashians?
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When footage of Lamar Odom looking thinner and acting a little strange was first shown on Keeping Up With the Kardashians a couple months ago, nobody thought much of it — but given recent revelations of his alleged crack habit, maybe the signs were there.
Honestly, when these scenes first aired, I thought Lamar was probably just stoned; he’d been suspended from the Clippers in 2001 for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy twice in eight months after admitting that he’d smoked marijuana, so it’s not impossible. Typically Lamar has been a pretty stable on-camera presence, but here he seems out of it — slurring over Khloe’s affections and making fart noises for no apparent reason. Yes, this could be piss-poor editing. But the behavior isn’t like anything we’d normally see from him.
With hindsight being 20/20 and all, Odom’s reported addiction to crack suddenly puts the last few years into a completely different perspective. Like how he’s been traded so frequently with little explanation. Or how for this entire season of the show—for which he was included on the $40 million deal the family made with E!—Odom has mostly been absent, and when he does show up on camera, he’s noticeably not mic’ed. Or how Khloe & Lamar was “put on hold”—with a rep stressing that it was on indefinite hiatus but not cancelled—in 2012 despite its first two seasons being ratings successes. Or why Kardashian has recently changed her tune from desperately wanting a baby and trying to work out her fertility issues to taking on an “it’ll happen when it happens” stance. Or why her sister Kim was able to smell Lamar’s cavities and urged him to see a dentist. Or why Odom was the only person absent from the promo shots for the show’s new season, having to be Photoshopped in later.
Drug addiction is serious business. But given the Kardashians’ ability to milk anything into a narrative for their brand, don’t be surprised if they start airing more “telltale” footage in the months to come.