Charlie Sheen made news last week during the Canadian leg of his "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour by kicking off an impromptu fundraiser for a local bipolar disorder group. He promised to match donations dollar for dollar.
Now, though the dust is still settling, the nonprofit group's leadership can't reach Sheen or his reps and said they haven't received thousands of dollars raised in their name. And Sheen has yet to match any contributions.
The Organization for Bipolar Affective Disorders had received about $1,750 from Sheen's efforts on Friday. Those are all online donations, said the group's executive director, Kaj Korvela, and the total is in flux because more pledges continue to come in.
Sheen staged a charity walk from his hotel, the Ritz Carlton in Toronto, to Massey Hall, where he performed the second show of a two-night stint. Local media, including the Toronto Star and CTV, estimated that hundreds of fans took part in the walk, for which Sheen asked for cash donations for OBAD of at least $1.
Sheen, by the way, continued to deny that he suffers from the disease he was highlighting, wearing a knit cap that said, "I'm not bipolar" for the event. His self-diagnosis: bi-winning.
During his show that night, he auctioned off several pieces of memorabilia -- a signed Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, his catchphrase T-shirts -- that brought in thousands of dollars, according to local media reports.
Korvela said his group hasn't seen any of that money, and there's no exact accounting, as far as he knows, on how much was collected. He's tried repeatedly to reach Sheen's reps by phone and email and has had no response.
"It seems that his group doesn't want to talk to us directly," Korvela said.
Sheen's spokesman, Larry Solters, told Show Tracker on Wednesday that he'd received no calls or emails from Korvela and had been trying to reach the group "for days." (Show Tracker reached the organization easily through numbers and email addresses on its public website.)
