Beacher sues over weight program

What comedian Jeff Beacher did Friday wasn't done for laughs.

The creator of Beacher's Madhouse, a zany show that included midgets and goats during its four-year run at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, sued Las Vegas weight loss doctor Ivan Goldsmith on allegations Goldsmith negligently prescribed him medications that caused him physical and psychological distress.

According to the complaint, prepared by attorney Richard Schonfeld, Goldsmith prescribed seven different drugs to Beacher when he began his 10-month weight loss program in March 2007. Those included an "illegal" prescription for human growth hormone, or HGH, and testosterone above acceptable levels, the complaint says.

The drugs, the document states, caused Beacher, 35, to suffer anxiety, depression, panic attacks, inability to focus and difficulty sleeping. The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages and claims Beacher lost work because of the effects of the drugs.

Goldsmith, whose weight loss program has been used by more than 5,000 Nevadans, hasn't been cowed by Beacher's suit, which is actually a counterclaim to a lawsuit Goldsmith initially filed in June.

The 49-year-old physician claimed Beacher tried to extort money from him.

"He wanted me to pay him $10,000 a month to be the face of the program," Goldsmith said. "When I refused, he said he was going to get me. He lost his gig at the Hard Rock and wanted to get money from me."

The doctor said his drug regimen for Beacher was medically sound.

Beacher said Friday that he had hoped to go "from a slob to a heartthrob" on the program. Goldsmith said his one-time client did lose about 50 pounds.

Goldsmith's defamation claim against Beacher said the comedian went on FOX's "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet" and made "false statements" about "how he was nearly killed by a dangerous weight loss program prescribed by a Las Vegas doctor."

But Beacher said Goldsmith's claims are without foundation.

"I didn't make any false statements," he said.

"I cried for at least three months," he said. "I really couldn't function because of what all those drugs did to me."

He said he left the Hard Rock in 2007 because of the effects of the therapy.

To get help for his condition, Beacher said he reached out to Brad Keating, then a staffer for Gov. Jim Gibbons.

"I had known him for about a year," Keating said. "We put him in touch with some doctors who were testifying in Washington on what HGH and testosterone can do to athletes."

Both Dr. Thomas Perls, of the Boston University School of Medicine, and Dr. Todd Schlifstein, of the New York University School of Medicine, national experts who testified on Capitol Hill about the danger of hormones and steroids, have entered expert medical opinions in Beacher's case.

Each said the treatment afforded Beacher by Goldsmith was substandard.

Perls' written statement said that from records he had seen, Goldsmith illegally prescribed HGH. But Goldsmith said his tests showed that the comedian suffered from adult HGH deficiency, making it legal for him to prescribe the drug.

Schlifstein, who noted that Beacher went into a detox program for six weeks, said Goldsmith gave Beacher testosterone at "supertherapeutic levels" that were not warranted. He said it was an "amphetamine stimulant which suppresses appetite but also increases anxiety, palpitations, and feelings of panic."

Schlifstein, who saw Beacher in person and also consulted with him for six weeks by phone, found that Goldsmith's treatment "fell below the reasonable standard of care."

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.