I pretty much only know Alex O’Loughlin from the film The Backup Plan, where he played the love interest of preggo Jennifer Lopez. By the way, even though that’s not even close to being a good film, I came out of it liking Alex a great deal. He has an enormous amount of on-screen charm, and the man is totally gorgeous. Anyway, he’s currently on Hawaii Five-0, which is probably pretty stunt-heavy work. Alex had a shoulder injury recently, and as such, he began taking prescription medication, likely some heavy-duty painkillers. And much like Gerard Butler’s official excuse, Alex’s representation is now announcing that Alex is seeking treatment for issues involving his abuse of prescription pain medication.

Alex O’Loughlin, who plays Steve McGarrett on CBS’s reboot of Hawaii Five-0, is expected to miss filming for at least one episode while he undergoes treatment.

The Australian-born actor, 35, is to “receive supervised treatment for prescription pain medication due to a recent shoulder injury,” his rep says.

The popular police show has already shot 19 episodes for the season with production said to be ahead of schedule.

“We respect and support Alex’s decision,” CBS TV Studios says in a statement.

“Everyone at CBS Television Studios and Hawaii Five-0 wishes him well and we look forward to his return.”

[From People]

Now, Alex is no Gerard Butler. For one thing, he’s not as famous as Gerard, which may be why we’ve never heard a whiff of scandal about Alex. Or it could be that this story should be accepted as face value, that Alex never had a problem with anything until a few months ago, when he got hooked on Vicodin or whatever. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, just because there doesn’t seem to be any other scandal around him, and because he seems to be taking his treatment seriously, and he’s coming clean with the world. Good luck to Alex, and I hope he gets clean and stays clean.

Photos courtesy of WENN.