By Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway

God Grant me the Serenity
to Accept the things I cannot change,
the Courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference

- The Serenity Prayer, Alcoholics Anonymous

Former Baywatch hunk and current Las Vegas resident David Hasselhoff had his visitation rights with his two teenage daughters suspended after a video surfaced showing Hasselhoff seeming sloppy and drunk. His oldest daughter was there, pleading with him on tape not to drink anymore.

It is a very sad video, one that goes beyond those hiddeous drunken still photos of stars like Nick Nolte, to show us what really goes on with a star who has a drinking problem. It is the very same thing that happens to "average" people who become lost to the disease of drinking to excess.

Hasselhoff, an admitted alcoholic who was prompted into rehab by a nasty divorce, claimed through lawyers that he fell off the wagon - temporarily - and that the video got him back on track.

Hasselhoff's ex- Catherine Bach said on Larry King last night that for 16 years she was an enabler and that alcoholism destroyed their marriage. "I love him," she said, "but I hate the disease."

There will be a hearing May 21 to see if the video was authentic, and who released it. Bach, accompanied by the same laywer who once represented Larry Berkhead, said that neither she or her daughter had anything to do with the release of the video.

She went on to point out that most families of alcoholics keep it quite and hidden, not broadcasted to the world.

The video, of Hasselhof seeming intoxicated, is so sad. His daughter's pleading for him to stop drinking is even sadder.

Catherine Bach has been criticised for taking her story to media, but I think when you are dealing with such raging alcoholism and illness, eventually the only way you can save your sanity is to go public and speak the truth.

Luckily, her daughters, 14 and 17, are a little older and seem to be all too familiar with their dad's drinking problem.

Hasselhoff had been in the Las Vegas production of the Producers. When the video tape was made in his Las Vegas home, his daughter was visiting.

It was indicated that she was probing him about his drinking on camera, while he was drunk, to be able to play his behavior back to him.

No one knows who released the tape to a tabloid TV show.

Our prayers go out the Hasselhoff and his family, and all families who must confront a painful addiction issue.