CBS President Speaks Out About Charlie Sheen

(NewsCore) - SAN FRANCISCO -- After Charlie Sheen hit the airwaves to rail against the executives of his hit TV show, CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves stepped up to the microphone Tuesday to speak about the controversy surrounding the troubled actor.

The star of "Two and a Half Men" has been "on the air quite a bit these days," Moonves told reporters at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco.

"I wish he would have worked this hard to promote himself for an Emmy," he quipped about Sheen's spree of media interviews with everyone from TMZ to CNN.

As for the future of the TV show, "I don't know what's going to happen," Moonves said. "I hope it's back. We'll see."

Sheen launched a massive media campaign to defend his behavior after his recent wild, hard-partying antics made tabloid headlines. His loose-lipped strategy ultimately led his longtime publicist Stan Rosenfield to resign Monday.

The actor said he was at "war" with CBS because the network was "trying to destroy" his family, in an interview with NBC's "Today" show Monday.

"The war is that they're trying to destroy my family. I take great umbrage about that, and defeat is not an option. They picked a fight with a warlock," an erratic Sheen said during the interview. "They're trying to take all my money and leave me with no means to support my family. It's not rocket science."

In a follow-up interview Tuesday with the NBC morning show, Sheen showed-off his two live-in girlfriends, a self-described porn actress and a young bikini model, he called "the goddesses." He described how his two loves help him care for his twin sons by his third wife, real estate investor Brooke Mueller.

Monday night, the 45-year-old actor showed up for a live interview on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" where he described addicts and people in Alcoholics Anonymous as "losers" who wished they had his life.

Sheen's appearance on Morgan's talk show provided the highest ever ratings within the 25-54 demographic for the new host and helped him toward 1.35 million viewers in total. Online media was credited with drumming up the massive audience since the actor's interview was only announced 10 minutes before it aired, according to New York Times media writer Brian Stelter.

On the show, Sheen invited Moonves and other CBS execs to call in and have a discussion live on the air about the situation, an offer they declined to take advantage of.

Earlier on Monday, ABC and TMZ also aired interviews with Sheen, in which he discussed his recent headline-grabbing antics.

Sheen's show was canceled for the rest of the season last Thursday after he called director Chuck Lorre "a clown" and a "charlatan." Sheen referenced Lorre's Hebrew name, Chaim, in his rant, prompting a complaint from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that the show's star was anti-Semitic.

On Tuesday, Sheen, through his lawyer, asked the ADL for a public apology, noting that Levine referred to himself by the name Chaim on a vanity card back in February. On the same card, Levine describes "a lifetime of distancing himself from Judaism," according to Sheen's lawyer.

The actor also opened a Twitter account Tuesday, amassing over 36,000 followers despite not having sent a single tweet.

CBS bosses said the decision to suspend shooting on "Two and a Half Men" was due to "the totality of Charlie Sheen's statements, conduct and condition."

The hit comedy had been on hiatus while Sheen underwent a rehab program at his Los Angeles home. The treatment began after he was hospitalized Jan. 27, suffering from "severe abdominal pains" after a reported 36-hour cocaine bender in the company of several porn actresses.