Charlie Sheen officially fired from Two and a Half Men

LAWYER says studio's claims of "moral turpitude" not enough as the Two and a Half Men star celebrates his firing as "good news".

Charlie Sheen

CHARLIE Sheen has been officially fired from the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men, studio Warner Bros has confirmed.

"After careful consideration, Warner Bros. Television has terminated Charlie Sheen's services on Two and a Half Men, effective immediately," the studio said in a statement.

The news comes after Warner Bros last week cancelled the remaining episodes of this season of the hit TV show, citing Sheen's public behaviour and negative comments about executive producer Chuck Lorre.

In a letter from Warner Bros to Sheen's lawyer, obtained by entertainment website TMZ, the studio said it was terminating Sheen's contract because he had committed "a felony offense involving moral turpitude."

"There is ample evidence supporting Warner Bros reasonable good faith opinion that Mr Sheen has committed felony offences involving moral turpitude (including but not limited to furnishing of cocaine to others as part of the self-destructive lifestyle he has described publicly) that have 'interfere[d] with his ability to fully and completely render all material services required' under the agreement," the letter read in part.

Sheen's attorney, Marty Singer, told TMZ that Sheen will sue Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre and Warner Bros. Singer said he doesn't believe the studio's claims of moral turpitude because the studio renegotiated Sheen's contract while Sheen was planning to plead guilty to a 2009 domestic violence incident.

Singer alleges that Sheen was fired from Two and a Half Men for insulting Lorre.

A Warner Bros source told TMZ that no decision had been made about whether Two and a Half Men would return to the air.

"This is very good news," Sheen said in a statement about the firing. "They continue to be in breach, like so many whales. It is a big day of gladness at the Sober Valley Lodge because now I can take all of the bazillions, never have to look at whatshisc*ck again and I never have to put on those silly shirts for as long as this warlock exists in the terrestrial dimension."

As the star of Two and a Half Men, Sheen was the highest-paid actor on television, reportedly earning $1.2 million per episode.

Meanwhile, Sheen has scored his first Twitter sponsor with the online internship site Internships.com, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The actor's endorsed message appeared on his Twitter site today.

"I'm looking to hire a #Winning INTERN with #TigerBlood," Sheen's tweet read.

Sheen signed up for the microblogging service on March 1 and established a Guinness World Record for amassing one million followers just 25 hours and 17 minutes after joining. He has now garnered more than two million followers with help from Los Angeles-based startup Ad.ly.

"We are harnessing the power of Hollywood to help ignite our platform," Robin Richards, chief executive of Internships.com told The Wall Street Journal.

The company declined to reveal how much Internships.com paid for the tweet, but said it was the highest in Ad.ly's history.

Two and a Half Men was put on production hiatus in January when Sheen decided to undergo drug rehab at his Los Angeles home. He entered treatment after being hospitalised on January 27 for severe abdominal pain following 36 hours of drinking, partying with porn actresses and receiving what a witness said was "a briefcase full of cocaine" at his home.

While undergoing rehab, Sheen, 45, entered into a public feud with Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre. He called Lorre a "clown" and a "charlatan," and said he was solely responsible for turning the "tin can" of Two and a Half Men into "pure gold."

"I gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows ... I fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can't handle my power and can't handle the truth," Sheen wrote of Lorre in February. "I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon. Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words - imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists."

Sheen began making more bizarre statements as an exclusive one-hour interview with US ABC's 20/20 turned into a mini-media blitz, with the actor also giving interviews to NBC's Today, CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight and a TMZ webcast.

He referred to himself as a "warlock," called his 36-hour bender "epic behavior," claimed to have cured his drug addictions with the power of his mind, and told 20/20 interviewer Andrea Canning, "I am on a drug; it's called Charlie Sheen."

Following these interviews, Sheen's longtime publicist Stan Rosenfield resigned, writing, "At this time, I'm unable to work effectively as his publicist and have respectfully resigned."

Sheen's twin sons were removed from his custody on March 1 after his estranged wife Brooke Mueller was granted a temporary restraining order against him by the Los Angeles Superior Court.

In court documents, Mueller claimed that Sheen took the boys, who will turn two this month, from her home on February 26 without her permission and would not allow her to see them.

Her lawyer provided paperwork alleging several "specific, descriptive threats" made by Sheen, and he was ordered to stay at least 100 yards (91 meters) away from Mueller. One specific threat outlined in the complaint was that Sheen allegedly told Mueller, "I will cut your head off, put it in a box and send it to your mom."

Sheen launched the live web series Sheen's Korner on Saturday with a rambling monologue in which he discussed winning, showed several photos of cats and dogs fighting, said he was going to take a phone call from the president, declared he had the "boogers of a seven-year-old" and referred to either himself or the show as a "movement."

In the second installment of Sheen's Korner, broadcast Sunday night, Sheen appeared to threaten to slit the throats of children as part of a rant.

"I'm gonna write my sermons, I'm gonna deliver them like truth torpedoes, and people are gonna f***ing take it or leave it," he said. "We know they're gonna take it cause they can't process it, so they must condemn it, and if they can't condemn it, they'll like f***ing turn me into a god and worship it, and realise I'm behind them, cutting their throats, and their children's."

The audio of the broadcast cuts out after the word "children's."

Mueller alleged in December 2009 that Sheen had held her down on a bed, held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. She plans to enter Sheen's Sunday Korner rant and other parts of his webcasts as evidence in a custody hearing scheduled for Tuesday, Radar Online reported.

"Brooke is instructing her lawyers to present the webcasts into evidence, hoping to guarantee that Charlie not be given unsupervised visitation at this time," a source told Radar. "She thinks Charlie is spiraling out of control, and Brooke doesn't want the boys to see Charlie unsupervised at this point."

Yesterday, Sheen tweeted that Sheen's Korner had garnered 100 million viewers in its two nights online.

Meanwhile, TMZ reports medical marijuana dispensaries in California are selling pot labeled "Charlie Sheen" in honour of the troubled star.

According to the website, the "Charlie Sheen" cannabis has been flying off the shelves.

The new marijuana brand was launched after one of Sheen's bizarre interviews on US television last week when he defended his increasingly erratic behaviour by saying, "I am on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen."

Medical marijuana was legalised in California in 1996 in a move that led to the opening of marijuana dispensaries around the state.

Last week New York Post readers declared Sheen nuttier than Libyan leader Moamar Ghadafi. Sheen garnered 53 per cent among the 7841 people who voted in the newspaper's poll, while Ghadafi got 47 per cent.