By now you’ve probably heard about Heather Locklear’s arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence. I remember Heather from her TJ Hooker days. If the words “TJ Hooker” don’t ring any bells, worry not. You had to have been a teenager in the 80’s to get that piece of trivia right. How about Melrose Place? Still drawing a blank? I feel you. Let me put it this way: Heather Locklear was Paris Hilton with talent–minus the airyness, trust fund, and sex tapes. Now in her late forties, tinseltown has kicked her to the curb, as it does all female actors over forty. Male actors seemingly live on forever, long after their grills are smashed.

Locklear’s arrest wasn’t big news in a town where stars are known for risque behavior. Who cares, right? Usually I don’t, but this arrest was different. Not only was Heather sporting the usual bleary-eyed mugshot many gawker sites trade in, but beautiful, perfectly shot photos of her arrest made it onto the Internet the same day. Something smelled about this one.

A few days later my suspicions were confirmed when I read here that Jill Ishkanian, a former staffer for Us Weekly, actually dropped a dime on Locklear after seeing her get into her car drunk. But here’s where the story gets interesting. According to TMZ.com, Ishkanian followed Locklear, called the cops, then called a paparazzi agency to shoot the pictures of Locklear getting arrested. Those photos were sold to TMZ.com for a reported $27,000.

Is it me, or is there something seriously wrong with our world. What kind of person calls the cops on a drunk driver–albeit a famous one–then uses that person’s misfortune to make a small fortune? Now, no one has said that Ishkanian made any money on the deal, but she had to. I don’t want to think that she did something this dark just to entertain herself. That would be downright sick!

Publicity-obsessed stars are the last people most of us would defend, but in this case, I’m with Heather. She needed to be arrested for wielding her big, beautiful bimmer around town while woozy on crunk juice. But she didn’t deserve what Jill Ishkanian subjected her to.

When crazy stuff like this happens, I try to see if the Bible has anything to say about it, some principle that might help me make sense of the madness. Wouldn’t you know it, it does, an there are several. The principle that comes to mind is this one: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). It’s the Golden Rule given to us by Jesus!

Who wants to be gawked at on their worst day–not Jill Ishkanian, not me, and not you. We can’t correct what happened to Heather Locklear on September 27th, but we can treat people with the care and respect we want, and we can start today.