Charlie Sheen stays on "Two and a Half Men"

  After all that...the declarations that "it's over"..."no more!"..."I'm done"...

  After all that, Charlie Sheen is returning to "Two and a Half Men."

  This statement was released last night, in advance of CBS's upfront on Wednesday. 

 
“To put a fitting end on the two and one-half
months of whirlwind speculation, I’m looking
forward to returning to my CBS home on Monday
nights. I want to thank Les Moonves for his
support.” 

  Les, of course, is the CBS boss who certainly wanted him to stay.

  Two months ago, for all intents and purposes, it really did look like "The End. Sheen was (still is) facing charges from the Christmas Colorado assault charges - spousal battery, which could still result in  jail, unless something else is happening behind the scenes - and was out of a brief rehab stay. He's clearly had monstrous personal problems, so the declaration that he was quitting - really quitting - seemed to have some basis in fact.

   Now, it all looks like it was over money.

  Surprise!

  Per trade reports this morning, Sheen wanted $2 million per episode to stay, surely a record for a sitcom lead actor, and CBS was unwilling to go north of $1 m. CBS has, considerably, and that's why we've got this nice statement above.

AP Photo