Reena Hammer, Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ girlfriend, did the actor a big favor in May when she threatened to dump him if he didn’t seek treatment for his addiction to alcohol.

Hammer issued her ultimatum after the actor became belligerent when United Airlines staff refused to allow him to board a plane flying from New York to Los Angeles because he was drunk. He had been seen chugging vodkas at 7 in the morning in the airline’s VIP lounge. He’s been banned from flying on United Airlines due to belligerent and disruptive behavior.

Let’s hope Hammer’s threat will do the actor, who’s already been in rehab three times, some good. Government threats have been far too hollow, with Irish authorities arresting Rhys Meyers in 2007 for breach of the peace and then the dropping the charges. In 2009, police at Charles De Gaulle airport detained him for assaulting an employees at a bar while drunk.

Such behavior is consistent with Rhys Meyers’ early years. At 16, he was expelled from school for truancy and spent his days at pool halls in his home town of Cork.

While hanging around at the Victoria Sporting Club, some casting agents spotted him and invited him to audition for a role in the movie “War of the Buttons.” He didn’t get the part but continued to pursue a career in acting. Perhaps fittingly, at the age of 17, Rhys Meyers won his first film role in “A Man of No Importance,” playing a small part described only as “first young man.”