With the report that former kid actor Macaulay Culkin got busted for drugs Friday, the New York Daily News does an all-star police blotter of other kid actors who've run afoul of the law. BUT they fail to include a piece of gossip that we've heard through the adultfyi.com grapevine- that former child star and adult industry munchkin/mascot Scotty Schwartz has ended his marriage.
And for reasons that made Confidential magazine the sleaze publication of choice back in the 1950's. Scotty, who for a time, was a talent manager in the adult industry [remember Anastasia Blue?] apparently found his wife in the arms of another man. Scotty got married several years ago to a pretty good looking babe, and I would run into them on frequent occasion in eateries along Ventura Blvd. But I always got the impression that something didn't add up. Now it does.
The babe was in it or the bucks. Yeah, I know. I reacted the same way. As I get the story, Scotty was doing the big sell and convincing her that Toy 2 was in the works and there was going to be a huge pay day. Evidently she got tired of waiting for the huge pay day and began taking "meetings" with a lover as Scotty soon discovered. She worked at an automobile dealership, and Scotty, believing she was in one of those meetigs, attempted to reach her only to be told it was her day off. With his suspicions aroused, he began searching a paper trail which indicated that there were a lot of meetings. I'm told that Scotty's lawyer pretty much nailed her blond ass to the wall. Prediction: she becomes a porn actress.
New York Daily News writes today: Macaulay Culkin is in bad company.
With his drug bust Friday, the "Home Alone" actor joins the pantheon of former child stars who've ended up in jail, in rehab or dead at an early age.
In recent months, a spate of grownup kid celebrities have been in the headlines for getting on the wrong side of the law.
The troubled "Terminator 2" actor, Edward Furlong, 27, was nabbed for drunkenly trying to free lobsters from a restaurant tank.
"Growing Pains" cutie Tracey Gold, 35, who famously overcame anorexia, was arrested for drunken driving after a crash that injured her family members last week.
In June, one-time "Family Ties" tyke Brian Bonsall and Zachery Ty Bryan of "Home Improvement," both 22, were arrested for DWI.
Other one-time idols have plunged from the heights of fame to the depths of drug abuse, feuded with their families and squandered their fortunes and careers.
"Any kid can screw up," 1980s film star Corey Feldman explained not long ago. "But if you have money and fame and no privacy, you can really, really screw up."
The cast of the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" is one of the most cautionary tales.
The cherubic Gary Coleman, now 36, went from being the most famous kid in America to a bankrupt has-been making $7 an hour as a security guard.
His rap sheet includes a brawl with an autograph-seeker, a bankruptcy filing - not to mention that ridiculous campaign for governor of California. Still, his cast mates faced even more trying times.
Todd Bridges, 39, who played Coleman's brother Willis, had many run-ins with the law - including an arrest in the shooting of a crack dealer - and an expensive coke habit.
He managed to clean up his act and jump-start his showbiz career again, but pal Dana Plato wasn't so lucky.
After busts for robbing a video store and forging a Valium prescription, the 34-year-old killed herself with a drug overdose in 1999. The day before her death, she told shock jock Howard Stern: "My life is so good now. I've never been happier."
In most of the sad stories involving child actors, drugs play a big role.
Anissa Jones, who played Buffy on the 1960s show "Family Affair," overdosed on Quaaludes at age 18. Tatum O'Neal, 40, of "Paper Moon" fame, battled the twin demons of cocaine and heroin, and at one point lost custody of her kids with John McEnroe.
Teen actress Mackenzie Phillips, now 44, was kicked off the show "One Day at a Time" because of her drug addiction and was busted for cocaine possession, and "E.T." cutie Drew Barrymore was in rehab at age 13.
The teen idol team known collectively as "The Coreys" - Feldman and his "Lost Boys" co-star Corey Haim - got hooked on heroin and became punch lines. Haim, 32, recently tried to sell his molar on eBay while Feldman, 33, is bashing ex-pal Michael Jackson in rock songs.
