Remember Butch Patrick? He was the adorably creepy wolf-boy Eddy Munster on the Munsters TV series (that was the Adams Family rip off, though in a more enjoyable series). Growing up the product of a mixed TV marriage couldn't have been easy (mother was some kind of ghoul and father was a whatever/Frankenstein creature). Add to that the pressures of being a were-child actor and young Butch was on the road to trouble.Trouble, for Butch, took the usual form: alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Butch has struggled with those chemical demons for years. Years have added up to about 4 decades and counting. Recently years of trouble came to a head. Butch was seeing a young woman, Donna McCall, that he'd met at a fan convention (you know a celebrity is in a serious career slump when they start seeing their stalker - unless they're Orlando Bloom. Now I'm no referring to the clingy and heavily pregnant Miranda Kerr, though some have pointed out that she does have a creepy stalkerish quality when it comes to Orlando. What I'm referring to is an incident that occurred some years back, Orlando was being stalked by a desperate young woman. She had cornered him in his hotel room. At first Orlando was afraid to leave the room as he watched her watching him through the hotel room window. Then he thought to himself "She's lonely out there, and I'm lonely in here. We have so much in common!" With that he invited her in and they spent the evening having a heart to heart chat. I guess after that Miranda seemed like an improvement. So it just goes to show that dreams can come true, sort of. Just don't take a stun gun and duct tape along when you go after your favourite celebrity; cause they're skittish and the Dexter kit might put them off!). They began seeing each other and there was even some talk of marriage.
Well these Comic-con relationships seldom work out. Butch and his girlfriend had a falling out, and that lead to a bust up, which eventually lead to poor Butch checking himself into rehab. I guess getting dumped by your stalker is a bit of a come down even when your already on the bottom. Butch's representatives, and he still has them (getting repped is like baptism in show business - you can't lose it no matter how far you stray from the path) have tried to put a good spin on it. 'get a grip on his addiction and educate himself. We have thought he could possibly be a product of the child star problem ... and are thankful he will take control of his fate.' an unnamed spokesperson said. Rehab, education, trying to become a productive member of society; it sounds pretty bad (as bad as your average parole board review!). Maybe worse than Lindsay Lohan. It's even worse than it sounds - Butch's rehab isn't one of those 5 star jobs. The poor fellow is getting dried out in New Jersey! Hopefully this little cautionary tale will serve as food for thought to some of you fame seeking potential celebrities in waiting out there. Entertainment can get ugly when it goes wrong; and it almost never goes right.
I'd say that these child star fuck up stories are becoming more common except that there so common that they've become a sad cliche (ever since the late Dana Plato of Different Strokes held up that video store anyway). Now they're occurring with disturbing regularity. Disney actresses Lindsay Lohan and Demi Lovato are currently simultaneously in rehab. Then again Disney was always the tool of evil. The thing is that gossip never stops. Fortunately (or not) for you, Wondertrash never sleeps!
