Wonky Willie - more nuts than chocolate!
Usually Awards season marks a lull in celebrity shenanigans. Everyone is on their best behavior because no one wants to fuck up and forfeit their invitation to the prom. Getting jammed up prior to the Oscars and losing your Golden Ticket could mean instant demotion to the D List (Just like Chris Brown about this time last year. If you're you're gonna mess up at least wait until after the ceremonies, like Sandra Bullock ex Jesse James. Last year's Oscars are gonna be a tough act to follow!). So everyone tries to put their best foot forward at all times. That means sucking it in until the season passes so they can get back to their normal bad behavior. Usually that is, but this season seems to be a bit of an exception.Hornet's Nest
Maybe it was Tom Cruise's controversial announcement that the Oscars don't really matter that shook everyone loose but we're getting some alearming reports of celebrity outrage mania coming out of the thirty mile zone. Reports like those concerning Edward Furlong. You might remember him from Terminator 2. People predicted a great future for him but then he got mixed up in drugs of the crystal meth variety, Now that stuff not only messes up you face real bad but can make your career and life unmanageable. So Furlong had a sort of hiatus for awhile. in this case hiatus means he became as unemployable as Lindsay Lohan (a sure Oscar night absentee, even if she ain't in rehab or wearing a scram bracelet on the night).That hiatus recently ended when Furlong was cast in The Green Hornet. Hornet is an anticipated film so it's good work for a promising actor trying to get back on track. Unfortunately some old baggage came back to haunt him. Furlong has had a tempestuous relationship with his ex wife Rachel Kneeland. By tempestuous I mean that the police often have to mediate between the pair. mediation has lead to a restraining order. In fact the terms of the order require Furlong to stay at least 100 yards away from Kneeland at all times. To put that in perspective they could attend the same football game but only of they're seated in opposite end zones.
Furlong decided to do an end run around the restraining order recently, at least according to the ex. While he'd didn't go for a touch down, he did get within the 50 yard line. So that was a technical foul and lead to the troubled young actor getting carted off by the cops and then locked up on 75 000 bail! That's a lot of money for some one who's last major role was as robot Schwarzenegger's teen aged side kick, and who spend the time since then burning up his earnings through little glass pipes! It couldn't have happened at a worse time either - the arrest happened with in 24 hours of Furlong attending a special Green Hornet premier. The actual violation occurred about a month back so that makes the timing sound like a case of revenge being served cold, or at least chilled.Oh the humiliation!
If there's a bit of spite involved it shouldn't be too surprising. Furlong and Kneeland, who also goes under the name Rachel Bella, had a real bad bust up. During the divorce Kneeland claimed that Furlong had started to lose his grip on reality after his drug use escalated out of proportion. She claimed that he beat her up, threatened her life frequently, and also became psychotic and suicidal. Oh yeah and she had him committed to a psych ward at one point. Plus a lot of creepy phone message by Furlong for Kneeland have got released along the way. They concern Furlong's son Ethan by Kneeland and swear bloody reprisals against Kneeland's current boyfriends should they get anywhere near the lad. Bloody reprisals in this case mean an enraged and drugged up Furlong threatening to tear things out and open things up in the grievous bodily harm vein!Now Furlong's reps were claiming that he'd been clean and sober of 5 years. those kind of assurances no doubt helped his career back on track. Now it looks like the poor fellow's demons are making a reappearance, if not a full blown sequel. They've reappeared at the worst time too, just as his Green Hornet project was being hyped up. So it looks like he might be due for another long painful hiatus. At the very least he's blown his shot at an official Oscar invite. He should still be eligible for some unofficial Oscar night activities though. I'm sure for instance that he could get into Charlie Sheen's Oscar party!
Child star fuck ups are becoming an epidemic in America. Then again outrageous child behaviour is becoming epidemic. The USA seems to be a culture that has list control of it's youth, or at least that's what the Simpsons would have us believe, back in that episode where the Commonwealth of Australia wanted to boot Bart in the bum (They'd never have gotten away with razzing the Aussies like that if they weren't owned by the same fellow who has a controlling interest in Australia - FOX TV's Rubert Morlock!). If some of the more outrageous reportage is to be beleived America youth a running whild in the streets as behaviour modifying medications fail to curb their antisocial tendencies, or improve their grades.
So what could be the answer? Well boot camps seem to have had some positive results - if reality Tv is to be believed. If that can help the larger issue of youthful high spiritedness, maybe it could do something for the specific problem of child stars run amok! Considering how the system has failed Lindsay Lohan (not to mention Mischa Barton) it might certainly be worth a try. It could also lead to a whole new series of Celeb Rehab type spin offs in which belligerent child actors are sent off to TV boot camps to have their spirits broken. We can't be sure what such series might be like, but they would surely be watchable, and might even turn out something like this!
Perhaps the problem of out of control youth seems worse than it is. Nowadays we know everything, thanks to the Internet. So the minute some child star goes of the rails we get the gory details. Then we wax nostalgic for the good old days when Opie said the darnedest things but never got out of line. If you only knew half the shit Shirley Temple was into, it might put things in a whole new perspective! Then again you never hear about the child stars who keep their noses clean and stay on track - like this fellow:
American Gothic's Lucas Black - Sorcerer's Apprentice
Down in Trinity South Carolina Sheriff Buck ("That's Buck with a 'B'!") raises kids right, even if that takes a dose of black magic! The complete American Gothic series is available over @ Fancast.com!
