Corey Haim, excellent in the movie Lucas but best known for being one half of the brief pop-culture phenomenon "The Coreys," died late last night. Drugs are suspected if not by his agent then by everybody else. Haim joins a long list of people--River Pheonix, Dana Plato, Michael Jackson, etc.--who reached the heights of stardom early only to tragically hit rock bottom before late normally arrives.

It makes one wonder why so many parents push their children into the spotlight. The spotlight blinds too many to reality. It distorts developing egos into monstrous proportions. When the spotlight is gone, the grown-up children are left to wonder: where did the spotlight go? Corey Haim, who was only 38-years-old at his death, had been asking himself this question for the better part of his life. He had a great 1980s (The Lost Boys, Dream a Little Dream, License to Drive, Lucas). The 1990s (Fast Getaway II, Snowboard Academy) and 2000s (rehab) were not so kind.

Child stardom perverts the parent-child relationship. Parents curry for favor. They compete with agents and other show business types for the child's allegience. Apart from placing children into environments not ideal for children, like Hollywood parties and movie sets, it gives the youngster power over, and distrust of, his elders as the family's moneymaker. Child stardom seems the ideal formula for creating a tyrannical personality who wants to exert control over others as he can't control himself. After having so many people kneel at your feet as a kid, normal treatment might strike the former child star as rude. Do you know who I am? Or at least who I was? Living in the past is enough to make some cease living.

I once knew a gregarious fellow who had attained a degree of stardom as a child. He put himself at the center of every conversation. Enjoyable initially, ultimately annoying, he didn't surprise me when he broke the news that he was an actor as a child. He was a functioning alcoholic, drinking in the mornings, on weekdays, and at other inappropriate times. Alcohol clearly filled a void. People lavished too much attention upon him at an early age, and he spent the rest of his days craving the attention he had in his younger days. It was hard for me to separate the person from the persona because it was harder for him to separate the person from the persona.

You can count the number of well-adjusted child celebrities on a four-beaded abacus. Shirley Temple, perhaps the biggest of the child stars, became an ambassador and seems to have lived a good life. Emmanuel Lewis seems pretty normal. I have never read a report of a nude and bloodied Christopher Makepeace arrested for a PCP-fueled rampage in the mall. But beyond that, I'm drawing a blank.

Why would a parent want their child to live the life of Britney Spears? Dustin Diamond? Lindsey Lohan? Leif Garrett? The great high is followed by a lingering hangover. Aside from this, Hollywood seems a cesspool of sex, drugs, and narcissism. Would any parent choose to send their kid to a school mired in a major drug problem? Undoubtedly, parents delude themselves into believing their child will be different, won't succumb to the lures of money, ego, and drugs. But clearly, as Corey Haim's life and death demonstrates, that's easier said than done.

Maybe Scarlett Johansson would be another exception? She was a child performer of sorts and was quite young in 'The man who wasn't there'.

I agree though. If being a parent means helping to build character and virtue, then this is a terrible strategy.

Brilliant post. All points well-taken.

Sorry, I don't buy the premise. For all his problems Danny Bonaduce,(sp?)from the Partridge Family also said blaming showbusiness for their problems is a crock. That former child actors use it as an excuse.
Bonaduce said when he's gone to rehab he doesn't see it filled with former child actors he see's doctors and dentists.
The problem isn't being in the entertaiment industry it's the parents and how they raise their child in that atmosphere.

"when he's gone to rehab he doesn't see it filled with former child actors he see's doctors and dentists."

Maybe because there are fewer child actors than doctors and dentists?

I think that anybody thrown into a world of sex, drugs, alcohol and full of beautiful people with lots of time on their hands would be corrupted (read: have a lot of fun!).

Kids brought up in that environment and subject to those vices throughout their formative years will very likely be affected negatively with the impact going way beyond youth.

thanks Daniel.

Couldn't have expressed my own objections to child stardom better.

There are exceptions, as someone noted: Scarlett Johanson (tho. early stardom doesn't seem to have done much for her attitude in general), Dakota Fanning seems to be another.

The point is made though: these are exceptions.

PMA is Gary Coleman and he seems to have turned out alright.

Ilan Mitchell-Smith ('Wyatt' in Weird Science) is now a professor English/Medieval Studies. I'm not sure child stardom is always bad, but who does biographies on well-adjusted former child stars who have stopped acting? I think the percentage is probably higher than you suppose.

"The problem isn't being in the entertaiment industry it's the parents and how they raise their child in that atmosphere."

But doesn't the nature of the business itself, and the nature of children (reacting to the business in the way children naturally would), make it inevitable that most child stars will break free of their parents?

Doesn't so much of the way that child stars are treated by the people in the business who deal with them, and the way that child stars are treated by the general public, induce child stars to self-emancipate from parental control?

Even assuming a fairly diligent parent of a child star, isn't it very hard to stop children's minds from becoming warped when they enter that blast furnace of celebrity? (For my sloppy writing, I must and do apologize.)

It's the parents job to keep the world in perspective for the child so they don't fall prey to the pitfalls in showbusiness or life in general. The thousands of children in showbusiness who aren't/weren't screwed up are testament to that, but of course we only here about the bad ones.
Show me a screwed up child star and I'll wager the parents were screwed up also.

I'm going to stereotype here, but I think it generally takes a screwed up parent to subject their kids to showbusiness. Look at the Culkins or the Lohans for examples of this.

Corey Haim showed a lot of talent in "Lucas". Corey Feldman (and I'm loathe to say this looking at his career since) showed a lot of talent in "Stand by Me." Too bad they've made the choices they've made since.

Dakoda Fanning and Scarlett Johanson are still celebrities, so they don't really count.
And Johanson wasn't catapulted into fame until Lost in Translation when she was at an age beyond that of 'child star'

Mmmmm, Scarlett Johannson. Mmmmmm.

It's too bad about Corey. Let's not forget that he was the victim of sexual abuse as a child. Okay, so were lots of people. I mean LOTS of people. It seems that he had a lot of personal demons to battle. He lost that battle.

I can think of several who seem not to be damaged to a degree above and beyond the norm:

1. Rose Marie
2. Jane Withers
3. Jerry Mathers
4. Brandon Cruz
5. Moosie Dreier
6. Rick Shroeder
7. Fred Savage
8. Danica McKellar

If Jerry Mathers hadn't died in Vietnam, I might agree with you.

He is still alive, Fong.

http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=jerry+mathers&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=0gueS4rLFYT58Abb4tG7Cg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCMQsAQwAw