Chris Klein

Chris Klein is an actor who is best know for his role as "Oz" in American Pie and several of its sequels.  Klein was on the verge of becoming a breakout star after the release of the popular American Pie in 1999, but he never lived up to his potential, eventually becoming a c-list actor desperate for roles, famously lost his fiancee to Tom Cruise, and wasted precious years as an alcoholic, hitting rock bottom when he was arrested for a DUI in 2005.

Chris Klein was born on March 14, 1979 in Hinsdale, IL, a suburb of Chicago, IL.  Klein was interested in theater at a young age and as a child he sang "This Little Light of Mine” in a community theater at the Sheraton Convention Center in Chicago.  Klein moved with his family to Omaha, Nebraska when he was 13 years old.

As a high school student, Klein was both an athlete and an actor, participating in football, swimming, and acting/theater.  Klein was fortunate to be discovered by director Alexander Payne, who was in Omaha scouting for fresh young talent for his 1999 film Election.  Klein's first movie role was as "Paul Metzler," a polite and dumb football player in Election.  Although somewhat of a box office flop, Election was popular among critics and performed well in the rental market.

The success of Election led to Klein's breakthrough role as Chris "Oz" Ostreicher in American Pie and in the sequels American Pie 2 and American Reunion.  In American Pie, Oz was a jock who was a member of his high school's lacrosse team.  Oz and his friends formed a pact to each lose their virginity by the end of their senior year in high school.

Chris Klein was one of the most popular actors from the movie (perhaps the second-most popular actor after Seann William Scott) and instantly became a heartthrob.  Klein was popular at the time among young women for his good looks.

As the 1990s came to a close, Klein must have thought he was destined to soon become a member of the upper echelon of Hollywood actors.  His career seemed to be hitting the big time and he soon started dating popular actress Katie Holmes, to whom he later became engaged in 2003.

Klein followed up on the success on American Pie by appearing in several major films, such as the 2002 flicks, We Were Soldiers and American Pie 2.  However, Klein also appeared in the widely-panned box office flop Rollerball.  Rollerball reportedly had a budget of at least $70 million, yet only earned about $25 million at the box office.  His appearance in Rollerball seems to have irreparably harmed his acting career, as it one of his last major roles.

Klein's star faded so rapidly that he was not even asked to appear in the second America Pie sequel, American Wedding.  Although there were rumors floating around that Klein had turned down a role in the movie, Klein has since set the record straight and let everyone know that he was not offered a role but would have accepted one if it had been offered to him.

At one point Klein  became so desperate for choice roles that he actually auditioned for a role in 2008 musical, Mamma Mia! despite not having experience in musicals or singing.  Here is a clip of Klein's embarrassing tone-deaf audition for the movie:



As his career crashed and burned, Klein's personal life was in shambles.  Katie Holmes famously dumped Klein while they were engaged to be with actor Tom Cruise in 2005.   Klein also started drinking heavily around this time, becoming an admitted alcoholic and was arrested for DUIs in 2005 and 2010.  Klein was sentenced to 96 hours in prison for the 2010 DUI.

The stress of being unceremoniously dumped by Katie Holmes and the rages of alcoholism have taken a notable toll on Klein's looks.  Although he is still fit, his face has aged to the point at which the 33-year-old actor now looks closer to age 40, as shown in the photos below:

Although he has appeared in a number of roles over the last ten years, most of Klein's roles have been inferior roles ever since the Rollerball debacle.  Klein has, however, made a minor comeback recently by appearing in the most recent American Pie sequel, American Reunion, and also scoring a recurring role in the cable TV drama, Wilfred.  Klein is still a relatively young man, even if he does look much older and it is possible that he may be able to resurrect his career.  However, at this point, it still seems obvious that Chris Klein is one washed-up celebrity!

Tracey Gold

Tracey Gold (born Tracey Claire Fisher) is a former child star best known for her role as Carol Seaver on the hit 1980s sitcom, Growing Pains. Gold was born on May 16, 1969 in New York City and began acting at age four. Her first entertainment job was for a Pepsi print advertisement.

Gold had a fairly prolific acting career in her youth, appearing with small non--recurring roles in many different shows, including hit shows such as Eight Is Enough, Fantasy Island, and Trapper John, M.D. In 1979, she obtained a recurring role on the one season of the TV show, Shirley, with Shirley Jones. In 1983 she had another recurring role in the sitcom Goodnight, Beantown, with Bill Bixby. Unfortunately for Gold, both of those shows were cancelled after a single season apiece. In 1981, Gold thought that she finally got her big break when she was cast as the youngest daughter in the hit sitcom Gimme A Break!, until she was replaced by actress Lara Jill Miller shortly before that show went into production.

Gold's minor roles throughout her childhood and early teen years did, however, lead to her career-defining role as Carol Seaver on Growing Pains. Growing Pains was a very successful sitcom and Gold was popular among the show's teenage fan base for her cute and wholesome girl next door looks. [This, of course, is a sharp contrast from her young co-star, fellow washed-up celebrity Jeremy Miller, who was, according to the IMDB message boards, very popular with the show's gay fan base.] Gold was integral in many of the show's storylines, several of which dealt her attraction to boys and her excellent performance in high school.

Despite being a successful child actress and co-starring on a hit TV show, Gold suffered through a highly publicized battle with anorexia nervosa. Gold claimed that she became practically obsessed with her weight and began restricting what she ate. At the age of 11, she was diagnosed as being in the early stages of anorexia nervosa after simultaneously losing weight while going through a growth spurt. Gold went into counseling over this issue and eventually returned to a normal weight.
In 1988, Gold put on some weight during Growing Pains' hiatus. Despite knowing about Gold's previous weight issues, the show's writers wrote storylines where Gold was to be subject to many fat jokes during successive episodes. Gold once again began obsessing about her weight, dropping from 133 lbs to 110 lbs while on a 500 calorie per day diet. Over the next couple years, Gold continued to drop weight, eventually getting down to a weight around 80 lbs. During the final season on Growing Pains, the show's producers suspended Gold from the show because of her gaunt appearance. She appeared in the Christmas 1991 episode but didn't appear in any more episodes until late spring, 1992.

After Growing Pains went off the air in 1992, Gold finally started to get her life in order and eventually got well enough to return to a healthy weight. In 1994 she acted in the TV movie, For the Love of Nancy, a movie about a young woman battling anorexia.

Gold still occasionally acts, although not nearing as frequently as she used to do back in her youth. On the personal side, Gold got married in 1994 and has four children. On September 3, 2004, Gold put her own life and the lives of everyone in her family in danger when she was driving her family in an SUV while intoxicated. Gold lost control of the SUV, rolling it down a California freeway embankment. The accident nearly killed her 7-year-old son, Sage, who suffered a broken clavicle and a head laceration. Gold was arrested and charged with a DUI.

Although Gold was a successful child actor and courageously won her battle with anorexia nervosa, the fact the she put the lives of everyone in her family in jeopardy by driving drunk makes Tracey Gold one washed up celebrity!

Lane Garrison

Lane Garrison is a young actor who was a rising star in Hollywood until very recently when he made the ill-fated decision to drive while heavily intoxicated.

Garrison was born in Dallas, Texas on May 23, 1980 and raised in Richardson, Texas. He was a troubled youth and admits to having been a thief. He stole items such as cars and stereos. He had a troubled relationship with his mother and moved out of his mother's house at age seventeen. As luck would have it, his family's minister was a nice man who took Garrison under his wing and let Garrison stay at his house with his family until Garrison straightened his life out. Surprisingly, the minister was Joe Simpson, the father of pop stars Jessica and Ashlee Simpson.

In 1998, at the age of eighteen, Garrison drove to Los Angeles to become an actor. His first acting job was in backpack commercial that paid $3,500. Garrison struggled to make it for several years until he finally got his big break and was cast as David "Tweener" Apolskis on the hit TV show Prison Break. His character was a punk who was sent to the Fox River State Penitentiary. His character earned the name "Tweener" because he acted like a wigger when he arrived at Fox River and neither the black inmates nor the white inmates would associate with him. Tweener was immediately a mark for some of the gay inmates on the show, such as Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell. In one of the episodes Tweener cried himself to sleep because T-Bag kept threatening to molest him. A sadistic prison guard, Brad Bellick, quickly arranged for a large inmate to share Tweener's cell. The large inmate eventually raped Tweener. As a result of the abuse, Tweener was eventually included in the main plotline involving several inmates escaping the prison.





The Tweener character was killed off the show in 2006. However, Garrison's character built a loyal following of fans and he was eventually cast in a minor role in the 2007 major motion picture Shooter. Garrison must have felt like he was on top of the world as he was undoubtedly on the path toward bigger and better movie and/or TV roles.

Unfortunately, Garrison's world and career imploded on December 2, 2006 when he was involved in a fatal car crash. On that fateful day Garrison had been drinking and ran into some teens (one 17-year-old boy, and two 15-year-old girls) at a grocery store. Although he didn't know the teens, they recognized him from Prison Break and asked him to accompany them to a party. Garrison obliged them and showed up at the party where he had at least one drink with his underage fans. According to some sources, Garrison was doing several shots with the group of high school students when he crashed his SUV on the way to the liquor store to restock on his particular brand of vodka. In the crash, Garrison lost control of his SUV, jumped a curb and ran into a tree at a high rate of speed. His 17-year-old male passenger died in the crash and the two 15-year-old girls were also injured, one critically. It was later reported that Garrison's blood alcohol level at the time of the crash was more than twice the legal limit (i.e., greater than .16%) and that was under the influence of cocaine.

On March 8, 2007 Garrison was charged with vehicular manslaughter for his role in the crash. Garrison has accepted responsibility for his actions and on April 11, 2007 it was reported that Garrison would plead guilty to the charge of vehicular manslaughter.

Garrison faces up to six years and eight months in prison for his crime. Garrison is a small man and he had better hope that life doesn't imitate art when he is sentenced to prison time because he sure won't want to experience the kind of abuse that his character Tweener did at the hands of horny aggressors at the Fox River State Penitentiary in Prison Break.

For the many reasons discussed above, Lane Garrison is one washed-up celebrity!

** I take no pleasure in this blog post because someone died in Garrison's crash and Garrison seemed to be a decent guy until his accident.

*** Update - August 2, 2007 ***
Lane Garrison was sentenced to 90 days in California state prison today. Liberal judge Elden Fox infuriated the parents of the kids killed in Garrison's DUI accident by sentencing Garrison to a 90 day stint during which psychiatrists and others will evaluate him to determine whether he is a suitable candidate for straight probation. The odds are that the judge will let Garrison go free after a mere 3 months in prison. Garrison should thank his lucky stars that he was not assigned the judge from the Paris Hilton trial. If he had that judge, he would have been looking at years in prison.


*** Update - November 1, 2007 ***
Lane Garrison was sentenced to 40 months in California state prison for his DUI accident. Before the sentencing, an emotional Garrison told the familes of his victims that he was "'genuinely remorseful' and 'sickened' by his bahevior that night." Garrison will be credited for the time he has already served while undergoing the psychological evaluation discussed above. Garrison was also ordered to pay about $300,000 to the families of his victims.

Haley Joel Osment

Haley Joel Osment is a former child star best known for his role in 1999 smash hit movie The Sixth Sense. He has also appeared in other major motion pictures such as Pay It Forward and Artificial Intelligence: AI.


I first saw The Sixth Sense when it hit the theatres in 1999 and thought it was a great movie. Osment was perfect in his role as a child with an extraordinary ability to see dead people that others cannot. Osment provided such an outstanding performance that he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. After I saw the movie I remember thinking to myself "wow, that little 5-year-old kid was a really good actor." I was in total shock when I later discovered that Osment was actually 11 years old when the movie came out!

At the 2000 Academy Awards show Osment was so devastated when he lost his bid for the Best Supporting Actor nomination that he actually started crying like the little 5-year-old I initially thought he was.*

Despite his initial break-through performance in The Sixth Sense and the subsequent roles in other major motion pictures, Osment has failed to live up to expectations. His career is clearly on a downward trajectory and it appears as though his personal life is as well. Osment, like many former child stars, went through a harsh puberty that was not kind to him as is painfully obvious in the pictures below:


It is almost a guarantee that Osment will never be a leading man given his diminutive stature (5'4") and his unsightly post-adolescent look. Osment has apparently attempted to drown his sorrows with alcohol and drugs. In July 2006 he suffered injuries when he lost control of his 1995 Saturn while driving under the influence of alcohol (his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit of 0.08) when he crashed into a mailbox on a brick base and his car flipped over. Osment fractured a rib and his right shoulder blade and suffered cuts and abrasions. Osment was subsequently arrested. Here is his mug shot (click on the image for a larger view):

Osment was charged with four misdemeanor counts: driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a .08 blood alcohol level or higher, enhancement of driving with a .15 or higher, and possession of marijuana while driving. Osment's lawyer pled no contest to one count each of misdemeanor driving under the influence and misdemeanor marijuana possession. Prosecutors dropped the two other charges, another misdemeanor DUI and a vehicle code infraction. Osment was sentenced to three years probation, 60 hours in an alcohol rehabilitation and education program, a fine of $1,500 and a minimum requirement of 26 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings over a six-month period.

All of this makes Haley Joel Osment one washed-up celebrity!

In researching Haley Joel Osment I came across this nasty anti-Haley Joel Osment website: The Official Anti-Haley Joel Osment website

*CORRECTION* - I finally found some information about Osment's crying and discovered that he did not, in fact, cry at the Oscars when he lost. Instead, he cried at the Golden Globes when he lost his bid for Best Supporting Actor. Apparently host Dick Clark was unnerved about this.

Natasha Lyonne

Natasha Lyonne is an actress who has appeared in a number of TV shows and movies over the past 20 years. She started out as a child actor on the popular 1980s Saturday morning TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Born in 1979, Natasha is best known for her role as “Jessica” in the 1999 hit movie American Pie.


After American Pie became a smash hit, Natasha became very active on the Hollywood party circuit. At the time was a young a pretty star who undoubtedly loved all of the attention she received from fans of the movie and the public as a whole. Here are some pictures of Natasha was she looking her best:


Unfortunately, Natasha's rampant partying and use of illicit drugs started to catch up to her. On August 28, 2001, Lyonne was arrested by Miami Beach police after hitting a road sign with her rented Dodge and trying to flee the scene. A Miami Beach Police officer witnessed the incident. According to a Miami Beach Police Department report, Lyonne refused a Breathalyzer test and actually stated: "I'm a movie star. Can I talk to my entertainment lawyer?" Her boyfriend, actor Adam Goldberg, was riding in the car at the time. Lyonne later pled guilty to driving under the influence and received six months of probation and 50 hours of community service. This is her mugshot taken after her arrest:


Lyonne became friends with fellow actor Michael Rapaport in 1997 and later subletted his apartment in Los Angeles in 2001 for about a year. She moved to New York City in 2002 and rented an apartment in a building Rapaport owned on East 18th Street. The building had four apartments with several common areas shared with other tenants. Some of the other tenants began complaining about Lyonne's behavior from late 2002-early 2003, saying the she was frequently screaming at people, flipping out, and having loud guests over late at night. The other tenants also reported that Lyonne started entering her apartment through a window because she didn't want to use the front door. Eventually one of the other tenants had enough and moved out. Two other girls moved into the vacated apartment and Lyonne verbally abused them right away, yelling "Why the fuck did you cunts move in here?"

In late 2003 Rapaport had enough of Lyonne's antics and flew to New York City to tell her she had to move out. He was shocked when he saw her - he said she was really skinny and her hair was falling out. In late 2004 Lyonne verbally attacked one of the other tenants in her building and threatened to "sexually molest" her neighbor's dog and breaking a mirror in the neighbor's apartment. She spent a night in jail before being arraigned on charges of criminal mischief, harassment, and trespassing. The details of this incident did not become publicly known until two years later. In April 2005, an arrest warrant was issued for Lyonne for failure to appear in court on the charges. Prosecutors say she showed up, but arrived an hour late and only stayed 30 minutes. The charges were eventually dropped in December 2006 after Lyonne paid $2,000 in restitution and completed a court-ordered drug program.

Rapaport finally evicted Lyonne in January 2005 and was shocked at how much Lyonne had trashed his place. According to an article Rapaport wrote for Jane magazine, Lyonne caused $16,000 worth of damage to the apartment. The sink and tub were clogged and broken glasses sat untended in the sink. The New York City plumber who repaired the pipes said that "he'd never seen anything that bad before."

In August 2005, the New York Post reported that Lyonne was in Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan under a pseudonym, and had been there for over a month after being transferred from Bellevue Hospital. She reportedly suffered from hepatitis C, a heart infection, and a collapsed lung. She was also allegedly undergoing methadone treatment for a heroin addiction and had track marks on her body. The Post also reported that Lyonne had been homeless and on the streets after her eviction by Rapaport.

In June 2006 the online gossip website Gawker wrote that Lyonne was spotted in New York City looking very haggard and as though she was almost in a "drug-induced coma," "covered in a bad bed rash," and "could die at any moment." All of this makes Natasha Lyonne one washed-up celebrity!

Here are scans of the article Rapaport wrote about Lyonne in Jane magazine (click on the images for a larger view):




***Update - February 14, 2008***

Natasha Lyonne recently attended the opening night of the off-broadway show Two Thousand Years. She was photographed with her friend Chloe Sevigny at the show. She looks very haggard and chubby, but hopefully for her sake, she finally managed to kick her drug addictions.