Corey Haim - 80's teen star and latter-day has-been - has, reportedly, died of a drug overdose. The Internets are saying that this wasn't really shocking - he did, after all, have a public struggle with substance abuse - but really, isn't it fair to say that no such celebrity death is shocking? Given that so many celebrities struggle with substance abuse and eating disorders and dependencies upon unsavory characters and other evils and maladies and whatevers associated with selling one's life for public consumption, shouldn't we be surprised that more of them don't die young? And wouldn't this go double for any celebrity that attained his or her celebrity in childhood? Will there ever come a time when we'll measure the worth of exposing the talent of young performing arts prodigies against the heavy, heavy costs that are inevitably levied against the lives of so many of them for that exposure?
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Corey.
In any case, regardless of whether we regard any death as surprising or not surprising, it's still a death, and somewhere, someone - many someones, perhaps - is gutted by it, and no amount of tut-tutting over how expected that death was changes the intensity of the grief that it provokes. So. Let's just leave it at that.
Oh, and this:
The title of this post suggests that Corey Haim was a bad actor, but he really wasn't. Sure, License to Drive and Lost Boys weren't high dramatic art, but in films - yes, films - like Lucas, Corey Haim showed what he could do.
It's a shame that it came so early for him, and was lost so early by him.
RIP, Corey.
Comments
Very well said. My condolences to his family and friends.
Very well said. My condolences to his family and friends.
Steph
Posted by: Adventures In Babywearing | 03/10/2010 at 11:49 AM