Hollywood has an iceberg of child star scandals. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re diving into the depths of the disturbing child star iceberg.
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're diving into the depths of the disturbing child star iceberg.
00:06-"I've been waiting for someone to question the climate.
00:12It's been a long time coming."
00:14While many tragic cases of Hollywood abuse have been documented in the media lately,
00:18some of the more obscure cautionary tales of youthful stardom have been lost in the shuffle.
00:23So let's start at the top of the iceberg, with the most explosive cases everyone is talking about,
00:28before sinking down to the buried stories of exploitation, untimely fates, and sinister incidents,
00:34both in front of cameras and behind the scenes.
00:47These high-profile cases of child star mistreatment have come to light in recent years,
00:51sparking a surge of interest in Hollywood exposés.
00:54Kicking things off, here are five recaps of trouble on set.
00:58Demi Lovato
00:59One of the most outspoken young performers, Demi Lovato, who co-directed the Hulu documentary Child Star,
01:05has long been an advocate for voiceless, budding actors.
01:08-"I dealt with depression. I dealt with all these things.
01:11And I also had an eating disorder and was binge drinking on the weekends."
01:16A bright Disney Channel darling,
01:18Lovato endured brutal filming routines during Camp Rock
01:22and was strapped to an intensive schedule of album releases and tours.
01:26This zealous profiteering that leaves no time for regular adolescent growth is not unique to Lovato,
01:31who's just a small part of this rampant child star cash cow pipeline.
01:35-"I had this mentality of, like, if you're gonna work me like an adult, I get to party like one.
01:39But the reality was, adults weren't partying like I was."
01:43Alison Stoner
01:45Another Disney star like Lovato,
01:48Alison Stoner has given countless interviews pointing out the high levels of stress
01:52to maintain a desirable shape and size for screen.
01:55As an early teen, Stoner developed an eating disorder.
01:58They remarked that the effect puberty had on their body led to obsessive behaviors.
02:03-"There were just these intense pressures that were incessant."
02:10Stoner was hospitalized for malnourishment at just 17,
02:13and though they've since recovered,
02:15it's undeniable that early fame can seriously upset childhood development.
02:19-"The toddler-to-trainwreck pipeline is a notorious and thriving industrial complex around child entertainers."
02:27Brian Christopher Hearn
02:29A prominent feature in the massively viral series Quiet on Set,
02:32Brian Hearn's testimonies of abuse largely circle back to his race.
02:36-"Someone said, the skin tone should be charcoal."
02:41As one of the few Black child actors on Nickelodeon at the time,
02:44he was forced to perform uncomfortably racist skits on air.
02:48-"They set up the scene like he was selling drugs.
02:52And I was like, oh, the Black kid gets to be the dealer?"
02:56This highlights the power imbalance of top-level adults pitching lines and roles to minors
03:01who are not only too afraid to speak up,
03:03but are still too young to fully comprehend the jokes they're a part of.
03:07-"I'm laying on the ground and then the dogs, they gotta lick peanut butter off my body.
03:11It was really uncomfortable. I didn't like that."
03:13-"I don't like this."
03:15Jeannette McCurdy
03:17Former iCarly star Jeannette McCurdy was extremely open about abuses she suffered
03:21both at home and on set as a child star in her memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died.
03:26-"As a kid, you know, I'm surrounded by all these people who are my friends or my whatever,
03:30but they're all making money off of me."
03:32Despite pleading not to attend any more auditions,
03:35her mother was insistent on pushing her further into the spotlight.
03:38In her book, she also calls out the actions of the Creator,
03:42who is believed to be Dan Schneider, a disgraced showrunner at Nickelodeon.
03:46-"I work with an incredibly emotionally abusive producer."
03:49His explosive temper, strange obsession with feet,
03:52and inappropriate behavior with young stars have been thoroughly dissected in recent series.
03:57-"Dan is the kingmaker. He is the one who is deciding who gets a spinoff,
04:01who gets the most lines.
04:03If you are on Dan's bad side, you kind of could kiss your career goodbye."
04:08But Schneider was never acting alone.
04:12Drake Bell
04:13One of the most disturbing revelations of Quiet on Set
04:16was just how many abusers were staffed at Nickelodeon studios,
04:19most notably Brian Peck.
04:21The former Drake and Josh star's story highlights the disturbing manner
04:25in which disguised predators are so often entrusted with the well-being of young actors.
04:29-"Brian would come and pick me up for auditions.
04:31I would end up staying the night.
04:34He had pretty much worked his way into every aspect of my life."
04:38Bell himself would later be accused of child endangerment.
04:41Though he has since redacted his guilty plea
04:43to explain the extenuating circumstances of his incident,
04:46Bell's situation sparks a conversation about the terrible ways
04:49a childhood fraught with abuse can lead to an adulthood full of struggles.
04:53-"I've watched tragedy after tragedy after tragedy in this business
04:58and I went many years not wanting to even talk about it at all."
05:06Tier Two
05:07Stunted Adolescence
05:09These five child stars climbed great heights in their youth
05:12but quickly showed the debilitating effects of premature celebrity status
05:16when they faced a series of crises as adults.
05:18Britney Spears
05:20One of the most successful pop stars of all time
05:23and one of the most notorious media punching bags,
05:25Britney Spears perhaps best exemplifies these growing pains.
05:29After her debut on the Mickey Mouse Club,
05:31Spears' life was tightly managed and set on path for superstardom,
05:35whether she was ready for it or not.
05:37Enduring intense scrutiny as she mentally and physically matured,
05:40Spears suffered through public breakups, breakdowns,
05:43and bizarre questions about her virginity.
05:46-"Am I a virgin?"
05:50Her life was picked apart by relentless paparazzi,
05:53leading to a 2007 meltdown
05:55and a 2008 conservatorship that lasted until 2021.
05:59-"The conservatorship, which really is put in place to take care of people,
06:03naturally shouldn't be a business that is making exorbitant amounts of money
06:06from someone who is so fit to work."
06:09Though she broke free in recent years
06:11and spoke out in her memoir, The Woman in Me,
06:13it's evident that she will forever be surrounded by rumors,
06:16speculation, and questions about her mental health.
06:19It's all rooted in the way she was treated as a fembot
06:22programmed to produce hits and tours from a dangerously young age.
06:26-"They're hearing what they want to hear.
06:28They're not really listening to what I'm telling them.
06:30That's like...
06:32That's bad."
06:34Lindsay Lohan
06:36Part of Spears' party girl entourage in the early 2000s,
06:39Lindsay Lohan was also harassed by the vicious media
06:42during a notably sexist era for female celebrities.
06:45-"I think there's a lot of pressure,
06:46especially when you lose a lot of weight
06:47and then people are telling you you look great.
06:49Like, so did I look fat before?"
06:50By 21, she found herself caught up in a series of DUIs,
06:54arrests, and rehab stints.
06:56The unshakable tabloid attention
06:58forced Lohan to cancel projects
07:00and take a break from the spotlight
07:01to focus on things her one-track career never allowed for,
07:05personal growth, maturing, and healing.
07:07-"You can't make a joke of it.
07:09That's so mean.
07:10I'm not joking."
07:11-"No, you're not doing that.
07:12We're not doing that."
07:13-"One or two?"
07:14-"No, this is my show now."
07:16Drew Barrymore
07:18Lohan's arc is actually a lot like an actress
07:20who followed a similar trajectory before her,
07:23Drew Barrymore.
07:24She was introduced to the gritty celebrity party scene
07:26and substance use far too young.
07:28At 13, she was institutionalized by her parents,
07:31whom she would be emancipated from a year later.
07:34From a wild appearance on Letterman
07:36to her 90s Playboy spread,
07:38Barrymore's angelic public image
07:40was rapidly transforming into that of a liberated
07:42and promiscuous young woman,
07:44which would be marked with stern backlash.
07:46-"Barrymore hasn't played bad girls on screen,
07:48but in her personal life,
07:50she's had some much-publicized experience being wild."
07:52Fortunately, she later escaped this pariah status
07:56and turned her career around.
07:58Amanda Bynes
08:00From child star to teen queen,
08:02Amanda Bynes' promising career unraveled in 2012
08:05after a series of misdemeanors.
08:07Fans were quick to notice a shift in her appearance
08:09and persona online during her strange Twitter rants,
08:12culminating in several mental health diagnoses
08:15and a conservatorship.
08:16It's since come to light that she spent
08:18a lot of unsupervised time with Dan Schneider as a kid.
08:21-"I definitely saw Amanda being very close
08:24physically with Dan."
08:26On her own social media,
08:28Bynes spells out the ways incessant paparazzi attention
08:31deeply distorted her self-image.
08:33-"The amount of unflattering shots that I see online,
08:35I know that my photos are being photoshopped.
08:37I just, I don't look like that
08:39in the photos that I take
08:41or when I look at myself in the mirror."
08:43Clearly, being placed under a microscope
08:45while trying to cope with the child star
08:47to adult star transition is bound to spark conflict.
08:50-"No, just walk towards me.
08:52Can I just get a shot of you walking towards me?"
08:54Corey Haim
08:56In the 80s, Corey Haim turned
08:58from a commercially successful child actor
09:01to a full-fledged teen heartthrob.
09:03This evolution would not come without heartache.
09:05Entrenched in the L.A. scene,
09:07Haim would begin to experiment with illicit substances,
09:10which he later acknowledged were supplied to him
09:12by predatory men who were simultaneously
09:14taking advantage of young talents like Haim.
09:17-"There was a circle of older men
09:19that surrounded themselves
09:21around this group of kids.
09:23And they all had either their own power
09:25or connections to great power
09:27in the entertainment industry."
09:29After several failed attempts at rehabilitation,
09:31Haim tragically passed away
09:33in 2010 of pneumonia,
09:35among other conditions.
09:37His sad passing came at a time in his life
09:39when he was seeking companionship
09:41and someone to understand him,
09:43which spurs discourse about other child stars
09:45that followed this unfortunate path.
09:47Tier 3, Tragic Fates
09:49Many child actors were never able
09:51to escape the vicious cycle
09:53that early stardom kicked off.
09:55Unfortunately for these five performers,
09:57their illustrious careers were cut tragically short.
09:59Aaron Carter
10:01After experiencing immense success
10:03as a child pop star,
10:05Aaron Carter's life began to take a turn
10:07as early as 2004,
10:09when he and his brother Nick came forward
10:11to accuse their momager Jane
10:13of mishandling money they'd earned as minors.
10:15Aaron began to struggle with his mental health
10:17and turn to substances.
10:19-"When I turned 18 years old,
10:21I was just kind of standing there on my own
10:23trying to figure it out.
10:25A lot of damage had been done."
10:27In 2022, he remarked that he felt like
10:29quote,
10:31and later tragically drowned
10:33in his bathtub while under the influence.
10:35Even in death, his life
10:37was still treated as media fodder,
10:39with countless news outlets publishing
10:41unfinished manuscripts from his memoir
10:43and producers sharing his unreleased music.
10:45-"How would you feel
10:47every two seconds
10:49seeing a tweet,
10:51oh look at this a**head."
10:53While this serves as a contemporary case
10:55of child stardom gone wrong,
10:57many historical precedents really date back
10:59to classical Hollywood.
11:01Judy Garland.
11:03The star of one of the biggest films of all time,
11:05Judy Garland was just 16
11:07when she donned the ruby red slippers.
11:09But by the time she'd reached her 40s,
11:11she was in serious financial trouble,
11:13singing at bars to keep herself off the streets.
11:15This trajectory may seem shocking,
11:17but it's less surprising when considering
11:19the ways she was exploited by the industry
11:22After completing this girl-crazy
11:24production number, Judy Garland collapsed.
11:26Family physician Mark Rabwin
11:28recommended eight weeks rest.
11:30Judy's mother advised the studio
11:32her daughter could return in three.
11:34Her diet was carefully controlled
11:36and she was routinely harassed by
11:38powerful men. This coercion never
11:40ended and she was forced into receiving
11:42an abortion to maintain her image as an
11:44Ingenue. Her dependency on the
11:46pills she had been fed as a kid led to
11:48further substance issues, which would
11:51lead to her untimely passing in 1969.
11:53Bobby Driscoll
11:55He was once a golden boy
11:57at Walt Disney Studios, yet Bobby
11:59Driscoll's life ended in an unmarked
12:01grave. Driscoll, one of the first
12:03child actors to ever be put under
12:05contract by the famed studio, was
12:07most famous for voicing Peter Pan.
12:09But Peter, how do we get to
12:11Neverland? Fly, of course!
12:13Fly? It's easy!
12:15However, the board of directors
12:17ultimately decided to terminate his contract
12:20early. He was pulled from acting school
12:22and placed in a public school where he was
12:24relentlessly mistreated, developing
12:26a drug dependency to cope with the grief.
12:28At just 31, he was found
12:30dead in an abandoned building
12:32and it was determined that heart failure
12:34was the cause. Sadly, he wasn't
12:36identified and was buried in a pauper's
12:38grave, with the exact location
12:40unknown to this day.
12:42Gary Coleman
12:43One of the most twisted tales of terrible
12:45fate belongs to revered child actor
12:47Gary Coleman, who played Arnold in
12:49Different Strokes and earned the distinction
12:51of highest-paid child actor on TV
12:53at the time. In the 90s,
12:55he sued his business manager parents
12:57for stealing his earnings. He also
12:59took out a restraining order against his
13:01verbally and physically aggressive wife.
13:03Daily dialysis treatments were another
13:05major source of agony.
13:07If someone had told me
13:09that my life
13:11would've been like this early
13:13enough where I could've got out, I would've
13:15got out. I'd say, ah, no. I wanna
13:17have a normal life. Coleman,
13:19who referred to himself as, quote,
13:21God's punching bag, tragically lost his
13:23life in 2010 after a fall
13:25down the stairs. Though it was
13:27ruled an accident, rumors have
13:29long swirled that his wife may have pushed
13:31him. Shannon had doctors take
13:33him off life support two days later.
13:35Friends still question the circumstances
13:37around his death. Judith
13:39Barsi. At just five years
13:41old, Judith Barsi was already
13:43exhibiting star quality. In
13:45fact, she found herself to be the breadwinner
13:47of her family, pulling in more
13:49than both of her parents. However,
13:51her father had an alcohol dependency
13:53and was immediately jealous of her success
13:55as well as his own inability
13:57to provide. The escalating
13:59violence and dysfunctional home life caused
14:01Barsi to fear for her life. In
14:031988, she was slain by
14:05her own father, who also took the
14:07life of her mother and then himself.
14:09Barsi was terribly failed
14:11by the system, with reports against her
14:13going unanswered. And so,
14:15this disturbing crime leads us to
14:17the darkest part of the iceberg.
14:21While many child actors
14:23who suffer reprehensible treatment go on to
14:25internalize that pain, some young stars
14:27would inflict pain on others instead.
14:29Though these shocking cases of
14:31murder don't necessarily link back to their
14:33time in Hollywood, here are five
14:35stories of child actors turned killers.
14:39Sons of Anarchy actor Johnny Lewis
14:41scored early guest spots on Boston Public
14:43and American Dreams. He even
14:45went on to famously date Katy Perry.
14:47But in 2011, Lewis
14:49suffered a traumatic brain injury in a
14:51motorcycle accident. He was diagnosed
14:53with internal bleeding in the brain
14:55and began to suffer inexplicably violent
14:57outbursts. In 2012,
14:59911 received distressing
15:01calls that Lewis was on a rampage
15:03in his apartment building. When police
15:05arrived, they found his elderly
15:07landlady deceased.
15:09Witnesses told police Lewis appeared
15:11to show superhuman strength.
15:13In another twist,
15:15Lewis had somehow fallen to his death
15:17from the building while attempting to escape.
15:19Toxicology reports came back
15:21negative, though some theorize that he
15:23may have been using a form of bath salts
15:25known as smiles. The creator
15:27of Sons of Anarchy, Kurt Sutter, tweeted
15:29that Lewis, quote, unfortunately had
15:31lost his way. Lewis' character
15:33on Sons of Anarchy also
15:35died a violent death. Colleagues
15:37say he was troubled.
15:39Manuel Benitez. From Pee Wee's
15:41Big Adventure to FBI Fugitive,
15:43Manuel Benitez took many dark turns
15:45after his child acting career ended.
15:47He left Hollywood in 1988,
15:49hiding his credentials from new girlfriend
15:51Stephanie Spears. Several
15:53years into their tumultuous marriage,
15:55Benitez savagely bludgeoned her,
15:57kidnapped their child, and went on the run.
15:59He eventually made his TV
16:01return when he was featured on America's
16:03Most Wanted. It took four
16:05years for police to locate him, and
16:07after a hostage standoff with his
16:09son as the shield, Benitez
16:11was fatally wounded. There was an exchange
16:13of gunfire.
16:15The suspect was hit and
16:17killed at the scene.
16:19The child that was with him
16:21was wounded in the leg.
16:23Robert Blake. Perhaps one
16:25of the most celebrated child actors to be
16:27tied up in a murder scandal, Emmy winner
16:29Robert Blake is now overshadowed
16:31by his questionable involvement in his
16:33wife's assassination. He emerged
16:35on the scene as the adorable Mickey
16:37in Our Gang.
16:39His
16:41catapulting career was brought to a halt in
16:432001 when his wife, Bonnie Lee
16:45Bakley, was found shot outside of a
16:47restaurant where the pair had just been dining,
16:49making him the prime suspect.
16:51Blake maintained his innocence
16:53and was acquitted by a jury in his criminal
16:55trial, but was forced to pay $30
16:57million to the family of his slain
16:59wife in a civil trial.
17:01Bakley's murder is still considered unsolved
17:03and Blake passed away of heart
17:05disease in 2023,
17:07remembered not as a dashing young actor
17:09but as a weathered old widow.
17:21Skylar DeLeon. Unlike
17:23Blake, Skylar DeLeon remained a
17:25relative unknown in the Hollywood scene,
17:27only landing one small part as an
17:29extra on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
17:31In 2004, DeLeon,
17:33who has since transitioned, hatched a plot
17:35to defraud and murder retired couple
17:37Thomas and Jackie Hawks, who were selling
17:39their yacht. DeLeon and her
17:41accomplices boarded the ship to discuss the sale,
17:43but when it returned to the dock, the couple
17:45was nowhere to be found.
17:49During the trial, it was
17:51concluded that the couple had been secured to the
17:53anchor and tossed overboard.
17:55Amidst the investigation, DeLeon
17:57was tied to yet another murder that had taken
17:59place a year earlier. As of
18:012024, she's now sitting
18:03on death row.
18:15Former Diary of a Wimpy Kid
18:17star Ryan Grantham was found to have a series
18:19of shockingly sinister plans in his
18:21diary, some of which would materialize
18:23in 2020. The Canadian
18:25child actor was best known for playing
18:27Geoffrey Augustine in Riverdale,
18:29a boy who kills Archie's father.
18:31He told the police he did it.
18:33To protect me, but it
18:35wasn't him. Okay?
18:37It was me.
18:39His on-screen deeds would bleed into reality
18:41when he admitted to killing his own mother
18:43in their home. Grantham also
18:45intended to assassinate Prime Minister Justin
18:47Trudeau and carry out a mass shooting
18:49at his former university. The dark
18:51thoughts were fueled by his mental health
18:53difficulties and excessive
18:55cannabis use. Instead, he
18:57turned himself into the police,
18:59saddled with a host of mental health
19:01diagnoses. He's currently serving
19:03a life sentence, making the following
19:05statement, quote,
19:07I cannot explain or justify my actions.
19:09I have no excuse. It hurts
19:11me to think about how badly I've wasted
19:13my life. This theme
19:15of wasted life, or at least wasted
19:17potential, seems to echo throughout
19:19many of the tales on this disturbing child
19:21iceberg. With so many recent
19:23exposés surfacing on the subject,
19:25it's only a matter of time before more of
19:27Hollywood's shady deeds are revealed.
19:29And the series brought to light
19:31Hollywood's own shocking involvement.
19:33The best possible outcomes
19:35for those who've been exploited and stand to be
19:37exploited are greater scrutiny, better
19:39resources, and more accountability.
19:41Because if there's one glaringly
19:43obvious truth, it's that
19:45no means of entertainment is worth
19:47sabotaging a child star's light before
19:49they can truly shine.
19:53Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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