What about Tiger Beat?! BOP!?!

Here is what I learned today in law school: Jonathan Brandis is dead. Also, excuse me while I go from talking about the President to mentioning teen star Jonathan Brandis.

Apparently he's also been dead for a while; he hung himself in 2003. Maybe some of you have known that all this time, but I was shocked to hear it! Okay, so he didn't really have an amazing career as an adult... but plenty of childhood actors and actresses go on to do great things... right?

How about Corey Feldman? Who can forget classics like The Lost Boys and The Goonies?
Mr. Feldman grew up to get married a few times, have a kid he named Zen, attend several trials to claim that Michael Jackson did not, in fact, molest him, AND he even did some massive drugs!

Also, Macaulay Culkin. Home Alone is one of the most parodied movies ever (come on, who hasn't seen this movie!?). And The Good Son still sends chills down my spine. I did unfortunately catch Party Monster, and this made me want to stab my eyes out. All in all, he's had a decent run. Mr. Culkin has been married, divorced (no kids!), done some drugs, and also bailed out MJ in court.

Coincidentally, Feldman and Culkin have both more recently been in Robot Chicken, a Seth Green production. I heard an interview with Seth Green where he talked about this. He seems to like old toys a lot, and this show uses his toys in a 'demented' way?

Besides supporting MJ in court and doing voices in Robot Chicken, there are still plenty of opportunities for washed up childhood stars. I do not really remember 2003, so maybe the celebrity reality tv show craze hadn't fully kicked in yet: The Surreal Life, Dancing with the Stars, Skating with Celebrities, Snorting Coke with Famous People, or maybe even a little Molesting VIPs with MJ.

Jonathan Brandis couldn't keep his long, floppy hair, big eyes, and boy grin forever. But all relentless sarcasm aside, hearing this news really did bother me. Some teeny boppers may have loved their JTT, but I was always true to Brandis. Ladybugs was such a fun movie; I remember watching it with my soccer team. I also remember wasting/spending money on Tiger Beat and BOP Magazines to get the fold out poster of him.

This is even more troubling than the day my boyfriend told me Mark Ruffalo was dead (he actually wasn't dead, but he did almost die from a pretty serious brain tumor). I am also troubled by Brandis' listing on IMDB. I don't think he would have been able to be in movies in 2004 and 2005, but with science these days I guess you never know...