While Haim had fallen on hard times the past few years, even at one point selling teeth and hair to cover his debts courtesy of addiction, he will be best remembered as the free spirit and adorable teen idol he once was. His career blossomed overnight and his starring roles in films like Lucas and The Lost Boys confirmed that not only was he a heartthrob, but he had the chops to succeed in this business. He partnered with Corey Feldman, the duo was dubbed “The Coreys” by the 80’s media, for seven films, including Lost Boys, License to Drive and my personal favorite,Dream a Little Dream (which I purchased from a local video rental place for $20). “The Coreys” were synonymous with partying, young Hollywood, box office success and 80’s excess. Haim found himself at the end of the decade with a crazy drug habit, fledgling career and an even sadder private life. Haim all but disappeared in the early 90’s with flop after flop at box office and addictions eating away at him.
After a drug induced stroke, Haim found himself on the road to recovery in 2004 and returned in 2007 to the spotlight with his reality show “The Two Coreys“, which followed Feldman and Haim for their quest to move back on top of the Hollywood food chain. The show lasted two seasons and brought the best friends back together and as Defamer ridiculed to the point of not on the reality program, back and ready to work. Haim saw little lift to his career from the program and recently just wrapped up production the thriller, American Sunset. Today, Haim passed away, ending a possible career resurrection and the possibility of a happy ending.

As a child, there were few things better than Corey Haim. His looks, charm and humor were the essential pre-teen package and I would have followed him to the ends of the earth. While someone dying THIS young is tragic and sad, what is really sad about the whole thing is that its not surprising. Haim was a casualty of Hollywood, and by that I mean a child star who was used up until he couldn’t give anymore, and then medicated to hide the pain. Its common practice in Hollywood, but sometimes there are those folks that actually deserve to continue to work, who have a gift and should be respected. Unfortunately, Haim had to battle various demons while attempting to take back his career, and his childhood was riddled with divorce, abuse and overt exposure to adult themes.

The glimmer and hope that was once his signature fell away as time went on and sadly, its not an easy thing to get back. As the similar child star story continues to play out, the pain of being unloved as an adult is sometimes too much for them to handle. And Haim is just another story to add to the growing pile of stars who taken their own lives, consciously or accidentally. Haim is the reason I actually added a category Sadness to my blog, because you could see that deep down all the guy wanted to do was act and entertain the masses. He was not happy with addiction and was even more depressed by his lack of ability to truly kick what ended up taking his life. Hopefully, we can learn the proper way to treat people in this business, avoid tearing them down and learn that medicating does not always “fix” the problem. But I can only assume that this will not be the last sad story I need to recap on this blog. Little boy lost, Corey Haim will be greatly missed and I would like to personally thank him for bringing hours of entertainment to my life. Aloha Corey. And hopefully you can now truly rest.

Let’s remember him this way, shall we?

Ok, so you are paying attention now. Cause, I mean the rank dude from HACKERS won an Oscar folks. That can’t be undone. So then we raised hands with Mo’Nique, cause she won Best Supporting and doesn’t shave her legs and makes sexual and physical abuse look real. And then things got interesting…. well actually the Screenplay awards were given out before FISHER STEVENS WON and for Adapted Precious killed it and for Original The Hurt Locker confirmed its assault on Cameron’s career and genitals. Woohah (as blind Pacino would say). Ok so back to the awards we cared about. Best actor went to my first crush, Jeff Bridges, who repeated the same speech Ive heard since the Golden Globes, but still thanked his wife and kids and stand-in. LOVE IT. Also, he’s been doing various The Big Lebowski quotes and I will heart that forever.

Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for The Blind Side. I aint seen it, and I probably wont, but I am OK with her getting an award because she is pretty rad. She also looked beyond beautiful tonight, which cemented her win. Her mom was an opera singer in Germany and she had gum on her seat while Dennis Hopper was trying to blow her and the coach of Sparkle Motion up! Bullock deserved it as much, if more, as squinty eyed Zelleweger, frozen-face Kidman and hotties Berry & Theron – SO LETS MOVE ON.
And then the big one came. Since Barbra Streisand came out to deliver the Oscar for Best Director, I knew this was going to Kathryn Bigelow. ON A SERIOUS NOTE. I cried. I cried in a room with my mom and soon to be mom-in-law and felt what i feels like to wait for fucking evah for an award. Bigelow has been able to do what both men and women havent before her, deliver an action move with heart. And she has succeeded with it. She deserved it. And please don’t forget it.
Her acceptance speech thanked the powers that be that made the movie happen, as well as the troops that give up their lives and safety for us every day. So it was fitting that Tom Hanks ran up on stage and gave the award for Best Picture to The Hurt Locker. For its story, drama and feel, this move deserved to win. And I cant think of a better way to ringing in a monumental moment like this, with anyone else in the room.

More on the dresses, awards and whats to come tomorrow, but until then, thanks to Barbra, Bigelow, McDaniel and the rest of you amazing women, who have given me even a morsel of thinking this industry could welcome us with open arms. You made dreams official tonight. There are girls who will not question their motives, their love of cinema and will continue to provide America and the world with entertainment and dreams and comedy and fantasy and horror and anything that will make you forget your real life for 2 and a half hours.

Here’s the full list of the winners and we’ll check in with you tomorrow when the Pinot has wore off. I will get to the John Hughes/comedy respective tomorrow too. This needs my full non-snark attention.

Also, if you are a Southern California resident, you might want to check out the OK Go event at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this Friday. It will be an acoustic performance of the band, as well as a screening and discussion of the video.

Inspiring is a word I do not use lightly, but Ebert and his family are truly inspiring. As a self-proclaimed chatterbox and a person who has dealt with throat issues, my biggest fear is to have to remain quite and not let my voice be heard. Voicing opinions is a critics work and I can’t imagine the weight of losing that ability, so its amazing to watch Ebert regain some of his old self back. What a champion to have a smile throughout this ordeal. Don’t forget to check out the full interview today.

And I’m not surprised Regis doesn’t get it, responses seen throughout blog comments all over the net really bothered me, especially as a lady with tats. While some of the comments were in support of Ripa and discussing the lack of pain that comes along with wrist tattoos, there were a lot of comments disparaging her, the shop and sadly her marriage. First, the work was done by one of the best in the city and possibly the country when it comes to script (not being biased, being honest). Since they have been married for 14 years and have three kids, I can’t imagine that a name tattoo now would do damage to their marriage and I think its cute they would want to celebrate that way. And yes, name tattoos can be an unconscious curse on marriages, but I don’t that is the case for all of them. But that’s not what really bothered me. The disparaging comments on her as a person, and as a lady, is really what got to me. In 2010, are we still so ass backwards that we think a beautifully executed last name in script on a wrist means dirty, tacky or worse, slutty? I get that tattoos aren’t every one’s thing – I’m not saying that you have to love hers or mine for that matter. But I think you need to be able to respect an adults decision to do what they want with their own body. Tattoos do not make you anything other than who you already are. Most of us use them as a commerative piece, a way to immediately immortalize a time in your life and others just like the way they look with a permanent collection on them. And they do not go hand in hand with bad, naughty or indecent behavior, as some small minded people still seem to think. I wonder if Mark had gotten her name tattooed on him woukd the commentary and the tone of the backlash have been the same. For some reason, I highly doubt that.