Entertainment
1980s teen heart-throb Corey Haim longs for the glory days of his failing career, when his name was a still regular feature in “not hot” lists. “I’d love to go to the opening of an envelope these days, but the invites aren’t coming in like they used to,” says the co-star of Snowboard Academy and Prayer of the Rollerboys.
Only a few years ago Haim divided his time between telemovie auditions, personal testimonials for Tai-Bo, and the ever-demanding remnants of his fan club. Now the former child-star spends his days at home, poring over old newspaper reviews savaging his 1989 biopic Me, Myself and I. “I really miss that decade or so after The Lost Boys, where my career started to hit the skids,” says Haim. “I was finished in Hollywood, but still a presence on TV – 'Where Are They Now?' specials, late night comedy show punchlines, even the occasional telethon appearance. If someone had said – ‘all this D-list fame won’t last forever’, I would have made more of it.”The thirty-four year old longs for the cachet of being a washed-up youth icon again. “It’s the little things that I miss,” says Haim. “Being used as an example of the perils of exploitative child stardom; reading a throwaway line in a magazine calling me ‘the poor man’s Corey Feldman’. Sure, it hurt, but in a good way – not like having an autograph handed back hurts.”
Haim says that he now hopes his fortunes will be resurrected by an ironic viral internet campaign. “It worked for Hasslehoff, so why not me?” says Haim. “Although the animated “Haimster Dance” I paid for doesn’t seem to have hit tipping point yet.”
Haim is currently binge-eating in a last-ditch attempt to appear on Celebrity Makeover.