The doors open into a cozy but crowded apartment. Little League pictures sit on top of shelves crammed with psychology books and the Torah. Colorful sets of keys collect on the hallway table along with five different cell phones. P.M. Dawn’s “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” is blaring from the CD player. There’s a glass vase on the window ledge filled with 50 colorful plastic dreidels. Two dogs, Lucky and Blue, make their way into the living room and settle within inches of each other on the hardwood floor—both with lazy morning yawns. Lucky’s leash is wrapped around his tummy, ever since his trachea was crushed. There’s an empty space where the television was and a set of bongos hiding out in the far corner.
“Where are my shoes?”
“Anybody seen my sunglasses?”
“We were supposed to leave 10 minutes ago.”
“Somebody still has to walk the dogs!”
“We are definitely going to be late.”
“Do you like this outfit?”
“Should I wear my hair up or down?”
“Let’s goooo!”
“Corey? Corey!”
This is the Friday morning scene at one-time teenage heartthrob Corey Haim’s Manhattan apartment that he shares with his unconventional family of housemates. Perhaps it’s more relaxed at their Atlantic Beach home. But I doubt it. I sit on the black leather couch as they chaotically buzz around me getting ready for Haim’s upcoming MTV News appearance.
The star, once famous for his roles in ’80s movies Lucas and The Lost Boys, is enjoying a rebirth of celebrity with the first season of his popular A&E TV show, The Two Coreys, a scripted reality show about Haim and his childhood best friend, and frequent co-star, Corey Feldman. Today Haim is preparing to meet the press—hence the hectic scene at his home base, which, by the way, would make for an even wackier reality show.
Haim shares an apartment with his mother Judy Haim, Daniel Newman, a budding actor and singer, Haim’s personal manager Alicia Gelernt and her street-smart, long-haired 8-year-old son, Isaiah. Not your average family for sure, but, oddly enough, their “family” dynamic is securely in place. Daniel, a star in his own right (he’s had recurring roles on NBC’s Surface and WB’s One Tree Hill) makes last-minute phone calls to confirm details about their car service. Gelernt, a shapely spitfire with curly brown hair, teeters between outfits while reminding the boys to leash the dogs. Frenetic, the close-knit bunch makes it out the door.
If I Can Make It There…
On this sunny Friday afternoon, Haim pounds the pavement of the concrete jungle, and I’m tagging along with him and his entourage to experience firsthand the remaking of a star.
“It’s a miracle that I am even alive. I should be dead for what I put my body and brain through,” says an energetic Haim. The once poster boy, then party boy, is working overtime to overhaul his tarnished image. He abused cocaine and other drugs for years; some call his saving grace the fact that he is allergic to alcohol. Now, it seems he’s turned a new leaf, ringing in just over four years of sobriety.
It makes perfect sense that Haim would choose New York City as his new hometown. He decided, and others agreed, that getting away from what Gelernt calls the celebrity “junkie lifestyle” of Hollywood and moving to the more “artsy” streets of Manhattan was the way to go. After his much-publicized drug use and subsequent weight gain (the 5-foot, 6-inch Haim ballooned to nearly 300 pounds), Haim and his mother, an Israeli native, moved from Los Angeles back to their hometown of Toronto.
“It was so important to keep Corey out of the limelight for a couple of years. We could be regular family back in Toronto,” says Judy with a slight accent.
When the time came to reemerge, Haim zeroed in on New York. With the wrap of The Two Coreys, Haim has been splitting his time between an Upper West Side apartment and a beach house on Long Island’s South Shore in Atlantic Beach. He’s even tried to adapt his own version of a New York accent, taking cues from one of his neighbors he calls “a real New Yawk guy.”
Judging The Book…
The phrase of the day was “preconceived notions.” The term peppered everyone’s conversations all day long. For a family once embroiled in tabloid scandal, Haim and his mother might surprise you with their honesty and openness. And in this season of Britney and Lindsay tabloid overload—here’s one story about a celebrity on the mend.