I know, I know, another blog that doesn’t have anything to do with being a Stay-At-Home-Mom, but I’ve got something on my mind and I thought maybe if I wrote something about it, it would finally give me some peace. Do you ever have those times where you get fixated on something so trivial and yet, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t stop thinking about it? I’m having one of those moments.
This all started a little more than a week ago, after flipping through nearly 500 channels, I settled on “The Two Corey’s” on A&E. For those of you unfamiliar with this “reality” show, it is based on the reemerging careers of Corey Feldman and Corey Haim who rose to stardom in the 80’s with movies such as The Lost Boys, Dream a Little Dream, and Licensed to Drive. Corey Feldman just happens to be in one of my all-time favorite movies, Stand By Me, and Corey Haim was in another favorite, Lucas. Both Corey’s hit a series of rough patches in their careers and both have battled drug and alcohol dependencies. This series was supposed to be how they have come clean and reconciled their friendship, and are now hoping to gain back a little of the fame they experienced a couple of decades ago.
I’m hung up on this because I met Corey Haim in the Spring of 1996. I was a freshman at Carthage College (prior to my transfer to UIC). For whatever reason, a film crew decided that our campus would be a great place to film a horror movie. The movie was called Fever Lake. If there is anyone in the world that has seen this movie, you ought to win some sort of prize. Corey Haim and Mario Lopez of Saved By the Bell fame, were the two stars of this picture, and both were seen around our campus quite often. I wasn’t so impressed by Mario as I was never a Saved By the Bell fan, but I was intent on meeting Corey Haim. I’d try to find out where they were filming and I had heard rumors that he liked to play pool at Woh’s Place, our on-campus “dry” bar. I never saw him down there, but I knew eventually I’d have to meet him.
The day finally came. I was leaving our student center, the TWC, as it was known on campus. It was during a regular class period, one that I was lucky enough not to have, so I was in the center getting my mail. As I was leaving the building, there he was, entering through the same set of doors I was just about to open. Not knowing exactly what to do, I held the door open for him. He stopped me and said “Now don’t you think I should be the one opening the door for you darling?” Did Corey Haim just call me “Darling”? Should I answer him? Tell him I loved “Lucas”? Come on Niki, say something, anything, don’t just stand there like the big dork you are. “Um, yeah I guess you should.” Brilliant Niki, just brilliant.
Here’s where it gets good. My eyes were darting back and forth wondering why in the heck there wasn’t a single person coming in or leaving the busiest building on campus. Why was no one witnessing my encounter with a celebrity? Corey then held the second door open for me and when I turned back to say something, he kissed me on the cheek. OH MY GOD Corey Haim kissed me! Again, where in the heck was a witness? I stood there completely stunned and told him “Thank you” and then I walked out. That was it. Was I thanking him for holding the door open or for kissing me?
Why more than 12 years later am I still thinking about that moment? Did I have something more to say to him? Should I have turned back around and kissed him “movie style”? Maybe I could have made out with Corey Haim right there in the TWC; too bad I wasn’t that kind of girl.
I think the real reason I’m thinking so much about this is because of just how horrible he looked on the new show. I realize that he didn’t look so great back in 1996 either. He reeked of cigarette smoke, had dark circles under his eyes, bad skin, and a really nasty gold-cross earring (I had a thing about guys with earrings back then). He wasn’t cute, innocent Corey Haim from Lucas, he was in the midst of his drug addiction and it’s quite possible he was too stoned to realize what he had just said or done. That pains me, because this was a young man of tremendous talent and potential who spent the middle part of his career making a low-budget horror flick on the campus of a small, private Liberal Arts college. I’m sure he wasn’t thinking he’d end up there when he was making millions off The Lost Boys.
I watched the show with sadness and an aching sensation that I really do hope that he gets his life in order; that he gets clean once and for all, and that maybe one day, if we ever meet again, I’ll know the right things to say to him and will even give him a little kiss back.