Driven to distraction

Today I shall write about something that I don't have a lot of info about but, I shall comment on anyway. Perusing the sports section this morning, I saw a pic of former actress and child star, Amanda Bynes, who is all growed up now, looking good and, sadly, in trouble with the law. It seems she has a problem with drinking and driving. She was in the sports section because she's a cutie (the Sun Times likes to include pretty women on that particular page) and, for some reason, crazy b-ball announcer, Dick Vitale, had seen fit to make a comment about her. Thus, the six degrees of separation to sports.

When she was a kid, Amanda was on a popular show my kids liked. I watched a bit of it and thought she was quite talented and had a good sense of comedic timing. One troubling thing (just to me, I guess) was that a lot of her comedy and characters seemed to be built on old time comedians like Lucille Ball. This smacked of stage parents to me. I guessed that mom and/or dad pushed these archaic influences on her that might be funny to the kids but, the kids wouldn't know why. It's like old Warner Brothers cartoons were funny to us but, written at a grown up level. Rocky & Bullwinkle is a classic example. My young Ferrerman self enjoyed it when my avatar pic was taken. My older Ferrerman self gets it now. The humor is timeless if not ageless.

As much as I know about her career, Amanda went on to have a series as a young adult. I can't remember the name but, she had an empty-headed sister who caused hilarity to ensue. Then, she retired from show biz. What actors ever retire? They stop getting work all the time but, who retires? I could google but, she's gotta be early twenties. Had she made so much dough she quit to raise kids and have a normal life?

I don't know what happened to her. I cheated and took a look at Wiki and her retirement was short-lived. She un-retired a month or so later. We all know that child stardom is a weird way to grow up. Many get ripped off by parents/managers and, one day you're not the Beaver any more and Hollywood discovers that's all you were really good at, as it turned out. Drugs and drinking might ensue.

Former Cub great, Mark Grace, was in the news today too. He drives like Amanda does. He used to drive balls all over Wrigley Field  not that long ago, a damn good contact hitter who rarely struck out. He had the strength to hit home runs which is what first basemen are generally paid to do but, he hit for average and drove in runs. I prefer that to 30-40 homers and 150 strikeouts. WGN cameras used to catch him sneaking smokes when the Cubs were in the dugout. Gracie, as we all called him, is a *guy*. He had a beautiful wife who left him for actor Ray Liotta of "Goodfellas" fame. The tramp wanted to be an actress herself but, that didn't happen.

Grace was already in trouble for one DUI and his latest was compounded by his not having a DUI lockout device on his ignition. There may be some jail time for this. It's a damn shame.

Both these people were once in the spotlight and shone brightly, in their time. No surprise though that once one is famous for having formerly been famous, life might be a bit weirder, a little tougher to handle. My heart goes out to anyone who has a drug or alcohol problem. It truly does not discriminate amongst the social strata's. I wish them both well. If nothing else- stay home and drink or call a cab when you go out. Gracie is retired from baseball and currently suspened from his job as a color man for the Arizona Diamondbacks where he wound up his career. I hope he can return to that next season. I hope Amanda can rebound and be the actress I once thought she might be. The role of troubled partygirl  belongs to Lindsay Lohan, another cute kid who had trouble adjusting to the grownup stuff. Welcome to our world...