Sooooo, very true.
I'm not going to lie -- I haven't paid attention to Corey Haim for years. I was only vaguely aware of his drug troubles and related health problems, and I didn't watch 'The Two Coreys.' I was amused to see his Variety ad last year -- the one where he said he was ready to work again -- the way you feel when an ex you remember fondly does something stupid but sweet. And that's why his sudden death was such a punch to the gut; no matter how long Corey's been off my radar, he was my first love.
It's not like I knew him personally. My first real love, a few years later, was a nice boy from the next high school over -- a boy with floppy hair who, if I'm being honest with myself, strongly resembled 'License to Drive'-era Corey. But every generation has the stars that little girls harbor secret fantasies of marrying, and while today's kids are planning weddings with Justin Bieber and Nick Jonas, I was walking down the aisle with Corey Haim.
I had plenty of choices. Tiger Beat was littered with collectible, detachable posters of River Phoenix, any number of New Kids and Haim's co-star/partner-in-crime, Corey Feldman. At 11, it's not that I was immune to their charms. No red-blooded tween could resist the non-threatening dimples of a teenaged Kirk Cameron. But Haim was the perfect imaginary boyfriend for a sort-of shy, sort-of awkward little girl.
He was just a hair younger than the rest -- actually, he was only five years older than me. Where Kirk Cameron had the curly hair and winning smile of any yearbook's 'Most Popular,' Haim always carried a bit of his gawky, underdog 'Lucas' into every role. Insofar as a sixth grader has a league, he seemed to be in it -- or at least as much in my league as I could make myself believe in my daydreams.
Both he and Corey Feldman, in and out of the many movies they appeared in together, seemed more counterculture than the other heartthrobs -- a little weirder, a little more like real teenagers. Haim had the edge, of course, because he was the cute one.
I feel deeply sad that no one was able to save Corey Haim from his addictions, because he was a human being and the death of a 38-year-old man is a tragic waste. On another level, I'm kissing goodbye the memory of 16-year-old Corey, the boy I was going to marry in my wildest, most impossible childhood dreams.
thatvoodoochick
