The Leahy Lounge

Which 80s TV and film star's career has hit the skids because of a
decade-long addiction to drugs? None other than Marty McHigh himself, Michael J. Fox! Rumor has it that the only J. this Michael enjoys these days is a "J"oint. Fans first started noticing the erratic behavior of this 80s teen heartthrob during his star-making turn on Family Ties (more like "Family Highs"!), where Michael starred as Alex P. Keaton, the Republican son of hippie parents. Inside sources from the (cleaning) crew on the set said that Mr. Fox was so obsessed with being high all the time that he required a specially made "drug sandwich" every day for lunch. Towards the end of the run, years of drug consumption began to affect Mr. Fox's onscreen performance. His obsessive hand-through-the-hair brooding and plaintive voice-cracked cries of "Mallory" may have seemed like the height of hijinkery to us, but how could we have known that they were actually a cry for help from a tweaked-out drugger?

Since the 80s, Mr. Fox has kept a relatively low profile while he has battled his demons (with little success, I might add). He scored a brief comeback in the late 90s with Spin City, but it was clear from watching the program that even a few seconds on screen, away from his sweet, precious drugs, were enough to induce the withdrawal shakes in this human drug cigarette. Relegated to doing voiceover work, where no one could see the constant tremors of withdrawal, Mr. Fox voiced the title role in the movie Stuart Little (Big Surprise! A movie about a tiny talking mouse appealed to this drugged-out king of drugland!). Over the last few years, Mr. Fox has receded from the spotlight, only doing an occasional interview or testifying before congress about the evils of drug use, which Mr. Fox euphemistically refers to as "Parkinson's Disease" (I'd wager that Mr. Parkinson is the pizza delivery boy who delivers to Fox and his stoner friends at 3am on a Friday night, when they are baked out of their minds watching Tommy Boy and playing NBA Live 2006! Either that, or his dealer!).

What's next for Michael J. Fox? Rumor has it that he is working on a special "Drug Pillow" which will enable him to get high even while he sleeps.