Once the charming and mischievous star of the highly successful Home Alone movies, he is now quite different.
Macaulay Culkin, who is now 31, appeared disheveled and emaciated while greeting fans in New York on Wednesday.
Looking gaunt with his messy hair and straggly goatee beard, he was seen sipping an energy drink.
Moreover, he canceled his scheduled monthly deejay gig last night at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City’s West Village.
‘He comes here pretty often and is around all the time,’ shared an employee from the club.
‘Something came up tonight, and he couldn’t make it.’
Nonetheless, his spokesperson assures the public that there’s no cause for alarm, stating: ‘Macaulay Culkin is in perfectly good health.’
His current appearance starkly contrasts with the adorable young boy who became internationally famous as the cheeky Kevin McCallister in the beloved family film from 1990.
Once Hollywood’s premier child star, Culkin was able to command a staggering $6 million per film by the time he featured in 1994’s Richie Rich.
However, facing many challenges, the young actor experienced several personal tragedies, including the loss of his sister Dakota in a car accident and his half-sister Jennifer Adamson to a drug overdose.
His career took a downturn amid a complicated financial dispute involving his parents, Christopher Culkin and Patricia Brentup.
In 1998, a judge dismissed his father, who was also his manager, assigning control of his substantial fortune to an accountant until Culkin turned 18.
After a break from acting, he made his return to the film scene in 2000.
However, none of the films he has worked on since have even come close to the success of the Home Alone franchise.
‘I’m the most out-of-work actor I know,’ he has remarked at one point.
In 2004, while a passenger in a car that was stopped by police, he was found with over half an ounce of marijuana and various Xanax tablets, a prescription drug for treating depression and panic disorders.
He entered a guilty plea for misdemeanor possession charges of marijuana and medication without a prescription.
He received a one-year deferred sentence for each charge and was ordered to pay $540 in fees.
In 1998, he tied the knot with actress Rachel Miner, but their marriage ended in divorce in 2002.
He later dated Mila Kunis, the star of Black Swan, for eight years before they parted ways in 2010.
During his youth, he shared a famously close bond with Michael Jackson and even provided testimony in defense of the late singer during his child-molestation trial in 2005.
Taking the stand, he strongly denied any allegations of inappropriate behavior or touching during his stays at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.
He was among the attendees at the King of Pop’s funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in September 2009.
Rumors suggest he may star in the forthcoming British military film Service Man, which is scheduled for release next year.
by Helena Bryanlith