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By Ed Flynn and Charles Bowles Lights, Camera, Bankruptcy! Filings by Celebrities: The Fairly Complete List “There is no such thing as notoriety in the United Keating, Bob Guccione, singing groups TLC States these days, let alone infamy. Celebrity is all.” and Shenandoah, Melvin Belli, etc.); — Christopher Hitchens1 • debtors who filed prior to 1984 (e.g., Tom Petty, Larry King, Meat Loaf, Cyndi Lauper, prior Bankruptcy by the Numbers column Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye, Vic Damone, etc.); discussed bankruptcy filings by prominent • people who probably filed for bankruptcy, A professional athletes.2 In this article, we but we could not determine the year of filing identify personal filings by non-athlete “celebrities” (e.g., Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, Barbara Bel who have filed during the last 30 years. Geddes of “Dallas,” financial counselor Dave The Internet has numerous articles and lists of Ramsey, etc.); famous people who have filed for bankruptcy.3 The • people who almost certainly did not file for articles seem to proliferate in the days and weeks bankruptcy, even though someone reported that Ed Flynn after a new celebrity filing. The lists of bankruptcy they had filed;5 and ABI; Alexandria, Va. filings by celebrities are not always accurate, how- • debtors who do not quite qualify as celebrities ever. Some journalists use the term “bankrupt” (based on our subjective judgment). loosely to indicate a foreclosure, tax lien, reposses- sion or other financial difficulty. In fact, some celeb- The Jacksons rities have referred to themselves as “bankrupt” An examination of the bankruptcy history of even though there is no indication that they ever Jackson and the people around him might actually filed for personal bankruptcy. To confirm help explain how we developed our list of celeb- an individual bankruptcy, we looked for contempo- rity bankruptcy filings. In addition to many reports rary news articles or reports with sufficient detail to that Michael himself filed, there are numerous indicate that the case had in fact been filed. reports of eight other cases being filed by people Charles Bowles The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines closely affiliated with him, including his parents, ABI; Alexandria, Va. “celebrity” as “the state of being famous or celebrat- 6 4 Katherine and Joe; second ex-wife, ; ed,” or “a person who is famous.” In this article, sister LaToya; brothers Jermaine, Tito and Randy; Ed Flynn is a we rely on how well-known a person is, rather than personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray; and der- consultant with ABI on individual achievement. Some members on the matologist, Dr. Arnie Klein. As best as we can and serves as a celebrity debtor list have been in the public eye for determine, here are the facts: coordinating editor decades, while some were famous for only a short • never filed for bankruptcy; for the ABI Journal. period of time. A few members on the list are main- He previously • Katherine and filed in 1999; ly known for a single moment of fame or infamy. • Debbie Rowe filed in 1989, well before she worked for more So where do we draw the line? This has to be than 30 years at the met Michael Jackson; Executive Office for arbitrary to some extent. To make this list, the debt- • LaToya Jackson filed in 1995; U.S. Trustees and or had to have achieved some level of national fame • Randy Jackson filed in 1989; the Administrative or notoriety for at least a brief period of time. As a • Tito Jackson filed in 1999; Office of the U.S. starting point, we conducted numerous Google and • Jermaine Jackson has never filed for bankruptcy; Courts. Charles database searches looking for filings by celebrities • Dr. Conrad Murray filed in 1992, before he had Bowles is a staff or famous people. The initial listing contained near- any association with Michael Jackson; and assistant with ABI ly 200 names. To weed this list down, we eliminated and writes for a • Dr. Arnie Klein filed in 2011. the following: That gives us seven Michael Jackson-related fil- national sports • debtors who had filed in another country (e.g., website on college ings. But would all of these debtors be considered basketball. Richard Harris, Gary Glitter, Ray Winstone and “celebrities”? Four of the filings were by his parents Kerry Ketona, all of whom filed in England); 5 Perhaps the most widely reported of these is an alleged filing by Willie Nelson in 1990. • debtors with a business rather than a person- Although he had major tax liabilities and was forced to sell many of his possessions, it al bankruptcy (e.g., Donald Trump, Charles does not appear that he ever filed a bankruptcy case. See Robert Draper, “Poor Willie” Texas Monthly, May 1991, available at www.texasmonthly.com/story/poor-willie (last 1 Christopher Hitchens, For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports (London visited July 25, 2014). Other purported bankruptcy filings that almost certainly did not Verso, 1993). happen include entertainer Ed McMahon, singer Chaka Khan, actor/rapper Katt Williams 2 See Ed Flynn, “Bankrupt Professional Athletes,” XXXIII ABI Journal 4, 52-53, 92, April 2014, and David Olsen (father of the Olsen twins). available at journal.abi.org/content/bankrupt-professional-athletes (log-in required). 6 Debbie Rowe is also the mother of two of Michael Jackson’s children, Paris and Prince Michael. 3 Many of these lists of celebrity filers land the reader on a website for a bankruptcy attorney. 4 See “Celebrity,” www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/celebrity (last visited July 25, 2014). continued on page 74

38 September 2014 ABI Journal Notable Celebrity Filings over the Last 30 Years

Actors Musicians (con’t.) Name Filing Year(s) Notoriety Name Filing Year(s) Notoriety Stephen Baldwin 2009 “Born on the Fourth of July” David Crosby 1985 Member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Kim Basinger 1993 “Nine 1/2 Weeks” Mick Fleetwood 1984 Member of Fleetwood Mac Robert Blake 2006 “Baretta”; also acquitted in 2005 of killing his wife Andy Gibb 1987 Singer; non-Bee Gees member; died in 1988 Lorraine Bracco 1999 “The Sopranos” Ronald Isley 1997 Member of The Isley Brothers Gary Burghoff 1991 “M*A*S*H” Alvin Joiner 2009 and 2010 Rapper known as “Xzibit” Gary Busey 2012 “The Buddy Holly Story” Jerry Lee Lewis 1988 Sang “Great Balls of Fire” Tia Carrere 1986 “Wayne’s World” Melba Moore 1993 Singer and actress Nell Carter 1995 and 2002 “Gimme a Break”; died in 2003 Debelah Morgan 1999 Sang “Dance With Me” Barry Corbin 2010 “Northern Exposure” Vince Neil 1998 Member of Mötley Crüe Cathy Lee Crosby 1992 “That’s Incredible” host Wayne Newton 1992 Singer and entertainer Donna Derrico 2014 “” Earl Simmons 2013 Rapper known as “DMX” Gary Dourdan 2011 “CSI” Dionne Warwick 2013 Singer and actress; Psychic Friends Network Nicole Eggert 2012 and 2013 “Baywatch” Tionne Watkins 2011 Member of TLC known as “T-Boz” Zsa Zsa Gabor 1993 “Moulin Rouge”; Miss Hungary 1936 Country Music Artists Elizabeth Gracen 1999 “Highlander”; also Miss America 1982 David Allan Coe 1985 Wrote “Take This Job and Shove It” Sherman Hemsley 1999 “The Jeffersons”; died in 2012 Donna Fargo 1991 Sang “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA” Michael Jace 2011 “The Shield” Merle Haggard 1992 Co-wrote and sang “Okie from Miscogee” Richard Jaeckel 1994 “3:10 to Yuma”; died in 1997 Ty Herndon 2004 Sang “What Mattered Most” Grace Jones 1986 “Conan the Destroyer” Sammy Kershaw 2007 Sang “Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer” Margot Kidder 1992 “Superman” Donald Eugene Lytle 1990 Known as “Johnny Paycheck”; died in 2003 Lorenzo Lamas 2004 and 2014 “Falcon Crest” Mindy McCready 1997 Sang “Ten Thousand Angels”; died in 2013 Mekhi Phifer 2014 “ER” Eddie Montgomery 2014 Member of Montgomery Gentry Terri Polo 2014 “Meet the Fockers” Lorrie Morgan 2008 Singer who has been married six times Randy Quaid 2000 “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” Dottie West 1990 Sang “Are You Happy Baby?”; died in 1991 Lynn Redgrave 1994 “Georgy Girl”; died in 2010 Tammy Wynette 1988 Sang “Stand By Your Man”; died in 1998 Burt Reynolds 1996 “Smokey and the Bandit” Other Celebrities/Notable Debtors Debbie Reynolds 1997 “Singin’ in the Rain” David Adkins 2009 Comedian known as “Sinbad” Kelly Rutherford 2013 “Gossip Girl” Tony Alamo 1994 Founder of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Tom Sizemore 2005 “Saving Private Ryan” Casey Anthony 2013 Acquitted in 2011 of murdering her daughter Wesley Snipes 2006 “White Men Can’t Jump” John Bobbitt 1993 Involuntary penectomy victim in 1993 Hunter Tylo 2011 “The Bold and the Beautiful” Peter Bogdanovitch 1985 and 1997 Director of “The Last Picture Show” and “Mask” The Series “The Real Housewives of....” John Connally 1987 Former Texas governor; died in 1993 Teresa Guidice 2009 New Jersey series Dr. Denton Cooley 1988 Heart transplant surgeon Lisa Wu Hartwell 2007 Atlanta series John DeLorean 1999 Founder of DeLorean Motor Co.; died in 2005 Tammy Knickerbocker 2000 Orange County series Janice Dickinson 2013 Self-proclaimed “First Supermodel” Sonja Morgan 2010 New York series Morton Downey, Jr. 1990 Talk show host; died in 2001 Danielle Staub 2012 New Jersey series Heidi Fleiss 1999 Hollywood madam who was arrested in 1993 Peggy Tanous 2013 Orange County series Bernhard Goetz 1996 Subway vigilante Child Stars Abraham Gosman 2001 Nursing home magnate; died in 2013 Wille Aames 2008 “Eight Is Enough” Mike Gravel 2004 Former senator from Alaska Drake Bell 2014 “Drake & Josh” Arsenio Hall 2008 Talk show host Gary Coleman 1999 “Diff’rent Strokes”; died in 2010 Ruben Hinojosa 2010 Texas congressman Leif Garrett 2001 “The Outsiders”; also a 1970s teen pop idol; Vickie Lynn Hogan 1996 Personality best known as Anna Nicole Smith later infamous for drug and legal problems and for Stern v. Marshall; died in 2007 1997 “The Lost Boys”; died in 2010 E. Howard Hunt 1995 CIA officer; Watergate “plumber”; died in 2007 Reality TV Stars Nelson Bunker Hunt 1998 Oil company executive Aaron Buerge 2011 “The Bachelor” season 2 Eli Jacobs 1993 Former owner of the Baltimore Orioles Todd Chrisley 2012 “Chrisley Knows Best” Mario Lavandeira, Jr. 2005 Blogger known as “Perez Hilton” Keith Famie 1997 “Survivor: The Australian Outback” Bernard Kerik 1987 Former New York police commissioner Clay Jordan 2001 “Survivor: Thailand” Robert Kiyosaki 2012 Author of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series Abby Lee Miller 2010 “Dance Moms” Suge Knight 2006 Producer; Death Row Records co-founder John Ray 2012 “Property Wars” Gary Kurtz 1985 Producer of “American Graffiti” Brady Williams 2014 “My Five Wives” Marjorie Mezevinsky 2000 Chelsea Clinton’s mother-in-law Musicians Marvin Mitchelson 1993 Celebrity divorce lawyer; died in 2004 Jay Black 2006 Member of Jay and the Americans Pat Paulson 1990 Comedian; died in 1997 Toni Braxton 1998 and 2010 Sang “Unbreak My Heart” Peter Popoff 1987 Televangelist was exposed as a fraud in the 1980s David Brown 2010 Rapper known as “Young Buck” of G-Unit Susan Powter 1995 Nutrition and fitness expert Anita Bryant 1997 Singer; Miss Oklahoma 1958; activist Noreen Renier 2007 Psychic detective Stanley Burrell 1996 Rapper known as “MC Hammer” Dick Smothers 2010 Comedian; member of the “Smothers Brothers” Luther Campbell 1995 Member of 2 Live Crew Nadya Suleman 2012 Known as “Octomom” for birth of octuplets in 2009 Aaron Carter 2013 Sang “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)” J. Fife Symington 1995 Former governor of Arizona Natalie Cole 1997 Singer; daughter of Nat King Cole Randall Terry 1998 Activist; founder of Operation Rescue

ABI Journal September 2014 39 Bankruptcy by the Numbers: Lights, Camera, Bankruptcy! from page 38 and siblings. They were all somewhat known at the time they fall into a financial ring of fire that leads to the bankruptcy filed, so they definitely qualify. His ex-wife and Dr. Murray courthouse. Quite the country song. were unknown at the time they filed for bankruptcy, but did become well known later on as a result of their connection to The Real Housewives the late King of Pop, so they barely make the list. Since 2006, the Bravo Network has aired seven different The filing by his dermatologist stretches the limits of “Real Housewives” series,9 which have spawned at least nine celebrity, so he does not make our final cut. Therefore, for spinoff shows. A total of 67 women have been cast members, Michael Jackson-related filings, we have drawn the celebrity of which at least six have filed personal bankruptcy cases — cutoff line somewhere between his personal doctor and his a 9 percent filing rate among the Housewives. There have dermatologist. Examples of other former debtors who did also been filings by at least five other Housewives spouses not make the list include Lynne Spears (mother of Britney or businesses, which are not included in the celebrity list. Spears), Dr. Michael Kamrava (Octomom’s fertility doctor), Natalie Hawkins (mother of gymnast Gabrielle Douglas) and Oksana Grigorieva (Mel Gibson’s ex-girlfriend). Other Reality TV Stars Reality television has proliferated over the last 15 years,10 catapulting many people into minor (and sometimes tempo- A Closer Look rary) celebrity status. The participants on these shows may By our calculations, there are a total of 124 celebrities achieve fame, but they generally earn far less than actors on on the list who have filed for bankruptcy in the last 30 years, traditional scripted shows. Surprisingly, we found only seven 19 of whom have since died. Seven of these celebrities have non-“Housewives” reality actors who had filed,11 and two of filed more than once. There are many reasons behind the fil- these cases were filed before the debtors appeared on TV. ings of the people on this list, which include overspending, divorce, legal issues, contract disputes, investments and declining income due to fading celebrity. Nonentertainers Occasionally, a well-known individual (one who is not in the sports or entertainment industry) files a bankruptcy case. Celebrity Categories About one-fifth of the celebrity debtors fall into this cate- Most members of the celebrity bankruptcy list are in the gory, and the ones identified in the table are quite a diverse entertainment industry and are predominately actors and musi- mix. They include five businessmen, four politicians, two cians. In our listing, we have carved out several groups of enter- evangelists and six people who achieved sudden notoriety. tainers that seem to be worthy of special mention. In addition, Perhaps the most common link among this group is that 12 there are a number of nonentertainers listed (e.g., businessmen, of them have faced criminal charges at some point. politicians, etc.) who have managed to both achieve some level of fame and file for bankruptcy, as shown in the table. Discussion How complete is this list? While we have tried to identify Country Music Stars every celebrity filing, there is no doubt that we have come up A surprising number of country musicians have filed short. Celebrities come and go, and undoubtedly some have (see the table for a brief list), and they comprise about 10 managed to file while avoiding the media spotlight. percent of the total celebrity filings. If art mirrors life, then There is no definitive count of the total number of these artists’ financial woes would make for an interesting 7 celebrities, but there might be more than 10,000 in the country song. Many of these country music artists have U.S. The celebrity bankruptcy filing rate is about 1 per- similar stories of how they fell on their financial blues. cent, clearly well below that of the general population,12 The artists start off simply until they hit it rich with a which is not surprising because most celebrities have popular single or a fortunate string of luck. However, their incomes that are well above average. As is the case for new fortune blinds them, and they begin to make poor bankrupt athletes, most bankruptcy attorneys will never personal and business decisions through weak investments have a celebrity client — unless “The Real Housewives” and bad business partnerships. As their popularity fades, come to town. abi their income goes down, down, down and the debt flames grow higher, and then they are burned by their creditors, 9 These include “The Real Housewives” of Orange County, New Jersey, New York, Atlanta, Miami and Beverly Hills. Some purists do not count “The Real Housewives” of Washington, D.C., which ran for only the Internal Revenue Service and others. They lose their one season. See Joe Reid, Philp Bump, Alexander Abad-Santos and Allie Jones, “A Definitive Ranking fortunes, spouses,8 vehicles, maybe even their dogs, and of Every ‘Real Housewife’ Ever,” The Wire, March 10, 2014, available at www.thewire.com/entertain- ment/2014/03/definitive-ranking-every-real-housewife/358890/ (last visited July 25, 2014). 7 David Allan Coe, one of the country music artists who has filed for bankruptcy, also recorded what many 10 For example, more than 20 reality TV shows have been set in Alaska. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ consider to be the perfect country western song, “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” lyrics by Category:Television_shows_set_in_Alaska (last visited July 25, 2014). Steve Goodman: “Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison/And I went to pick her up in the 11 This excludes “The Real Housewives” and debtors who had achieved fame prior to appearing on a reality series. rain/But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck/She got runned over by a damned old train.” 12 As noted in an earlier article, about 10 percent of the general adult population has filed for bankruptcy in 8 The 11 country western stars on our list have been married a total of 35 times. the last 25 years. See supra n.2. Copyright 2014 American Bankruptcy Institute. 74 September 2014 Please contact ABI at (703) 739-0800 for reprint permission. ABI Journal