The parents of Andrew Koenig, 41, who starred as Richard "Boner" Stabone on the late '80s sitcom "Growing Pains" reported him missing after he failed to return home to California from Vancouver and they received a distressing note from him. "He sounded despondent," his father, Walter Koenig, told People. "Nobody has seen this [note] but my wife and I." The elder Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek TV shows, says he and his wife received the note Feb. 16, two days after Andrew missed his flight home. "He went to visit some
friends in Toronto and after there, he went to Vancouver," where he had lived for several years and felt comfortable, says his father. Drugs were not an issue, says Koenig, adding that his son's problem is "something that has been a part of his makeup for a long time. There’s no single trauma. There’s no episode." Koenig told TMZ that his son had been suffering from depression and was "not doing good" in the days leading up to his disappearance. Celebs who have expressed their concern via Twitter messages include Alyssa Milano, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Smith and Doug Benson.
Travis Barker got into a confrontation with paparazzi outside a restaurant and police were called, says TMZ, but police refused to comment on the exact nature of the complaint. Barker, drummer for Blink-182 and now the sole survivor of the September 2008 plane crash that killed all on board except himself and DJ AM, was entering a Calabasas eatery with his daughter when he confronted a photographer from x17 online who asked him, "Why are you speeding?" An 8-minute video shot by paparazzi apparently after Barker left the restaurant shows a profanity-filled clash between Barker and several pals and paparazzi in which one photographer's phone was temporarily taken and he alleged that his car's tires were slashed. Police took a vandalism report but made no arrests.
Reports that Jon Voight has reconciled with his long-estranged daughter Angelina Jolie were proven true on Saturday when the two were photographed together, left
-- along with Brad Pitt and several of their children. Voight joined the
Pitt-Jolie family for a trip down Venice's Grand Canal, and were photographed as they were entering one of the city's famous water taxis. The family has been
touring the Italian city, where Jolie is preparing to star opposite
Johnny Depp in "The Tourist." It's the first time Voight and Jolie have appeared in public together in several years.
Racist hate mail written to "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino has resulted in beefed-up security around the Los Angeles Pantages Theater, where she is appearing in "The Color Purple." The letter that alarmed Barrino contained racial slurs and the line, "go back where you came from and die." TMZ reports that the writer claims he worked as a security guard for Fox while Fantasia was on "Idol." A report was made to police and Fantasia has been taking extra precautions, the source says, but she also said, "I will not be defeated by one isolated person's hatred."
Adrian Pasdar, the husband of Dixie Chick Natalie Maines and who played Senator Nathan Petrelli on "Heroes," now faces a charge of DUI as a result of his arrest last month in L.A. Padar was pulled over for doing 90 on the 405 Freeway on Jan. 27. Pasdar was given a field sobriety test, then released on $15,000 bail. He's due back in court on Wednesday.
Dakota Fanning will be 16 on Tuesday, so she celebrated a few days early by hosting 40 guests at the fancy Beverly Hills restaurant Villa Blanca, an eyewitness tells E! News. The dinner party to honor the "New Moon" star went from 7 to 11 p.m. and included parents, family and several friends, a source told E. "She looked like she was having fun and was really cool," the source says of Fanning, who did not bring a date. "She was talking to her friends and laughing all night."
Brooke Mueller's mom Moira Fiore said her daughter was in a spa, not rehab after she was released from the hospital in late January after treatment for pneumonia. But Mueller did check into drug rehab at the Canyon rehab center in Malibu immediately after the Feb. 8 court hearing in her husband Charlie Sheen's assault case and is now, according to a source, "doing very well." The source told EOnline, that "ever since Aspen," when Mueller called police on Sheen after a physical altercation on Christmas Day, "she's been committed to getting herself in shape by getting healthy again and going to a rehab to continue her regimen with her sobriety." Both Sheen and Mueller, who have been treated for drug and alcohol addiction in the past, had been drinking alcohol before the Christmas Day fight. Mueller sees her children with Sheen, 10-month-old twins Max and Bob, daily at the rehab center.
-- Anne Neville
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