Is Adam Rich dead? If you read the cover story of Might magazine,
"To Live and Die in L.A., Adam Rich, 1968-1996," you might think the
former child star of ABC's mid-1970s family series, "Eight Is Enough,"
really is gone. There's even a retrospective of his TV and film work,
an unfinished masterwork ("The Squatter Project"), a "last" interview
and a viable death story: An "unemployed dinner theater stagehand" shot
him three times in the chest during a robbery attempt.
Many of Rich's friends and former co-stars, from his TV sister Susan Richardson to Heather Locklear weighed in with tributes. But some were more distraught about his passing than others.
"He scared me. Scared me bad," actor Ralph Macchio (Karate Kid)
told Christopher Pelham-Fence. "I'm glad he's dead."
Certainly sounds dead. But he's not. The story is an elaborate hoax, using a young actor's bad reputation as a vehicle for parodying the media and the general public's overkill response to tragedies such as the deaths of River Phoenix, Kurt Cobain and Shannon Moon. There is even a Courtney Love-like role, played by "Allison Hughes, Rich's girlfriend of the last three weeks of his life." She urged fans at a "memorial/rally/barbecue on Venice Beach" to be strong in Rich's absence. "Nobody has any sense of irony," complains Lance Crapo, associate publisher of Might. "And Adam started getting calls from people who were crying. I can't believe anyone would take this seriously!"
Rich, who participated in the scam, is a regular name in many "Dead Pools" where ghoulish fans wager on which celebrity will die next. Maybe this will be just the ticket to putting life back in his career. Or maybe not.
Get your own Free Home Page