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| TOM ARNOLD OPENS UP ABOUT BEING SEXUALLY ABUSED Blog |
To portray a child molester in a movie is a risky career move for any actor. But for comic actor Tom Arnold, 49, accepting the role as Alex in the new movie Gardens of the Night was more than a role: It was his attempt to finally put his own past as a sexually abused child behind him.
From ages 4 to 7, while growing up in Ottumwa, Iowa, Arnold says he was sexually abused by a 19-year-old male babysitter. He opens up about the experience in an interview with PEOPLE:
Why did you want to play Alex in Gardens of the Night?It was a tough choice. I was a smart kid, and [my molester] still got to me. So I wanted to portray a pedophile in a way no one has seen before in order to explain how these things can happen. I even wore the same clothes as him in the movie. Showing this guy meant so much to me.How did this happen to you? [The abuse] started shortly before I turned 4. This guy would babysit me three or four times a week. He wanted me to play a game, and he wanted me to learn it so I could play it every time. I knew it was weird and I was scared, but I didn't know what sex was.
Why didn't you tell your dad? The guy gave me a candy bar at the end of the game. I wasn't allowed to have candy at my house, and I felt ashamed that I took the candy. And I was afraid of him. The message was clear he would hurt my dad if I told, and the thought of losing my dad was impossible.
When did it stop? There was an incident when I was 7. The guy had showed me his gun and aimed it at my dad one day when he arrived home from work. A few days later, I stole my dad's gun and went out in the middle of the street, waived it around and pointed it at his house. It caused a stir in the neighborhood to say the least. After that, I think it slowly stopped. I remember it as him moving away.
When you were 30, you found him and confronted him. During my last week of drug and alcohol rehab in 1990, I told what had happened to me for the first time. In my mind, he was only a few years older than me. When my counselor said, 'So you were 5 and you had a 7-year-old babysitter?' I remembered he had a man's body. With the help of a private investigator, I found him and confronted him at his office. Coming out of the building, I felt pure joy.
What's next for you? I'm ready to put this behind me. To portray him in a movie was the final thing I, as an actor, felt I could do. Forty-five years is a long time to keep something like this in your life. I'm ready to take the chance to be with a good person, and hopefully one day have my own children. That's what I want more than anything.
For more on Tom Arnold, including what happened when he confronted his abuser, pick up PEOPLE on newsstands Friday
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| ERIC DANE AND REBECCA GAYHEART ADOPT – A DOG Blog |
Eric Dane – "McSteamy" to Grey's Anatomy fans – will have a busy fall.
Not only will the actor's hit series return for a fifth season on Sept. 25, but he's also proud papa to a new Chihuahua.
"We just adopted a little dog," Dane told PEOPLE at Friday's Sixth Annual Tom Arnold Roast, to benefit the Exceptional Children's Foundation. His wife, actress Rebecca Gayheart, was his date at the event.
The dog's name is Nellie, "like 'Whoa, Nellie,'" Dane, 35, explained. "We adopted it on the street from this adoption agency. She was thrown out of a car, so we took her."
"She's a rescue," Gayheart added.
Dane and Gayheart, 37, will celebrate their four-year wedding anniversary on Oct. 29, but don't have anything elaborate planned and will just go with the flow.
"As long as we're together, it's fine," Gayheart said. "The two of us, dinner."One thing is for certain: the dog doesn't count as Dane's anniversary gift to his wife.
"It's not the anniversary present," Dane laughed. "What if the dog were the anniversary gift, I think it would be the last anniversary we have together! 'I brought you a Chihuahua...'"
The duo said they had a "great summer," traveling and visiting family. As for plot spoilers for Grey's fifth season, Dr. McSteamy is mum, only saying that viewers should expect more of what made the Emmy-winning series so popular.
"More of the same, and I think that's done well for us in the past," Dane says. "I think we're going to stick to that formula."
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| TOM ARNOLD'S DIVORCE FINALIZED Blog |
Tom Arnold's divorce from his wife, Shelby Roos, was finalized Tuesday after six years of marriage, Los Angeles court documents show.
Arnold, 48, and Roos, 35, separated in August 2006, but the actor's rep told PEOPLE at the time that they might reconcile. And they did: Five months later, Arnold asked the court to dismiss his petition for separation. But in May, the actor filed for divorce.Arnold met Roos, a political consultant, in 2000 at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. They wed on June 29, 2002, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Arnold's previous two marriages ended in divorce. He was married to Roseanne Barr from 1990 to 1994 and to Julie Champnella from 1995 to 1999.
A rep for Arnold wasn't immediately available for comment.
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