Schooled in Scandal : Old-Time Entertainers Take Revelations in Stride

Somewhere in Los Angeles on Saturday, someone must have been talking about NAFTA, or the President’s health plan, or violence in the Middle East. But for most people, the primary topics of conversation seemed to be the Hollywood scandals du jour: the news that supposedly clean-living young actor River Phoenix had died of a massive drug overdose and that superstar Michael Jackson was abandoning his world concert tour and reportedly heading for Europe after publicly confessing an addiction to painkillers.

Reactions ranged from “so what else is new?” to heartfelt defense from fans.

At the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement community in Woodland Hills, most people seemed to view the latest Hollywood scandals with a perspective born of years--many, many years--of Hollywood scandal experience. In fact, when they talk about promising young actors who died before their time, or international superstars who sought refuge abroad, they could mean Phoenix or Jackson. Or they could be talking about James Dean and Charlie Chaplin.

“In show business those things happen all the time,” said Ben Welden, 92, who began his entertainment career in 1925 and appeared in more than 100 films. (Perhaps you remember him as the “smiling gangster” in the 1937 thriller “Marked Woman” with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis.) “Me, I’ve seen everything that could be seen. . . . But I never paid much attention to scandals. Unfortunately, the world loves them.”

“In the old days there were always scandals going on,” said Eddie Hanley, 88, a onetime vaudeville song and dance man who later worked on the Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason TV shows. “Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, there were always stories going around about big stars. ‘Course, in the old days you didn’t hear too much about drugs. Booze, yeah, but not drugs.”

Across town and across several generations, emotions ran stronger.

“(Michael Jackson) is running away. That makes him look guilty,” said Fabian Williams, 28, as he left Tower Records in West Hollywood. Like most other patrons who were interviewed, he seemed to take great interest in the news about Jackson, and was somewhat less gripped by news of Phoenix’s overdose.

“I hope it’s not true about Michael Jackson,” said Len Holsworth, 26. “As for River Phoenix, that’s really sad.”

“Any celebrity who’s put in the limelight is going to have attacks made on him,” Evadna Nesbit, 29, said of Jackson. “People forget that they’re human, too.”

Elsewhere, Jackson’s youngest fans also were standing by their man.

Six-year-old Brittany Uko of Inglewood had just fired off a fan letter--her first--to the reclusive star before learning that his tour was canceled.

In her block-printed note, Brittany wrote to Jackson: “I know you are going through some hard times, but I hope everything is going well with you.”

On Saturday, the second-grader repeated her support.

“I think people made up the things they’re saying about him,” Brittany said firmly.

Jackson was also being supported by half a dozen boys living in the South-Central Los Angeles foster care group home run by Londa Schexnayder. The tour cancellation was the talk of the house Saturday.

“They’re upset,” Schexnayder said of the boys, who range in age from 7 to 14. “They believe Michael’s sick and the fact he canceled the tour just proves it.

“They don’t believe the child molestation part of it. They believe that child abuse happens. But they don’t believe that he did it. He’s a role model in their eyes because he adores kids.”

Schexnayder said she is prepared to help counsel the youngsters who are assigned to her care if a police investigation into allegations of child molestation results in criminal charges being filed against Jackson.

“I’ve been a fan since he started,” she said. “To watch his life has been interesting--you wonder what happens and why. You just wish Michael the best. You hate to see another human being hurt.”

In other developments, sheriff’s officials said they had no intention of going after whoever supplied the drugs to Phoenix, who died two weeks ago after collapsing outside a West Hollywood nightspot.

“Nobody committed a crime except for River Phoenix,” a sheriff’s spokeswoman said. “It’s just the unfortunate result of taking illegal drugs.”

Deputy Angie McLaughlin of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau said murder charges would be unlikely, even if authorities were to identify the person who supplied the 23-year-old actor with cocaine and heroin, which apparently metabolized into the morphine found in Phoenix’s body.

She said Phoenix’s celebrity status has prompted interest in the case.

“People don’t get upset about the other 100,000 people who die as a result of an overdose of drugs.”

Times staff writer Bob Pool contributed to this story.