Celebrities have their personal problems just like us, but why does it seem that their problems are bigger than life? When bad stuff happens to them, it happens before millions of people. There we are munching popcorn, watching chaos reign in the lives of the rich and famous. We are completely glued to that screen, wanting to turn away, not believing what our eyes are telling us. It’s like watching a car accident happen, we can’t turn away.

Very much like a car wreck, it’s human nature to watch successful celebrities fall apart before our very eyes, because it seems like the sun and the stars revolved around only them. So when bad things happen to them, we watch the drama unfold. When they are the ones that create that drama in real life, it’s kind of like they are in a tragic movie, where you just wish he or she could figure out how to make things better and walk away victorious.

Here are some of the many stars who at one time had major box office draws and then career stumbles, but will hopefully get it together and have major comebacks in 2008:

Mel GibsonWhere was the man who had it so together? It’s as though 2006 was a total falling off point for the Aussie hero, Mel Gibson. After being arrested for drunk driving, Gibson went “Mad Max” on television news the world over and has not returned to acting in movies. He had a string of hit movies, including the popular Lethal Weapon movies in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2006, he directed his movie Apocalypto, which went down the drain. What should he do?

To make a major come back, Mel needs to get therapy, rehab, and he needs to publicly admit he got help. Interviewed in 2006, Gibson admitted to having alcohol problems after the arrest. Here was a man whose star shined so brightly it seemed it could never be tarnished. He said in December of 2006 that he would never act in another movie. In 2007, he made charitable donations to children in Singapore suffering from chronic and terminal illnesses, but he has not made another movie. Maybe there will be a Lethal Weapon 5 or Mad Max 3 in his future?


Winona Ryder It was all over for Winona Ryder in 2001 when she was caught shoplifting from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills California. The young, attractive star of many movies, including her role as the Goth teenager, Lydia, in Beetlejuice, and her role in Girl Interrupted in 1999, has not returned to her pre-shoplifting days as a major box office draw. In 2006, she starred in A Scanner Darkly, as Donna Hawthorne, but the movie went nowhere. There is something we all like about her, but she has not had top billing in any movies since 1999. With her new movie coming up this year, Star Trek, where she will play Doctor Spock’s mother, maybe she can light up the big screen again.

Rober Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr. has had drug addiction problems almost his whole life; he says he started doing drugs before he even reached his teen years. The actor, who starred as Charlie Chaplin in the movie, Chaplin, in 1992, has been acting steadily despite his frequent run- ins with the law. Even though he has been jailed several times, and put in rehab, he has still been acting up a storm.

Following his release from jail in 2000, Downey joined the cast of the television series Ally Mc Beal, as Larry Paul, a love interest of Calista Flockhart’s character, Ally. In 2003, he said he stopped doing drugs with help of rehab, yoga and Wing Chun. He’s a really likable guy who does a great job of acting whether he’s on drugs or off. In 2003, he starred as the character Pete Graham with Halle Berry in the movie Gothika, and as Dr. Kozak in the 2006 movie, The Shaggy Dog.

His acting has not really returned to the stature he had before he quit drugs. With Downey acting in so many movies over the years, one can see that he has the chops to be a very successful actor, and that he has the makings for a huge comeback. He will be appearing in several movies this year that are currently in production, such as Iron Man and Tropic Thunder.

Meg Ryan Where did Meg Ryan go? Meg Ryan, the very likeable star of many movies, such as Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry met Sally, has taken some time off from acting. In the last couple of years, she’s been hanging out at home with the children she had with actor, Dennis Quaid, and the daughter she adopted from China in 2006.

 

Ryan could do no wrong, and had a string of movie hits from 1989 until 1999, and then things got rocky. With her marriage in peril and a very public affair with actor Russell Crowe, by 2001 her career burned out. She did make more movies in the early 2000s, such as the erotic crime thriller, In the Cut, but it didn’t do well at the box-office. You have to admit, even though she has had some personal problems, you can’t help but like her. She does romantic comedy to perfection and had huge box office draw. Possibly returning to the type of roles she had before, she just might have a great comeback year in 2008. With My Mom’s New Boyfriend coming out this year and several other movies in the making, she is sure to be a big hit, if not at the box office then with everyone who remembers how funny she really can be.

These four stars have already had incredible success in their professional lives. Let’s hope they get it together in 2008 and become movie icons, and that we remember them for all the right reasons.

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This post guest-blogged by Kate Johns.