People: Arrested development?
Child stars have it rough with their folks. Just ask Jason Bateman, who says his mom and dad are more like friends than parents.
“I’m not a great brother or uncle or son for that matter,” Bateman, who co-stars in the upcoming Will Smith movie “Hancock,” says in the cover story of the new issue of Best Life magazine.
“I don’t have this obligatory ‘I have to call Mom once a week,’ because we’re just buddies.”
Bateman says he and sister Justine supported the family with their paychecks from “Little House on the Prairie,” “Family Ties,” “Silver Spoons” and other shows.
He fired his father as his manager when he was 20. Since then, he’s had an off-and-on relationship with both parents.
There were some slow years following his early success for Bateman, 39, before he starred in the critically acclaimed sitcom “Arrested Development.”
“I got down to a nine (golf) handicap,” he says. “The day I became a single-digit, I called my agent and said, ‘You have to look harder. I shouldn’t be this good at golf.’ “
When the chips are down …
Former child star Barry Livingston, best known as Ernie from “My Three Sons,” admits he’s not exactly movie-hero material.
So he’s thrilled to be playing an airline passenger who helps foil a hijacking in “Final Approach,” airing Saturday night on the Hallmark Channel.
“When I got to that part in the script, I said, ‘Wow, I’ve never done that before. How can I pass this up?’ ” says Livingston, 54.
Bo knows babies
In the week’s second-biggest “American Idol” news, there soon will be a new member of the Bice Squad.
Season 4 runner-up Bo Bice and his wife are expecting another son in August, he said at this season’s “Idol” finale show Wednesday night. They plan to name him Caleb.
Detox this way
Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler has checked himself into Las Encinas Hospital’s rehab clinic in Pasadena, Calif. – the one featured in VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab” – for treatment of an unspecified substance abuse problem.
His name is legion
Steven Spielberg is now an officer in the French Legion of Honor.
Spielberg, at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” was honored by French President Nicolas Sarkozy for his efforts to document the Holocaust and help the war-wracked Darfur region of Sudan.
Make that Hair-is-off Ford
“Indiana Jones” star Harrison Ford had his chest waxed to help the environment.
Ford winces as a strip of hair is yanked from between his pecs in a PSA for Conservation International to raise awareness about the effect of deforestation on global warming.
The birthday bunch
Actress Barbara Barrie is 77. Actress Joan Collins is 75. Actress Lauren Chapin (“Father Knows Best”) is 63. Comedian Drew Carey is 50. Actress-model Karen Duffy is 47.