Butler in 1996 on The Tonight Show, on which she first broke out during the Johnny Carson era. MARGARET C. NORTON/NBCU PHOTO BANK/NBCUNIVERSAL VIA GETTY IMAGES
Those born after 1995 may not even know who Brett Butler is. She was a comedian and actress who was once at the top of the acting food chain and by end of the 90’s was all but unheard of.
Brett survived alcoholism, an abusive marriage and all the other perils of being nobody in Hollywood, only to finally see success in 1993 when the show “Grace Under Fire” was created based on her life. She was making a reported $250,000 an episode!
She soon developed a pill addiction after some back problems and was suddenly impossible to work with. Eventually resulting in members of the cast quitting and the show being canceled in 1998.
Now Butler is six months behind on rent in her LA apartment and not sure how or where she’ll get help. So a friend helped her establish a GoFundMe page to maybe spare her from eviction.
The site raised $12,000 of the $15k it had asked for, although now they asking for $20k.
For a spell, just before the pandemic, Butler was working with friend Charlie Sheen on “Anger Management”. She was on 33 episodes at about $5000 a show. Which she says only covered her “cost-of-living” expenses, which includes $2,500 rent for the one-bedroom apartment she shares with her three pets (she won’t name the area but calls it “one of the beige-ist parts of L.A. — where they love Trump but won’t talk about it”) .
I guess that’s a lesson for all of us about appreciating what we have and not letting a good thing put us in a head space where we think we’re untouchable.