AFTER MACAULAY CULKIN stole the entire world’s heart in 1990 as a ten-year-old left Home
Alone for Christmas…
AFTER retiring from the acting game with nothing left to prove at the ripe old age of 14-years-old,
in order to…
Just … get laid and smoke pot
AFTER launching a digital empire that spoofs Celebrity endorsed websites like GOOP in an
ONION inspired mash-up parody…
Macaulay Culkin was everywhere at the end of last century and yet he remains an artist
that I’ve never had the privilege of posting a Before They Were Famous for.
Why?
Well, trust me guys, I tried.
But all I had was about 2 minutes of material and most of the clips were of him in utero.
How did I get that footage?
Believe me, you don’t want to know.
What I’m getting at here is that Macaulay has been famous since he was only 5-years
old!
There’s not a whole lot of “before”, you know?
Culkin’s star exploded in 1989 and 1990 when he starred in two John Hughes produced
films:
“Uncle Buck” and the modern classic holiday movie, “Home Alone”.
In the early 1990’s he was easily one of the most popular and prolific actors working
in Hollywood, but after a flurry of movies, some successful
… some not …
… and some just way too ahead of their time …
… Culkin called it quits, retiring in 1994.
But that wouldn’t be the last we’d hear from everyone’s favourite pre-pubescent
actor.
Ten years later, Macaulay would re-enter the main stream in a series of different projects
– all of them off the beaten track of normalcy.
What's going on guys?
It's your boy Michael McCrudden here to ask the one and only question we’re always wondering
around this time of year: Macaulay Culkin, Where Is He Now?
His movie family might have lost track of him for days, but let’s see if I can find
out where he is in approximately ten minutes.
To be fair, I've been down this part before but every December our older videos on Macaulay
only get more popular and there is always new information we can dig up for you guys.
In this one we are gonna get more in depth about what Macaulay has been doing in recent
years.
Enjoy the video, hit subscribe and let’s get on with the investigation.
First, a brief primer.
Macaulay “Macaulay Culkin” Culkin was born on August 26th, 1980 in New York City.
I know what you’re thinking, DID I SAY HIS NAME TWICE?
It turns out, about a year ago, Macaulay held a vote online to change his middle name from
Carson to one of five different options:
I mean, how could you possibly improve upon the original?
Better to just double-down on it.
So now, Macaulay is officially: Macaulay “Macaulay Culkin” Culkin.
Just so that he can do things like this…
Still with me?
Good.
Anyway, MMCC’s father was Christopher Cornelius Culkin a Broadway actor who never married
Macaulay’s mother: Patricia Brentrup.
Culkin was the third of seven children, including five brothers and two sisters.
He was raised Catholic and went to a Catholic School called: St. Joseph’s School of Yorkville
for five years.
I mention this only because it may help inform how Macaulay developed as he grew older…
Macaulay began acting at the age 4 – something that I’m sure must have been his idea, and
not say perhaps the wishes of a struggling Broadway actor whose primary source of income
was coming from the local Catholic Church.
You can imagine, the type of scratch Christopher was clearing on a weekly basis was not exactly
enough to feed his ever growing small-nation sized family.
Enter Macaulay who got acting roles in “The Equalizer”, “Rocket Gibraltar” and “See
You in the Morning”.
But his big break came in 1990 for the John Hughes written and Chris Columbus directed:
“Home Alone”.
“Home Alone” was one of the biggest hits of the year, if not the decade, and after
its massive success, offers came pouring in.
Music videos with the King of Pop…
… hosting SNL …
… further starring roles in films like: “My Girl”, “The Good Son”, and of
course, the inevitable “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”.
Handling all of these projects in such a short span of time would have been a lot for even
a fully-grown person to take,
but for a 14-year-old, kid?
It must have been extremely overwhelming.
So, in 1994, Macaulay took a break from acting after his 15th project in only seven years.
He retired to Manhattan.
Seeking normalcy, Macaulay went to a private school and in 1998 he married actress Rachel
Miner when they were both 18…
And because nothing screams “normal” more than a first marriage being doomed to failure,
the two separated in 2000, and were officially divorced in 2002.
Eventually, Macaulay started scratching that itch to get back to work.
In 1998 he appeared in a music video called “Sunday”, for the rock band Sonic Youth.
Then, in 2000, he returned to acting with a role in the play “Madame Melville” which
was staged on London’s West End.
This was followed up with smaller roles on “Will and Grace” and guest appearances
on “Robot Chicken”.
In 2003 he got back into the movie game with a role in “Party Monster”, followed by
“Saved!”
Things took a bit of a detour In September of 2014 when Macaulay ran into some legal
trouble.
He was arrested in Oklahoma City for possession of Marijuana and two further controlled substances:
Xanax and Clonazepam, which is used to treat seizures and movement disorders.
He was briefly jailed but then released on $4,000 bail.
He pleaded not guilty at the trial, a plea that he would later reverse.
He then received three one-year suspended prison sentences and paid a $540 in fees.
$540? don't worry... the kid could certainly afford it.
In 2006, he published an experimental semi-autobiography titled: “Junior”.
In it, he focused on his own stardom and his tumultuous relationship with his father who
he claims was jealous over the level of stardom Macaulay was able to achieve.
That same year, Culkin and actress Mila Kunis moved in with one another.
It was a relationship that would last for nearly 6 years.
While in St. Louis Missouri in August of 2009, Culkin made a brief appearance on WWE’S
RAW.
Sparking off what would become a theme of escalation between Macaulay and the sport
of professional wrestling.
At this point it’s only a matter of time before
Macaulay shows up on Friday Night Smackdown and challenges The Fiend Bray Wyatt for his
Universal Championship… yeah, okay, I watch wrestling too, so sue me.
Don’t be jealous that Macaulay and I have something else in common besides successful
careers as child actors.
A year later, Macaulay appeared on screen at the 2010 Oscars, in a tribute to John Hughes.
Looking far more clean-cut than usual I must say.
No doubt something that speaks to the respect he has for the man who helped launch his career.
By 2013, Macaulay had moved on from Mila and the U.S.A. and was living in Paris.
Then, at the end of that year, he uploaded a bizarre video of himself eating a slice
of cheese pizza.
Turns out, this was a project that was doing two things at once.
On one hand, it was a loving tribute to OG viral video master Andy Warhol and his clip
of eating a Burger King Whopper…
… On the other, it was a way for Macaulay to announce his next project, the New York
based, pizza-themed comedy rock band: The Pizza Underground.
What they basically amounted to was a Velvet Underground act that would insert pizza-themed
lyrics into the original band’s classic songs.
Their tour began with promise in January of 2014.
They even handed out boxed pizzas at shows to the audience to further the gag.
But the dream came crashing down in May of that same year when Culkin stormed off the
stage at Rock City, in the U.K. during what was no doubt a pure fire Kazoo solo.
Unfortunately, British fans at the venue didn’t have as classically trained an ear.
They booed him and threw pints of beer at the band.
Macaulay reportedly asked the audience:
Why are you throwing those?
I’d rather drink them!
The rest of their tour was subsequently cancelled and by 2016 Macaulay announced that his revolutionary
band was no more.
But Macaulay has never been one to let a little failure get in his way and by July of that
same year he was already bouncing back, starring in commercials for international subsidiaries
like: Compare the Market.
In January of 2018, Culkin announced the formation of a new comedy and podcast website platform
called: Bunny Ears.
This was a pet project of his that took to skewering
other celebrity-owned websites like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop…
… Blending humor with helpful lifestyle advice like where to go to get homemade Adderall
-- a connection I assume Macaulay made while in prison back in OKC – or even how to find
6 bathrobes perfect for doing coked-up naked karate.
Again, there must be an OKC connection there….
If that sounds like too much reading for you, then you can always hop over to the Podcasts
page and listen to Macaulay talk with celebrities like: Tony Hawk, Wil Wheaton, and Lizzo.
I was actually scrolling around Bunny Ears the other day and stumpled upon an article
about Macaulay Culkin's Net Worth.
It was a bit of a strange read in true Buny Ears fashion and uses a metaphor of a butterfly
net and concludes with.
A man isn’t worth what’s in his pocket.
A man makes as much as what’s in his heart.
But also, the emotional value of his unstoppable butterfly-catching tool: the net
For those who want a more straight forward answer let me know and I'll get working on
his The Rich Life.
Now no longer one to back off from his own popularity, Macaulay has even recently starred
in an Advertisement for Google Assistant that recreated some of his most famous scenes from
his holiday classic, with a December drop
the video of course went viral.
This past year, in 2019, Macaulay had a role in Seth Green’s movie titled: “Changeland”
which is perhaps most notable for being the where he met his current girlfriend, fellow
child actor, Brenda Song.
Who would be a very interesting person to do a Before They Were Famous video on.
And that, my friends, brings us to the present day.
So Where is Macaulay “Macaulay Culkin” Culkin now?
Pretty much were he left off over two decades ago -- back in the public light.
But unlike earlier in his career when he was pretty much doing all the heavy lifting on
his own
Macaulay finally seems to have found the perfect of balance of working on things that interest
him and surrounding himself with the people and talent that can help bring it to life.
I'm extremely happy for the guy.
I think he's become a great example of a man recreating himself in his own way.
There have been some bumps along the way and every media tabloid is quick to chalk him
up as a washed up child actor like so many before him but the dude seems super successful,
super happy and seems genuinely okay with his child star notoriety and popularity during
the month of December.
I'm gonna wrap this video up here.
Be sure to check out some of our other Christmas themed videos like our recent drop on the
cast of Elf.
Last year we did one on the cast of Home Alone & more.
My name is Michael McCrudden and I'll see you guys in another video.