Brett Butler Says She’s Broke, Can’t Pay Her Rent, And Has Been Ashamed To Ask For Help
In the 90s, Brett Butler was professionally at the top of her game, making millions from her hit sitcom Grace Under Fire. But because of a painkiller addiction which led to her being hard to work with, her show was canceled and a million “Fall From Grace” headlines were born. Brett left Hollywood for a while and lived on a farm in Rome, Georgia, but after losing the farm to foreclosure, she’s back in L.A. and she talked to The Hollywood Reporter about how she’s trying to make a comeback and get back on her feet. But while some broke famous types will shimmy for a check on Dancing with the Stars or bring the fuckery on Celebrity Big Brother Liechtenstein, 63-year-old Brett has gone the GoFundMe route and is asking her fans to help her out.
Before Grace Under Fire turned Brett Butler into a star, she had gone through it. She had overcome an alcohol addiction, an abusive marriage, and an abusive childhood. In 1993, Grace Under Fire, which was based on Brett’s stand-up routine, debuted on ABC and became the highest-rated new sitcom of the season. Things started to fall apart when Brett got addicted to Vicodin (which her doctor prescribed for her sciatica) and she began butting heads with the show’s creator Chuck Lorre (yes, THAT Chuck Lorre who also got into it with that other sitcom mess Charlie Sheen on the set of Two and a Half Men). As Brett battled addiction, the show’s ratings fell and cast members began quitting. Julie White, who played Grace’s friend Nadine, quit the show after season 4 because she could no longer work with Brett. It gets much darker and much sadder. Jon Paul Steur, who played Grace’s son Quentin, left the show after season 3. It’s been claimed that Jon Paul Steur’s mother pulled him from the show after Brett flashed her breasts at him. He was only 12 at the time. Jon Paul Steur died by suicide in 2018 at the age of 33.
Brett tried to get sober in rehab, but when she relapsed and stopped showing up to tapings, ABC canceled Grace Under Fire during its fifth season in 1998. Brett admits to THR that she was not easy to work with and takes responsibility for the show’s demise:
“At the bloody bitter end, I really was difficult,” Butler concedes. “I was out of my mind. Drugs will do that to you. The show should have been pulled sooner than it was.”
“I’ll definitely take the hit for the crash and burn,” Butler says, then adds: “I think a lot of missteps go into things before they get to that point on different people’s parts — but I was the star of the show, so I need to take that full-on. I’m awfully guilt-ridden for a gentile girl.”
Brett got sober in 1998 and hasn’t touched booze or drugs since then.
She says she made $25 million from Grace but all that money is gone thanks to the oldest story in Hollywood: mismanagement of her fortune. Brett says that when she wasn’t just giving her money to people, people were stealing it from her.
“I was a little bit too trusting with some people that worked for me, and I had a lot of things stolen,” she says. “That’s just stupid on my part, not to have insurance for those things. And to loan and give a lot of money away. I really just felt so guilty for having it — I almost couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.”
After Brett lost her farm in Georgia, she returned to Hollywood ten years ago to try to make a comeback. She did a few episodes of The Young and the Restless before she says Charlie Sheen pretty much saved her life. Charlie pushed hard for Brett to get cast as a cocktail waitress on his show Anger Management. The producers weren’t into it but they eventually gave in and Brett ended up doing 38 episodes of the show. She’s continued to book jobs, like guest-starring on The Leftovers, How To Get Away With Murder, The Walking Dead, and The Morning Show.
Brett gets paid a little over the guild minimum and sometimes makes $5,000 for a one-day shoot, but she doesn’t work that often. So she’s struggling financially and is six months behind on the $2,500 monthly rent for the one-bedroom L.A. apartment she lives in with her three pets. Brett also has to cover the care for her 19-year-old horse in Georgia. So that’s why her blogger friend Loni Strickler set up a GoFundMe for her. Brett was ashamed to ask strangers for money but said her financial situation is dire and she realized she needs some help.
It took Butler a lot of convincing to submit herself to a crowdfunding campaign — not just as a matter of pride but also, she feared, the satisfaction it would give the enemies she’d made along the way. “He talked me into it,” she says of Strickler’s urging. “The way he put it was, ‘You can’t live your life based on being afraid of what haters will do.’ “
Strickler asked Butler how much she wanted to raise. “And I said, ‘I don’t know — what’s the cutoff line between needing something and being absolutely greedy?’ ” They decided on a goal of $15,000. The campaign raised $12,583 from 246 donors — enough to keep the wolves at bay for a little longer. Strickler since has pushed the target up to $20,000.
“She still needs a little more help,” he says. “She just needs one more little nudge to get back on her feet.”
As of right now, Brett’s GoFundMe has raised over $32,000. On top of trying to get more acting jobs, Brett is working on a return to stand-up and would like to do a show where she talks to the dead (Brett claims she’s a medium).
During her THR interview, Brett mentioned that at one time, she had seven animals living with her in Los Angeles. So I think I know why Brett is broke. Three words: dreaded pet rent! Pet rent is the worst of rents because pets can’t pay that shit since most of them don’t work! But Brett should look into putting those pets to work, like getting them to drive for Uber. I mean, if I can operate a car, a cat can. “Who said you can operate a car?,” said anyone who’s been in a car with me.
Pic: Wenn.com