A few days ago, Matthew Perry stepped out in London looking disheveled and like he gained a few. He has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, which he’s been more than open about. Perry went to rehab twice at the height of his Friends fame, in 1997 and 2001. He’s since become an advocate for drug addicts in the legal system and has opened his own sober house using his Hollywood mansion. So to accuse him of being on drugs again is pretty serious given how committed he is to his sobriety, only Star did just that, using Perry’s absence from the Friends reunion and his weight gain as their evidence, apparently. Gossip Cop got the denial from Perry’s rep:
Describing Perry as “looking worse for the wear,” the outlet accuses him of “slurring his words” and having “wild mood swings.” A so-called “source” is quoted as saying, “He hasn’t been himself lately… His excuse is always that he needs more sleep, but some of his friends are saying story doesn’t add up.”
“Every single time he’s relapsed, it started with him behaving erratically, and that seems to be happening again,” claims the supposed snitch. “His friends and family are worried about him.” The article adds, “A few of his nearest and dearest have been concerned enough by the actor’s behavior to broach the subject — but so far he has ignored their pleas…”
A rep for Perry now tells Gossip Cop exclusively, “There is no truth to the Star report.”
I mean there is some truth in that he looks like he gained a little, but that happens! It’s no reason to say that he’s back on drugs. Perry didn’t go to the Friends thing because he’s working on a play in London that runs six nights a week and he couldn’t get away. In fact he just talked about his prior drug addiction on a British Radio show and said he can’t remember about three years of time when he was on Friends. That’s incredible but he’s not relapsing! He’s probably just stress eating because he’s working so much now. Been there. Perry has been spotted out with a trainer in London so he’s working on it. I feel bad for him that Star put him on the cover.
Oh and here’s a cover of People from 2013 where Perry talked about his drug addiction and his work with addicts.
All these photos of Perry, below, are from this month. He looks pretty good to me on Graham Norton. I would.
photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet
Is the “before” photo they used from like 10 years ago???
Yep, it’s just over 10 years old.
Star Exclusive: 46yr old man no longer looks like he did at 36!!!
ha! so true. 10 years if not more. he seems like a good guy (except for one weird story I heard him tell on Jimmy Kimmel a year or so ago). The guys on Friends got so much less exposure than the gals during its run.
I want to know about the weird story tmc
I know. what a tease. Cough it up!
Did you guys see his interview on Graham Norton? YouTube it. He was either on something or “just had dental work”. He was definitely slurring — or somehow had a dramatically different voice. Higher and nasally? It was sad. I wish him the best. I’ve always had a tender spot for him. He seems to have some vulnerabilities that are heart-breaking, no matter how much money and success bring him.
He slurry speech was soo weird.
He’s a smoker, I think, which doesn’t help his looks.
IMO he just looks puffy and tired, not strung out. Hope so, since I’ve always had a soft spot for him.
I have a nasty cold at the moment, so I feel for him, haha. I look so much puffier right now, and feel like death. It could be as simple as him gaining a few pounds and being sleep deprived, or he could have a cold too. It was probably windy when the photo was taken which doesn’t help.
Ha, Erinn, I was going to say something similar. God forbid someone take a photo of me when I’m out shlepping my kids around in the morning before caffeine and a shower while battling a nasty cold. Like today.
If he’s doing a play then it’s very likely he’s sleep deprived.
You’re pretty much a superhero. While I look forward to having kids in the next couple of years, the idea of having to function enough while sick to keep other humans alive is terrifying.
Hi Erinn, you will be surprised at what you will find yourself able to do as a mom. It’s not a superpower, just love. 🙂
I just toss the spawn a frozen pizza and take to my bed when I’m sick nowadays. I don’t miss the times when I was sick and they were little. Esmom’s right though, it’s love. Now that they’re mid teens, it’s “go forage,” but I love them all the more (because they fend for themselves now.) Paranormaldaughterspawn actually made me chicken noodle soup last night.
He seemed fine in Graham Norton. Although he did have a weird speech thing going on. Almost like he had a retainer in his mouth.
Maybe a year or so back he was tweeting about his dental surgeries and how he was practically living at his dentists.
He’s sort of tensing up one side of his mouth, he probably has partial dentures. That can really effect how people move their mouth (more of a mental thing of trying to hold them in place than a necessary side effect, but it’s common).
Ah, thank you. As someone who irrationally hates going to the dentist, I feel for him.
That explains it – it sounded to me like he had some dental work done and it changed the way he spoke.
I was wondering if he quit smoking – for a while his voice was sounding very, very strained, but now it sounds better.
I sometimes get awful ulcers in my mouth. They are so painful, and really affect the way I talk. It’s possible he had something like that.
I noticed that as well. He was coherent, but he did look a bit on the rough side which could have been from the salt and pepper sandpapery stubble. The speech thing made us wonder if he’s a functional alcoholic. I hope he’s ok.
I was in the audience that night at Graham Norton. While he was behaving normally, I couldn’t get past the garbled, and yes, slurred speech. If I had to bet I’d say he’s drinking again. Not just dental issues as he was actually speaking slowly. They edited some of the more obvious sections.
I like how specific the Star gets with his (alleged) weight gain: 41lbs!!!
Somehow 40lbs is not dramatic enough, but 41lbs! is terrifying.
Who writes these articles and approves the cover stories? Let’s see what their bathroom scale says
LOL! I was thinking about that too.
They always do that ,female celebs always weigh 88 or 97 or 101 lbs.Never 100 lbs
If star thinks that if you look disheveled and bloated you must be on drugs, I’d hate to have any of them see me when I’m on my period at the grocery store. I’d make Matthew Perry look dashing by comparison.
Oh my gosh this made my morning Lol. So true.
Mathew’s drug of choice was opiates and every time he was using during the “Friends” years he lost a lot of weight. My husband also has gray stubble if he does not shave and he looks homeless after about 3 days.
Unless it’s weed. He’s chubby, I don’t think he’s on any hard drug. When he was in Friends he was wasting away before his treatment.
We all have a bad day. He was just papped that day.
I always wonder… is weed like cigarettes for addicts? What I mean is… do some addicts still use it but shun all other drugs?
It’s less addictive than nicotine (and arguably isn’t addictive at all, other than the way in which anything can be “addictive” psychologically). And rehab centers allow their patients to chain-smoke cigarettes, which I get (even if it’s a potentially fatal crutch). If I had life-shifting problems with alcohol or recreational drugs — and I’ve had moderation problems with both of them, but can now consume casually without a problem — I think lighting up or vaping on a daily basis would make it 1,000 times easier to cope without these substances. I use it now for anxiety and migraines, and nothing works better.
Sorry, this was pretty unrelated to the story. Just wondering.
No, not really. Not if they’re working the program. Complete sobriety is the goal. Perry won’t take sleeping tablets despite being an insomniac for example.
Some people do feel they only have a problem with one specific thing and just cut that out, but a lot of that group won’t necessarily call themselves addicts.
I’d go for sobriety.
Thank god I never even smoked I do grab a ciggie once in a while, just for fun, but I don’t breathe in the smoke, and I only drink socially but never get drunk. Addiction to both smoking and alcohol runs in my family.
I was scared to death to fall for weed when I was younger, so I never tried it (unless it was second hand smoke).
One has to recognize her weaknesses and work on them, sadly for many teens and adults who find comfort in drugs, sometimes it’s too late.
I do. I smoke pot and I have no problem admitting to it. I’m legally licensed. I get it from a legally license grower. I don’t touch any other drug. I don’t even care for alcohol. I’ve had the same paralegal position for 20 years. I’m paid handsomely and have the best schedule of any working parent I know. I only provide these details because I want to break the stereotype that pot smokers are lazy couch potatoes with no motivation who live in the parent’s basement and smoke so much that they’re completely stoned 24-7. None of that is true. I know literally probably a hundred people who smoke pot and they are all perfectly normal middle class just like me. IMO people either drink alcohol or smoke pot. Most who drink often or regularly do not smoke pot. Most who smoke pot hardly ever drink alcohol. It would be ideal if nobody imbibed anything, but in my experience most people do “something” and it’s usually one or the other…if it’s any kind of regularity.
Weed isn’t like cigarrettes. It inhibits your judgement and alters your state. It’s the same reason why drug addicts should also abstain from alcohol.
I remember that, too, and was wondering if the drug that he took back then that made him so thin could make him chunky now, or if people switch drugs later in life sometimes?
I was thinking, if it was anything, it was booze. Booze can make you gain weight and look bloated. When he was doing drugs on friends, he always lost weight, and, looked emaciated…
I always thought how cool it was, that the Friends cast refused to answer any questions about Matthew’s problems. Very classy!
I hope Matthew is just pigging out to much! I really like him (my favorite friend) and have always respected him for the way he used his money and fame to help other addicts.
I was/am a Friends junkie, and I remember those three years on Friends where Matthew was so undeniably thin that he looked sick. Those were the years he admitted he was addicted to Vicodin. It was the Vicodin addiction that caused his major weight loss. I forget which season, but when he suddenly came back and had regained the weight he lost and was looking healthy, it was because he had gone to treatment and kicked the Vicodin. He has been open about his struggle with substance abuse over the years, and I admire him for that. His honesty has helped so many people.
Star can bite me for their f-ing sh!tty story.
Ugh, screw Star.
In that photo he was leaving a doctors office, and he’d only arrived in London a couple of days earlier. So he was sick, probably still a little jet-lagged and tired from working round the clock on his play.
Perry’s been out and about doing lots of British talk shows and other promos for his play, and he’s looked fine and seemed really happy. His weight yo-yo’s a bit but he hasn’t been properly thin for ages, it’s not a new development.
Here’s some more flattering pictures from a few days ago:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Photo-Flash-Inside-THE-END-OF-LONGING-Rehearsals-with-Matthew-Perry-Jennifer-Mudge-More-20160122
Much better! Thanks.
Those are nice. It’s just a bad picture. My driver’s license picture looks like a mug shot of an old lady who just got arrested for shoplifting pork rinds. And I haven’t done drugs in years.
Lol!
Hahaha, you’re the master of absurdly specific similes. Love it.
Thank you for those pics. He doesn’t look like he’s gained weight to be honest and certainly not 41lbs for god’s sake. I look like that every morning, thank god for makeup! Star is just the worst.
Oh, wow. So much better! Now that I’m comparing the two, it doesn’t even seem possible that the cover picture is unedited. The complete lack of jawline definition doesn’t happen overnight… he has a “weak chin” as others have said, but it seems he’d have to be in a different position for it to look that way.
It seems pretty obvious Star must have combed through all their photos to find the one where his head was angled just right to make that double chin appear awful. Bonus that his hair was disheveled. Pretty shameless of them.
He has certainly put on weight (and don’t we all?) But I don’t think he’s back on drugs, I think he’s busy, has been working hard, maybe skipped some gym days. Happens to the best of us.
I never watched this show, so I don’t have a dog in anybody’s fight, but I’ve noticed for decades that the media has always had it out for this man. He could never do anything right – even when he wasn’t doing anything wrong. They made up stories about him, mocked him. If it wasn’t the drugs and booze, it was depression, if it wasn’t depression it was his secret unrequited crush on Aniston, if it wasn’t that it was why can’t Matthew have a relationship with a woman, why isn’t he married, he must be a loser if no one wants to date him, if it wasn’t that it was making fun of his looks as he aged and his weak chin became more apparent, and it was making fun of him because his career didn’t make it past Friends. It was just on and on, relentlessly. Sad, really.
I know. It’s like you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t… he got help and opened up about his demons and worked really hard to make a difference in other addicts’ lives. And ever since, tabloids have been waiting for a *gotcha* moment to expose the fact that he’s off the wagon. It’s hard enough living moment to moment as a recovering addict… but to know that there are photographers and publications waiting to profit off your downfall?
I’ve always had a soft spot for Matthew, and I agree… it’s sad. I even loved Studio 60 and Mr. Sunshine and Go On, and I think all of them were canceled too soon. He was the best part of them, and they brought out parts of his real life (his Studio 60 character was a recovering addict, I think). It’s not like he’s the ONLY celeb who has had multiple cancelled shows after a career-making hit show, or the only male actor to fluctuate in weight. But he has a target on his head because he dared to be open about his substance abuse and mental health struggles.
Then again, that’s just a microcosm of the way these social stigmas affect millions of non-famous Americans. And I think we notice it more because he’s a man. If he was a woman, they wouldn’t need *reasons* to question his sanity or appearance. They would just pick and pick and pick forever.
That’s such a sh*tty move for the magazine to use that terribly unflattering pic. You can see from other recent pics that yes, he’s put on weight, but he was bloated and exhausted for some reason that day.
But I do have to say this – having a sober house, open conversations about sobriety and many years of sobriety does not exempt him from the threat of relapse. A person can never get cocky about his or her recovery and feel like it’s a done deal. I’ve learned a lot from having a close friend who is a recovering heroine addict. She’s been clean for five years but it’s still a daily commitment and a daily struggle, and there is always the threat of relapse. She is becoming a drug counselor to help others but that doesn’t mean that relapse isn’t a real threat in her life. She has to be on top of her sh*t like no one else I know.
Addiction is so very sad and hard. It never really leaves you. I hope that Matthew never does relapse.
Vey good point. As with many illnesses, addiction can be controlled but it doesn’t just magically go away.
he also doesn’t have much of a chin/jaw line so certain angles + any weight gain in his face are EXTREMELY unflattering–it always has been on him. shame Star went after him like this b/c of all the Friends cast members, i’ve always liked him the most.
Me too. I thought he was the most talented; he could deliver a line like no one else.
The rich/those in debt, solve that (aging) problem with chin implants. Most celebs have them but most won’t admit it.
He’s not ageing well and he’s gained some weight. We have all been there or will be there at some point in our lives if we are lucky to live long enough. A bad photo can make a person look ten to fifteen pounds heavier than a well posed photograph taken by a professional. I’m sure he will look much better the next time we see him on television or at a red carpet event. This is simply a really bad candid photograph when he wasn’t dressed up.
Perry was te only reason I ever watched Friends.
He was also on The One Show (UK, BBC1) a few nights ago and he looked and sounded really good.
Perry actually looks like the majority of my high school classmates I had, after marriage and a couple of kids. Booze, smoking and eating like shit will do that to you.
I just watched part of the Graham Norton Show because I was curious about his speech, and it is very odd. He doesn’t seem drunk or high or anything like that, but it does seem like he has some really painful, ill fitting dental work going on. The bottom half of his mouth is like a ventriloquist’s puppet.
The change in his voice seemed dramatic to me too, and it was trending all over Twitter in the U.K. He has a sort of lisp and strange palate noise or something. But I guess it has been like this for awhile as when I Googled it people were mentioning the change as far back as The Odd Couple. I did not think it was slurring either, but a sort of speech impediment sound/dental issue like you say. He seemed very dry/sardonic and happy to be working on his play that he wrote and has even been subtly joking about his character being an alcoholic being based on him. So I think the Star sludge piece might have come inadvertently from people here gossiping about the difference in him in now vs. how they remember Chandler, Idk. Friends was actually even bigger in the U.K. I think than the U.S., like I had never watched it before I moved here but people were obsessed with over here.
He looks dashing on the 2013 cover! Anyway it’s really awful and mean for them to say he relapsed just because he wasn’t looking his best. Wtf, I hope he sues them! Shame on them!
He’s also said that he’s had memory loss from the drug abuse…He said in a radio/tv interview that he doesn’t remember filming seasons 3-6 of Friends.
No, stop. He was on Graham Norton being incredibly uncomfortable next to Miriam Margolyes last week and he looked great. He’s starring in a play he wrote right now and I bet he’s tired.
I just read an interview he did. He is one of those sad on the inside, funny on the outside kind of guys. He said he was never under the influence playing Chandler but is indeed an alcoholic, although is sober now. Seems like a really cool guy. I wish nothing but the best for him and hate Star and all of the other horror seeking rags.
Maybe it’s British food? And way less pressure to look “Hollywood”? Also, not a flattering photo at all. I hope he is okay.
Yeah, when I did a semester abroad in England, I came back to the states with about 30 extra pounds. It was winter when I was there. I was drinking a lot because I was 19 and could, and I was eating lots of butter and pub food. Oh and my favorite thing to get after a night of drinking was a kabob with french fries from the street vendor. I got off the plane and the first thing out of my mom’s mouth was, “You’re fat.”
LOL, that pub food can be brutal. Burgers and fish and chips!
I did a semester in Rome and then backpacked, and between the constant walking and no American junk food, I actually lost 30 lbs. It all came back though, and brought some friends.
I hope he is sober and I don’t think rotten photos deem a person sober or addicted. That said, there is a rumor that the reason he won’t be in the Friends reunion is because he fell off the wagon and needs to focus on his sobriety. Even if its true, good for him for having his priorities straight. Chandler forever. Go Matthew!
He didn’t attend the tribute to James Burrows (it’s not a Friends reunion) because he’s in London rehearsing a play he wrote and stars in. The same day the James Burrows thing was taped, Perry did a TV interview in London…he’s not avoiding being seen, he’s just very busy working in another country.
I’ll always have a soft spot in my crusty heart for Chandler Bing!
I’m going to see his play a week from monday! I’m SO excited. Writing/producing/acting in a play of that nature is an exhausting endeavor.
He started getting slovenly back when he started filming the Odd Couple and he had the Oscar role. Is that show still on? I thought it was but haven’t seen it advertised recently.
It is, the second season should start airing sometime in in the next couple of months.
I recently started watching Friends on Netflix backwards, so I’m in the middle of season 10, nothing can make me laugh as hard as that show. I became a grown up during the 10 years it ran, was in college when it began, got married and had two children by the time it ended.
He has always been unattractive (in my opinion).
My favorite actor on Friends. I’ve always like him and found him to be completely charming and attractive. I don’t understand why he hasn’t married. He’s such a great guy – love him!
I’ve known Matt Perry for a long time. Knew him back before friends stardom. He’s working a great program right now. He is humble in the face of his disease. This Star Magazine cover is just vindictive and cruel. Maybe when he ditched Julia Roberts calls because she chased him obsessively and called him every 10 seconds she held a grudge, never recovered and paid someone off to do this story.