Eight is Enough and Charles in Charge star Willie Aames, now 48, was a millionaire when he was in his 20s and partied at the Playboy mansion. He’s now struggling to make ends meet in his post-fame life in Kansas. He’s on unemployment, and takes day labor construction jobs when they’re available. Aames is married with an 18 year-old daughter, and the former child actor is now so broke he couldn’t even afford to buy his daughter a dress for the prom. A lot of his money troubles stem from a project he invested $150,000 in last year that fell through. His wife suffers from the auto-immune disease lupus, and her high medical bills and the cost of medication also contributed to the family’s debt. Like a lot of people struggling in today’s economy, Aames filed for bankruptcy, had his car repossessed and may lose his home.

Willie Aames… is now virtually penniless. He’s had his jeep repossessed, stands to lose his home and has filed for bankruptcy…

Willie is so down on his luck, he couldn’t even afford a present for his daughter Harleigh’s 18th birthday, he told The Enquirer in an exclusive interview.

“What’s worse is that she had to buy her own prom dress last year,” said Willie. “That killed me!”

Willie says the past 2 1/2 years have been “absolute hell” for him and his family. “There were times when we had so little money that we actually had to make a choice between groceries or medication for my wife Maylo, who has lupus.”

Willie took a big financial gamble by investing in a Canadian adventure and hunting TV show called “MacMillan River Adventures” on the Outdoor Channel last year, sinking $150,000 into the project. He lost every penny.

Willie, who played Tommy Bradford on “Eight is Enough,” then took out a second mortgage on his home but quickly fell behind on the payments. He said he was unemployed until his recent gig on “Celebrity Fit Club.” But he only earned $14,000 for his role.

So, the actor says he’s been taking day labor jobs to put food on the table.

“I’ve never shied away from an honest day’s work,” he maintained.

Willie did everything from hanging drywall, sanding ceilings and digging sump pumps.

“It wasn’t much money, but it’s what I had to do to feed my family,” he said.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, August 18, 2008]

Aames says that Scott Baio was “set for life” after their show Charles in Charge wrapped, but that his money quickly dwindled down to nothing. He also was addicted to drugs and alcohol for 15 years, the Enquirer reports, and then got sober, became a born-again Christian and met his wife. Aames starred in the Bibleman videos as a Christian superhero from 1995 to 2004. He lost 19 pounds on Celebrity Fit Club in 2005, but has since gained the weight back. He lost the weight again on Celebrity Fit Club 6: Boot Camp earlier this year, where he won the individual prize.

About 1/2 of US bankruptcies are at least partially due to medical expenses, and the fact that Aames wife is probably too ill to work has surely affected his family’s finances. It’s a shame his adventure show didn’t work out, and it speaks to his character that he’s willing to do construction work and whatever it takes to help his family. I didn’t seem Aames on either Celebrity Fit Club, but Wikipedia makes it souund like he was particularly surly on the 2005 show and says he had a big fight with the trainer. Have any of you seen it and what impression did you get of Aames?

Aames told The Enquirer that his dream job is to work as a producer for Oprah. She might be interested in his story at least.

I hope things pick up for him and his family, and for a lot of Americans who have to make the difficult choice between food or medication, especially seniors.

Willie Aames is shown below in a still from Celebrity Fit Club 6: Boot Camp. Credit: tv.yahoo.com He is shown above with his wife in a promotional image for their joint book Grace is Enough which was published in late 2007 and details their separate lives struggling with childhood sexual abuse and drug addiction before they found each other and their faith.

As if the industry wasn’t hard hit enough from the writer’s strike, one of the largest Hollywood payroll companies just declared bankruptcy yesterday after shutting their offices on Monday and telling all their employees to pack up and leave. Axium handled payroll services for the Directors Guild of America and studios such as Warner Brothers. They had over $100,000 in assets from the Director’s Guild according to Defamer, and a commentor on Defamer says it’s likely they required a month’s worth of payroll ahead of time from production companies. That means that many entertainment workers could be stiffed out of their pay at a very difficult time. All of Axium’s assets have been frozen:

Axium Intl., the entertainment industry’s third-largest provider of payroll and accounting services, has closed unexpectedly and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Axium shuttered operations Tuesday, a day after its lenders froze the company’s bank accounts. Immediate impact was unclear, but some of the frozen funds included paychecks for film projects.

Director Charlie Matthau told Daily Variety that much of the money he was owed on the recently completed indie drama “Baby O” was frozen Tuesday.

“I was supposed to go pick up a $75,000 check from the DGA, until they told me there was this problem, that Axium had gone out of business and all the accounts were frozen, ” said the helmer, son of the late Walter Matthau. “I feel totally violated, and I’m hoping that the Guild will be able to help me.”

Matthau said Axium notified him recently that the money had been wired into his account.

“In fact, they’d done no such thing, and they were hiding this 400-pound gorilla of bankruptcy,” he added. “Because of that memo, I hope that the City Attorney or District Attorney looks into this. It has affected me and likely a whole lot of other people.”

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing is designed to govern the liquidation of company assets. Axium reps were not available for comment Tuesday, and the headquarters offices on Wilshire Boulevard were shuttered.

Axium president Ruben Rodriguez had left the firm. Axium employees were told Monday not to come to work until further notice, and if in contact with their clients, to tell them that Axium could no longer process their business.

[From Variety.com]

Another commentor on Defamer notes that she hasn’t been paid by Axium at her entertainment-related job since December 14th. LAist says that there are a lot of unanswered questions in this case and that many people are worried where their next paycheck will come from, if Axium correctly gave their withholdings to the IRS, and how they will handle taxes this year. This affects all people with paychecks issued from Axium and Avalon.

It is thought that Axium went bankrupt due to greedy executives, similar to the Enron scandal. They have filed Chapter 7, not Chapter 11, which means that Axium employees won’t receive whatever pay was owed to them.

People are saying this is somehow due to the writer’s strike, but it sounds more to me like this company didn’t manage their assets and that someone was cooking the books. Axium’s website, which features a huge globe and a spinning glowing X, is still available, but their offices are shut and not taking calls.