The Huffington Post Harry Bradford
Between a homophobic rant on stage and his hospitalization at Sundance Film Festival, Tracy Morgan hasn’t gotten the best press lately. And claims that he isn’t doing enough to help his mother avoid foreclosure aren’t likely to help.
The 43-year-old star of NBC’s hit show 30 Rock has reportedly offered his mother, Alicia Warden, $2,000 to help her stave off foreclosure, despite her currently owing $25,000 on her Ohio home, the New York Daily News reports. Family members have spoken out against the at-times troubled Saturday Night Live alum — who is reportedly worth $18 million— for not providing more financial help since it “would be a drop in the bucket for Tracy,” according to his sister Asia Morgan.
Morgan has reportedly been estranged from his mother for some time, portraying her unfavorably in his 2009 book I’m the New Black. On her side, Warden says she hasn’t seen her son in person in over a decade, according to the NYDN.
Warden’s situation may sound familiar to millions of Americans who’ve been affected by the foreclosure crisis in the aftermath of the housing bust. If the foreclosure on Warden’s home goes through, she’d join 1.89 million households that were foreclosed on in 2011. And the problem may only get worse: experts anticipate millions more foreclosures by 2013.
In Warden’s home state of Ohio, one in every 583 housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, according to RealtyTrac.com. That’s enough to make Ohio one of the states struggling most with the foreclosure crisis today.
Indeed, the foreclosure crisis is so pervasive that many of Morgan’s fellow celebrities have already lost their homes. JPMorgan Chase foreclosed on O.J. Simpson’s Miami home in September. And in an odd twist, PETA has asked the bank to gift them the imprisoned ex-NFL star’s house to turn it into a “Meat Is Murder” museum.
But other tales of celebrity foreclosure aren’t quite so grissly. Last summer R. Kelly faced a foreclosure lawsuit worth $2.9 million after failing to make payments for over a year on his south suburban Chicago mansion. The artist reportedly witheld the payments as part of an effort to force the bank to negotiate a loan modification.
Actor Burt Reynolds also faced foreclosure last summer on his Hobe Sound Florida home, prompting him to slash the house’s asking price by $4 million last week.
You must log in to post a comment.