Reverse Culture Shock

My English husband is usually the first person I talk to about big news events. But when I read this morning with great shock that Corey Haim had died, I didn’t mention it to him right away.

As a Brit, he didn’t have the same cultural icons that I did growing up. I wasn’t convinced that he would know who Corey Haim was.

I was partially right. He had seen “Lost Boys,” and remembered him from that. But I had to explain to my husband the breadth of Corey Haim’s fame in the 1980s: his constant presence on the covers of such teen magazines as Tiger Beat (I am not ashamed to admit I used to read that tween gossip magazine somewhat regularly); his starring role in a slew of teen movies, like “License to Drive” and “Lucas”; and his perennially wholesome and youthful good looks. Even in recent years, he looked young and healthy.

It was hard to give my husband an analogy of someone who defined an entertainment era as much as Corey Haim defined the ’80s for tweens. I could only come up with the Minogue sisters (Kylie and Dannii), although that’s a bit off base: they’re Australian singers.

I hope Corey Haim is remembered for his remarkable youthful career, rather than his tragic death.