People Features

Hollywood Crimes and Misdemeanors - Jeremy London

By Robert Dixter Jun 24, 2010, 14:15 GMT

Jeremy London at the 7th Annual World Poker Tour Invitational - The Commerce Casino - Los Angeles, CA, USA © Tony Lowe / PR Photos

It’s the same old story. Boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl have kid, boy is kidnapped while fixing tire and forced to do drugs for twelve hours.

Early in June Jeremy London of Party of Five and 7th Heaven fame was fixing a tire in Palm Springs when two men stopped to help him. He offered them a ride home as a thank you and that’s when the story turns into something out of the Twilight Zone or a Lohan family reunion. The two guys pulled a gun and kidnapped Jeremy, in his own car mind you, and drove around with him for 12 hours forcing him to smoke crack cocaine or amphetamines. They also had him hand out alcohol in gang areas.

Why kidnap someone and force them to do drugs? Why not force him to clean their house or water their garden? Something useful. The one thing I can’t understand in this whole story is how they managed to drive around for 12 hours and not stop at a gas station? And if they did, no one noticed that there was a gun being held to Jeremy’s head? In any case, Jeremy eventually escaped and Brandon Adams was arrested later that day and charged with kidnapping, robbery, possession of stolen property, vehicle theft, carjacking and using a firearm during the commission of a felony. It seems the only thing he wasn’t charged with was overdue library books.
What seemed like a horrible nightmare for the actor was finally over.

The story, while completely insane, seemed to be believable. That is until other facts about Jeremy’s life started coming to light. Jeremy was apparently driving with a suspended license at the time of the kidnapping and both he and his wife, Melissa (who are in the middle of a divorce), have lost custody of their son, Lyrik, 3, and both are being tested regularly for drugs. Melissa’s mother raises the child. On top of their drug problems, there was also some domestic violence between Melissa and Jeremy and both are in need of money. Melissa is renting a room in a house in Palm Springs and Jeremy has been known to show up there and they will then launch into shouting matches all night.

Oh, and if the story couldn’t get any more confusing or bizarre, Melissa also recently crashed her car into a 7-Eleven a few weeks ago while her son was in the car. That’s not exactly something you write on a mother’s day card. “Dear Mom, thanks for not killing me while you were high. Love, your son. P.S. I thought we were getting Slurpees?”

After hearing the backstory on Jeremy and his wife you have to sort of wonder if his kidnapping tale is true? The story is so weird it might fall under the “you can’t make up stuff like this” headline, unless you’re under the influence of drugs. Jeremy has a twin brother, Jason (also an actor in films like Dazed and Confused), who along with their mother have spoken out that Jeremy should use this situation as an opportunity to realize he needs help and to get the treatment he needs. They don’t believe he was kidnapped. Jeremy’s lawyer then told them to cease and desist from talking about the event saying “the information you are providing is false and your behavior is reckless.”

Jeremy himself recently released a video to Radaronline.com. In it he says how mad he is at his brother and mother. He goes on to say “"I haven't even seen them in six months. They have no idea what's going on." He also says that the kidnapping really did happen and "I thought I was going to die. Thank God I made it out alive." So on top of being kidnapped, now he has beef with his relatives while still trying to sort out problems with his wife. This guy’s life is more complicated than The Crying Game.

There have been many crazy stories out of Hollywood, but this one ranks pretty close to the top. It seems that regardless of whether or not there was a kidnapping, Jeremy (and Melissa) is headed towards a tragic end. Jeremy’s spokesman, Dominic Friesen, said recently that Jeremy “appreciates the overwhelming support from his fans."

This last line seems like the biggest hole in this whole story. Jeremy has fans? Who knows? Maybe there are a few from that one episode of Crossing Jordan, I don’t know. The real tragedy is that Lyrik is still without his parents who clearly cannot take care of him let alone take care of themselves. Oh, and if it matters at all to whether or not this tale really happened, the supposed kidnapper Brandon Adams has pled not guilty.