Randy Quaid and His Wife Sure Seem Homeless, Even if No One's Saying So

by Becky Blanton · 2010-09-21 07:39:00 UTC
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Actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evi were arrested on trespassing and burglary charges this week after they were found squatting in a ritzy home in Los Angeles they owned years ago. It's their second brush with the law over housing in a year. They were charged with skipping out on a $10,000 hotel tab in Texas in 2009. For some reason, the media is still refusing to use the "H" word — homeless.

Apparently as big a hit as some of the 59-year-old Quaid's movies were, they weren't enough to keep him afloat in a down economy with the cost of living in a California neighborhood with the likes of Oprah Winfrey.

His role as "Cousin Eddie" in the National Lampoon movies Vacation and Christmas Vacation seems to be more disturbingly real every time he runs into trouble. In the films, Quaid plays a man who is laid off from his job, trades his house for an old RV, moves his wife and two teenage kids into it and hits the road — essentially broke and homeless. He sponges off of his relative Clark, played by Chevy Chase. He asks for a "little money" from Clark  in the movie — a loan of about $52,000. Oddly, that's just a bit over his bail on this current burglary charge ($50,000).

It's sad and scary. Homelessness respects no one — even the supposedly rich and famous. Reports over the years have mentioned famous actors and actresses pawning their awards and jewelry, but this has a face to it, a face most of us know. Hurting for money is one thing, but to be arrested for squatting in a home you sold three years ago? Or stiffing a hotel owner for $10,000? That's homeless in anyone's book. So why doesn't the media just come out and say it?

The way things are going, it looks like the couple may be welcoming the three hots and a cot of jail, or will be forced — like hundreds of thousands of others — to seek shelter or a cozy street corner in the cold coming months.

Photo credit: Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office

Becky Blanton has 22 years of experience as a journalist and photojournalist. She spoke at TEDGlobal 2009 in Oxford, England about being one of the "working homeless."
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