Michael Thomas (Tom) Green is a Canadian
shock comic.
Born in Pembroke, Ontario, Green grew up in Ottawa
and had a radio show on the University of Ottawa's
campus radio station, CHUO, before getting his first
series on an Ottawa public-access television channel,
Rogers Community 22.
In the early 1990s, Green had a short-lived career
as a rapper in a band called Organized Rhyme.
The Tom Green Show typically consisted of stunts
played by Tom on unsuspecting people. A number of them
involved Green's parents, Mary and Richard, who consistently
appeared to be unamused and occasionally angered by
Tom's antics. Some of Green's most notable skits include
humping a dead moose (referenced by rapper Eminem),
having an X-rated lesbian scene (named the "Slut
Mobile") painted on his father's car, drinking
milk by sucking a cow's udder, and putting a cow head
in his parents' bed while they slept.
After the show moved to MTV, Tom became famous in
the United States. This fame soon netted Tom roles
in several Hollywood movies, including Road Trip, Freddy
Got Fingered (which he also directed), and Stealing
Harvard. Freddy Got Fingered "won" in five
categories at the 2001 Golden Raspberry Awards which
are given to the worst movies of the year. Green actually
appeared at the ceremony to accept his awards. The
negative reception of Freddy Got Fingered has since
made it difficult for Green to secure starring roles
in large productions.
He also wrote a song called "Lonely Swedish
(The Bum Bum Song)", which he composed during
MTV's Spring Break while doing a show on a cruise ship.
After airing the music video on his show and appealing
to his audience to request it, the song became a instant
#1 hit on Total Request Live. He quickly called for
the video to be retired because "it's not fair
to 98 Degrees." Later he revealed (or possibly
joked) that MTV had pressured him to do so.
Tom's increasing fame made it harder for him to ambush
people on the streets, leading him to target mostly
seniors and non-English speakers. MTV cancelled his
TV show in 2000, but he continued to appear on the
channel via reruns and other promotional materials.
After he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in March
of 2000, he made a one-hour special of his ordeal,
including graphic footage of his own surgery. The episode
(which was the last of the MTV version of The Tom Green
Show to be produced) received wide critical acclaim
for revealing a vulnerable, human side of an otherwise
juvenile television personality. He also starred in
and directed a one-hour special called The Tom Green
Subway Monkey Hour, where he tormented strangers in
Japan.
In July of 2000, Tom Green became engaged to actress
Drew Barrymore. Green and Barrymore met after Barrymore,
who was a fan of Green's show, asked Green to appear
in Charlie's Angels which Barrymore starred and produced.
During the build up to their wedding Green and Barrymore
frequently joked with the media about when and where
they were going to wed. The most notable incident came
on November 18, 2000 when Green hosted Saturday Night
Live. During the monologue, Green brought Barrymore
on stage and teased the audience about the couple marrying
at the end of the episode. Ultimately, the stage was
set a wedding before Barrymore got "cold feet." The
SNL incident initially left viewers and the media confused
about whether the couple had actually planned to marry
on live TV, or were simply staging a publicity stunt.
Eventually, Green also went on The Tonight Show to
toy with the public once again, this time claiming
that his bride might be pregnant.
On February 18, 2001, Green and Barrymore's Hollywood
home burned down. Their dog Flossie woke them around
3:30 a.m. when she barked and "literally banged
on their bedroom door." Firefighters estimated
damage at $700,000 in the two-story, 3,500-square-foot
home north of Beverly Hills. The incident was soon
spoofed on Saturday Night Live with guest host Katie
Holmes playing Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon playing
Tom Green.
Green and Barrymore married on July 7, 2001, but
filed for divorce on December 17, 2001, citing irreconcilable
differences. Their divorce became official on October
15, 2002. Some speculate that the marriage failed because
Green wished to settle down and begin raising a family
while Barrymore still had a high profile film career
to maintain and still wanted to go out with her friends
and have fun.
According to some tabloid reports Green grew annoyed
by Barrymore's increasingly neurotic behavior in private.
On October 13, 2001, Drew Barrymore hosted Saturday
Night Live and Tom Green appeared in the audience wearing
a gas mask. The episode came just a month after the
September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City,
where SNL is produced. Reportedly, Barrymore was already
anxious about flying to New York. When news broke that
NBC's Rockefeller Center studios where they were rehearsing
had received a package containing anthrax, Barrymore
fled the set in tears, vowing not to return.
Green would later claim that, at their wedding, most
of Barrymore's show business friends (among them, Adam
Sandler, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Courtney Love, and
Molly Shannon) paid no attention to Green's own friends
and family since they "weren't famous."
In 2003, Green returned with a nightly talk show
on MTV called The New Tom Green Show. Marking a change
from his earlier work, he was compared in print to
a young Johnny Carson or David Letterman. Nevertheless,
it was cancelled by MTV a few months after its premiere
due to dwindling ratings.
Tom Green's autobiography, titled Hollywood Causes
Cancer (co-written with Allen Rucker), was released
on October 12, 2004. He is still acting and is a recurring
contributor to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. |