Issue date: Dec 5, 1999

In this article:
Phillips' life: No day at the beach

By Jeffrey Zaslow

OR MACKENZIE PHILLIPS, her Hollywood comeback is both wonderful and weird. The star of the Disney Channel's new show So Weird was a virtual pariah by the time she was 22, when she was written off the popular Norman Lear sitcom One Day at a Time for her drug-fueled flubbing of lines and chronic tardiness.

Phillips is now 40, sober and back on TV. In another twist on life, she plays a '70s rock star on the comeback trail whose two kids stumble on X-Files-like mysteries. After her very public 1982 firing, it took her the next decade and seven stints in rehab to kick her drug and alcohol habits. Perhaps even more difficult, with a deep breath and low expectations, she began going on casting calls again. Ironically, one of the first guest spots she landed in her 1994 return to television was as a high school drug counselor on the Fox hit Beverly Hills, 90210.

Branded by her early Hollywood experience, Phillips is "hyper-aware" that she has a terrible reputation to overcome. For that reason, she vows, "I'll never be late on set, and I always know my lines."

She was fired the very year the Betty Ford Center opened and began attracting celebrity patients. Her struggle with substance abuse coincided with the growth in treatment programs in the United States, from just 2,400 in 1977 to 9,000 by the '90s. With studies showing that 9% of Americans are addicted to drugs or alcohol, Phillips believes her resurrected career can serve as a beacon to others.

"It's my mission," she says, adding that "Disney has embraced my baggage. We look at it as a tool for education." As So Weird's executive producer, actor Henry Winkler hired Phillips. "Her past is just that," he says. "And she speaks so courageously about herself. She inspires us."

Phillips' stories are gruesome. As a child, she rolled joints for her dad, John Phillips, a founder of the Mamas and the Papas. "I grew up in glorious mansions, but everything was dirty and broken. Very little was going on inside except sex, drugs and rock and roll." She explains the genetic aspect of addiction. "The first time I had a drink, it woke up the sleeping monster inside me." Phillips earned $47,500 a week from her sitcom and blew it all on drugs. By age 25, she was rounding up quarters to buy food. Still, she feels lucky.

Phillips is raising her 12-year-old son with guitarist Shane Fontayne differently. "He was 5 when I got sober, and he remembers when I wasn't. He talks about how much it means to him to know he can count on me now. I've been given this incredible gift, this second chance at life.

"Why did I survive? Maybe it's to say to others, 'This happened to me. It could happen to you.' I don't mind being a poster girl."

Contributing Editor Jeffrey Zaslow last wrote about Ricky Martin.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Julie Dennis Brothers for USA WEEKEND

Phillips' life: No day at the beach

• Made her acting debut at 12 in the classic 1973 movie American Graffiti.


• At 22, fired for drug abuse from the CBS comedy One Day at a Time.


• Toured with her rocker dad, John Phillips, in his reconstituted '60s pop band, the Mamas and the Papas.


• Finally kicked her addictions in 1992 after seven stints in rehab programs.


• Single mom of son Shane, 12.


• Returned to television in a 1994 guest spot as a drug-intervention counselor on Fox's Beverly Hills, 90210.


• Played Rizzo in a road tour of the musical Grease in 1996.


• Her new show, the Disney Channel's So Weird, is a sort of X-Files for kids. It airs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 7 p.m. ET.