Poor Gary Coleman. From the moment we heard the less-than-stressed-sounding 911 call made by his ex Shannon Price after he fell and split his head open, or the claim that she had to have the plug pulled on him so he wouldn't end up like Muhammad Ali, or the plea she made via TMZ for fans to send her burial money during the same interview in which she bragged about spending his money on shopping trips in Vegas … well, we figured this story was heading for the deep end fast.
Then when his estranged parents hired a lawyer to get custody of his remains, thereby holding up his funeral, well, that was the running start down the diving board. And now for the big splash:
Adding to the bizarre circumstances surrounding his TV brother's death, Todd Bridges has come out with the surprise announcement that he is in possession of a document purporting to contain the final wishes of Gary Coleman.
"[A friend of mine and I] have paperwork, and we'll bring it out soon, that will show what his wishes were and what he wanted," Bridges said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "There's a big fight going on with his parents and some other people involved, and after we bring this paperwork out, everybody's going to shut up."
Don't count on it, Willis.
"Gary had certain wishes [to exclude his parents]. I'm not going to go against a dying man's wishes," Bridges continued. "There's a reason why he didn't speak to them for 23 years."
In 1989, Coleman successfully sued his parents and a former business adviser for misappropriating his multimillion-dollar trust fund from his Diff'rent Strokes days.
But the estrangement hasn't prevented Sue and Willie Coleman from inserting themselves into what may be a fight over the late actor's body and putting a question mark on his funeral-currently scheduled for Saturday in Utah.