We love legendary screenwriter John Hughes, the hilarious fella who gave us the brilliant comedies Weird Science, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink and Home Alone, to name just a few. But as good as he was, we still find it hard to forgive him for Curly Sue, the sickly sweet 90s comedy about a penniless drifter who scams strangers out of money to feed himself and his partner in crime, an orphan girl known as Curly Sue.
In fact, it was a film so ickily saccharine that we had managed to totally forget all about it – until, that is, just this week when a gorgeous gal with a sassy vocal appeared on The Voice USA!
Singing the song Blue Bayou, we and the judges were captivated by her on point vocals. But it was only after her performance that we were all left dumbstruck, when she revealed that she was actually former actress Alisan Porter, star of Curly Sue. And she looked and sounded great.
The young former actress – now 34 – also revealed that she hadn’t pursued music for many years because she had been distracted by drink and drugs and had been sober for the past eight years. Last year, she wrote in blog, Lil Mamas: ‘Hi, I’m Ali, and I’m an alcoholic. Yup, bet you didn’t see that one coming. Or, because you know that I’m a former child star, you totally did. Anyway, it’s the truth. I’ve been sober since Oct 28th, 2007 and I haven’t touched a drink or a drug since.’
The former child star went on to explain her addiction and recalled the moment she knew it was time to clean up her act. ‘I was living in NYC when I realised I needed to get sober. I was miserable and overwhelmed with life. I was heartbroken and realising that what had always worked for me in the past was NOT working at all. Not even a little bit. I felt trapped, scared, and sad and I was ready to really go for broke or get better. So, I did what every good user does and I prayed to a god I had never believed in…and then called my mom.
‘Days later I was off to treatment, just like that. For the next four years I went to meetings, worked the steps, got a sponsor, found a god of my own understanding, prayed, meditated and basically grew up. Growing pains were inevitable, I felt them often but I continued on the path because unlike my old ways, this way was working.’
See Alisan sing Blue Bayou here and prepare to be amazed!