Her special powers may come in especially handy these days, as the TV former child star finds herself making the sort of headline so particular to TV former child stars.
And, no, that sort of headline would not be: "TV Former Child Star Goes Good."
This week, a judge in Beverly Hills, California, issued a $20,000 bench warrant for the arrest of the onetime kid actor best known to Nick at Nite devotees as Alex P. Keaton's precocious little sister on the 1980s sitcom.
Today, the warrant--ordered because Yothers failed to make a scheduled court appearance on Wednesday--was removed, and a new court date scheduled, court officials confirmed.
The source of the ex-Keaton's problems is a $5,050 small claims court judgment against Yothers and Bob Jones, who cofounded the record label Harvest Product, that last year released a CD from Yothers' rock band, Jaded.
The judgment came down in May, pursued by Luck Media & Marketing, a Beverly Hills-based publicity firm with clients ranging from fellow ex-teen sensations like Tony DeFranco ("Heartbeat, It's a Love Beat") to "Achy Breaky" country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Once, Yothers was a client, too.
But Luck Media president Steve Levesque says Yothers (now 28 by most sources, save for court documents, which list her as 33) and Jones reneged on a contract that was to see them pay his firm $3,000 a month, plus expenses, for six months of PR wizardry. Yothers characterizes the deal as being between Jones and Levesque: "I really had nothing to do with it." Jones could not be located for comment.
The deal was signed in October 2000, and Yothers was accordingly booked on everything from E! to Inside Edition to hawk her new album, according to Levesque.
"We found her really refresing and enjoyable to work with through the whole campaign," Levesque says. "She was great. She did her interviews on time...She really nice to work with. She was wonderful."
But come January, Luck Media suspended its work on behalf of Yothers, Levesque says, because his company wasn't getting paid: "They paid for the first month and that was it." He says his firm was owed $7,500. To avoid heavy legal fees, he says, he sought retribution through small claims court, which caps awards at $5,000. And $5,000 (plus $50 for fees) is precisely what Yothers and Jones were ordered to pay per a May 15 ruling.
But, again, Levesque says he didn't get paid. He resorted to hiring a private detective to serve her with papers and alert her to the November 28 court date that had been set to work out a payment schedule.
Levesque says the gumshoe tagged Yothers at a November 3 Jaded concert in Hollywood. But Yothers insists she was not served--and swore under oath to such in court today.
"I had no idea this was going on," Yothers says. "I found out yesterday [about the missed court date] through an L.A. Times reporter."
Yothers is now scheduled to appear in court January 10 to sort out the small claims matter. Jones was expected in court later today to clear up his bench warrant.
Although relatively minor by Diff'rent Strokes standards, Yothers' court troubles likely are to be filed under "Former Child Star Goes Bad"--something Levesque says he finds ironic.
"Our pitch on her was the opposite," he says. "Here's the story of a child actor who's done good--she stayed out of trouble, she's still doing things."
As for the bullet-tested Yothers, she says she's not surprised to be facing more fire: "People never cease to amaze me."