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Nineties heartthrob Christian Slater has also parlayed roles in the West End into renewed leading-man status—reaffirming his title as "the next Jack Nicholson." Slater recently wrapped a stage version of the roman à clef Swimming With Sharks and wowed locals with his lead role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Illustrating the deference with which England treats its resident Yankee has-beens, Matthew d'Ancona, editor of the Spectator, gushed: "You can detect a new steeliness about what he does: a determination, having diced with oblivion, to transcend the stardom of youth to become one of the great actors of his generation. I think he is well on the way."

Having successfully exploited his theatrical persona, Slater has gone on to become a London tabloid fixture, deftly playing the part of the "big Hollywood star." Before the opening of Cuckoo's Nest, he embarked on a spree of after-hours womanizing, prompting his wife, Ryan Haddon, to move out of the couple's rented home in West London. He then indulged his lap-dance addiction, dropping nearly $20,000 in a single month at Sophisticats strip club. "Christian was drinking heavily," while preparing for the role, a Cuckoo's Nest production source tells Radar. A regular at Groucho Club recalls the actor "walking around here in a crazed stupor. His first words to me were, 'Let's jump off the roof!'" In Los Angeles, such behavior would likely have landed Slater on TMZ's trainwreck watch, but in London, his antics were viewed as harmless. In the end, they won him the affection of one of the city's most eligible bachelorettes, Tamara Mellon, the socialite president of Jimmy Choo, whose personal fortune is estimated at £99 million. The pair now pop up on both sides of the Atlantic, making the scene at parties Slater couldn't have begged an invite to five years ago.

Whether a hop across the pond turns out to be career rehab or simply the last pathetic stop on the gravy train, the trend shows little prospect of letting up. As she crashed her way toward rock bottom in the summer of 2007, Britney Spears was rumored to be considering a move to the UK, where, she felt, she might someday be set free from the glare of tabloid scrutiny, unleashed to haunt British fast-food chains in peace. More recently, as she disintegrated further, she found refuge in the arms of a Birmingham-born paparazzo named Adnan Ghalib and began to mimic his middle-class English accent (though she actually sounded more like Eliza Doolittle before the makeover). Britney's longing for something new was palpable. And perhaps a one-way flight to Heathrow will be just the ticket to redemption she's been hoping for.

This article is from the May issue of Radar Magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here.

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