Daniel Stern, the actor forever linked to the Home Alone franchise, is now facing mounting legal trouble after prosecutors formally filed a criminal charge connected to his recent arrest.
The 68-year-old performer has been charged with a misdemeanor count of soliciting prostitution, following an incident that allegedly occurred last month.
Court records reviewed by the Daily Mail show that the Ventura County District Attorney officially filed the charge on Monday. According to the court docket, Stern is scheduled for an arraignment at nine a.m. on Tuesday.
A representative for the District Attorney’s office told TMZ that prosecutors do not expect Stern to attend in person, and that his lawyer is likely to appear on his behalf instead.
Stern, who became a household name for his role in the first two Home Alone films, was reportedly cited by police for allegedly attempting to solicit a sex worker at a hotel in Camarillo, California. Law enforcement did not book him into jail, meaning he was not required to take a mugshot. Instead, he was issued a citation and released.
The actor is best known for portraying Marv Merchants, one half of the famously clumsy burglar duo in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), where he starred opposite Macaulay Culkin. The latest legal development comes just months after Stern experienced a serious health scare.
According to TMZ, Stern was rushed to the emergency room on October 7 after suffering a medical emergency. While details about the incident were not publicly disclosed, the Ventura County Fire Department confirmed that firefighters responded to a residence in Somis, California. Stern was evaluated on site, transported to the hospital, and later released.
His representative subsequently confirmed that he is in good health.
Despite once being a familiar face in major Hollywood productions, Stern has dramatically changed his lifestyle in recent years. He has stepped away from the film industry and now works as a cattle rancher, grows tangerines, and pursues sculpting.
Stern has also spoken candidly in the past about financial struggles during his time in Hollywood. In his memoir Home And Alone, he detailed how he had to fight for higher pay when Home Alone 2 was fast-tracked after the massive success of the original 1990 film.
According to Stern, the studio initially offered him $600,000 for the sequel, which was double his salary from the first movie. However, he learned that his co-stars were being offered far more lucrative deals. He wrote that Joe Pesci, who played fellow burglar Harry, was earning approximately $2 million to $3 million, while Macaulay Culkin secured $5 million plus five percent of the film’s box office gross.
Stern recalled that it took six months for producers to even make the initial offer, which he described as "double my original salary, but not quite the pot of gold I was hoping for." After learning how much more his co-star was making, he pushed back.
"I asked if that was the same as Joe [Pesci] was getting, and they said it was not," Stern wrote.
The studio later returned with an improved offer of $800,000, but Stern said he had already discovered that Pesci was "getting somewhere between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 plus gross percentage of the profits." Wanting to earn at least half of what his co-star was making, Stern refused to accept a six-figure deal.
When his agent advised him to accept the offer anyway, Stern said he fired him. Reflecting on the decision years later, Stern admitted it was a "prideful thing to do," but added that if that was the best his agent could manage, "then he wasn't very good at his job."
He later told the Los Angeles Times that he ultimately agreed to appear in the sequel because "there's lots of things I get out of the movies besides money."
In December, Stern confirmed that he has fully left Hollywood behind, now living on a farm where he focuses on agriculture and art, far removed from the spotlight that once defined his career.