Tom Green wears heart on his sleeve
Canadian comic helping friend and his wife through cancer battle
It turns out Tom Green is not just fighting for his own survival in CBS’s Celebrity Big Brother.
The Canadian comic is also fighting for the life of a friend. Rochelle Brooks, 40, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in September, and the costs are mounting for her and husband, Adam Luedicke.
Luedicke, a Canadian, has a Los Angeles-base d T-shirt business and Green has been wearing an assortment of his designs on the popular reality show — showing support by literally wearing his heart on his sleeve. A GoFundMe page for Rochelle has already raised more than $37,000, surpassing the original goal of $30,000.
“It’s incredible what he’s been doing. He has been an amazing friend for 30 years,” said Luedicke, who says he met Green while they both lived in Ottawa — Luedicke’s band Punchbuggy was the house band on Green’s early cable show. “Coming from Canada, we had no perception of the enormity of costs that you can incur down here,” Luedicke said. Brooks has insurance, but it does not pay for all costs related to the cancer.
“He knew about Rochelle’s cancer and he called me up and said he was doing this show and if I could send him some T-shirts, but I had no idea because he couldn’t tell me at the time,” Luedicke said.
He had never seen the Big Brother franchise before, but is now watching avidly. Green has not explained why he is wearing the shirts on the show, but sales of the T-shirts have taken off since Green started wearing them.
In Celebrity Big Brother, stars are sequestered in a house and under surveillance, with the object being to avoid elimination. This season, besides Green, celebrity guests included former Trump administration spokesperson Anthony Scaramucci, Dina Lohan (Lindsay’s mom) and one-time O.J. Simpson couch surfer Kat o Kaeli n (evicted this week).
Luedicke’s family has not had a lot of luck lately. His father was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer and is going through chemotherapy. Brooks also recently had her first round of chemotherapy.
“She is a trouper, she is tough as nails, but it’s been hard,” he says.
“When we first got the diagnosis, for the first two or three weeks we were in complete shock. She is the healthiest per- son I know.”
Green has endured the disease himself, having been diagnosed and successfully treated for testicular cancer in 2000.
His manager, John Schneider, told the Star that he wasn’t sure at first why his client wanted to wear the shirts.
“I had to send them to the producer to get clearance, but he was so insistent that he wear them on the show.
“It’s indicative of the person Tom is. It was support for this lovely family that was going through so much.
“He’s been wearing them every day.
“But I’m sure no one on the show knows about it.”
Scheider said Green has talked about his own battle with cancer with other house guests on the show. However, he has not brought up Rochelle’s case explicitly.
“He is being respectful. He didn’t want to exploit this or intrude on someone’s pain. But at the same time, he wanted to show he cares.”