Fortunes sagging for doctor to the stars

LOS ANGELES— For three decades, Dr. Arnold Klein drew the rich and vain to his Beverly Hills dermatology office. Trophy wives, industry bigwigs and A-list actresses glided through a reception area decorated with $1 million Warhols to have their laugh lines smoothed and lips plumped.

Throughout all that time, “Arnie” remained the same in the eyes of his clients: charming, immaculately groomed and as puffed up about his mastery of the Botox needle as he was about the jet-set life he enjoyed with celeb patients like Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson.

The perfect face Klein long presented the world is now sagging.

The man once touted as the “dermatologist to the stars” is bankrupt. Palatial homes where he entertained celebrity clients are in foreclosure. Mementos bestowed by grateful Hollywood friends are to be auctioned off to pay bills.

And what may be Klein’s most treasured asset, his reputation as a physician, has been called into question.

At the trial of another Jackson doctor last fall, Klein was portrayed by defence lawyers as unscrupulous, prescribing the singer enormous doses of Demerol that served no valid medical purpose.

After Dr. Conrad Murray was convicted in that trial, Klein acknowledged publicly he was under investigation by the state medical board.

“You hate to see somebody who was so good fall to such low levels,” said Dr. David Rish, who shared an office with Klein for two decades and is now among his creditors.

Klein, 66, in bankruptcy filings, blames his financial problems on two former employees, alleging they embezzled $8 million. The employees deny any wrongdoing. Los Angeles Times