LATEST: HOME ALONE star Macaulay Culkin is so petrified of being recognised by fans, he's become a chronic agoraphobic and suffers panic attacks when he's forced to leave his New York apartment.

Friends claim the marijuana and unprescribed drugs the troubled star was arrested for possessing last week (17SEP04), were to control his condition, which compels him to hide for weeks in his East Village home, too afraid to leave unless accompanied by his bulldog - it was because he refused to put the pet in a crate during the flight from New York to Los Angeles that Culkin was arrested for speeding.

He explains, "I started going outside and it felt like the buildings were going to eat me."

Culkin will be arraigned on the drug charges on 15 October (04).

26/09/2004 10:31