The Other Atkins

You're an out of work actor, best known for a handful of cheesy 80s movies. You haven't really worked in a few years. You happen to share the same surname as the doctor behind the most popular diet in America. Do you cash in?

If you're Christopher Atkins, hell yeah, apparently you do.

The "Blue Lagoon" star is hawking, you guessed it, a low-carb regimen. (Revolving around low-carb chocolate chip cookies, that is.) No word on whether his low-carb diet also includes winding up stranded on a deserted island with just a perm, loincloth and nubile model-turned-actress.

The ad above appeared on the back of the Sunday Comics in the L.A. Times: Many people on a low-carb diet find it hard to stay on because you don't get to eat good tasting treats. That's why Christopher Atkins teamed up with PatentHEALTH, a cutting-edge consumer products leader, to create the perfect cookie.

How can Atkins, now at the age of 42, look as good today as he did when he was a teenager? "I know what to eat," Atkins said.

I don't know what's more sad: Christopher Atkins pushing a generic line of cookies on the back of the comics page... or that there are, I'm sure, probably more than a few readers who saw that ad and became convinced that the "Pirate Movie" star was that Dr. Atkins diet guy they'd been hearing so much about.