Wednesday, April 23, 2008

That's So Raven's Orlando Brown Disappears


Orlando Brown of TV's That's So Raven has friends and family worried after he disappeared following a trip to a convenience store on Tuesday morning, People reports. That's not so Raven!

According to the Disney star's publicist, Brown was scheduled to attend a full day of meetings when he left his manager's house in Studio City, Calif., around 10:20 a.m. ET to hit up a nearby 7-Eleven. He hasn't been heard from since.

U.S. Army officials said Brown was in the service from September 1999 through December 2003, when he received an honorable discharge. Although his record did not show a deployment to Iraq, he received an Army commendation medal in 2003 for serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, officials said.

It seems unlikely the 20-year-old star would run away, since his career is on an upswing. He's currently collaborating with Akon and Sean Kingston on his second album and is set to star in a That's So Raven spinoff, tentatively titled The Orlando Brown Show.

Brown is scheduled for an initial appearance in federal court Wednesday. FBI officials believe he was in the United States legally. It was not known whether Brown had legal representation.

Brown, a lanky man with a beard, smiled broadly when he stood to acknowledge the judge entering the courtroom. During a hearing Wednesday, he was stone-faced.

"This appears to have been a serious matter with the potential for tragic consequences, and the incident is being thoroughly investigated," Mica said. "It's probably one of the most serious security incidents at Orlando International Airport ever."

Kelly Boaz said a luggage search turned up everything needed to build a pipe bomb -- glass bottles with nitromethane, a model rocket igniter, batteries, galvanized pipes with caps drilled to fit a fuse and even instructions. Authorities and airline officials said passengers were never in danger.

Brown was scheduled to fly on Air Jamaica Flight 80 to Montego Bay, Local 6 reported. The flight departed Tuesday afternoon after it was cleared by security.

Brown is an Army veteran who worked as a contractor in Iraq in 2007. Friends and relatives of Brown, who recently lived with his brother in Gainesville, said he has a history mental-health problems. But Citro produced no evidence about that Thursday.