Fred Savage's Separated Wife Claims Constant "Winnie" Comparisons in Divorce Filings

Westwood, CA - Allison Savage-Bader, the estranged wife of child star Fred Savage, claimed that Savage psychologically abused her during their three-year marriage by constantly comparing her to "Winnie," Savage's character's (Kevin Arnold) fictional girlfriend on "The Wonder Years" - the show which propelled Savage to a brief stardom.

The legal filings for divorce in which the allegations were found detailed multiple accounts of Savage telling Allision such things as, "Winnie would make better muffins than this crap" when Allison would cook, and "Winnie would talk less during sex" during times that the couple was intimate.



"Who can blame the guy," says Josh Saviano, the actor who portrayed Savage's best-friend, Paul Pfeiffer, on "The Wonder Years." "Danica is hot, there's no doubt about it. I do feel bad for Fred though," says Saviano, "he and Allison had something pretty special."

Allison and Fred met on the set of "The Princess Bride," a film that Savage was working on at the time. Allison was the daughter of the film's director and when she first met Savage, it was love at first site. "He was just so adorable," said Allison in a 1998 interview, recalling their first meeting, "sitting there playing the sick kid, home from school, whose creepy Columbo-like grandfather comes in and tells him this trippy story. I just knew we would be together."



Unfortunately, the starry romance was short-lived. Saviano and other friends of Savage noticed an onset of depression in Savage upon the cancellation of "The Wonder Years." "He just couldn't get work," says Saviano, "the only thing he did was that made-for-t.v. movie with Sammy Davis Jr. - 'Christmas on Division Street.'"

Coupled with the depression was a curious obsession with Winnie Cooper, aka Danica Mckeller. "He would stay at home night after night, watching tapes of the show that he had ABC make for him, pausing it during portions of Danica, sometimes crying at times into his HungryMan t.v. dinners. That put a real strain on his marriage. Even when he finally got that sitcom gig with "Working," he made them put into the contract that Danica would come on for one guest appearance. They had to pay her $2 milion because she said Savage creeped her out so bad."



As for the lusty Danica Mckeller, she doesn't seem as hung up on Savage. Having posed for such men's magazines as Maxim, and Stuff, Mckeller has had a steady career of guest appearances, recently on CBS's "How I Met Your Mother" with another child actor: Neil Patrick Harris.