Andrew McCarthy gets gun pointed at him in Ethiopia.

// February 8th, 2010 // What's Poppin

Times sure have changed for ’80s heartthrob Andrew McCarthy. While penning a piece for travel magazine AFAR, the actor was detained at gunpoint after entering an Ethiopian church without proper documentation.

The actor, who found himself without his paperwork while visiting the historic Lalibela church in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region, was confronted by an armed guard. “His gun [was] pointed at my back,” McCarthy writes. “I thought his reaction to my offense was extreme; I tried to say as much. He grunted something in Amharic and prodded me with the tip of his rifle.”

After being escorted from the church, McCarthy was helped to safety by residents of the town.

Despite the alarming incident, the actor maintained his sense of humor, saying it was “just the kind of thing that happens when you show up alone in a distant country without a plan.”