GOSSIP!

Macaulay Culkin Vows To Stand By Troubled Mother

Macaulay Culkin has vowed to stand by his mother, as she fights to defend herself against lawsuits blaming her for a high- rise apartment fire that killed four people.

The 21-year-old star's mother Patricia Brentup was left devastated when a New York City judge ruled a jury will decide if her actions helped spread the 1998 blaze, which also injured 24 people.

A pal says, "Mac was solid as a rock for his family then and he is now. He told his mom, 'I won't let them persecute you. I'm here to help in every way.'

He made Pat understand that if push comes to shove, she can depend on him to support her to the bitter end. Poor Pat was so moved by Mac's promise that she cried."

Culkin had already moved out of the Upper West Side building when the blaze broke out in one of the family's three 19th-floor apartments just two days before Christmas in 1998. Brentup, a mother of seven, fled the 51-story high-rise with her children, but she left some doors open, and families of the dead and injured believe that allowed the fire to spread. -- WENN