PAUL'S SAD SECRET

EVEN PAUL REUBENS' DEAR FRIENDS HAD NO IDEA HE WAS STRUGGLING.

Paul Reubens was known for never forgetting a birthday. “Don’t get me started on the birthday texts,” his old friend SNL vet Laraine Newman tweeted after the Pee-wee’s Playhouse star’s July 30 death at age 70. “He sent them ALL DAY.” Others, from former college roomie David Hasselhoff to Office alum Kate Flannery, also remembered receiving funny meme-filled messages from the actor, who shot to fame playing the gangly, bowtied man-child Pee-wee Herman. For Joel McHale, for example, the funnyman sent a mislabeled pic of look-alike Ryan Seacrest. Joel called it “typical incredibly hilarious.”