Charlie Sheen claims he gave Winona Ryder her stage name

Charlie Sheen has made a lot of preposterous claims in his day – mostly about winning, warlocks, and trolls – but his latest isn’t so out there. In an interview with the sports entertainment show “CenterStage” that will air today, the “Anger Management” star revealed that he is the one who came up with Winona Ryder’s stage name. "We were listening to the Doors, to 'Riders on the Storm,’” explains Sheen, who starred with Ryder in 1986’s “Lucas,” her film debut. “[Winona's] real name is Horowitz. And I said, 'You know, I'm thinking Winona Ryder sounds cool,' and she was like, 'Yeah!'" But although Ryder made quite a name, so to speak, for herself with memorable roles in “Beetlejuice,” “Little Women,” and “Mermaids,” the 46-year-old actor says she has never recognized him for his help. “[She] never, never gave me credit to this day!" he added.

Maybe it’s because Sheen’s version of the story isn’t true. Ryder, now 40, has always maintained that her stage name is taken from Mitch Ryder, a musician her father was listening to when her agent called and asked her how she wanted to be credited in “Lucas.” So either Sheen is trying to re-write history or Ryder really was convinced to change her name after the coincidence that her father was listening to a record by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels when her agent contacted her.

Ryder wasn’t the only topic during his “CenterStage” appearance. Sheen, promoting his new FX comedy series, also talked about his ouster from “Two and a Half Men” last year. Regarding his very public bashing of the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, Sheen admitted, “A lot of it was my fault, a lot of it was their fault. They went into my personal space, you know? And then my personal space might have been not the most private place in the world,” he added, in reference to his drug-induced meltdown. “It got in the way of work. I like to think that I didn’t get fired, I got traded for a player to be named later” – who became Ashton Kutcher.