Altering a parent table in Postgresql 8.4 breaks child table defaults

Question

The problem: In Postgresql, if table temp_person_two inherits fromtemp_person, default column values on the child table are ignored if the parent table is altered.

How to replicate:

First, create table and a child table. The child table should have one column that has a default value.

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE temp_person (
    person_id SERIAL,
    name      VARCHAR
);

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE temp_person_two (
    has_default character varying(4) DEFAULT 'en'::character varying NOT NULL
) INHERITS (temp_person);

Next, create a trigger on the parent table that copies its data to the child table (I know this appears like bad design, but this is a minimal test case to show the problem).

CREATE FUNCTION temp_person_insert() RETURNS trigger
LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS '
BEGIN
INSERT INTO temp_person_two VALUES ( NEW.* );
RETURN NULL;
END;
';

CREATE TRIGGER temp_person_insert_trigger
    BEFORE INSERT ON temp_person
    FOR EACH ROW
    EXECUTE PROCEDURE temp_person_insert();

Then insert data into parent and select data from child. The data should be correct.

INSERT INTO temp_person (name) VALUES ('ovid');
SELECT * FROM temp_person_two;
 person_id | name | has_default
-----------+------+-------------
         1 | ovid | en
(1 row )

Finally, alter parent table by adding a new, unrelated column. Attempt to insert data and watch a "not-null constraint" violation occur:

ALTER TABLE temp_person ADD column foo text;
INSERT INTO temp_person(name) VALUES ('Corinna');
ERROR:  null value in column "has_default" violates not-null constraint
CONTEXT:  SQL statement "INSERT INTO temp_person_two VALUES (  $1 .* )"
PL/pgSQL function "temp_person_insert" line 2 at SQL statement

My version:

testing=# select version();
                                                version
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 PostgreSQL 8.4.17 on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc-4.4.real (Debian 4.4.5-8) 4.4.5, 64-bit
(1 row)