rfc822.Message.getaddrlist() uses an AddressList 
instance as a helper.  AddressList objects parse 
their inputs during __init__.  Calling 
a.getaddrlist() thus causes the parsing to start 
over, but with the position set past the end of the 
address string.  Instead of calling 
AddressList.getaddrlist() 
rfc822.Message.getaddrlist() should simply access the 
addresslist attribute, e.g., at the end of that 
method it should read:

    alladdrs = ''.join(raw)
    a = AddressList(alladdrs)
    return a.addresslist

Here's a simple example that demonstrates the problem:

    >>> import rfc822
    >>> a = rfc822.AddressList ("skip@pobox.com")
    >>> a.getaddrlist()
    []
    >>> a.addresslist
    [('', 'skip@pobox.com')]

Bugfix candidate?

Skip

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user_id=12800

Yup, I recently ran into something similar.  Your analysis
is spot on of course, as is your proposed fix.  I will
commit changes to rfc822.py and to test_rfc822.py.  

Yes, this is a bug fix candidate.