Troubled star f ights for life after fireball road smash
HOLLYWOOD actress Anne Heche was in a critical condition last night after suffering severe burns in a car crash.
The Donnie Brasco star was said to have been ‘behaving erratically’ before the accident and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to the Los Angeles police.
She had been seen speeding at an estimated 100kph down a narrow residential street on Friday morning, crashing her car into the garage of an apartment building in the suburb of Mar Vista.
Residents arrived to help her but, according to witnesses, she reversed and drove off at speed. Moments later she allegedly careered past a stop sign, crashed through a hedge and into a house that was quickly engulfed in flames.
Ms Heche, who became trapped in the mangled wreckage, was reportedly pulled from her blazing Mini Cooper after 30 minutes. Video footage shows the actress, 53, beneath a white sheet being wheeled away on a stretcher by paramedics, flailing wildly as she was lifted into an ambulance.
The home she had crashed into burned down as it took 59 firefighters more than an hour to extinguish the flames.
A source told CNN last night: ‘Anne is in the ICU. She’s lucky to be alive. She has severe burns and has a long recovery ahead. Her team and family are still trying to process what led up to the crash.’
Ms Heche – whose screen credits also include the comedy Six Days, Seven Nights alongside Harrison Ford – has a history of mental illness.
She has claimed to have been ‘insane’ for the first 31 years of her life, as a result of repeated sexual abuse by her late father.
She has also admitted seeking comfort in self-destruction.
‘I drank,’ she told ABC News in 2001, ‘I smoked. I did drugs. I had sex with people. I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life.’
She became half of one of Hollywood’s first openly gay couples when she started a relationship with Ellen DeGeneres in 1997. But after they broke up in 2000, Ms Heche went on to marry cameraman Coleman Laffoon and had a son with him. They divorced in 2007 and she had another son with actor James Tupper in 2008. In a custody battle, Mr Tupper accused Ms Heche of ‘extended drug use’.
A spokesman for Ms Heche declined to comment last night.