BOOZING in the Parking Lot
Fears for former TV bombshell Lara Flynn Boyle after she’s caught day-drinking behind the wheel
Lara Flynn Boyle reached for the bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label and put it in her shopping cart. “She’s here a lot,” an employee in the liquor department at Ralphs supermarket in LA’S Westwood section tells In Touch. “She buys booze. She likes the Johnnie Walker Red, which is on sale right now.” (The 750 ml bottle, originally $26.99, was on sale for $22.99.) “She’s here maybe once a week,” said another employee, adding that there wasn’t anything particularly unusual about Lara’s visit on Feb. 13.
Unusual or not, what happened next was extremely disturbing. Back in her car in the Ralphs parking lot around 11:30 a.m., Lara opened the Scotch whisky bottle and started chugging. “She never smiled,” says an eyewitness. “She was drinking, then she started driving. She didn’t seem to care who was watching her.” The actress, 47, best known for playing beautiful highschool student Donna Hayward on the cult classic Twin Peaks in the early ’90s, looked miserable and bloated. For years, her appearance has sparked rumors of illness, botched plastic surgery and addiction. “When you see someone drinking in their car during the day, straight from the bottle, it’s very sad,” says an insider. “I hope she gets help.”
MORE TROUBLING BEHAVIOR
In October, Lara seemed “off,” says the insider, when she made a rare appearance at an industry event in LA. (Her last movie was the forgettable comedy Lucky Dog in 2014.) “She was wandering around on her own, dancing by herself to the music that was playing. She didn’t look good.” Lara, who’s been divorced once and is currently married to a Texas real estate investor, reportedly has been seen at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings over the years. “I think her personal issues have gotten in the way of finding true happiness,” another insider says of Lara, who famously dated Jack Nicholson, now 80, in the late ’90s. Another of her exes, singer Jaron Lowenstein, 43, tells In Touch, “I haven’t spoken to her in over a decade, but I hope she’s OK. I wish her well.” ◼