Heche ‘coherent’ before crash: salon owner
A “coherent” Anne Heche didn’t appear to be inebriated as she posed for a smiling photo during a shopping trip just 21 minutes before the high-speed crash that left her in a coma, the owner of the store told The Post.
The actress posed with salon owner Richard Glass, 51, while buying a $125 red-haired wig and supplies from him during a visit Friday to his salon in LA hot spot Venice.
The pic was timestamped 10:35 a.m., Glass told The Post — meaning she left around 20 minutes before slamming into a house in nearby Mar Vista at 10:56 a.m.
“I posted the image and not even an hour later it started blowing up,” Glass told The Post Tuesday of the post he originally assumed would be nothing more than marking a “so random” visit from a Hollywood celeb.
“I didn’t expect — or suspect — anything at all,” he said of the star, who police have confirmed is being investigated for possible hit and run and DUI for her wild, near-fatal high-speed drive after leaving his salon.
“She was polite, cordial and engaging — and she was coherent,” insisted Glass. “It was extremely pleasant — she was a delight.”
‘Told me I was beautiful’’
Asked if he spotted any signs of her being drunk or on drugs, he insisted firmly: “Not at all.”
Glass — who has owned his studio, Glass Hair, for 21 years — said it was the first time Heche had ever visited.
“She came through the rear entrance of my studio while I was working on a client and said that she wanted a red wig,” he recalled.
The one she liked “hadn’t been cut or styled,” and he told her if she came back later he would have it washed and conditioned and fully prepared, he said.
“She said, ‘No worries, I’ll just take it now,’ ” he recalled, saying she bought special shampoo and conditioner for it, too, without saying why she wanted it.
“She asked, ‘Haven’t we worked together before?’ and told me I was beautiful,” he recalled warmly. “The whole encounter was less than 10 minutes.”
He was shocked when he later found out what happened, saying all he could think when he heard about her crash was “What in the world?”
Later, he noticed the red wig he sold in Heche’s car in a photo first posted by TMZ, which also said there appeared to be a bottle of booze.
While Glass insisted Heche seemed calm and coherent, the long-troubled actress was allegedly caught in a series of wild incidents in the moments after leaving Glass Hair and crashing into a house.
Police confirmed to The Post Monday that she is being investigated for hitting another car and then driving off. She was also filmed speeding away from someone telling her to get out of her car when she hit a garage door as well as almost hitting a pedestrian.
Doorbell cameras then caught the sound of her roaring through quiet residential streets before slamming into the house, sparking a blaze that took 59 firefighters more than an hour to tackle.