Remember Lara Flynn Boyle from Twin Peaks and The Practice? We haven’t seen much of her in years, and when we have seen her she’s looked so different from when she first got famous that it’s hard to recognize her. Lara was known for being very thin and tiny, but when we saw her in 2008 and again this year her face was so puffy it looked like she might have a medical condition. Many speculated that she might have had bad plastic surgery or injectables gone wrong, and that could have been part of it, but it looked to me like she was on steroids that were affecting her appearance.

Anyway Lara is coming back, in a way, with a reality pilot for E! It may got optioned for a series, but it sounds like it’s just a one-off to see if people are interested at this point. Deadline Hollywood has the details:

E! is looking to expand its slate of celebreality with a docu-reality series starring actress Lara Flynn Boyle. The cable network has greenlighted a pilot presentation for the project, which will follow the Practice alumna as she splits her time between her life in Texas and her marriage to real estate investor Donald Ray Thomas II and her Hollywood-centric lifestyle in Bel Air. Boyle, who is repped by Fortitude and Rugolo Entertainment, is currently meeting with potential showrunners. E!’s celebrity-driven reality series include mega-hit Keeping Up with the Kardashians and its spinoff Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami as well as Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane on sister channel Style.

[From Deadline via WeSmirch]

I don’t know much about Lara and can’t judge whether she’s interesting or not. I am curious about what happened with her, though, and if she is suffering from some kind of medical condition. I’m sure I’ll find out even without watching this show, so I’m not motivated to bother at this point. Unless she has 15 kids, confronts her husband’s mistress for a hair-pulling fight, gets bikini waxes on camera or shows herself before and after a facelift, I can’t see this show getting much interest. The reality show market is pretty crowded right now and no-names with half a brain cell are proving more popular than has beens.

Lara Flynn Boyle is shown on 8/1/10 (candids, credit: Fame) and on 10/25/08 (event photos, credit: WENN.com). Why isn’t she wearing shoes?

It was either last year or the year before, Lara Flynn Boyle did a guest spot on Law & Order. She and her married lover had conspired to kill one of his friends and steal a bunch of money, and they got her in the end. I mention this because it took me most of the episode to realize that the actress was actually Lara Flynn Boyle. She was so utterly unrecognizable, it was crazy. Remember the old Lara? The one that f-cked Jack Nicholson for years and wore a ballerina tutu to the Golden Globes? The one that used to get criticized for being too thin? Yeah. Look at her now.

Now, before you say, “Oh she just gained some weight” or “She just filled out.” JUST NO. No, this is not just weight gain, although that is part of it, and on that point, I’m glad that she did gain some weight. Her body looks healthy, actually. But she has completely jacked her face to the point of puffy immobility throughout the years. Just watching her trying to move her mouth in these photos is causing me pain. Oh, Lara. Why?!? And as Lainey asks, “How Does This Happen?”

Update by Celebitchy: As many of you have pointed out, Boyle’s puffy face may be caused by steroids like Prednisone used to treat an undisclosed medical condition. She’s probably had her lips plumped too but there’s probably a non-surgical medical reason why her face looks like this, as she’s been puffy like this for over two years.

Here are some older photos, just for comparison:

Lara Flynn Boyle on August 1, 2010. Credit: Fame.

I think it’s safe to assume that Lara Flynn Boyle has a medical condition that is causing her face to look puffy. Faded Youth posted other photos of Boyle from Friday night and said that it could be due to some kind of plastic surgery or injections, but it looks to me like she is on prescription steroids and that she might have slight bell’s palsy, which is where the muscles sag on one side of your face. She was seen outside of Mr. Chow’s restaurant, where she paused for photos and signed autographs.

I checked the photo agencies and it’s been nearly a year since Boyle was photographed at an event, so she may have been lying low due to an illness. Hopefully she’s ok. She’s known for her thin figure and she looks just as skinny, but with some swelling around her face.

According to IMDB, she was on an episode of Law & Order this year and has two movies in the works for 2009. I really think she has some sort of medical condition, maybe an auto-immune disorder, and it’s possible that she went to Mr. Chow to let everyone know what’s going on with her. She might even talk to the press about it soon. I don’t think she owes it to anyone to make it known if she’s suffering from an illness, but celebrities don’t go to Mr. Chow when they want to hide.

She is also shown on 4/13/07 as a comparison. Thanks to Splash News and PRPhotos for these pictures.

Jack Nicholson and a normal-looking Lara Flynn Boyle were photographed on holiday together in Saint Tropez.

Now I had conveniently forgotten that Lara Flyn Boyle also dated David Spade, but Jack Nicholson was definitely a move up for her at the time.

Now that Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock also reunited in Saint Tropez – and are getting married – exes around the world are going to flock to the French Riveria to get back that certain spark that cheating and fighting put out the last time around.