I barely know who this actress is, but this story is worth repeating just for the point and laugh factor alone. Army Wives actress Kim Delaney, 49, gave a halting speech in Philadelphia on Thursday at the National Constitution Center. It was so bad that someone came on stage and escorted her off before she was finished. The occasion was for the Liberty Medal Award presentation to former defense secretary Robert Gates. In the video above, you can see Delaney smiling and struggling to read a teleprompter off to the side, but in the video below (which was posted at People.com) it’s not as clear that she’s trying to read a script. I saw that version below at first and it looked like she could have been pulling that weird speech out of her drunken ass. It’s more likely that she had to give a speech that someone else wrote for her, that she didn’t prepare and had a bunch of cocktails to bolster to confidence. The result is a viral video and a tie-in to her DUI and multiple rehab stays. Here’s more:
What’s wrong with Kim Delaney?
The star of Lifetime’s “Army Wives” was kicked off stage at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center Thursday night after delivering an inappropriate and at times incomprehensible speech at the Liberty Medal Award presentation to former defense secretary Robert Gates.
Delaney stumbled to the podium and twisted her hands as she talked about having “served in active military duty family for five years.” “I’ve seen soldiers come home with painful life altering injuries borne of their time and service,” she said, slurring at times. “I’ve attended numerous military funerals, including that of my best friend’s son.”
Except, she hasn’t.“It’s all make believe. I do that as a job. It’s make believe,” she said nearly two minutes into her speech. “I have the luxury to do all of this on a television show.”
Video from ABC affiliate WPVI shows the crowd growing uncomfortable as Delaney rambles on. She was escorted off stage before finishing her remarks.
CBS’ Philadelphia affiliate reported that Delaney was supposed to read her speech off a teleprompter, but technical difficulties forced her to wing it. Representatives for the National Constitution Center did not immediately respond to ABCNews.com’s requests for comment.
Delaney, 49, has had issues with substance abuse — in 2002, she was arrested for suspicion of drunk driving after she refused to take a breathalyzer test. She’s sought rehab for alcohol addiction twice.
Delaney’s rep did not immediately respond to ABCNews.com’s requests for comment.
I’m kind of torn as to whether I should feel sorry for her. I know I should be making fun of her for being a drunken fool at a prestigious event like this, but maybe she was really nervous about speaking at this event she was in no way qualified to speak at and got wasted to cope. Given her record of rehab stays and a DUI, it’s probably just another Thursday night for her though. Delaney got fired from CSI Miami in 2002, and rumor has it that her alcoholism was to blame.
So painful to watch!!
I saw this and it was bad, just bad. You could have heard the jaws dropping to the floor in utter horror.
I think she was high on something
Yes so hard to watch… wow talk about embarrassing and inappropriate… but you know we’re all human and make at least one giant mistake in our life (and lots of small ones) so I’m not judging her, but- still gee whiz 😛
She looks more nervous or scared, rather than drunk. She appears to be having a hard time reading the teleprompter. (?)
Drunk as a skunk. This was very hard to watch. I mean look at her hair. Jeez I don’t know much about her either but maybe she is going through something and coping by drinking. Maybe she mixed medications. I have no clue, this was sad.
I haven’t watched the video because it seems kind of depressing to watch what she keeps doing to her career, not to mention her personal life. Isn’t she the one who lost custody of her kids or is that someone else?
Very hard to watch. I feel bad for her, if it is a drug or alcohol problem I hope she gets help.
As someone in recovery, I saw this clip, and I cannot/will not feel sorry for her. Yes, I agree, she probably got tanked in nervous anticipation of her “speech,” but this woman has a “history” & documented record of substance abuse, and she has the money, time & resources to address it.
Guess what? She is in obvious DENIAL. She doesn’t want to be in recovery…which is her “right,” but on the other side of the coin, if she chooses to not be clean & sober, she’s going to have to take the flak/criticism…whatever from the obvious tell-tale signs of drinking and whatever else she may be doing.
Delaney is a gorgeous woman, & it’s certainly a crying shame to see her look so disheveled & impaired in this video. In recovery, we call people like her “walkie-talkies,” because they’re still out there TRYING to appear “normal,” but evidence of their addictions show. She is unwittingly being a fine example of what consequences occur when one refuses to accept the reality of the situation.
Why is someone who does a tacky tv show that is sooooooooo far from the reality of military families given any creedence?
I thought she was nervous and couldn’t read the teleprompter. It was HORRIBLE delivery, but I didn’t hear slurring, just painful delivery. I was glad when they escorted her off stage.
It’s sad that she’s still struggling with addiction. I hope she gets the help she needs. I will say though that the speech would have been atrocious even had she been sober (elaborating on “tv experiences” to empathize with vets? tacky)
This is so sad and unfortunate.
@gee – What you said!! I totally agree.
She must have been drunk and tranqued out when she decided on that cheesy tattoo, too.
Was she not on “All My Children” many years ago? I seem to recall there was some scandel as to why she was let go
I hope that was a wake up call and she’s back in rehab-what a mess. And I concur with gee-why in the world is she at this event to begin with?!
I’m sorry, but she looks super uncomfortable and like she’s struggling to read the Cantonese on the teleprompter. (And gf isn’t able to read Cantonese…get my drift?)
gee – They need a show about enlisted families who qualify for Foodstamps while their husbands/fathers fight in wars they don’t agree with and shouldn’t be involved in. (Yes, I’ll say it: I was an enlisted man’s wife; but I am an OFFICER’S daughter. You know, the [now ex] husband’s command R-E-A-L-L-Y hates that when you say that to them. Oh well! They got over it. Especially after a phone call from my Dad!)
She’s drunk in the clip, but the person who wrote the script must have been on crack because it is so insensitive and poorly written.
I feel bad for her because she can’t keep her sh!t together for an important event like this and it’s all on tape.
Last year, two reporters had brain fart episodes while on camera. I’m wondering if she had the same thing.
@Bellaluna and Farfromhome:
I agree so much – there are so many different realities for military families, more than enough stories to portray, why do they have to do this stupid drama and fake crap on lifetime?? I can’t stand the sensationalism and the sugarcoating that goes on with that tv show.
🙁 How many people let her get up there in that state and with that hair?
Pretty sad.
Thank you, Original Bellaluna, for telling it like it is. We need to bring our soldiers home from wars that make no sense at all.
I voted Obama to bring our servicemen and women home, and now we are in at least two more wars. I feel disgusted and powerless with every vote I continue to make.
Uh, back to Kim Delaney, she’s a disheveled mess and should be forced to watch this and David Hasselhoff’s eating a cheeseburger on the floor videos over and over until she gets a clue and gets clean.
Yes, she was on ‘All My Children’ in the 80s. She looks awful 🙁
Sad – she’s gorgeous and was great back in the day.
Sounds like a drunk trying not to sound drunk.
@Kimbob. First of all, congrats on your continuing recovery. Your post certainly indicates that you get it about what recovery is really about. Also, the term walkie-talkies is very apt. I have never heard of it before. I think Delany and other actors are walkie-talkies because they always have people around them that enable them. The parasites shore up the addict for their own purposes. It’s too bad.
SHe has serious alcohol issues, really major, she lost custody of her son due to her severe alcoholism.
What’s wrong w/ the sound? I can’t hear a dang word she’s “attempting” to say. Unbelievably disrespectful and embarrassing. I do think she’s drop-dead gorgeous, and she’s a good dramatic actress (t.v. movies) and not talking about “Army Wives”–don’t watch it.
Very sad. I’ve loved her since AMC. Jenny and Tad! Anyway, I love her, and this is sad. I feel for her.
That’s sad, I had no idea she was in such bad shape. Hope she gets some help.
Given all her issues, you have to wonder who thought it was a good idea to ask her to do this.
I think it was a teleprompter issue. Being a former bartender, I have LOTS of experience with drunken speech and that ain’t it.
Hard to watch. She was Jimmy Smits’ characters wife on NYPD Blue. This is a shadow of her former self.
This mess is a disservice to all of our young men and women fighting overseas in horrible conditions and apathetic local populations. Mr. President, for the last time, please bring them home now!
She was not just drunk. She was high on something too, the way she was so disconnected I only have compassion. It’s painful to watch and very sad. Her hair was unkempt.
I’m kind of surprised that a lot of people don’t know who she is, because she used to be a pretty big T.V. star a few years ago didn’t she?? Back in the NYPD Blue days? I seem to recall her being like a Mariska Hargitay type – not someone the gossip columns really follow, but someone who is well-known on t.v. and gets nominated for Emmys and stuff. Actually I checked her IMDB page and it says she actually WON an Emmy for that NYPD Blue role at one point. I dunno maybe I’m just old, I guess this stuff was long enough ago that younger people would have no clue what I’m talking about.
But I forgot (or maybe never knew/paid attention to in the first place) the fact that she had previous problems with alcoholism. I guess she must’ve been in the tabloids at some point for that stuff.
She was translating the teleprompter from drugs to English
This was not just a teleprompter problem. Look at her expression and her hair and her body language. And we’ve seen other people having a teleprompter fail, and none of THEM was abruptly hauled off by a headset-wearing stage manager.
She was wrecked on something. Reminded me of the famous Paz de la Huerta video where she insisted “I can do it!” and then fell down trying to cross the street.
Very sad, but she should never have been allowed to go onstage.
So she drank because she was nervous? WTF, she’s an actress. Speaking engagements should be a piece of cake. This woman was wasted. What I don’t understand is the whole “I play an army wife on TV so I’m qualified to speak to members of the armed services and their families, in addition to someone as distinguished as Gates?” Frankly, I find it insulting to those brave people in the audience dealing with REAL PROBLEMS. Kim should be ashamed of herself.
gee & Sloane Wyatt – We are in total agreement. The “lifestyle scale” for military service members varies drastically, and showing only one “class” of military member is a dis-service to us all. I grew up on Camp Pendleton (after my dad transferred from El Toro). I lived there for most of my childhood. It was a sheltered, but sometimes troublesome, childhood.
I could hitch-hike (without being raped or killed). We hosted holiday dinners for my dad’s enlisted men who couldn’t afford to “go home” for the holidays. My mom used to hiss at men who eye-balled me at the PX “She’s 13!!!” And she HATED being called “Ma’am.”
My mom was in the OWC (Officer’s Wive’s Club) and volunteered at the Navy Relief Center. (And she’d quit her job as a high-powered paralegal at an LA firm about 2 years after we transferred from El Toro to Pendleton.) We shopped for groceries for the food pantry at the Commissary. (Service and love of country was ingrained in me from the get.)
But I also remember when a family friend kinda “lost it” when her hubs went over-seas. They had 4 kids, and her cheese just slipped off her cracker. It was…unpleasant. But we rallied around them, because that’s what military families do.
Our votes are supposed to count, but they only count for so much. My husband was FURIOUS when he learned this.
She’s clearly impaired and that’s why she can’t read the bloody teleprompter. It was hard to watch. Surely anyone, and there should have been a someone, who spoke to her before she went on stage should have recognised the state she was in. She could hardly stand still let alone speak effectively. She should never have made it to the stage.
@ pix: Agree completely. The speech itself, even if delivered perfectly, was totally WHACK. Misleading, insensitive… a total mess.
awkward.
That’s painful to watch. The idiot producer who let her get up there when she’s obviously a dunken/drugged out mess should be fired and Kim needs a one way ticket to rehab.
@Bellaluna
My husband’s an E-3 so I completely agree with your comment. We’re not on foodstamps (no kids yet) but we’re one of those families who can’t afford to fly home for the holidays, and our life is far from glamorous. “Army Wives” bears little to no resemblance to our life even though lower enlisted members are the backbone (and majority) of the military.
Also, I don’t see why they thought an actress who pretends to be a military spouse on television should be at this event.
My father was an officer in the military and my mother despises that show for how unreal it is.
She needs to get some help. Talk about humiliating yourself.
Jenny and her jetski are gone. She’s her own death mask now.
I’ve always liked Kim Delaney. I remember her back in the day on AMC. She was my favorite. I had no idea she had such a severe drinking problem. I really hope she gets the help she needs. Alcoholism really is a disease and a terrible one at that.
I attended this event. Delaney was clearly impaired. She was a mess. @ Rachael, she did a wonderful job for NYPD Blue. However, rumor had it that she left that acting job due to her drinking problem.
I’m absolutely appalled for her and with the team that allowed her to go on looking as she did. You could have pushed your finger on her and she would have tipped over. I also felt that she disrespected the entire military community.
The entire place was tense and uncomfortable while she tried to speak. You could cut the tension with a knife. There were some that were quite miffed.
One of the reasons Delaney spoke was because she grew up in Philadelphia. I have never watched Army Wives because it’s fictional and not of substance like many of stated above for obvious reasons.
I’ve read elsewhere that the teleprompter was actually broken, and she was attempting to “wing it” with her speech. Still, yikes… very unfortunate.
Her expression at the end was heartbreaking. I remember her as Jenny (of Jenny & Gregg) on AMC and later NYPD Blue.
Most of her real problems happened when she moved to LA and met her ex husband. Sadly she doesn’t stand a chance of sobering up. He lives off of her income, yet sabotages all of her chances for lasting success. She is terrified of him and continues to drink because she cannot break away from him. Such a shame for such a beautiful woman.
I’m with the bartender. My husband and I watched the video and her words don’t seem slurred enough and her balance poor enough to be (just?) alcohol. I’m not sure she was drunk at all, I wonder if she chose the wrong pharmaceuticals. Does this woman not have an agent to do damage-control? That would say something right there.
Paz de la Huerta’s older sister….?
@ bellaluna:
Now I’m curious, what year did that take place:
“But I also remember when a family friend kinda “lost it” when her hubs went over-seas. They had 4 kids, and her cheese just slipped off her cracker. It was…unpleasant. But we rallied around them, because that’s what military families do.”
Sad to hear about this. Really, she is still one of the most beautiful actresses on TV. She was brilliant and compelling on NYPD Blue, although she played someone who was a hot mess and perhaps could draw on real life experience.
She was extraordinary on NYPD Blue. I am so sad that the show has been forgotten. It was amazing.
I don’t think her playing on “Army Wives” was a good qualification for her being a speaker. She may have had trouble reading the prompter, but only because she was drunk! She looks really messy and disoriented. Someone should not have let her go on. I hope she can staighten herself out, but it seems she has quite a history of this kind of trouble. I’m sort of surprised, as she’s a pretty good actress. I watched the first season of Army Wives, and she was good, although the show got ridiculous in the second season, and I gave up on it eventually.
Katyalia – I’m honestly not sure. I was a child, so it was in the very late 70’s or early 80’s, if I’m not mistaken. He had to have an ER-ordered transfer home, and she wound up in the hospital for awhile. (Sound familiar?)
Why not have an actual, real-life military wife give the speech? Too “real” for the function’s organisers?
@Christine – she was Jenny on AMC?! I remember her, she died in a jet ski accident. I had no idea it was the same actress. Sad.
Kim was recently sent back to rehab by her production company after drinking once she left the Pennsylvania rehab she was in. They shipped her off to Betty Ford and hired one of those celebrity ambulance chasing “Sober Coaches”. Nonetheless she drank again, while in treatment at Betty Ford. Her ex-husband is a complete tragic mess, but still controls her every move. Word is that she is the Army Wife that “doesn’t make it through the season” with good reason. No one wants to deal with her nonesense, she is too expensive to insure and her ex husband is a royal pain in the “tuchas” throwing tantrums and trying to control everyone and everything.