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Lara Flynn Boyle, 47, has been laying low for years. She may have had some kind of medical crisis requiring steroids that affected her facial structure. There were rumors that she had bad plastic surgery, although I tend to believe that she’s battled health problems which has hasn’t disclosed. I feel for her as she has just been trying to stay out of the spotlight but she’s been papped periodically over the last few years, after which the tabloids inevitably start commenting on her looks. Boyle was at a charity event for Winsor Pilates founder, Mari Winsor, who suffers from ALS. (Sidenote: I used to have the DVDs and love Winsor Pilates.) Boyle walked up to a journalist from The Hollywood Reporter who was covering this event and did this impromptu interview. (This is just an excerpt and there’s more at the source.)
You mentioned being an actress. What’s the status of your career right now? How are you feeling about acting? [Her last acting credit came in 2014 on the family comedy Lucky Dog.]
I love a call sheet. I go where a good call sheet takes me.The conversation in Hollywood right now is all about sexual misconduct in the wake of Harvey Weinstein. Were you ever mistreated in your career?
Oh, all the time. All the time! It happens all the time.How did you handle it?
I looked at it on two levels: Do I want to flip burgers, or do I want to put up with someone not being appropriate with me? I chose the other side.Can you speak about any of those experiences? Have you processed what happened?
It still stays with you. You still remember things that were not quite appropriate, but you move on and that’s all you can do I guess. I support all the actresses that have come forward.How are you on a personal level? How are you feeling? What are you up to?
Nothing. I’m an actress, nothing is personal (laughs). It’s all out in the open.
The journalist did broach this difficult topic but he did it with tact and didn’t demand an answer or put words in her mouth like the douchebag who interviewed Kristin Chenoweth. Plus Boyle sought him out. Boyle was speaking to someone quickly at an event and that this was necessarily superficial. This wasn’t a sit down interview and this wasn’t a prepared statement, she was just saying she has personally experienced sexism and harassment and that it stays with you. She didn’t specify how severe it was nor should she have to or to even talk about it if she doesn’t want to. She knew it was so prevalent and her recourse so limited that she either had to put up with it or go into another line of work. That’s the option so many women have across so many industries and it’s deplorable, it’s despicable, and it should not be the reality we’re living in.
Also, Boyle didn’t talk much about her career, as is understandable. A lot of people are wondering why she wasn’t in the Twin Peaks reboot, however as Uproxx points out many of the original actors didn’t reprise their roles. Plus she was replaced in the 1992 movie, Fire Walk With Me. Deadline reported that it was Boyle’s choice not to join the Showtime series.
Lara at a Wayne’s World reunion in 2013:
photos credit: WENN and Getty
Wow. In those pictures from 2013 she’s standing like it hurts to hold her head up. I also think there’s a medical issue going on. But she does look a little less pained in these recent photos? So hopefully life is easier for her these days.
Ugh. So horrifying to think about what actors have put up with so that they could avoid being the proverbial burger flipper. Effing predators had them right where they wanted them.
A “burger flipper” can also be sexually harassed. I can’t think of an occupation where is wouldn’t happen.
I just remember being alarmed at how horribly thin she was back in the nineties when we were awash in scarily anorexic actresses. Could that be a factor in long term ill health?
Yes. Starvation taxes the heart and can cause organ damage. The bones become fragile, and the endocrine system goes out of whack. Neurological damage and inadequate circulation as well fertility problems. Long-term of course worsens the permanent damage.
I feel so sad for her. Long term steroid use, which is usually used to treat immunological disorders their symptoms and pain, causes what is called “moon face”. The sides of your face become round and fat deposits in the sides of the skull make the face look rounder. I’m inclined to think that this is a chronic illness on top of bad cosmetic surgery.
I suppose it could also be the reverse, and her thinness back then could have been the result of an ongoing medical issue.
I was never a fan of hers but it’s nice to see that she is looking more human these days.
I always liked her, although I really questioned her judgement during the Nicholson years, but I’m glad to see she looks like she’s feeling a little better. I’ve been through the wringer health wise myself, so I can empathize.
How many actresses who developed eating disorders can now be seen to have suffered PTSD?
How many actresses labeled crazy, difficult, unstable, etc., were smeared because they refused to play along?
This is an excellent question, which bears repeating.
Why are women “crazy” or “angry” or “unstable” etc etc etc?
Maybe because of gaslighting and bullying and physical abuse?
Ditto the child stars. What Lindsay Lohan and Brittney Spears get put through in the tabloids (and here) is probably nothing compared to what they have actually experienced in that cesspit.
Yes, child stars as well. We all know they had ‘difficult childhoods’ but what about looking at their behavior as a result of criminal PTSD-inducing abuse?
She’s not wrong. Sexual harassment is a problem at just about every level of society, but it’s rampant in TV and film. As someone who spent over a decade behind-the-scenes in the adjacent, male-dominated world of sports TV, I long ago lost count of the number of incidents I experienced and/or witnessed, and I’m FAR from a great beauty. Average looking, at best, rarely wear makeup, most co-workers wouldn’t recognize me in anything but a ponytail and, as a part of production, a t-shirt and jeans paired with Keds was about as temptation-inspiring as my work wardrobe got.
Just off the top of my head …
Crawling around in a storage area, searching stacked trunks with a crew guy I knew only slightly for a piece of needed gear, when he reaches down my pants and pulls the waistband of my underwear up, saying nothing but, ‘Oh, I was hoping for a thong,’ as he grinned. I froze, then just walked out of the room and said nothing.
On occasion we had to wear event apparel just in case we accidentally appeared on camera, and one time the smarmy creep doing the distribution, with a long line of people behind me, said, as he handed me the shirt, ‘I’ll try not to picture you wearing this, and nothing else.’
The time I was helping prepare for a last-minute live shot by miccing up three sports stars for a roundtable, all of whom were roughly my grandfather’s age, as they openly discussed my physical merits and potential sexual prowess, or lack thereof, as if I wasn’t even there.
As part of a male-dominated world, there was a frequent tradition of ranking the few females on hand by posting our credential photos, in order of “hotness,” somewhere everyone could see. Never once heard this condemned.
Long ago lost track of the number of times I was “jokingly” offered cash to sleep with an athlete, coach or official my bosses wanted better access to, or the many male laps I was “accidentally” pulled onto while navigating narrow production truck aisles. And the rampant misogyny un-embarrasingly ALWAYS on display, with constant talk about female athletes and commentators bodies, “f-ablity” and perceived “slut-iness” was endless.
Being reprimanded by an exec producer for “dressing too distractingly” after I returned from maternity leave … when what I was dressed in a polo they had given me to wear, paired with my extremely sultry maternity capris, because, along with breastfeeding, I was also still carrying pregnancy weight and couldn’t yet fit into my regular clothes … Well, for whatever reason, that was my final straw. It was the last job I took on that crew, one I’d regularly been a part of for a decade, and the second-to-last job in the industry I took at all.
In my experience the talent was treated better, to their faces, but like pieces of meat behind the scenes, and the difference between how the male on-air guys were assessed, vs the female, was worse than any Mad Men script, and this was in the mid-90s thru the early aughts.
No joke the number of positive OJ stories I heard from people who worked in commentating with him vs the number of women I heard called witches with a B, and much worse is … mind-blowing.
Wow. Just wow. I want to say that’s unbelievable, but it’s sadly not. I’m sorry you were repeatedly subjected to that degrading treatment. Especially the post-partum comments! Everyone knows how f**kable you look and feel (and are trying to convey to the men around you [heavy sarcasm]) after having a child.
I think she got permanent silicone put in her face and lips, like Priscilla Presley did, which ruined her face It was shocking the first time I had seen what Priscilla did to her face. It was on Oprah the first time I saw it.. She finally admitted it later on and sued, and it’s taken years to try to correct it, which you never can completely. Silicone is permanent and begins to move around. Lara’s lips were bizarre hung open and face altered. It’s sad. But I think her obsession with her looks caused her to jump on that bandwagon back then and it ruined her. I know a stunning girl who got permanent silicone in her lips at some party by a doctor or nurse or who knows what to get it cheaper with a group discount.. It was hard to look at her it was so bad, and permanent.
These was all in that same time period back then.
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I remember her absolutely angelic and delicate features before she decided to inflate her lips. She looks like she’s always feeling a bit fuzzy and dazed and in pain these days.
Groped at 11 at a movie theatre , fondled are packed night clubs , streets , parks flashed at so many times , it doesn’t bother me anymore . Professor at med school propositioned me , I kinda laughed it off , acted like I didnt get what he was saying . Gaslighted by a prick into believing that he didn’t do something that he did . Bullied so much by an ex that the lines of consent were constantly blurred . Physically unable to join the meetoo bandwagon even though it’s obv mee too. And I live in India , the good part that is ( south ) where the men supposedly don’t rape or molest , all that happens in the patriarchal north . Sorry rant over
We hear you
Whatever medical issues she’s having, she looks like she’s feeling better. I legit thought the header pic was Katherine Heigl.
For a second I thought the last pic was a melted Lisa Vanderpump
Lara is an alcoholic for many years. Alcohol and drug abuse.
Thaths what make her face and stomach bloated and legs so thin…