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Actress Anne Heche is in stable condition after a serious car crash in a Los Angeles neighborhood. Anne was speeding down a residential street on Friday in her Mini Cooper (there’s footage from different sources) when she ran into a home and was engulfed in flames. Unfortunately Anne couldn’t be rescued until the fire was extinguished. She suffered severe burns and is in intensive care now. Anne’s representative has issued a statement.
Actress Anne Heche is in stable condition after she was involved in a fiery car crash on Friday that damaged a Los Angeles home, her representative has confirmed to ABC News.
The Los Angeles Police Department also confirmed Saturday that Heche, 53, was the driver in the solo-vehicle crash.
LAPD sources told ABC News they suspect that Heche was allegedly driving at an excessive speed when the crash happened.
Police are investigating whether drugs or alcohol could have been involved, which is standard in such a crash, sources said. The LAPD has been unable to speak with Heche in the hospital due to her condition, sources said.
“Anne is currently in stable condition,” her representative said in a statement to ABC News on Saturday. “Her family and friends ask for your thoughts and prayers and to respect her privacy during this difficult time.”
According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, a driver struck a two-story home in the Mar Vista neighborhood around noon Friday, “causing structural compromise and erupting in heavy fire.” They rescued a woman found in the car, who was transported to an area hospital in critical condition, the LAFD said.
Nearly 60 firefighters responded to extinguish the “stubborn flames within the heavily damaged structure,” the department said.
There were no passengers in the car and no other injuries were reported, the LAFD said. The department would not confirm if Heche was the driver, citing medical privacy laws.
DMV records and police sources confirmed that the vehicle involved in the crash and fire was registered to Heche.
The LAPD’s West Traffic Division is investigating.
Authorities are also investigating an alleged misdemeanor hit-and-run incident before the fiery crash.
People has more on the after effects of the wreck, including the fact that the woman whose one story rental home Anne ran into, Lynne Mishele, is fine and was able to escape with her dogs and her tortoise, but that her possessions were destroyed. She was looked after in the immediate aftermath by her neighbors, who gave her clothing, food and a place to stay. There’s a GoFundMe to help her rebuild as well.
According to TMZ, this was the second car accident Anne was in that day. They report that she crashed “into a garage at an apartment complex [and] reversed and sped off from the first crash.” That must be the hit and run that ABC News is referring to, and it doesn’t sound like anyone was hurt in that incident thankfully.
CNN has the detail that an episode of Anne’s podcast, which has since been removed from Apple podcasts, was released on Friday before this accident. Anne and her co-host talk about drinking, I’m assuming that day, although it was possibly recorded earlier.
Heche remained in hospital as of Saturday evening and the significant nature of her injuries have prevented officers from interviewing her, the law enforcement source added.
Hours before Heche’s crash on Friday, a new episode of her podcast “Better Together,” was released but it has since been removed from their Apple Podcast landing page. During a portion of the podcast, Heche and her co-host, Heather Duffy, discuss drinking vodka and wine and Heche talks about having a “bad day.” It’s unclear when the podcast was recorded. CNN has reached out to Heche’s representatives for comment.
“Today’s been a very unique day,” Heche says in the podcast. “I don’t know what happened, sometimes days just suck and I don’t know if you ever have them, but some days Mama says are … some days are those no good very bad days. And I don’t know why some days just end up like this, and things don’t really rock me like that.”
I hope that Anne is OK and that she is able to recover. Anne’s ex boyfriend, Thomas Jane, has said that she is expected to pull through. It sounds like she has a long road ahead of her.
Photos credit: Avalon.red, Getty and via Instagram
Alcoholism and substance abuse are serious matters. They wreck your own life, but not before you severely damage the lives of those around you. I hope she finally gets sober after this.
That combined with (maybe untreated?) mental illness. I hope she’s ok, but she’s always been a huge mess.
2 accidents sounds like she may have been experiencing a bit of mania.
There was a shot someone got of her, inside the car, and there was a red topped bottle of vodka in the cup holder space by her seat. So, the drinking is a possibility.
Sorry it’s the Fail, but if you scroll down, you can see the bottle:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11086701/Anne-Heche-drunkenly-crashed-garage-plowed-house-causing-flames.html
She looks wrecked in the photo of the pink and black outfit.
I was so heartbroken for everyone involved when I first heard about this. I talked to my teenager about it. No matter how bad you think things are, talk to someone. I have alcoholics in my family and it is a devastating condition for everyone.
Thank God no-one else was hurt. But even if Anne was drunk and that was the reason for the accident, it’s an horrific ‘punishment’. Her car was travelling so fast it went right into the house and then she was trapped in its burning wreckage for a long time before the 60 firefighters could put it out. I just can’t even begin to comprehend how awful that would be.
Bad burns are a terrible thing to try and recover from and require so much specialist care, skin grafts and plastic surgery. I suspect she will never be the same again. For a woman who was a well known actress and therefore for whom the way she looked played a large role in her life, sheesh. There are no words.
you’re correct. for someone whose career and self-worth is based on looking good, the disfigurement that results from severe burns is devastating.
we hadn’t heard much from her in years other than that she seemed to be working and staying out of trouble.
I suspect that she was trying to end her life. Personally I wouldn’t want to live through being severely burned. a lifetime of pain and disability. if she does recover maybe she will have found a reason to live…
I watched the first video linked by Kaiser. I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to, but thankfully it was just some video from someone’s security front door camera. It shows that mini zooming by, then you hear a crash. You do not hear the screeching of brakes or anything, just the zooming car then crash. I think, maybe, you’re right, which is an awful thing to contemplate, particularly as she could have taken who knows how many other people with her. As it is, one woman has to rebuild her life and Anne is now looking at a lifetime of recovery.
The video on TMZ after her first car crash in a parking garage shows people yelling at her for ages to get out of her car before she reverses and drives off.
Luckily she was the only one injured in her second crash. She could’ve easily crashed into a pregnant mother and one year old baby and killed them.
I have ZERO sympathy for this woman or for anyone else who drives under the influence and puts other people’s lives at risk. Zero.
I read elsewhere that they found a bottle of vodka in her car.
My entire sympathies go to the poor woman whose house and belongings were destroyed. I hate drunk drivers with a passion. Whatever happens to them, they brought it onto themselves.
On Friday there were reports that where the car came to rest was just two feet from the owner of the home, so it’s incredible that she wasn’t badly injured or killed. There was also a video from a neighbor’s ring doorbell that showed the streak that was Heche’s car. Police were estimating her speed between 90 and 100 mph. Im sorry for the depression or sad event that lead to her heavy drinking that day, but I’ll save my sympathy for the homeowner who was nearly killed, and who lost her home and possessions due to Heche’s irresponsibility.
Two friends in my graduate cohort were hit head-on by a drunk driver—one woman was killed instantly while the other spent years trying to get over the death of her aftet the accident. Really difficult for me to sympathize with drunk drivers, particulary when Anne clearly could have planned for an uber before she left and when she was sober. She was reckless, selfish, and dangerous.
Same.
How about the poor woman who lost all her wordly possession as well as her home?
Ok she saved her pets but she is not a young woman.
To be honest I hope she can sue Heche for millions.
No-one made her get on that car.
Yes, there will be an insurance settlement/lawsuit. As is appropriate. The Gofundme looks like it’s only up to $60K, but with the celebs coming out to say “tots and pears” I hope some pony up.
I have no sympathy for her actions either. She’s only lucky she didn’t kill or injure anyone else.
She’s lucky she didn’t kill someone. She had been speeding through the area repeatedly. She veered off the road and crashed into an apartment garage. Neighbors tried to stop her, but she sped away, only to crash into a home.
After the La Brea accident, I have no patience for people that speed recklessly under the influence.
I always notice when people in distress decide to harm themselves in ways that hurt others around them too, particularly when they cause harm to strangers. I don’t mean her distress isn’t real, just that she could have killed others.
This is tragic.
I understand the rage against her. It is beyond lucky she didnt kill or hurt anyone. In all this press about this incident I learned about her childhood, full of abuse and trauma, and clearly alcohol is her coping mechanism. My own nephew is 22 and suffering with addiction. It is such an awful fate. As for Anne, by stable condition I bet they mean medically induced coma because the pain. That is the consequence of her driving.
Many things can be true at once. She can be an overall very sympathetic person who survived trauma and struggles with addiction, and we can be horrified that she nearly killed a woman, and did unknown damage to this woman’s life. Who knows how this woman’s life will be altered by losing her home and possessions and possibly having lasting trauma from the event.
This is where I’m at with this. It’s a tragic situation for everyone involved.
Agreed.
With burns that bad, my guess is that she is in a specialized burn unit in a medically-induced coma. She is still alive so, if they can keep infection under control, that is a good sign for pulling through.
There’s chopper footage of them pulling her out an a stretcher. She’s wrapped up in a shroud, so it looks like a dead body. As they are putting the stretcher into the ambulance, she sits up through the cloth, saying the crap out of the reporters.
In retrospect, the shroud is because of the burns. You can only see her back in the footage, but there are burns all over.
I can understand the desire to punish her for her actions, but she’s done a heckuva job of punishing herself far worse than anything the justice system can throw at her. Burns are nasty.
I read somewhere that the first responders thought she was dead and that’s why she was wrapped up like that on the stretcher. Regardless, when she burst out and tried to get off the stretcher, that must have startled the hell out of them. Really chilling story, all around.
Yeah, you can’t be “stable” (hemodynamically) and have severe burns. Those two things are incompatible bc of fluid instability/leakage of damaged tissue and super high infection risk also bc of damaged tissue. They also cannot regulate their own body temperature bc of same. There’s so much fluid shifting that these patients are typically hemodynamically, thermally and immune unstable for a lengthy period of time. They have to be intubated and sedated to help keep them stable and to prevent the severe pain due to the burns themselves, the constant need to debride eschar and eventual grafting. Severe burns are really horrible to endure as a patient, and to witness & treat as a critical care professional.
I had second degree burns on my arm and hand a few years ago – it’s fine now and I have minimal scarring bc of the excellent wound care I had and weird hair supplement I take. Anyway, it was the worst pain I’ve ever had. I was home with my kids, and I couldn’t drive myself anywhere. I just loaded up on ibuprofen and Benadryl till my husband got home. The pain was so bad I would vomit. Burns are the worst.
Anne Heche has gone off the rails before. Back when she broke up with Ellen she was really having difficulties. I thought she had straightened out since it has been so long. She just got done filming the Weeknd HBO show The Idol only last month. Looks like that may be her last job because I do not see her being able to act after this. Assuming she is not prosecuted for reckless driving and driving under the influence on top of her severe burns
I can have a lot of empathy for adults who suffered extreme childhood trauma and abuse, while still having a lot of empathy for other innocents. Actions which result in terrible consequences that people are responsible for causing, specifically while under the influence is always wrong. In the same vein, it’s important to remember that Anne did not cause her own mental illness/disorder, as she was failed by those who were supposed to be responsible for her safety as a child. I’m glad to hear no one else was physically injured and I hope the lady can heal emotionally, too. I also have hope for Anne and for all with these types of lifelong childhood injuries that there are more good days ahead.
Thank you for this comment.
I love this comment. You said it all very neatly to the point and also very eloquently.
Name checks out. What a great, kindhearted comment.
I lost my 19 y/o brother on 7 Sept 2014 to a drunk driver. My thoughts are with the woman whose house was wrecked and anyone else in this Celebitchy community who has lost a loved one to a drunk driver. My thoughts are also with Ms Heche, being trapped in a fire is something nobody should ever have to know ❤️🩹
I’m so sorry for your loss.
Hannah, I’m sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine losing a loved one to a drunk driver.
I’m very sorry for your loss.
The notion of her being trapped in a burning car is just horrific. Her addiction problems are clearly severe, and to the extent that they stem from trauma, I feel for her. This is going to be a long hard road to recovery.
That said, her behavior was inexcusable. Speeding THAT fast through a residential area? She’s lucky she didn’t hit and kill multiple people, never mind that one homeowner who narrowly escaped with her pet.
Drunk drivers make me angry.
Absolutely zero sympathy for Heche. She was speeding through residential streets where children could have been playing. She left the scene of her first accident before crashing again. Zero sympathy.
She had no business being behind the wheel. None. Absolutely selfish and irresponsible. She could have killed someone. I wish someone had taken her license plate number and called the police.
When I first heard the report of the accident, my mind flashed back to Richard Pryor.
He spoke of the agony he endured during his healing, detailing the work done by the staff in the burn unit.
Speedy recovery wishes. Her children, now adults, must be beside themselves with worry and concern for her recovery.
She has a 13 year old son as well as a 20 year old son.
She does, and I believe her younger son has been in the custody of his Dad for years now because of Anne’s substance abuse / mental health issues. But she is still his Mom and I feel so sad for those kids.
What a horrific situation. I have both empathy for the incredible pain and suffering Anne must be suffering, and anger at her for being so reckless and endangering others. Thank goodness no one else was hurt or killed, this could have been even worse.
I really feel for the poor woman whose home was destroyed, I can’t imagine. Thankfully she and her pets all survived, but it sounds like she has lost everything, and is described as a “tenant”, so homeowner’s insurance isn’t going to help her here (hopefully she has renter’s insurance).
This is written like she was simply in a tragic car accident. She was drunk driving and caused it. I’m sorry she is suffering from burns, and is an addict-but she ruined someone else’s home, and could have killed other people. I have no patience with the selfishness that it takes to get behind the wheel while drunk.
Please also keep in mind that Anne has significant lifelong mental health issues and there was likely a break of some kind here. It’s more than selfishness. Not an excuse, but not unimportant.
I truly hope she’s okay and that she gets help. I also think if she was driving under the influence there needs to be legal consequences for that. She literally could have killed the people in that house. Or anyone else who encountered her for that matter.
Those are some fugly homemade earrings she’s sporting. Threw everything on the shelf into them.
The top picture gives me Cate Blanchett vibes. That said, I hope everyone involved can heal and recover. It’s going to take immense work for Anne and the woman with pets who lost everything she owned.
Alcoholism induced from childhood trauma is a difficult road. Had an ex bf I had to leave because he decided to cope with alcohol rather than seek therapy. Anne was reportedly sexually abused by her own father. That kind of betrayal of trust is very difficult to cope with. I hope she gets the help she needs and realizes her actions have had consequences.
Just want to add here. Therapy is ineffective for a large segment of the population who have experienced severe trauma. The majority of licensed professionals have zero idea how to identify, treat and manage complex trauma. Many often make things worse with their ineptitude. This is why a lot of trauma sufferers turn to substances in desperation. Unrelated to Anne in particular. I, like others here, truly have sympathy for what her suffering must be but it is inexcusable to threaten the lives of others with reckless behavior.
I don’t know. We’re we giving this much grace to Tula Tequila when she was spouting off racist s#*t in a manic episode? How much grace have we been giving Kanye for the same troubles?
This woman almost killed a bunch of people and then herself in 2 accidents in a day. It’s horrifying.
As someone who’s followed her for a long time, I am aware of the stories of her horrific childhood. This is a good reminder that there is collateral damage to our communities and our society when even 1 child suffers abuse. Trauma is a collective problem and we must seek collective healing.
This is the best take I’ve seen yet.
She is 53 years old, wealthy and has every resource available to deal with her issues. Take responsibility for your actions!!! Yes addiction is horrible but that doesn’t mean you get the endanger other lives with your actions. Sorry but I’m a mom of two young kids and the thought of an intoxicated driver killing them because they don’t seek help is terrifying and a reality. I’m so sick of people with issues taking zero responsibility for their actions. I have very little sympathy for her.
When I am her age, I will also have a 13 year old and a 20 year old. I lost my mom to alcoholism as an adult. It’s tragic that Lynne Mishele’s home was destroyed along with all of her possessions through no fault of her own but thank the universe she’s still alive and uninjured. I can’t also help but to feel heartbreaking sadness for Anne’s children, especially her youngest, no matter what their relationship was, this is now their trauma as well.
She’s going to face criminal charges, assuming she lives, and will be sued civilly for the damage she caused. And if she lives, I can only imagine the guilt and regret and shame at doing something so reckless and self destructive. My mother could have done something like this. She got her second DUI at 60 and finally lost her license. Sorry for dumping all of this. It’s all just too close to home for me. There is no excuse for drinking and driving. None.
The thing is that there’s no guarantee that Anne will feel guilt or shame for any of this, should she survive. For some, this would definitely be a “rock bottom” moment that helps them finally decide to reach out for help. But sometimes, even events like these aren’t enough. They’ll just revert to blaming everyone and everything for their mostly self-inflicted misfortunes. After an entire life (42 years) of seeing it with one loved one or other, I’m spent of sympathy.
Do you know her personally and know that she never sought help?
Wow. The “zero sympathy” comments have been…a lot. Everyone is a mental health advocate until the shit hits the fan. Sending love to everyone in the thread who struggles with mental illness or loves someone who does.
As soon as I heard this story, I knew drugs or alcohol had to be involved, especially when I learned she was seen crashing into a garage first and driving off and sped through a stop sign before crashing into the house. I remember when she went into some sort of fugue state (or maybe she was on drugs?) when she hiked to a stranger’s house not long after she broke up with Ellen and invited herself into that person’s house. She was hospitalized briefly under a psychiatric hold. She has a history of self medicating with drugs and alcohol. I abhor drunk driving but I also feel sorry for her at the same time that she made such poor choices and ended up with burns. I also feel sorry for the poor woman whose house she crashed into. They are both extremely lucky to be alive–in the tenant’s case not a scratch on her which has to be a miracle.
I fully understand that Anne’s childhood trauma has affected her mental health seriously for many years. But I also understand that her career afforded her the financial security to seek out the best kind of treatment for her trauma. I’ve known a number of women, including my cousin, who were traumatized sexually and otherwise by fathers, brothers, family friends, etc. And they sought therapy for it and several are still in therapy decades later to help them cope. They are lovely people, don’t have addictions, and realize that their future is not their past. What Anne did and has done is unforgiveable. She’s a mother, she has a responsibility to her family. And yet she deliberately got into a car while drunk with a bottle of vodka in her cup holder and drove like a demon out of hell, crashing into someone’s garage then crashing into someone’s house. She could very well have crashed into some kids crossing the street or taken out a senior at a crosswalk.
I’m very sorry that she’s basically ruined her life and I hope she recovers, but it was her choice to get behind the steering wheel while on a bender and risk not only her own life but that of others. Blaming her behaviour on childhood trauma means she didn’t take serious responsibility for her mental health and healing and chose, wrongly, to self-medicate. She actually joked about drinking vodka with wine chasers, slurred her words and said she’d been having a very bad day on her podcast just hours before the crash.
Thankfully nobody was killed.
I hope she survives and gets the help she so badly needs. Alcoholism and mental health issues, wow. I think she should be in a facility that can help her work on both of these issues once she’s healed. Burn treatment must be such torture. I’m sorry for her. Just glad her actions didn’t kill anyone.
A video on TMZ showed she narrowly missed a pedestrian speeding thru an alley!
I just read on TMZ that Anne is still in a coma and fighting for her life. May God be with you, Anne.
About 5 years ago a friend lost his 9-year-old daughter and 16-year-old step-daughter who were hit by a drunk driver speeding through a red light while they were crossing the street. Last year, a church member was on the phone with her 18-year-old daughter who was crossing the street when she was struck and killed by another drunk driver. While it’s sad that Anne is hurt, I’m more grateful that no one else was hurt while she was in this state. Accidents happen but to intentionally drive while under the influence is unconscionable.