Following a long weekend in Cancun, Selma Blair was flying back to LA with her son and her ex-partner on Monday. Everything went haywire on the flight for Selma. She was seen mixing prescription pills with wine, then she was overheard saying some truly disturbing things. Two nurses on board tried to help her, but when the plane landed, Selma was taken off in a stretcher and she was hospitalized. The whole incident seemed very, very bizarre. And now Selma has given an official statement and apology to Vanity Fair:
“I made a big mistake yesterday. After a lovely trip with my son and his Dad, I mixed alcohol with medication, and that caused me to black out and led me to say and do things that I deeply regret. My son was with his Dad asleep with his headphones on, so there is that saving grace. I take this very seriously, and I apologize to all of the passengers and crew that I disturbed and am thankful to all of the people who helped me in the aftermath. I am a flawed human being who makes mistakes and am filled with shame over this incident. I am truly very sorry.”
She mixed prescription pills with alcohol and blacked out? That’s what I suspected yesterday. It’s not that I was trying to forget the crazy stuff she was saying, I just thought… yeah, I bet she didn’t even know what she was saying. I would love to know what she pills caused her to have that kind of blackout too. Michael K thinks it was Ambien + wine (CB thinks it could be Ambien too). Could be, or it could be something heavier than Ambien, although there are definitely some crazy and disturbing blackout stories for Ambien. She’s lucky she didn’t hurt anyone else or herself. And is it wrong that I sort of like Selma more for apologizing for the incident?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I would say Ambian but she wasn’t flying long haul so no reason for that but it can make you crazy / loopy but just no medication with drinking period plus flying dehydrates you not a good combo. Live and learn for her I suppose.
I work with families and newborns and one night the dad took an ambien, came to the living room I was in with a sloppy sandwich and proceeded to sit thisclose to me and eat it, while yammering on about things I simply couldn’t understand. Ambien can make people do crazy awake things, especially when mixed with booze, so that’s my official guess too.
Yes I have definitely had a scary experience with Ambien. I took it once and never again. I was hallucinating, walking around the room and trying to drink water according to my friend who was sleeping over with me at the time. It was really weird and I swear I could see dozens of people in my room. I didn’t even have any alcohol with it either. I have never taken it since.
Cancun to LA is at least 4-6 hours, no?
It’s 4 hours from Cancun to NYC so it’s probably between 4-5 to LA.
I think way way more likely Xanax or Valium and or Ativan,,….she wanted to chill out. Those mixed in quantity mixed with booze can do this and more. Plus she was unrecognizable in some of the Daily Mail pics. At least she tried to own it from a pr view. And while her kid had ear phones on I am sure he saw and heard the drama and meltdown as it seemed a bit off the charts!
Everything you said. Earphones and sleeping don’t matter when your mom is being hauled off on a stretcher by paramedics. He definitely saw enough to scare him really bad.
And those pictures from their vacation show the airplane “mixing” was not the only time she’s been overmedicated.
Her apology was genuine but I don’t buy it that it was a one-time thing.
I have a issue with flying so I usually take something to help me sleep and be calm on the flight (I’ve taken ambien in the past)-It’s enough to knock me on my butt so the thought of having wine would never occur to me. My doc says lots of folks need it to get through long haul flights that have a fear of flying.
Maybe she was loopy and took a glass on the plane-or maybe she thought a small glass wouldn’t affect her. Glad she apologized though. Well written one at that.
I’m on board with the apology except for the “I’m a flawed human being who makes mistakes…” bit. EVERYONE’s flawed; no one’s accusing her of being perfect. Why celebs always tack this phrase (or something like it) onto their apologies, I don’t know. It sounds a tad defensive.
A celeb can make one remark and someone will find offense in it and start an outrage. People DO forget that celebs aren’t the smartest, brightest, most-perfectest humans. They do make mistakes, and usually they get dragged through the mud for them.
Well, your criticism kinda explains why she said that. We do tend to expect perfection from celebs or at least we like to burn them at the stake when they do and say things we do and say everday. We nitpick. All the time. So I get where she’s coming from.
That’s a good apology and I like her a lot for taking full responsibility. It’s rare.
Agree completely!
Yes, agreed, I thought she handled it very well. I hope she’s ok.
Absolutely to all of that, littlemiss naughty!
Yes and no. We do tend to hold them up to an unrealistic expectation and people will forever enjoy knocking the pedestal out from underneath them. However, I have a problem with claiming we do the same exact things every day – no, most of us don’t overmedicate and act crazy in front of our kids. And that’s just her – other celebrites that we take down a notch or two are doing things none of us regular folk do j- most of us don’t bang our nannies, stick up for child molesters, take nude selfies on the regular and post them to our instagram – there is a plethora of bad behavior the celebrities pretty much own….and we do not do those same things.
It could be read that way, but I also read it as accepting that this happened because she was flawed, not just putting it on some freak medication interaction no one could have known about, or “exhaustion” or something.
Wren, I read it the same way as you. To me, she was adding on that she was flawed- that it wasn’t just the bad mix of pills and alcohol. But, her fault, too.
Right now, I am sick and tired of how everyone seems to be attacked/picked apart for every little thing they say or do.
I thought Selma’s apology and explanation was very, very well done and I wish this lovely and talented actress all the best. I feel sorry that she feels shame and is embarrassed. I hope that the press makes this easier for her than it might be.
I thought her apology sounded completely genuine. It doesn’t seem like she is trying to make excuses or put some ridiculous spin on the incident. She simply owned up to what she did and apologized.
I thought it was a very good, genuine apology that sounded straight forward and not full of bull poop.
Ambien could have caused it, sure. I’m glad she is taking responsibility for her actions. She didn’t try to spin and blame ‘the stress’ or what have you.
Or too much sushi *cough Jeremy Piven cough*
I like her apology… Poor thing, I hope she gets better soon
I liked it too. Also, for some reason, I had thought that she and her son were flying alone, so I am thankful that he had his dad with him.
Me too. Glad to hear Dad was there. That makes a huge difference.
Great apology. I haven’t felt the burn of shame too recently – it’s the WORST. That feeling comes across in her apology. I feel bad for her.
It’s a good apology. A real apology. It sounds like she’s deeply ashamed.
I support her apology and like her more, too, because of it.
The tone seems genuine in that she’s regretful and mortified.
Hoping her son was asleep and didn’t see/hear much, but I’m sure seeing him mom taken off in a stretcher when they landed was scary enough.
Best wishes to Selma – hoping this was just a blip in her life.
I feel bad for her….she seems like she may have a problem (didn’t someone point out she was in rehab a few years ago)..I understand apologizing to the people on the plane, but filling herself with shame won’t help her. She needs to get some help and move on…
She did go to rehab almost a decade ago for drug abuse. Cocaine, if I remember correctly. It sounds like she has lost her grip on sobriety.
Wasn’t there never any public confirmation of what the rehab was for? My vague recollection was that at the time there was a lot of speculation about an eating disorder.
I thought the apology was fine. I’m not sure about the Ambien. I took it intermittently for a couple of years at 10 mg and stopped because the medical community decided that women could only have a dose of 5 mg, and that didn’t keep me asleep all night. I never experienced anything like she did, but I know people react differently to drugs. I think it was more likely some kind of sedative, or both. My point is, I think she took more than she was supposed to.
If she added it as a powder to her wine, she would have crushed it. And if it was extended release, crushing it gives a larger dose in a shorter amount of time. That’s my guess. And she probably hallucinated. I posted yesterday about my (much less scary) reactions to ambien.
I was thinking, who the heck crushes a sedative into their alcohol? I would never think of that – it tastes too awful. Obviously, whatever it was effected her profoundly.
I think when she said she “mixed” it with wine, she was just saying she took them at the same time, which is I think how most warnings about not mixing alcohol and medication are worded.
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.
People on the plane reported seeing her put a powder directly into her glass of wine and stir it in. If one was taking medication as medication, I’m sorry, this is not the way one would go about it. This does sound to me like looking for a dramatic effect or high quickly. Also, what she said sounds like some traumatic stuff. I hope she doesn’t try to deal with this all by herself.
My ex-husband rolled a car while on Ambien (and I am quite sure he had also been drinking). He didn’t remember any of it.
Oh my. After I posted that, I remembered a few years ago, a friend of my mother’s thought she had early Alzheimer’s, but it turned out to be Ambien. So I guess a normal dose could cause this type of behavior. Sorry I thought otherwise.
I’ve done some weird stuff on Ambien, but the stuff she was yelling out was downright bizarre. And who mixes stuff in their wine, especially for a short plane ride back?
I hope she addresses probably a much deeper problem going on with some sort of substance abuse, but I really hope this doesn’t affect her career in any way. She is in her 40s and has a son to take care of . I feel sorry for her, because I know this was so embarrassing for her. Hopefully. people will feel some compassion for her and let it be.
I already liked her, and also like her more for this apology. I hope she’s okay and that she takes care of herself.
Why on Earth is someone mixing alcohol and medications, nonetheless on a flight? That is just stupid.
But her apology was good, she took up the responsability and didn’t shift the blame.
You’d be surprised how people, mostly women and mothers actually, that I know who think absolutely nothing of downing a pill with a glass of wine to “relax”. I’m not placing any judgment on this, but it is far more common than we realize. Xanax, ambien…mix in someone who is apprehensive to fly, it doesn’t shock me at all. Some people don’t take the severity of drug warnings and alcohol together to disastrous results, and usually ones they don’t remember.
I was surprised by that also, your medicine tells you not to mix with alcohol. I agree about her apology being genuine.
There was actually a joke about this on Modern Family a while back, I was kinda stunned. Cam mentions to Mitchell that he knows Mitchell is hiding leftover pain meds in his nightstand. Mitchell says something like, “but they go so well with my pinot.” I found it amazing to hear what is fundamentally substance abuse normalized so casually, especially since alcohol on top of pain meds can have unpredictable, dangerous and sometimes lethal side effects.
It seems that much like Mad Men-style drinking was respectable in the 1940s-1970s (pre-Betty Ford, pretty much), self-medicating psychological pain with meds is the new acceptable substance abuse for the mid- to high income earner set.
But haven’t you heard, it’s marijuana that’s the problem!
*eyeroll*
I think the joke is how awful that is, it made me laugh and shake my head. Like, it’s clear that’s not appropriate. I don’t think they were trying to normalize it.
I hope other celebs and their PR study this apology because it is A+…this is how you do it.
“….I suppose there are two sides to my own character,” she adds. “I go from being hugely hopeful and entertaining to… really not. I’m not manic depressive, but I can really go to the darker side.”
-selma blair
2009
The Guardian interview
Any addict who adds crushed up pills to wine is more than a little flawed. Hope she gets help she needs.
“more than a little flawed.” Geez, no wonder she feels such shame, when she admits to being flawed and it’s still not enough for some people.
Lol it’s more than a little flawed to look strung out on vacation, post a pic where you’re clearly on something to instagram, say your kid had headphones on, but is he blind?
Grew up with a mom that was a addiction counselor and this type of behavior is not foreign to me. Hope she gets the help she needs.
Lol ok, if looking strung out while on vacation — or out grocery shopping or chasing after my rambunctious toddlers — was a crime then I’d have been tossed in jail a long time ago. She looks “strung out” in a couple photos, in all the others she looks fine to me. Again, being held to unrealistic standards of perfection can really mess a person up, I’m sure.
You seem to want it made clear that you know she’s really disturbed. OK, message received.
I’m with Kimbers. I highly doubt this was a one-time thing, and comparing a bad photo of you grocery shopping to the ones of Blair obviously zoned out is not a good analogy. It wasn’t her posture or her hair. It was her coloring and the expression on her face was screaming – ready to vomit and/or pass out.
She apologized but she also minimized it. She made it sound like her son didn’t know it happened and wasn’t affected. She made it sound like this is the only time she’s ever mixed her pills with alcohol.
It is not an unrealistic expectation to expect a mother to stay sober on a flight home with her child. Saying you’re flawed and not perfect is what addicts always say before their willing to get sober. It’s a method of normalizing their behavior to themselves and the world. I beleive she is an addict and more will come of this in the future. And it’s not other people’s expectations that make people become addicts. Everyone has stress and pressure. Addicts become addicts because they don’t want to deal with their issues – they’d rather be numb and escape them. That’s not on us. That’s her own lack of coping skills and selfishly choosing drugs rather than dealing with her issues sober and actually addressing the root cause(s) rather than the symptoms. The bleeding hearts that make excuses for people whose kids are being affected need to re-think their priorities.
Nope, sorry, not okay. Yes, people make mistakes. But, if Selma weren’t famous, and if she were brown and this happened this would be a whole different narrative. She acts like her son was in a different section of the plane when she did this. He was in the seat across the aisle from her. I don’t expect people to be perfect, but this isn’t a “woops I had too much to drink” blip.
Agree. Headphones. Like the kids didnt see the whole plane react to his mom freaking out. Hope she goes back to therepy or rehab.
It must be humiliating. Things like this make me feel for celebs. She’s tiny… And even normal sized people misjudge what they can tolerate pill/booze wise and make fools of themselves occasionally, and if we’re lucky barely anyone notices.
A genuine apology…how refreshing.
A) Totally sounds like Ambien. I have known people to do a lot more than just say strange things when taking it. I don’t put this meltdown in the same class at all with people who become belligerent and abusive with airline staff — all Selma did was cry and say some stuff that was very sad, but not abusive to anyone else.
B) I still think there was probably an underlying old trauma that led to the specific things she said. I hope she has supportive friends and a good therapist.
C) Nice to hear her son was oblivious — I’m sure that was a great relief to all concerned.
D) GREAT apology. The wording certainly seems sincere. I hope she feels forgiven by her family and the public, and is more careful about meds and alcohol in the future. I’m sure what happened was the last thing she wanted.
Agree with all points. It’s nice that she took responsibility for being disruptive. Other than that, she doesn’t really owe anyone an apology or an explanation. I think about how stressful it would be to go on a trip with your ex, pretending all is well for the sake of your child. She probably just wanted to pass out while dad was there to watch her son. It went awry. Things happen and we learn from them.
I suspect that she has issues (and always has), but of course I don’t know for certain. If she does, I hope she gets help. As far as Ambien goes-holy hell. My brother-in-law took it once after a long flight to help him sleep. He went to bed ahead of my sister, but when she went in, he wasn’t there. They eventually found him asleep in the guest bedroom in the closet in a winter coat. My sister tried to wake him. Apparently, he told her he was in a tree fort and to leave him alone. So..yeah, Ambien is no joke.
I still can’t get over what she said though. I read a theory last night that she may have been abused when she was younger and it just spilled out of her in the state she was in. I don’t anything about her personal life so who knows but hopefully she gets whatever help she needs.
sounds like Ambien, but it could be a bunch of things. There are many antidepressants that, when mixed with alcohol, can also cause blackouts.
I’m definitely guilty of having taken half an Ambien (control release) and wine for a 6 hour flight. I would keep my tray table down because when it hit, I went down like a bag of rocks. When I was initially put on Ambien, I was living alone and had done some stuff while blacked out on it. I took all of my clothes out of my closet and laid them on the floor, and one time I cooked a pizza. The thing was a solid black disk, but I had gone through the process of turning the oven on and off without any memory. That’s when they switched me to the control release, and I never had an incident since (that I know of)! Long story short, Ambien is no f***ing joke.
I was on Ambien for a year or so too. The last time I took it I had been drinking a bit and took it anyway. I was seeing triple of everything, and not faded ghost-like triple but where I couldn’t pick out which of the 3 was the real item because they all looked so real. I went to the bathroom and afterwards I thought I went to sleep. I woke up to find out I’d had a long talk with my boyfriend and had sex and I remembered none of it. He said I actually seemed fine on it. That’s when I stopped taking Ambien, it scared the crap outta me.
They gave me Ambien when I was admitted to the hospital for bedrest before my son was born. Zero alcohol involved and I went into a blackout and started calling people on my cell phone that I hadn’t talked to in a decade. Zero memory of those calls, none. I was apparently talking like a crazy person, saying I was being held against my will, etc…. even the nurses said I was talking crazy and wanting to hide. I never took Ambien again.
My hospital gave me Ambien, too, when I was in pre-labor. I went in with some complications, they had to induce and it was taking SO long that they gave me Ambien to help me sleep during the process. They offered me two pills and I only took one, saying that if I needed another, I’d take it. I apparently woke up in the middle of the night and tried to rip out all the machines they had me plugged into to monitor heartbeats, contractions, etc., so I could get up and “go outside.” My husband sprang up and yelled for the nurses, who calmly came in, plugged me back in and put me back in bed. I don’t remember any of it.
Ambien is no joke, y’all. I will never touch it again and I cannot imagine what it can do to someone who mixes it with alcohol.
Had a friend that had an infection and was prescribed Ambien for a long flight. Mid flight, which they don’t remember, she began to talk crazy, opening the flight door & wanted to jump out etc…. She then proceeds to strip down her clothes and removed most of them at one point. Finally the FAs detained her to one of their private bathrooms for the rest of the flight. It was a bad combo of the Ambien and her infection. The doctor told her dehydration was the big culprit. In flight we tend to dehydrate quickly and if you have little as one drink it can intervene with illnesses or medication. ONE drink. Scares me to drink alchol while flying and rarely ever drink alchol on flights.
pills & wine has always done fine by me. thank goodness!
FWIW, I had a similar experience mixing wine (in a pretty modest amount, mind you) and prescription antihistamines – I have absolutely no recollection of it and the things I apparently said were completely made up by who knows what part of my brain. My doctor said there are things about travel (disrupted sleep, dehydration, etc.) that can contribute to that sort of episode. I can certainly imagine something like that happening if alcohol is mixed with xanax, ativan, etc., or Ambien.
I hope she’s ok, she must be feeling so embarrassed now. A bad reaction like that can happen to anyone.
Her little boy is gorgeous.
The poor girl probably took an ambien to sleep on the plane and doesn’t take them often, so did not realize the interaction with alcohol can be deadly.
My friend used to sleepwalk around his loft on ambien, even with NO alcohol.
She in her 40’s she not a teen so she had to know that mixing alcohol and ambien can be deadly.
Its common knowledge and says it right on the bottle. All medication says not to mix with alcohol on the package some even say don’t drive unless you know who the medication is going to effect you.
Naive question here, but if you went to rehab for substance abuse, shouldn’t you be avoiding other potentially addictive substances like alcohol?