Actress Selma Blair did not mean to hurt anyone during the recent flight that led to her arrest on allegations that she assaulted two cabin crew members, a police officer and a nurse, her representatives said in a statement Friday calling the episode a medical emergency.
The lengthy statement also dismissed earlier media coverage of Blair’s arrest after a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to New York as unsympathetic and inaccurate, pointing to reports from several media outlets alleging that she attempted to open the door of the plane she and her traveling companions were on.
“Selma Blair had a medical emergency on board the flight,” said the statement from her representatives. “There was no attempt to open the plane door. Selma did not intend to harm anyone.”
Friday’s statement from Blair’s camp added some contours to brief remarks made in the days after his arrest by his publicist and lawyer, who claimed there had been a medical emergency but added little.
Without specifying who may have done it, Friday’s statement called it “scandalous” for anyone to suggest that Blair does not suffer from multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic neurological disorder whose diagnosis she made public in 2018.
“What Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle,” the statement said, reported by the Associated Press and People. “She still has bad days and lives with pain every day. »
The release said Blair suffers from a condition secondary to her MS known as pseudobulbar affect, “which directly impacts how a medical episode presents to people who are unfamiliar with it.”
Blair therefore “travels with a service dog who doesn’t leave her side”.
“And the authorities took his dog,” said the statement, which described Blair as an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities and the MS community.
Blair’s statement criticized media outlets which – in covering her arrest on Sunday – referenced a 2016 incident in which she allegedly began screaming uncontrollably while on a flight to Los Angeles from Cancun, Mexico, before being carried off on a stretcher.
The actor apologized after that earlier incident, saying she had “mixed alcohol with medication,” passing out as a result while saying and doing things that “I deeply regret.”
Blair’s representatives expressed gratitude to “the handful of journalists (who) took the time to talk about Selma as a human being rather than a headline.”
“Fair reporting has been the exception,” their statement said Friday, which accused the media of building a narrative around Blair almost solely on police allegations “and a decade-old headline.”
“There is much more to say than what has been reported,” the statement continued, without giving details. “And we ask that we consider all of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in court or in the court of public opinion.”
Authorities accused Blair of injuring two flight attendants while traveling from Los Angeles to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) on Sunday evening. She also allegedly kicked a police officer who was taking her to the hospital and a nurse once she arrived at the facility, said a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages JFK.
She pleaded not guilty Monday to assault charges involving the police officer and nurse, with a judge ordering Blair to stay away from them. Blair has been released on bail and is tentatively expected to return to court in January.
Meanwhile, the AP reported that Blair received a notice from the FBI charging him with assault for alleged actions on Delta Flight 938. The outlet cited a federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to be authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
The exact details of what happened in the moments before Blair’s arrest have not been released by Delta, state authorities or the FBI. An air traffic control audio recording from the flight Blair was on captured the pilot saying: “A flight attendant and a passenger… suffered minor injuries – a bloody nose as well as bite marks.” »
“I don’t think we need an ambulance or anything like that, but we just want medical personnel to come to the gate to look at their injuries,” the pilot said, according to the recording, a copy of which was published by NBC Los Angeles.
Besides this affair and the 2016 incident, Blair was embroiled in controversy when she apologized in February 2024 for an Islamophobic comment on social media.
Blair’s major films include Cruel Intentions in 1999, Legally Blonde in 2001 and Hellboy in 2004.
She was nominated at the 2011 Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for her work on Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl – The Definitive Edition. And she also starred in the acclaimed 2021 documentary Introducing, Selma Blair, which explores her life after her MS diagnosis.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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