If Anne Heche didn\u2019t want a story out, she\u2019d go to great lengths to keep it under wraps.<\/p>\n
Former \u201cEntertainment Tonight\u201d producer Fran Weinstein learned the hard way, when she interviewed the actress in 1998 during a press run for her film \u201cPsycho.\u201d Heche had just started dating Ellen DeGeneres, and was desperate to keep a rumored fling with Vince Vaughn buried.<\/p>\n
Weinstein tells Page Six that when she brought up the rumor, Heche \u201clost her mind \u2014 eyes opened like a sink hole. Her and Ellen had just gotten together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anne Heche and Vince Vaughn were rumored to have had a fling before she started dating Ellen DeGeneres. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche dated from 1997 to 2000. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Seeing how uncomfortable Heche was, Weinstein moved on. After the interview wrapped, Heche told her, \u201cI don\u2019t want you to use that stuff about Vince Vaughn. I don\u2019t want my girlfriend to hear about it.\u201d <\/p>\n
The entertainment news vet assured her they wouldn\u2019t air the question, but that did nothing to quell Heche\u2019s fear of DeGeneres finding out. Heche sent several publicists and managers back to Weinstein\u2019s suite to demand she hand over the tape. Weinstein refused and Heche took matters into her own hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnne Heche bursts out of the elevator. . . I wagged my finger in her face, [and said], \u2018You\u2019re not getting the tape,’\u201d Weinstein said. \u201cShe comes out yelling, \u2018You have no respect for me. You have no respect for my girlfriend!\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Fran Weinstein was a producer for \u201cEntertainment Tonight\u201d for over two decades. Courtesy of Fran Weinstein<\/p>\n
Weinstein\u2019s writes about Anne Heche in her new memoir \u201cTortured Soles.\u201d <\/p>\n
The duo moved their screaming match back into the suite at the St. Regis, where Heche chain-smoked, and \u201cI sprayed her with lavender,\u201d Weinstein said.<\/p>\n
Exhausted by the back-and-forth, Weinstein lay down on the bed \u2014 and Heche and the tape vanished.<\/p>\n
Weinstein says she stormed Heche\u2019s room, screaming: \u201cGive me my f\u2013king tape!\u201d Heched replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d <\/p>\n
Heche denied stealing Weinstein\u2019s tape. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Weinstein threatened to call the police, but her executive producer vetoed it, fearing press attention \u2014 though the incident still made New York gossip pages. A rep said at the time that Heche \u201cfinished the interview, never left with the tape, and doesn\u2019t have it now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weinstein told us she doesn\u2019t know what happened to the tape. Urban legend has it Heche \u201cinstructed someone to throw it into a New York City sewer.\u201d <\/p>\n
The retired news vet relives this story and more in her memoir, \u201cTortured Soles: High Heels, Low Expectations and The Hollywood Gossip Mill,\u201d<\/a> out April 28.<\/p>\n The actress passed away at 53 in 2022. Getty Images for CDGA<\/p>\n