{"id":634074,"date":"2026-10-18T05:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T05:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634074\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T05:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T05:42:08","slug":"selma-blair-did-not-intend-to-harm-anyone-during-airplane-incident-representatives-say-selma-blair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634074\/","title":{"rendered":"Selma Blair \u2018did not intend to harm anyone\u2019 during airplane incident, representatives say | Selma Blair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actor Selma Blair<\/a> did not mean to hurt anyone during the recent flight which led to her arrest on allegations that she assaulted a pair of cabin crew members, a police officer and a nurse, her representatives said on Friday in a statement that characterized the episode as a medical emergency.<\/p>\n

The lengthy statement also dismissed prior media coverage of Blair\u2019s arrest<\/a> after a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles<\/a> to New York<\/a> as unsympathetic and inaccurate, singling out reporting from several outlets alleging that she tried to open the door of the airplane that she and her fellow passengers were on.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelma Blair experienced a medical emergency on the flight,\u201d her representatives\u2019 statement contended. \u201cThere was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s statement from Blair\u2019s camp added some contours to brief remarks made in the days since her arrest by her publicist and lawyer which maintained that there had been a medical emergency but did not elaborate much.<\/p>\n

Without specifying who may have done so, the statement on Friday called it \u201coutrageous\u201d for anyone to suggest Blair does not have multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic neurological disorder which she went public about being diagnosed with<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle,\u201d said the statement, which was reported by the Associated Press<\/a> and People<\/a>. \u201cShe still has bad days, and she lives with pain daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement said Blair has a condition secondary to her MS known as pseudobulbar affect, \u201cwhich bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her\u201d.<\/p>\n

Blair therefore \u201ctravels with a service dog who doesn\u2019t leave her side\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the authorities took her dog from her,\u201d said the statement, which described Blair as a disability rights and MS community advocate.<\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s statement faulted media outlets which \u2013 in covering her arrest on Sunday \u2013 referred to a 2016 incident in which she reportedly began screaming uncontrollably while on a Los Angeles-bound flight from Canc\u00fan, Mexico, before being removed on a stretcher.<\/p>\n

The actor apologized after that earlier incident, saying that she \u201cmixed alcohol with medication\u201d, blacking out as a result while saying and doing things that \u201cI deeply regret\u201d.<\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s representatives expressed gratitude to the \u201chandful of journalists [who] have taken the time to report on Selma as a human being rather than a headline\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFair reporting has been the exception,\u201d said their statement on Friday, which accused the media of building a narrative around Blair almost solely on police allegations \u201cand a decade-old headline\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is much more to this than has been reported,\u201d the statement continued, without offering specifics. \u201cAnd we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities accused Blair of injuring two flight attendants while traveling from LA to the John F Kennedy airport (JFK) in New York<\/a> on Sunday night. She also was alleged to have kicked a police officer taking her to the hospital and kicking a nurse once she arrived at the facility, said a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK.<\/p>\n

She pleaded not guilty on Monday to state assault charges involving the officer and the nurse, with a judge ordering Blair to stay away from them. Blair was freed on bail and tentatively scheduled to return to court in January.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the AP reported that Blair had gotten a notice from the FBI charging her with assault for alleged actions on Delta flight 938. The outlet cited a federal law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for not being authorized to speak publicly about the case.<\/p>\n

Details of exactly what happened in the moments leading up to Blair\u2019s arrest haven\u2019t been disclosed by Delta, state authorities or the FBI. An air traffic control audio recording from the flight Blair was on captured the pilot saying: \u201cOne flight attendant and one passenger \u2026 sustained some minor injuries \u2013 a bloody nose as well as some bite marks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we need an ambulance or anything like that \u2013 but we just want to get some medical personnel at the gate to look at their injuries,\u201d the pilot said, according to the recording, a copy of which was published <\/a>by NBC Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Beside that case and the incident in 2016, Blair grappled with controversy when she apologized<\/a> in February 2024 for an Islamophobic comment on social media.<\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s major film credits include Cruel Intentions in 1999, Legally Blonde in 2001 and Hellboy in 2004.<\/p>\n

She earned a 2011 Grammy award nomination for best spoken word album for children for her work on Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl \u2013 The Definitive Edition. And she also starred in the acclaimed 2021 documentary Introducing, Selma Blair, which explores her life after her MS diagnosis.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor Selma Blair did not mean to hurt anyone during the recent flight which led to her arrest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-634074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}