While Natasha Lyonne happily mingled with other guests at a party in New York City Saturday night, her friends are reportedly worried about her health and sobriety, particularly after she made headlines for allegedly being so “out of it” on a Delta Airlines plane last week that she held up its departure for more than an hour as the plane returned to the gate and she was escorted off.
Is one of those friends John Mulaney? The comedian and “Saturday Night Live” alum famously thanked Lyonne for being one of his famous friends who helped him recover from his drug addiction by staging an intervention, as People reported in 2023. At that time, Lyonne was well known for going public with her own addiction struggles over the years and for apparently being sober since the mid-2000s.
The 47-year-old “Russian Doll” star admitted in January that she had relapsed after a long period of sobriety, though she subsequently claimed that she was sober again up until a few weeks ago. However, Page Six reported over the weekend that people close to the 47-year-old “Russian Doll” star have been worried about her “for a while” and the April 7 plane incident “has has them even more fearful for her health.”
Comedian John Mulaney on his “From Scratch” tour September 01, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
It’s not known if Mulaney is among those friends who are privately expressing concern. Page Six didn’t name any of the friends they interviewed for their report, but he included her in a list of bold-face names he called out on his Netflix comedy special, “Baby J,” People reported.
“You saved my life,” Mulaney said to “Natasha” and 12 others, whom he called by their first names and are believed to include such “Saturday Night Live” luminaries as Bill Hader, Seth Meyers and Fred Armisen. Lyonne and Armisen, incidentally, dated for eight years until they announced their split in 2022.
One friend agreed with Page Six that Lyonne looked “fragile” Thursday night — two nights after the plane incident — when she attended the premiere for the new documentary about “Saturday Night Live” boss Lorne Michaels.
“It took everything she had just to come here,” one friend told Page Six at the premiere. Meyers and current “SNL” star Sarah Sherman were seen supporting Lyonne at the premiere.
“She’s obviously going through something very challenging right now and unfortunately she has to do that in the public eye to some degree, which compounds things,” a friend said of Lyonne. “This is something that just takes you over. You have no control … it’s just so sad because Natasha has been fine for years.”
On Friday, Lyonne posted an apologetic but bemused message on X about the plane incident, which occurred several hours after she attended the Hollywood premiere of Season 3 of “Euphoria,” in which she has a guest-starring role.
On X, the “Orange is the New Black” star insisted that she took a Lunesta, a prescription sedative used to treat insomnia, so that she could sleep on the Delta red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York City. She said she boarded “seamlessly” but didn’t mention what happened after that, other than that “ICE had other plans and I was detained,” she said. “Sign of the times, I guess.”
Page Six spoke to people on the plane who offered up details about why Lyonne was removed from the plane — and they didn’t say anything about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents being involved.
While Lyonne was seated in first class, she failed to respond to flight attendants asking her to turn off her laptop and fasten her seatbelt, Page Six reported. A witness observed Lyonne receiving instructions from multiple flight attendants, while she seemed to be dozing off behind her sunglasses, Page Six said.
Her laptop was eventually taken out of her hand, as the plane taxied to the runway, Page Six reported. But the plane later turned back and returned to the gate. A Delta staffer boarded the plane and asked the star, “Ma’am, do you need medical attention?” The staffer then told her, “Ma’am, I need you to come off the plane.”
“Where are we?” Lyonne was overheard asking, Page Six reported. She was then told, “We’re still in L.A. The plane is not going anywhere until you come off it.”
Lyonne got up and headed to the bathroom, according to Page Six. She soon emerged, eating a bag of pretzels, and obediently left the plane, after her luggage had already been removed.
With Lyonne gone, and the flight delayed more than an hour, the captain explained the situation to the other passengers, Page Six reported. “We have a passenger who for whatever reason … wouldn’t follow some basic commands,” he said, according to Page Six. “
In her X post, Lyonne said she had “never had a problem with @Delta
or @TSA before.” She also apologized to “unpaid @TSA workers” and to “any travelers who were delayed.”
Lyonne confirmed a report that she missed a taping for “The Drew Barrymore Show” because of the plane incident.
Page Six reported other reasons that friends are concerned and “desperate” to help Lyonne. “Trouble has been brewing for more than a year,” Page Six said.
Lyonne confided to friends that she was going to rehab last April as she prepared to launch Asteria Film Co., an AI film studio focused on ethical, copyright-cleared technology, Page Six. But it’s not clear if the company was launched.
Other professional choices also have raised concerns, according to Page Six. The former child star’s publicist parted ways with her earlier this year, she is not not currently working with her top agents at CAA, and her Peacock show “Poker Face” was not renewed for a third season, a decision sources insist was hers, Page Six said.
Lyonne has spoken in the past about how she almost died from heroin and alcohol addiction in the 2000s, Page Six reported. In 2005, her friend, actor Michael Rapaport, felt he had no choice but to evict her from his West Village home as she spiraled out of control. That year, she also was admitted to a Manhattan hospital suffering from hepatitis C, infective endocarditis and a collapsed lung related to intravenous drug use, later leading to open heart surgery.
During Lyonne’s active addiction, she also was arrested for a DUI in 2001, then charged in 2004 with mischief, trespassing and harassment of a neighbor.
After attending court-appointed rehab in 2006, Lyonne said she slowly began to turn her life around. “I was definitely as good as dead,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2012.
Fast forward to January, when she let her fans know she had relapsed, though she didn’t say when or how the relapse occurred. She stressed that “recovery is a lifelong process. Anyone out there struggling, remember you’re not alone. Grateful for love & smart feet.”
Those who care about Lyonne just want her to get help, Page Six reported. “She’s so talented, so (expletive) wonderful and brilliant,” a friend said.