Anne Heche attends the premiere of “The Tender Bar” at the TLC Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, December 12, 2021. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood actress Anne Heche remains in hospital in a critical condition, coma and connected to a respirator, four days after she was seriously injured in a car crash in Los Angeles, a spokesman said.
Heche, 53, was hospitalized shortly after the minivan she was driving spiraled out of control in a Westside neighborhood in Los Angeles late Friday morning, breaking into a home and setting it on fire, according to police.
No one inside the house was hurt, but the explosion set the dwelling ablaze, prompting the response of dozens of firefighters.
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A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said Monday that the cause and circumstances of the crash are still under investigation.
Michael McConnell, a member of the Los Angeles talent management company she represents, Zero Gravity Management, said Heche is in a coma and hasn’t regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.
“At this time, she is in a very critical condition,” he told Reuters in a text message, adding that Hetchi “suffered from a major lung injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns requiring surgical intervention.”
The Los Angeles Times quoted salon owner Richard Glass in Venice Beach, recounting a visit by Heck to his store shortly before the accident, calling her a “sweet little girl” because she bought a red wig Friday morning.
Heche rose to prominence for her Emmy-winning work on the daytime TV drama “Another World” and went on to star in other screen roles including the HBO series “Hung” and films such as “Wag the Dog” and “Cedar Rapids”.
She made headlines in the late ’90s for an affair with comedian Ellen DeGeneres around the time DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian. After their separation, Heche married photographer Coleman Laffoon, but they later divorced, and she spent a few years after that in a relationship with actor James Tupper, her co-star on the short-lived TV show “Men in Trees”.
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(Steve Gorman reports). Editing by Stephen Coates
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