Anne Heche hospitalized after car slams into L.A. home, sparks fire

Actress Anne Heche remained hospitalized Saturday after crashing her car into a home in Los Angeles Friday morning, sparking a house fire in the process, authorities said.

At about 11 a.m. Friday, Heche was behind the wheel of a car when it careened into a two-story home in the neighborhood of Mar Vista, causing a “heavy fire,” according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Crews pulled Heche out of the car, and she was taken to a hospital in critical condition, the fire department said. No one else was hurt. It’s unclear if anyone was inside the home at the time.

The L.A. Police Department confirmed to CBS Los Angeles Saturday that the 53-year-old Heche was the driver of the car. CBSLA also confirmed the car was registered to her.

A representative for Heche told CBS News Saturday that she was still hospitalized, but did not provide any more details.

“Anne is currently in stable condition,” the representative said in a statement. “Her family and friends ask for your thoughts and prayers. We also ask to respect her privacy during this difficult time. Thank you.”

Meanwhile, it took 59 firefighters just over one hour to put out the flames, the fire department said. The home was “heavily damaged.”

Security video obtained by CBSLA from a nearby homeowner showed the car speeding down a residential street just moments before the crash. The sound of the collision can be heard, but not seen, on the video.

CBSLA also captured footage of crews pulling the mangled car out of the home’s driveway.

There was no immediate word on a possible cause, or whether Heche could face charges.

A native of Ohio, Heche first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera “Another World” from 1987 to 1991. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for the role.

In the late 1990s she became one of the hottest actors in Hollywood, a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films. She co-starred with Johnny Depp in 1997’s “Donnie Brasco”; with Tommy Lee Jones in 1997’s “Volcano”; with Harrison Ford in 1998’s “Six Days, Seven Nights”; with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in 1998’s “Return to Paradise,” and with an ensemble cast in the original 1997 “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”

Her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres from 1997 to 2000 heightened her fame and brought immense public scrutiny.

In the fall of 2000 soon after the two broke up, Heche was hospitalized after knocking on the door of a stranger in a rural area near Fresno, California. Authorities said she had appeared shaken and disoriented, and spoke incoherently to the residents.

In a memoir released the following year, “Call Me Crazy,” Heche talked about her lifelong struggles with mental health and a childhood of abuse.

She was married to camera operator Coleman Laffoon from 2001 to 2009. The two had a son together. She had another son during a relationship with actor James Tupper, her co-star on the TV series “Men In Trees.”

Heche has worked consistently in smaller films, on Broadway, and on TV shows in the past two decades. She recently had recurring roles on the network series “Chicago P.D.” and “All Rise,” and in 2020 was a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.”