Representatives frame the arrest as a medical emergency
Selma Blair's representatives said on Friday that the actor had no intention of hurting anyone during the flight that ended with her arrest on allegations of assaulting two cabin crew members, a police officer and a nurse. In a lengthy statement, they described the episode as a medical emergency and pushed back on earlier press coverage they called unsympathetic and inaccurate.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5]
The statement singled out reporting from several outlets that said Blair tried to open the door of the Delta Air Lines aircraft carrying her and other passengers from Los Angeles to New York. Her representatives rejected that account outright, maintaining that no such attempt occurred and that she meant no harm to anyone aboard.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5]
Friday's statement added detail to the brief remarks her publicist and lawyer had made since the arrest, which asserted a medical emergency without elaborating. It also called it outrageous for anyone to suggest that Blair does not have multiple sclerosis, the chronic neurological condition she disclosed publicly in 2018.[S1]
Health details and the service dog
Her representatives said Blair has pseudobulbar affect, a condition that stems from her multiple sclerosis and, according to the statement, strongly shapes how a medical episode can look to strangers. The statement also called her a disability rights advocate and a voice for the MS community, while noting that she continues to face hard days and lives with daily pain.[S1]
The statement also said Blair travels with a service dog that stays at her side, and that authorities took the animal from her. It praised the few journalists it said had treated her as a human being rather than a headline, and argued that fair reporting had been the exception.[S1]
Blair's representatives accused the media of constructing a narrative around her almost entirely from police allegations and a decade-old headline. They said there is much more to the matter than has been reported, without offering specifics, and asked that the full set of facts be weighed before judgment is passed in court or in public opinion.[S1]
The charges and what remains unclear
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs John F Kennedy airport, said Blair was accused of injuring two flight attendants on the Sunday night flight from Los Angeles. She was also alleged to have kicked a police officer who was taking her to a hospital and to have kicked a nurse after arriving there.[S1][S8]
On Monday Blair entered a not guilty plea to state assault charges tied to the officer and the nurse, and a judge directed her to keep away from both of them. She was freed on bail, with a tentative return date in court set for January. Citing an unnamed federal law enforcement official, the Associated Press reported that the FBI had sent her a notice charging assault over alleged conduct on Delta flight 938.[S1][S8]
Delta, state authorities and the FBI have not disclosed exactly what happened in the moments before the arrest. An air traffic control recording from the flight captured the pilot reporting that a flight attendant and a passenger had minor injuries, including a bloody nose and bite marks, and requesting medical staff at the gate rather than an ambulance.[S1]
Earlier episodes and a screen career
Coverage of the arrest referred to a 2016 incident in which Blair reportedly screamed uncontrollably on a flight from Cancún, Mexico, bound for Los Angeles and was removed on a stretcher. She apologized afterward, saying she had mixed alcohol with medication and blacked out, and that she deeply regretted what she said and did.[S1]
In February 2024 she issued an apology for an Islamophobic remark she had posted on social media. Her screen work includes Cruel Intentions (1999), Legally Blonde (2001) and Hellboy (2004), and in 2011 she earned a Grammy nomination in the best spoken word album for children category for her contribution to a definitive edition of Anne Frank's diary.[S1]
She was also featured in Introducing, Selma Blair, a 2021 documentary that follows her life following her MS diagnosis. The Associated Press supplied reporting for this account of the case.[S1]
