Selma Blair is facing federal charges after allegedly biting a flight attendant during a mid-air meltdown, marking the latest addition to her bizarre history of sinking her teeth into people.
The Legally Blonde star, who shared earlier this year that she is “relapse free” from multiple sclerosis, was arrested Sunday after she was accused of hurting two flight attendants on a trip from Los Angeles to New York. After she was detained at the airport, she also allegedly kicked a police officer and a nurse.
Blair, 54, pleaded not guilty Monday night to two counts of assault for the state charges involving the officer and nurse. She also faces separate federal charges of assaults within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the U.S., according to the Associated Press.
Her attorney Shawn Barnes told a New York judge that the incident on the plane, in which she allegedly tried to open the aircraft’s door while it was in the air, was caused by a medical emergency stemming from missed doses of her medication. The Independent has reached out to Blair’s representative and attorney for further comment.
By her own account, Blair has a habit of biting her fellow celebrities. In her 2022 memoir Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up, the actor explained that she had a biting habit that came from feeling “overwhelmed” in public.
“My system gets overwhelmed and instantaneously short-circuits,” Blair wrote in the book, according to Page Six. “In my life, social interactions have been cumbersome.”
In her memoir, Blair admitted to biting Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane when she was “starstruck” by him at a Las Vegas party in 2004, saying: “What do I do in public situations where I admire someone, but feel as if I don’t bring anything to the party? I bit him on the hand.”
She recalled that MacFarlane yelled in response, “Whoa! That really hurt.”
“It wasn’t a disaster; I didn’t break skin. But I soon hated myself,” she said.
Blair also recalled sinking her teeth into War star Sienna Miller at the Chateau Marmont when they first met in 2006. “I couldn‘t begrudge her for any part she was winning over me,” she wrote.
“So, I grabbed her arm and bit it, playfully, as if it were an apple,” she said. “Even as I held her forearm in my mouth I was aghast at myself. I thought, What have I gotten myself into? Or her? This is horrible behavior.”
In another incident, Blair said she bit the finger of supermodel Kate Moss in a London hotel suite after a fashion show, which was met with a laugh.
“And because she laughed, I did it again,” Blair wrote. “The second time, she did not laugh and exclaimed, ‘That really f***ing hurt!’”
She said that Moss then hit Blair in the back and bit into her thumb. “This was the first time I had any inkling of how much I might hurt people when I bit them,” Blair wrote. “Immediately, I transformed into a shamed nursery school kid. ‘Oh my gosh,’ I whispered, ‘I am so sorry.’”
This is also not the first time that Blair has had trouble on a plane. In 2016, she was kicked off a flight from Cancun to Los Angeles for being intoxicated. She later issued a public apology and said she had blacked out after mixing alcohol with medication.
