show ’em where you’re from, natasha

She is, without question, one of the most talented actors I have ever worked with — and also one of the most profoundly troubled. She is a living testament to what can happen when far too much responsibility is heaped upon someone who is far too young to bear it. From what she told me over cigarettes and strong Romanian coffee, it seems that from a very early age she was the main breadwinner and financial support of her entire family — starting with her appearance as Little Opal on “Pee Wee’s Playhouse.” When we worked together, she had just turned 24 — but already seemed so very much older.

I join all who know her, respect her work, and feel great affection for her in wishing her the very best as she struggles to find peace and the way back to where she belongs: in her rightful seat at the timeless table of artistic brilliance…where, as Papa Hemingway once said, the feast is movable and goes on forever.

Billy and Natasha, Bucharest, Romania, 2003

American Pie’s Natasha Lyonne a Free Woman

DECEMBER 15, 2006

Charges against American Pie star Natasha Lyonne were dropped on Friday when she turned herself in at a New York City court – answering to accusations that she threatened to sexually molest her former neighbor’s dog.

Because Lyonne completed a court-ordered drug program and paid $2,000 restitution in the case, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara said that he was sentencing her to a conditional discharge, the Associated Press reports.

A bench warrant had been issued for her arrest in January after Lyonne, 27, missed four court hearings on charges including criminal mischief, harassment and trespassing.

Among the more bizarre details of her case, she was accused of threatening to sexually molest a former neighbor’s dog during a 2004 argument.

At Lyonne’s appearance at Manhattan Criminal Court, drug counselor Heather Hayes said the actress had undergone an in-patient drug program in February and was still attending outpatient rehab groups.

Judge Ferrara had promised that the charges would be dropped if Lyonne stays out of trouble for the next six months, Reuters reports.

Lyonne was in a similar situation last year, when a warrant was issued for her arrest after a judge called her case three times in one day. Prosecutors said Lyonne finally arrived in court one hour late, stayed half an hour, then took off.

About muffybolding

Muffy Bolding is a mother/writer/actor/knitter/feminist/withered debutante who likes the smell of asparagus pee, and remains obsessed with the bathroom hygiene of her three children -- despite the fact that they are 23, 19, and 16. She is blissfully married to a cute Jewish boy who looks like Willie Wonka, but remains tragically in love with the dead poet, Ted Hughes. She has the mouth of a Teamster, and her patron saint is Rocco (pestilence relief.) Ms. Bolding lives in Southern California, where she enjoys typing words, making movies, and plucking the rings from the fingers of the dead. She was the co-creator and Editor-in-Chief of the award winning satire zine, Fresno Lampoon, and in between writing screenplays, carnival barking, and savagely threatening her trio of darling larvae with a wooden spoon, she currently publishes the zine, "Withered Debutante." More of her work can also be found in the anthology, "Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts", the compilation zine, "Mamaphiles III: Coming Home", as well as in The Cortland Review and hipmama.com. She is currently writing and producing for film and television, and working on a book of essays entitled, "Inside A Chinese Dragon." She has slept around, but not nearly as much as she would have liked.

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