Selma Blair responds to assault charges in statement

Selma Blair has broken her silence after her arrest over an incident on a flight, insisting that she had a medical emergency and did not mean to hurt anyone.

For those unfamiliar, Blair, 54, was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after an alleged altercation with crew members on a Delta flight from Los Angeles on October 11. She was later taken to hospital. 

The next day, she pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree assault and was released on bail, set at $20,000 cash or a $60,000 bond.

Police allege she tried to open the plane’s door in the air, bit one flight attendant and left another with cuts. She is also accused of kicking a Port Authority police officer and punching a nurse at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. Court records say both suffered bruising and swelling.

However, in a statement from her publicist, Blair’s team said public reports have relied almost entirely on a police statement and an old headline. "Since Sunday night, the public account of what happened to Selma aboard a flight to New York has been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline," read the statement shared by her publicist.

"Selma Blair experienced a medical emergency on the flight. There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone," it read, before criticising online claims that Selma was faking her multiple sclerosis diagnosis which she received in 2018.

"What Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle," the statement read. "She still has bad days, and she lives with pain daily. Selma also has pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her. For the same reason, she travels with a service dog who doesn’t leave her side, and the authorities took her dog from her," the statement read.

The statement said Blair has pseudobulbar affect, a condition linked to her multiple sclerosis, which affects how a medical episode looks to others. It added that she travels with a service dog, and that authorities took the dog from her. 

Her lawyer, Shawn Barnes, told the court she had spent a full day on set, fell and hit her head on the flight, and did not have her medication. He said this was her first brush with the criminal justice system and that the incident came from a medical issue, not bad intent.

The statement also pointed to her recent work, including seven film and TV projects this year, her skin care and clothing lines, and her advocacy for disability rights. "There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion," it concluded.