The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (57 page)

After his experience of prison, George Michael kept a pretty low profile, working on new music and planning his “Symphonica” tour. Unfortunately his world was rocked once again towards the end of 2011 when he was rushed to hospital in Vienna while suffering from pneumonia. A tracheotomy had to be performed and although his illness was played down to the public, he was on the brink of death for several weeks.

Family and friends kept a vigil at the hospital, while fans around the world prayed for his recovery. Their prayers were finally answered just days before Christmas 2011, when he was well enough to be released from hospital and travel back to London, where he gave a press conference.

Fighting back tears, George told reporters that doctors “spent three weeks keeping me alive basically . . . It was basically by far the worst month of my life.” Poignantly he added how incredibly fortunate it had been that he had fallen ill where he did, as “the hospital in Austria that they rushed me to was absolutely the best place in the world I could have been to deal with pneumonia. So I have to believe that somebody thinks I’ve still got some work to do here.”

He was right; he still had concerts to perform and he made a pledge on that cold winter’s day that he would “play to every single person who had a ticket” for the cancelled performances on his tour. His eyes watering, he then added that he intended to play a show for the doctors and staff in the Austrian hospital that had treated him during his illness. “I spent the last ten days since I woke up literally thanking people for saving my life, which is something I’ve never had to do before, and I don’t want to have to do it again,” he said.

He made good his word; and after giving a memorable performance at the closing ceremony of the London Olympic games, George Michael went back on the road in September 2012, choosing first to stop in Vienna to perform for those who had saved his life almost a year before. “This is one of the greatest honours of my life,” he told them, before singing the classic song, “Feelin’ Good”.

However, while performing the concerts did make George Michael feel good on the outside, inside he was very much trying to get himself back together after the trauma of his neardeath experience. He had believed that pressing on with his projects and going back on the road would enable him to recover emotionally from what had happened, but sadly he was wrong. On 29 September, after playing eleven concerts, and with many more to go, George announced that he was going to honour the remainder of the UK shows, but would have to cancel the Australian leg of his tour. In a statement on his official website he said that the cancellation “breaks my heart”.

“I have tried in vain to work my way through the trauma that the doctors who saved my life warned me I would experience,” he said, before going on to explain that the medical specialists had recommended complete rest and posttraumatic counselling, which he had previously thought he didn’t need. “I believed (wrongly) that making music and getting out there to perform would be therapy enough . . .”

Sadly it would seem that while George Michael was more than willing to go back on the road, he had completely underestimated just how much he had been through, and how difficult it would be to recover. He ended the statement by apologizing to his Australian fans and declaring that after the UK leg of the tour ended in mid-October 2012, he would “receive the treatment which is so long overdue”.

He did as he promised, and at the time of writing the singer seems to be doing well in his recovery; a new song “White Light” was nominated for awards and he has continued to look to the future. At the beginning of 2013 the future looked bright, and he tweeted to fans that he was looking forward to the New Year which he promised would be filled with great new music.

Winona Ryder may have had some wonderful movie roles over the years, but it was her part in a real-life drama that brought her unwanted headlines around the world and the biggest courtroom drama she had ever seen.

Born on 29 October 1971 as Winona Laura Horowitz, Ryder grew up in and around California, and at one point lived on a 300-acre commune. This living space ensured she became a big fan of books, thanks to the fact that their home had no electricity and therefore no television. But this lifestyle was not going to entertain the youngster for long, and by the time she was twelve, Winona was showing great interest in a career in acting. With that in mind, she began taking lessons in her spare time and in 1986 was ecstatic to discover that her first professional film role would be in
Lucas
alongside actor Charlie Sheen.

More movies followed, including
Beetlejuice
in 1988 and
Edward Scissorhands
in 1990, the latter also featuring her then boyfriend Johnny Depp. However, it was her role in the 1990 film
Mermaids
which won her not only critical acclaim but a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She missed out on winning the award, but this was rectified several years later when she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, and then an Academy Award nomination for her role in
The Age of Innocence
(1993) with Michelle Pfeiffer.

Her career went from strength to strength during the 1990s, with another Oscar nomination coming for her role as Jo in
Little Women
(1994). By the time the new millennium arrived, she was presented with a coveted star on the celebrated Hollywood Walk of Fame, but unfortunately for Winona, the glory of her glittering career came to an abrupt halt in December 2001 when she decided to visit the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills.

Two months before her shopping trip, the actress had broken her arm and was prescribed Oxycodone to relieve the pain. However, instead of just taking the pills while going through the healing process, the actress found herself continuing with the prescription even after her arm was better. The pills left her confused and this soon became apparent during her trip to the Saks Fifth Avenue store.

On CCTV footage later shown in court (some of which is now freely available on the internet) Winona is seen walking around the store in a large, cream-coloured coat, her arms full of designer clothes. She stops periodically, hoisting the garments up into her arms, and generally looking more than a little conspicuous. The actress is seen trying on hats and even wearing one which still has a tag attached as she saunters around the different departments. Coming in and out of the store’s dressing room, Ryder is at times helped by various sales assistants, one of whom appears to come to the dressing room with a credit card receipt.

Finally, after about ninety minutes, Winona Ryder is observed with her arms full of items, while she boldly walks out of the store. Two security guards are then seen rushing after her; they unburden her of the items, and march her back into the store. The footage then shows the actress looking at the guards in what can only be described as a very shocked, confused state.

Once Winona Ryder was brought back into the store, she was immediately taken to the security room, where she was thoroughly searched. During this examination the store’s guards allegedly found a number of items that the actress had indeed paid for, but among them were a number of other – unpaid for – garments, such as two black hats, various pairs of socks, a blouse, hair accessories and handbags. The actress was later charged with second-degree commercial burglary, grand theft of personal property, vandalism and, as her prescription pills were also on her person, possession of a controlled substance.

Once the world was informed of Winona’s misdemeanour, her lawyer, Mark Geragos, stepped forward to describe the charges as “out of whack”. He also claimed that his client had prescriptions for the drugs and receipts for the clothes, and would prove it in court. Winona, meanwhile, was understandably mortified by the entire episode and deeply embarrassed. She decided not to say anything personally to the press, and instead endeavoured to just ride the storm and wait for it all to be over. However, her publicist, Mara Buxbaum, did release a statement on her behalf, which read: “We are shocked at what appear to be grossly exaggerated charges. We look forward to the opportunity to explain and resolve these allegations.”

When the trial began in June 2002, Winona suffered a setback to the recovery of her broken arm, when she was met by a huge throng of reporters and cameras on her entrance into court. She was jostled so much, in fact, that her healing arm was fractured by a television camera, which resulted in the actress having to see a doctor and wear her arm in a sling.

Things were made no better when the Saks’s security manager took to the stand to testify that he had seen Ryder walking round the store just after 4 p.m. on the day of her arrest, visiting departments such as Yves St Laurent and Donna Karan. The actress was pulling blouses and bags from racks, he said, tried on a black hat without replacing it on the shelf, and concealed a handbag in another bag she was carrying. He also claimed that although there were three cash registers open on her way out of the store, Ryder had walked past every one of them.

A few days later – after a break so that Winona could rest her arm – the security investigator took to the stand and claimed that on first sight, she believed Ryder was a homeless lady, until she finally recognized her as an actress. She then said that she was asked by her manager to keep a close eye on Winona, and even admitted to spying on her through slats in the dressing-room door.

What she allegedly saw was Winona Ryder sitting on the floor, taking security tags from various items, one of which left a bloodstain on a bag after she accidentally cut herself with scissors (although it was discovered in later testimony that the security woman had not actually seen the actress cut herself). She then explained that she saw the actress wrapping up various small items such as socks and hair accessories, and bundling them into a bag. This testimony was bad news for Winona, but there was one bright spot to the day, when it was accepted by the court that Winona did in fact pay for $3,700 worth of goods, though the socks, hair accessories and some other items did not appear to be listed on the receipts.

Once proceedings were finished for the day, Winona and her lawyer left the courtroom and were besieged by reporters, though unfortunately for them, they were ordered to keep a distance of at least ten feet to protect the actress’s arm. The press all shouted questions, and while Winona chose to stay quiet, lawyer Mark Geragos had a few things to say about what he had heard on the stand that day.

“That testimony was as close to full-blown perjury as I’ve ever seen in a courtroom,” he said, before adding, “I have evidence that Saks targeted [Ryder] as a celebrity. They found a more-than-willing partner in a district attorney.”

Because of delays caused by accusations of an unfair trial, the shoplifting case plodded along for months, inspiring “Free Winona” T-shirts and a variety of television skits. Finally, however, the trial resumed in October 2002 after any chance of an out-of-court settlement fell through, though thankfully for Winona, the drug charge had by that point been dropped. The reason for this, it seemed, was that she quite obviously had prescriptions for the pills in her possession and nobody had any chance of proving that they had been obtained illegally.

Still, the other charges stood and Winona was forced to sit through the testimony of Saks’s security manager, Kenneth Evans, who told the court that the actress had confessed that she had shoplifted in order to research an upcoming film role. He told jurors, “She just said she was doing what her director told her to do in preparation for her role as a shoplifter.” This was a line which brought much surprise to the defence team, and looks of confusion all round.

The defence then retorted by declaring that Winona Ryder had never stolen anything, and instead was set up by the Saks security staff, who were concerned that their CCTV footage did not show the actress doing any of the things of which they had initially accused her. “Their testimony is bald-faced lies,” defence lawyer Mark Geragos told the jury. Meanwhile, Winona’s publicist Mara Buxbaum told reporters that while it was true her client did talk to the security staff about future film roles, it was “utterly ridiculous” to suggest that she had told them she had been shoplifting as research.

The court was shown the by now famous security footage, which detailed Winona Ryder walking around the store, and although no footage was seen of security tags being taken off the clothes, security manager Evans was quick to tell the court that he had found a selection of the tags in the pocket of a jacket in the Chanel department. Material on these tags matched material from the stolen garments, he said. The matter of the actress cutting herself was brought back up when it was pointed out that Winona had been seen accepting a sticking plaster from a member of staff.

Jurors were told by the prosecution that Ryder had gone to the store equipped to shoplift, with scissors to cut off the tags and a large bag to hide the goods inside. “You will begin to watch that shopping bag grow and grow,” Deputy District Attorney Ann Rundle told them, as she assured everyone that the entire episode added up to a simple case of theft, “Nothing more, nothing less.”

Much of the trial was taken up by going over the “shoplifting” story again and again, with cross-examination adding some elements to the tale while correcting others. Disgruntled ex-employees were called to the stand; lawyers were chastised for making unnecessary remarks about the truth of testimony; and so it went on and on. Everything was discussed from the dressing room the actress had specifically requested; to the number of security tags found in the store; to the revelation that while Ryder had bought various items by credit card, she had apparently never asked the sales assistant to keep her account open. It all became a little like
Groundhog Day
, and as Winona sat in the courtroom, the frustration on her face was clear to see as she made detailed notes and shook her head on numerous occasions.