Before her Dec. 12 arrest for shoplifting, we all thought Winona Ryder‘s New Year’s Resolution this year should be to stop making mediocre movies that make her co-stars look better than she does. Instead it turns out that the ever-winsome, doe-eyed actress might want to rethink her five-finger discount plan and–perhaps most importantly–her tendency to brag about her skills at scoring stolen merchandise, according to insiders on one of her latest films.
I hear that while the 30-year-old ingenue was filming Deeds–next year’s big Adam Sandler comedy based on the classic Mr. Deeds Goes to Town–Winona was known to shamelessly boast that she could swipe anything that wasn’t nailed down. We’re not talking about stealing celluloid scenes or the hearts of star-struck young studs, either-she was proclaiming herself as the queen of the shoplifters.
And yet after Winona’s recent bust for allegedly (get used to that word!) stealing from Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills, the buzz is she called some the film’s cast and crew to assure them of her innocence–conveniently forgetting her earlier on-set braggadocio.
(Amusingly, in the film Ryder plays a tabloid reporter trying to ferret out dirty laundry on Sandler’s kind and decent character. One wonders if she consulted any real tabloid flacks before lensing the film, and if any of them are now staking out her Hollywood lawn.)
Now, as for the facts of the case, I’ve got what you need to know before you start baking a cake with a nail file in it to send to Ms. Ryder as she awaits her Jan. 19 arraignment on shoplifting charges–oh, yeah, and she may have illegally possessed some prescription drugs, too.
And keep an eye on the various defenses that have been mentioned which don’t always correspond with one another: She was just moving the items between departments, she already bought the items, she was just doing research for a movie.
About the evidence
According to contacts at the Beverly Hills Police Department, Ryder was first detained at Saks Fifth Avenue by the department store’s burly security guards after they witnessed her snaring $4,760 worth of items from the store. What hasn’t been discussed
[PAGEBREAK]
much is that the guards didn’t merely observe the actress from a surreptitious distance, secreted behind racks of Dolce & Gabbana. They allegedly caught her on videotape via closed circuit TV.
Now, Ryder’s an accomplished, Oscar-nominated actress with plenty of experience in front of the camera, but in this particular situation she may have given the most unguarded performance of her career–and one that could be particularly damning in court if the tape makes it into evidence. So where’s the tape? It’s still in the possession of Saks Fifth Avenue (which has “no comment”).
Until the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office formally files charges against the pint-sized pixie and requests the tape as evidence, the potentially inflammatory video remains the store’s private property.
About what she may have swiped and how she may have swiped it
The Beverly Hills police have yet to release a detailed list of exactly what merchandise Ryder allegedly tried to secret in her Saks shopping bag, limiting the description to “numerous” items of clothing, women’s accessories and hair items. Given the nearly $5,000 haul and Saks’ often hefty price points, it’s difficult to tell just how “numerous” the items were-a single blouse could go for $800 or more. The actress reportedly stashed her score among other “legitimately purchased” and “personal items” in her shopping bag, although police are still determining just how legitimate those purchases were. Saks guards actually made a citizen’s arrest of Ryder, who peacefully consented to be detained until police were summoned.
Saks–still “no comment”-ing–confiscated the stolen merchandise; if and when charges are filed, it too will be entered into evidence. The items certainly won’t be going back on the shelves: police sources said Ryder allegedly (there it is again!) used scissors to remove the theft-protection Sensormatic tags from her swag and inflicted minor damage to most of the items. It would be trés gauche for swanky Saks to sell damaged goods-and they might fetch a better price on eBay now, anyway.
About those illegal prescription drugs
Police assure me that Ryder, who couldn’t produce a prescription for the liquid and tablet painkillers reportedly found in her possession, didn’t appear to be “under the influence”–which means she won’t necessarily be bunking next to ex-beau Matt Damon‘s pal Ben Affleck at the Malibu rehab Promises.
BHPD officials say the drugs are not “illicit” but are rather your standard over-the-counter
[PAGEBREAK]
variety (whispers say Zoloft), but investigators are currently awaiting a final lab analysis to confirm that they are definitely what they appear to be. Meanwhile, if Ryder can produce a legitimate prescription for the medicine–and her attorney claims she can–it’s likely those charges will be dropped.
About her time behind bars
Didn’t happen, so no Girl, Interrupted-style chicks-in-custody bonding. Ryder was arrested around 7 p.m. and transported to the Beverly Hills Police Department. I’ve seen the jail there–just touring, thank you–and it’s a relatively small holding facility without any “general population.” And usually the place is empty, although other stars including George Michael and Zsa Zsa Gabor have been incarcerated there in the past.
Anyway, police officials said Ryder was booked (from Instyle covers to mug shots-oh, the indignity) and kept in one of their interrogation rooms until her attorney posted a $20,000 bond and she was released around 11:40 p.m.
About her defense
No call back yet from Mark Geragos, the flashy L.A. attorney to the rich and famous who frequently guests on CNN’s Larry King Live (past clients include Robert Downey Jr. and Whitewater figure Susan McDougal), but publicly he has claimed that the whole thing is a big “misunderstanding.” He states that Ryder was merely transporting the items between departments in the mammoth shopping center, intending to pay for them later. Um, and she has receipts.
If that’s not hedging bets, how about this? The New York Post reported that Ryder (say it with me now) allegedly told Saks’ security team that she was merely conducting research for a movie character at the suggestion of her director–despite not being attached to any film in or approaching production. Call it the Method Defense. Let’s be glad Winona wasn’t recently cast as a serial killer or mass murderer.
About the writing that may have been on the wall
Typically playing against her own beauty and glamour, Ryder’s made a specialty of playing troubled young women on the verge of something dark and dire in films like Beetlejuice, Heathers and Girl, Interrupted-roles that seem very personally informed, given her hospitalization at age 20 after a nervous breakdown and the fact that she owns
[PAGEBREAK]
a copy of every edition of Catcher In the Rye ever published. Dark? The girl who perpetually dyes her naturally blonde hair black?
Let’s look at her career track record. Has any actress in recent memory been cast in more films only to drop out in the eleventh hour, usually due to either scheduling conflicts or health problems, beginning with The Godfather, Part III in 1990 (in which she was replaced by Sofia Coppola) and most recently this year on Lily and the Secret Painting (in which she was replaced by Kate Winslet? Depression, anxiety attacks, injuries, exhaustion, flu, gastrointestinal trouble-for such a healthy-looking young thing, she’s proven considerably frail (which may explain the painkillers).
Next consider her avant garde-and somewhat anti-authoritarian–upbringing: Originally born in Winona, Minnesota and uprooted to a San Francisco area commune with no electricity, Ryder–her on-screen surname inspired by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels–was the child of avowed intellectual hippie parents who hung with pals like Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and Winona’s godfather, LSD creator Dr. Timothy Leary.
Shortly after moving to Northern California at age 10, young Winona was busted for shoplifting a comic book. When the police brought her home, her parents “tried to beat up” the officers, she once revealed.
Then there’s the rocky revolving door of high-profile boyfriends-actors and musicians who have brought their share of drama and discord into her relationships. A short list of reported beaus include former fiancée Damon, Johnny Depp (who famously tattooed “Winona Forever” onto his body, only to laser-change it to “Wino Forever” after their breakup), Beck, Ryan Adams, Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, David Duchovny and Christian Slater. Recently, Ryder’s gal pal Courtney Love was quoted as saying that “dating” Ryder has become a rite of passage for most male rock stars.
Love–booked in Beverly Hills for a drug overdose in 1993–may not be the best influence: Last month the two reportedly got into a fight with two men during a U2 concert in L.A. in which Ryder was held in a headlock before security guards broke up the scuffle.
Ryder’s also battled studios that have made her recent, poorly received films, blasting them for misrepresenting one picture and refusing to promote others.
Nevertheless, her two Oscar nominations–for Little Women and The Age of Innocence–came by playing characters with soft surfaces that belied steely reserves of strength underneath. If her convincing performances are coming from a personal place, perhaps she’ll be able to battle back from this setback as well.
