Wild in the Streets

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I don't mean to make light of Mischa Barton's sad situation, but what do you have to do or say to persuade the authorities that you're a "5150" and need to be placed under involuntary psychiatric hold? Someone's misery is not a joke and I'm not looking for laughs, but I know that all my life I've held onto a single concept of what it means to totally lose it and be seen as someone who needs a straightjacket. And it comes from a specific movie. And it involves heavy traffic on a busy city street.

The most vivid way of freaking out, I believe, is running out into traffic like a crazy man and shouting excitedly, like Kevin McCarthy did at the end of the original cut of Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56). The effect is intensified if you run out and slap the hoods and trunks of cars in your underwear, like Phillip Seymour Hoffman did at the finale of Love Liza. Or if you run into traffic wearing clothes but while waving a gun around, as Martin Lawrence reportedly did in '96.

The fact that McCarthy's Body Snatchers theatricality has been twice imitated tells you there's something about running into traffic that registers on a primal level with Average Joes. Can't take it anymore? Doff those duds and head for the nearest major intersection! Except what do you say once you're running from car to car and knocking on car windows and all that? It would be tough dialogue to write.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 17, 2009 at 10:13 AM

comment #1

George Prager says ...

Shooting your car radio while driving usually does the trick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir8Y4iFrWk8

Posted by George Prager at July 17, 2009 10:43 AM

comment #2

larry braverman says ...

Here's what Tracy Jordan would say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivt9e9AGXtc

Posted by larry braverman at July 17, 2009 10:54 AM

comment #3

Sabina E says ...

maybe it was a suicide attempt?

Posted by Sabina E at July 17, 2009 10:59 AM

comment #4

George Prager says ...

Or you could man up like BIlly Crudup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nspf2E76cw

Posted by George Prager at July 17, 2009 10:59 AM

comment #5

Michael Williams says ...

They don't show the running in the street bit, or even the actor, but Tom Wilkinson's description of running in traffic at the start of Michael Clayton is pretty wonderful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjTp3MSh-Vw

Posted by Michael Williams at July 17, 2009 11:10 AM

comment #6

Circumvrent says ...

And of course, McCarthy himself duplicated the stunt for the '78 Body Snatchers in one of the coolest cameos of all time.

Posted by Circumvrent at July 17, 2009 12:07 PM

comment #7

Rich S. says ...

The thing is, McCarthy wasn't crazy. He was right.

Posted by Rich S. at July 17, 2009 12:18 PM

comment #8

nemo says ...

People often use the term Cassandra to put down someone who is always gloom and doom negative, while forgetting that in the Greek myth Cassandra was right.

Maybe they can wean Mischa Barton off that heavy black eyeliner. She looks as if she's competing for the Johnny Depp part in the next Pirates of the Caribbean.

Posted by nemo at July 17, 2009 12:37 PM

comment #9

lipranzer says ...

I never watched "The O.C.", so I don't have the dislike for her that many viewers of that show do. I liked her on "Once & Again" and in the movie LOST & DELIRIOUS. I hope she comes out of this okay.

Posted by lipranzer at July 17, 2009 12:42 PM

comment #10

LexG says ...

Mischa Barton is STUNNING and AWESOME, one of my favorites so of course I wish her the best...

Serious question, and not to repeat myself too much from another thread:

Do normal people (ie, NOT ME) sit back and think, hey, THAT'S KIND OF AWESOME when a celeb or even regular Schmo totally self-destructs?

I'm not talking about doing harm to others, but someone building up and then having this MASSIVE self-destructive blowout of drugs, hookers, booze, pills, cheating, sexing, whatever -- I always internally give that a big FUCK YEAH because I'm just wired to think that kind of go-for-broke, attention-grabbing plea for help is a form of AWESOMENESS. Probably because I'm a HUGE narcissistic and misanthrope.

But anytime someone pulls a Sizemore, I sit back in gleeful admiration -- not because I necessarily condone their particular action or would do them myself -- but because that kind of societal norm-bending BOTTOMING UP seems like something to aspire to.

Posted by LexG at July 17, 2009 1:48 PM

comment #11

dixiedugan says ...

I don't even really know who she is.

Posted by dixiedugan at July 17, 2009 3:01 PM

comment #12

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

You stay Catholic, LexG!

Me neither, dixie...I think one of the signs that I'm truly getting old is I vaguely recognize most of these "celebrity" names, but I'd be hard-pressed to pick their faces out of the lineup. I think is compounded by the fact that one has to accomplish less and less to become "famous" these days.

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at July 17, 2009 3:09 PM

comment #13