Anne Heche

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Heche as Vicky Hudson on Another World

Anne Celeste Heche (born May 25, 1969) is a lesbian American actress, director and screenwriter.

Biography

Early life

Heche was born in Aurora, Ohio to Donald Heche, a Baptist minister and choir director, and Nancy. In her book, "Call Me Crazy", Anne claimed that her father molested her during her childhood, giving her herpes; he later disclosed his homosexuality to his family, before dying of AIDS in 1983 [1]. Heche was a noted actress even at Francis W. Parker School, and the soap opera As the World Turns offered her a contract in 1985, when she was only 16. However, both she and her mother felt it best that she finish high school first.

Career

Immediately after her high school graduation, she accepted another soap offer and left for New York City. Heche first became famous by playing the dual roles of Vicky Hudson and Marley Love Hudson on the American soap opera Another World from 1987 to 1991, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award; her acclaimed work as Vicky and Marley can currently be seen on Soapnet. Heche has starred in a number of high-profile films, including Donnie Brasco, Volcano, Wag the Dog, Six Days Seven Nights, and Psycho. She is now starring in the ABC Television Drama Men in Trees.

Personal life

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Heche's autobiography cover

Most know of Heche because of her relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres and the events following their breakup. The couple started dating in 1997 shortly after the infamous "Puppy Episode" of DeGeneres' first sitcom. At one point, the two said they would get a civil union if they became legal in Vermont. They also worked on film and TV projects together. However, the couple split up in August 2000 and Heche soon began dating cameraman Coley Laffoon, whom she met while he was filming a comedy special for DeGeneres. They married in September 2001 and have a son, Homer Heche Laffoon, born March 2, 2002.

A year after her split with DeGeneres, Heche made claims in television interviews and in her autobiography, Call Me Crazy, that she was mentally ill for the first 31 years of her life after being sexually abused by her father (who died of AIDS in 1983). She also claimed to have an alter ego that was the daughter of God and half-sibling of Jesus named "Celestia," who had contacts with extraterrestrial life forms. In her book, she explained that before her split with DeGeneres, she was contacted by "God" and told he would walk with her for seven days.

Her mother, Nancy, is a Christian and psychotherapist, and does not believe that her late husband sexually abused Anne. Nancy tours the nation speaking with ex-gay groups claiming her prayers cured Anne of her homosexuality. Anne has denounced her mother for speaking at these events and said her split with DeGeneres was not because of a change in her own sexual orientation.[2] In an interview with The Advocate following the split, Anne said she does not give a label to her own sexual orientation and said "I have been very clear to everybody that just because I'm getting married does not mean I call myself a straight."[3]

Before dating DeGeneres, Heche dated comedian Steve Martin for two years (she is rumored to be the basis for the Heather Graham character in Bowfinger, although Martin denies it [4]). She also dated musician Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac for a year in the early 1990s.

She is the subject of Buckingham's barbed song 'Come', where he took a number of shots at her lesbianism and delusions, and he wrote the unreleased 'Down on Rodeo' with a much softer reflection on the relationship where he can be heard saying "Do you hear me Annie?" at the end.

In 1998, Heche's sister, Susan Bergman, wrote a book about the family and their relationship with their father. Susan, like Anne, was estranged from her mother. Heche and Bergman were reportedly estranged after the release of Bergman's book; Bergman died in January 2006 after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. Heche has two other siblings - Nathan, who died in a car accident in 1983, and an older sister, Abigail.

Trivia

In 1998 Mad TV lampooned Heche (Mo Collins) and DeGeneres (Alex Borstein) in a sketch where both women claimed Hollywood discriminated against them due to their relationship. They claimed they now had only several expensive homes, Heche was only making four or five films a year, and so on. The sketch ended when DeGeneres attempted to hug Heche and Heche ran off the stage in horror.

She was portrayed (by Reese Witherspoon) on Saturday Night Live negatively, on the sketch Celebrity Jeopardy!, and viewed as a crazed woman, because she answered many questions in her so-called "made-up space language". At one point in the sketch when she was called on, Will Ferrell's character (Alex Trebek) had been forced to call her "Celestia" before she would answer the question, alluding to her self-described extraterrestrial origins. She answered one question concerning Rush Hour and Chris Tucker (also portrayed in the bit) in the form of an alien language, at which point Ferrell expressed his discontent with the contestants.

Selected Acting filmography

• O Pioneers! (1992)
• If These Walls Could Talk (1996)
• The Juror (1996)
• Wild Side (1996)
• Walking and Talking (1996)
• Donnie Brasco (1997)
• Volcano (1997)
• I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
• Wag the Dog (1997)
• Psycho (a 1998 remake of the 1960 Hitchcock classic)
• Return to Paradise (1998)
• Six Days Seven Nights (1998)
• Prozac Nation (2001)
• Birth (2004)
• Fatal Desire (2006) (TV movie)
• Suffering Man's Charity (2006)
• Men In Trees (television series)

Directing Filmography

Reaching Normal (2001) (TV)

On the Edge (2001) (TV)

Ellen De Generes: American Summer Documentary (2001) (TV)

If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000) (TV)

External links

• Anne Heche at IMDb
• 1998 Anne Heche Article
• The Anne Heche Interview Summary of an interview with Heche on September 5, 2001 on ABC News.