Owen’s troubles and the tabloid blame game.
In a year crammed with arrests, sex tapes, and rehab stints, was there anything left capable of shocking Hollywood? Well, an almost unbelievable headline would do just that.
Amidst the neverending tales of Lohan and Spears, a surprising face emerged as the latest victim of Tinseltown’s tabloid frenzy by summer’s end. On August 26th, a 911 call was made from the home of Owen Wilson.
The caller? His brother Luke.
Owen had tried to kill himself.
Shortly after noon that Sunday, paramedics stormed the actor’s Santa Monica residence to discover the bedridden star with his left wrist slashed and an empty bottle of Valium by his side.
After being rushed to the nearby St. John’s Hospital, a distraught Luke and Andrew Wilson waited by their brother’s side. “Owen Wilson cut his wrists with a knife,” one staffer whispered to another - and by sundown, word hit the web.
Before day’s end, the Enquirer and Star released joint reports breaking the story, so shocking that many refused to believe it was even true.
But it would only get stranger. After being transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a stabilized Wilson was joined by his parents and attorney Mark Geragos.
And by the following afternoon, Extra would independently confirm the news, in addition to a statement from Wilson’s camp:
“I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time.”
But what did happen? And how did things even get to this point?
As fast as the story hit the 24/7 celebrity news cycle, a picture of a troubled star would emerge, and each detail seemed more shocking than the last.
While Perez Hilton alleged the actor was hooked on meth, Us Weeklyone-upped the drug factor by claiming the relatively scandal-free star had been dabbling with heroin and cocaine - and his struggles contributed to the demise of his relationship with You, Me and Dupree costar Kate Hudson.
“We’ve all been worried about him possibly doing drugs again,” a source dished to People, citing Wilson’s erratic behavior during a past romance with Sheryl Crow, alongside stints at Promises Malibu and Minnesota’s Hazelden. But by the end of 2006, pals feared Owen had slipped back into old habits.
As fast as he went public with his latest relationship, it all came crashing down.
While Hudson was busy in Australia filming Fool’s Gold, Wilson returned to the party scene - cultivating a set of friends deemed as “concerning” by some sources, and by June 2007, the actress pulled the plug.
“He pulled away from friends,” one pal revealed of the actor post-split, and his behavior would only grow more worrisome with the coming weeks. Last-minute interventions, one of which was supposedly held by Owen’s close pal Woody Harrelson, proved futile. And on August 24th, the star would make one of his last public outings. Two days before Wilson’s hospitalization, the actor pulled up to St. Monica Church and walked inside.
But while it seemed Owen had been the one at fault for his breakup, gossip sites rushed to place blame on Kate.
Daily Mail ran pictures of the actress kissing new boyfriend Dax Shepard, questioning if their highly-publicized fling had pushed Owen over the edge. Meanwhile, New York Daily News alleged Kate had been trying to get in touch with her ex, only for the Wilson family to shun her: “The family doesn’t want her anywhere near him.” But one person avoiding the Hudson hate train would quickly become the most surprising player in the saga… Courtney Love.
In interviews with Us Weekly and Daily Mail, the rehab-hopping rocker placed blame for Owen’s troubles on her ex-boyfriend, one of Wilson’s pals, Steve Coogan.
According to Love, Coogan had furnished her with drugs after her release from a lockdown rehab facility in 2005, and she suspected Steve had similarly influenced Owen after the duo costarred in 2006’s Night at the Museum - to which Coogan responded with a letter from his lawyer:
That about sums it up.
And all the while the blame game played out in the press, Wilson remained under 24-hour surveillance at Cedars-Sinai, welcoming a revolving door of well-wishers - from family…
… to celebrity friends:
In addition to calls and flowers from Magic Johnson, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, and Marley & Me costar Jennifer Aniston.
And as fast as Owen checked in, he was out. On August 29th, the actor quietly slipped out of the medical center and was driven back to his Santa Monica pad by brother Andrew.
But the quick exit spurred a new round of tabloid speculation, with cameras closely tailing the star as he made his first post-hospital outings:
While Perez claimed Owen was going to give rehab another shot, In Touch fired back that the actor was simply enlisting a $750-a-day sober coach - both claims quickly shut down by Wilson’s rep.
Meanwhile, the Enquirer, who helped break the story to begin with, now reported that the star’s suicide attempt was far from his first - and Star bizarrely alleged the actor’s cuts weren’t the result of self-harm, but from a rough case of adult chicken pox.
Maybe that last one is what sent these anchors into giggles:
And cue the apology:
But whatever the case maybe, the star would continue to keep a low profile for the next few weeks after his quiet exit.
From movie nights with Woody Harrelson to some fun in the sun with Anthony Kedis, it seemed Wilson was slowly putting his darker moments behind him - and his friends were more than willing to help.
And while he was forced to drop out of his next project, Tropic Thunder, due to a conflicted filming schedule with his hospital stay, he didn’t miss out on promoting The Darjeeling Limited.
But it wouldn’t be too long before Owen landed back in the glossies, this time for far less depressing reasons:
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