Actress Selma Blair has been arraigned in New York City after an alleged incident Sunday night in which two flight attendants were injured aboard a commercial flight from Los Angeles to New York City.
On Monday night, the Associated Press reported that Blair, known for her roles in films like “Cruel Intentions,” “Hellboy,” and “The Sweetest Thing,” was also charged with assaulting a police officer taking her to the hospital and a nurse after she arrived there.
The Port Authority of New York Police Department was called around 11 p.m. Sunday in response to a “physically abusive passenger” on an arriving Delta flight at JFK Airport.
The “Legally Blonde” actress was then transported to a hospital for evaluation. Two flight attendants reported injuries, with one being transported to the hospital for further evaluation, the Port Authority said Monday.
A police officer taking Blair, 54, to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center said in charging documents that while she was securing Blair to a stretcher, Blair pulled a leg from the straps and kicked her repeatedly around the face, neck and chest, causing serious pain and substantial swelling, according to reporting from the AP. Later, a nurse moving Blair said the actor kicked her in the chest, causing substantial pain, the AP’s report says.
Details of what happened aboard the aircraft weren’t immediately disclosed by the airline, police or the FBI, which was investigating.
Dispatch audio from ATC.com, obtained by CNN, described minor injuries including “a bloody nose as well as some bite marks,” but did not specify who sustained them. There was also mention that the disruptive passenger may have “bashed her head on the bulkhead.”
“Delta has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first,” the airline said in a statement in response to the incident.
Blair was arraigned on two counts of second-degree assault late Monday at a court in Queens, where a judge set her bail at $20,000 cash or $60,000 bond and set the next hearing for January.
The FBI also issued Blair a notice charging her with assault related to her actions aboard the aircraft, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Those charges will be handled through the petty violations court in federal court in Brooklyn. No date has been set for Blair’s appearance.
Blair’s representative told media outlets that the actress experienced a medical emergency that required immediate attention.
JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images
Selma Blair at the Fashion Trust U.S. Awards 2026, held at Nya Studios West on April 7, 2026, in Los Angeles, California.
“Selma experienced a medical emergency that led to the alleged conduct. Upon landing, she received immediate medical attention,” the representative told TMZ and other outlets.
In 2018, the actress revealed she had multiple sclerosis, and in 2021 she was the focus of a documentary detailing her treatment and how she was living with the disease.
Multiple sclerosis is a disease that affects the central nervous system and is considered an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks its own healthy cells. There is currently no cure.
This is not the first time Blair has had a run-in with authorities related to an incident on a commercial airliner. In 2016, she publicly apologized after becoming unruly and being removed from a flight from Cancun to Los Angeles on a stretcher. She was hospitalized after the incident.
Calling the episode “a big mistake” in a statement to Vanity Fair at the time, Blair said she mixed alcohol with medication which caused her “to black out and led me to say and do things that I deeply regret.”
CNN and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
