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Actress Selma Blair says she 'did not intend to harm anyone' in plane altercation
US actress Selma Blair has spoken out after being accused of assaulting multiple people on a flight to New York.
A publicist for the Legally Blonde star said she "did not intend to harm anyone" and that there was "much more to this story". Blair "experienced a medical emergency on the flight" and is still fighting multiple sclerosis (MS), a statement read.
Blair's publicist said that the 54-year-old had a neurological disorder that "bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her".
The star pleaded not guilty to charges that she assaulted an officer and a nurse after being removed from the flight. She was also accused of assulting two flight attendants on board.
Blair's team said the public account of what happened to her aboard a Delta Airlines flight to New York had been "built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline".
They also denied media reports that she had attempted to open the door of the aircraft.
The publicist noted Blair's fight against multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic illness the actress revealed publicly in 2018. She announced in 2021 that she was in remission for the disease, but the statement noted that the Hellboy and Cruel Intentions star "still has bad days".
It added that she also has pseudobulbar affect (PBA) - a disorder that develops in the context of a brain injury or underlying neurological dysfunction, according to the US National Institutes of Health.
The disorder affects emotional expression that can result in sudden involuntary and out-of-control episodes of laughing, crying or anger that do not match how a person actually feels.
Watch: Selma Blair is seen leaving court after plane incident