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The family of Anne Heche say the US actor is “not expected to survive” a severe collision that left her vehicle engulfed in flames last Friday.

In a statement, Heche’s family said through a representative that she had suffered “a severe anoxic brain injury” and was now being kept on life support to determine whether her organs were viable for donation.

The family said it had “long been her choice” to donate her organs.

“We want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers for Anne’s recovery and thank the dedicated staff and wonderful nurses that cared for Anne at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills hospital,” the statement read.

“Unfortunately, due to her accident, Anne Heche suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and remains in a coma, in critical condition. She is not expected to survive.”

“Anne had a huge heart and touched everyone she met with her generous spirit,” the statement added. “More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love. She will be remembered for her courageous honesty from her and dearly missed for her light from her.

On Thursday, police told CNN that they were investigating whether Heche was impaired at the time of the incident following a blood draw but that “additional testing is required to rule out any substances that were administered in the hospital,” officer Annie Hernandez said.

He crashed her car into a house in the Mar Vista area of ​​Los Angeles, near her own home, at speed on Friday. The collision caused a fire that took an hour to extinguish, according to reports.

The occupant of the house escaped without injury; Neighbors told Fox News that the car had ploughed right through the house. “The windows were broken, so I opened the back door of the car. [Heche] answered and said she was not OK, so that was tough. I know they didn’t get her out of the car until the fire was pretty much put out.”

Heche, 53, is known for her work on films including the remake of Psycho, Donnie Brasco and Cedar Rapids.

Press Association contributed to this report.

Rachel Zegler, the actor who rose to fame as the lead in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, has spoken up in support of intimacy coordinators, after criticism of the role by Sean Bean earlier in the week.

Speaking to the Times, Bean said such coordinators – largely brought in post #MeToo to help police on-set safety – can “spoil the spontaneity” of shooting a sex scene.

“It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things,” Bean said. “Somebody saying: ‘Do this, put your hands there, while you touch his thing.”

“I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise,” he added. Bean, who starred in Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, compared recent experiences to his time shooting a 1993 TV adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover opposite Joely Richardson.

“Lady Chatterley was spontaneous,” Bean said. “It was a joy. We had a good chemistry between us, and we knew what we were doing was unusual. Because she was married, I was married. But we were following the story. We were trying to portray the truth of what DH Lawrence wrote.”

Writing on Twitter, Zegler took issue with Bean’s position, saying intimacy coordinators “establish an environment of safety for actors” and that “spontaneity in intimate scenes can be unsafe. Wake up.”

She expressed her gratitude to the coordinator who worked with her and Ansel Elgort on West Side Story, saying “they showed grace to a newcomer like myself + educated those around me who’ve had years of experience.”

The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theater Union issued a statement saying they found it “disappointing to hear these comments from such a screen favorite and established actor without acknowledging his position of privilege and the vulnerabilities and challenges many in the industry, particularly young and less experienced actors, may face as they engage in shooting intimate scenes.”

Added Bectu head Philippa Childs:

“Intimacy coordination provides vital support for artists during the preparation, rehearsal and shooting of intimate action and its increasing use is a welcome move to further establish an environment of safety for actors on set.

“These comments display a disservice to intimate co-ordinators and to the knowledge and contributions of the trained, skilled professionals our members who carry out this work are. We applaud their commitment to keeping everyone safe and respected on set.”

Bean had also criticized post-shoot editing of intimate scenes, saying that he was saddened to see sexual sequences involving himself, co-star Lena Hall and a mango had been cut from TV series Snowpiercer.

“Often the best work you do, where you’re trying to push the boundaries, and the very nature of it is experimental, gets censored when TV companies or the advertisers say it’s so much,” said Bean. “It’s a nice scene, quite surreal, dream-like and abstract. And mango-esque.”

Asked about the origins of intimacy coordinators, who are seeking to protect vulnerable actors, Bean said: “I suppose it depends on the actress. This one [meaning Hall] had a musical cabaret background, so she was up for anything.”

Hall, who has starred in Broadway productions of Kinky Boots, Cats and Hedwig and the Angry Inch responded by saying that Bean is “an awesome actor and made me feel not only comfortable but also like I had a true acting partner in those bizarre scenes. ”

She added: “If I feel comfortable with my scene partner and with others in the room then I won’t need an intimacy coordinator. BUT if there is any part of me that is feeling weird, gross, over exposed etc … I will either challenge the necessity of the scene or I’ll want an IC [intimacy coordinator].”

Other actors who took issue with Bean’s stance include The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil, who tweeted that sex scenes “should only be technical. It’s like a stunt. Our job as actors is to make it not look technical. Nobody wants an impromptu grope.”

Representatives for Bean said the actor declined to comment further.

In an interview published on Tuesday in Porter magazine, Amanda Seyfried, the Mamma Mia! actor who was Oscar nominated two years ago for her role as Ella in David Fincher’s Mank, said she regretted the lack of intimacy coordinators when she was beginning her career as Ella.

Seyfried said she emerged “pretty unscathed” from her early days as an actor in Hollywood, but reflects on her early experiences with shock at herself and disappointment with others.

“Being 19, walking around without my underwear on – like, are you kidding me? How did I let that happen? Seyfried said. “Oh, I know why: I was 19 and I didn’t want to upset anybody and I wanted to keep my job. That’s why.”

Speaking to the Guardian earlier this year, the director Adrian Lyne also expressed ambivalence about intimacy coordinators.

“It implies a lack of trust. And that’s all I have. If the actors don’t trust me, I might as well go home. I’ve gotta make myself vulnerable for them; for them to know I would spill my guts, do anything for them. Then, with any luck, I get the same back.”

I have contrasted shooting his most recent film, Deep Water, starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, who began a relationship on set, with making Fatal Attraction in the 1980s.

The stars of that film, Glenn Close and Michael Douglas, swigged champagne before their first sex scene, and margaritas before their second. “You can’t do that now!” said Lyne. “Why is everything so serious? God, it’s not like they’re gonna get paralyzed or something.”