Looking fragile and tiny, Natasha Lyonne was at the premiere for \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d boss Lorne Michaels\u2019 documentary in Manhattan Thursday night, surrounded by a coterie of friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took everything she had just to come here,\u201d admitted one pal of the beloved star\u2019s appearance, which came just hours after Page Six spotted her being forced off a Delta jet <\/a>this week as she appeared \u201cout of it.\u201d On Friday, Lyonne insisted she had taken Lunesta<\/a>, a sleeping pill, after boarding.<\/p>\n The plane was forced to return to the gate when Lyonne, sitting in first class, did not respond as flight attendants asked her to close her laptop and fasten her seatbelt. As a Delta staffer boarded the plane to ask if the actress needed medical attention, she asked, \u201cWhere are we?\u201d<\/p>\n Natasha Lyonne looked fragile, but in good spirits, as she attended the \u201cLorne!\u201d documentary premiere in NYC Thursday night \u2014 two nights after being hauled off a Delta flight for being \u201cout of it,\u201d according to an eyewitness. People close to the actress, who had been sober for years but relapsed not long ago, said they were worried for her. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n Those closest to the actress \u2014 who helmed the hit Netflix series \u201cRussian Doll\u201d \u2014 have been worried about her for a while, we\u2019re told, and this latest incident has them even more fearful for her health.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a year of change for Lyonne, who revealed in January that she had relapsed after a long period of sobriety<\/a>.<\/p>\n The former child star\u2019s publicist parted ways with her earlier this year. She is not currently working with her top agents at CAA, we\u2019re told, and her Peacock show \u201cPoker Face\u201d was not renewed for a third season, a decision sources insist was hers.<\/p>\n We have reached out to Lyonne\u2019s new publicist, while CAA said she remains a client.<\/p>\n Friends are now desperate to help the actress, who has a role in the new season of HBO\u2019s \u201cEuphoria,\u201d get back on solid ground.<\/p>\n Friends including Seth Meyers were spotted with Lyonne at the party following the \u201cLorne!\u201d screening. Getty Images for Focus Features<\/p>\n \u201cSNL\u201d star Sarah Sherman was also seen hugging Lyonne. Getty Images for Focus Features<\/p>\n Lyonne, 47, has spoken in the past about how she\u00a0almost died from heroin and alcohol addiction in the aughts \u2014 a problem that led her friend, actor Michael Rapaport, to evict her from his West Village home as she spiraled. In 2005, she was admitted to a Manhattan hospital suffering from hepatitis C, infective endocarditis and a collapsed lung related to intravenous drug use, later leading to open heart surgery.<\/p>\n She has spoken openly of her struggles as well as her sobriety; in fact, she was one of the supportive celebs, along with Seth Meyers and her then-boyfriend Fred Armisen, involved in John Mulaney\u2019s December 2020 intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cRecovery is a lifelong process. Anyone out there struggling, remember you\u2019re not alone,\u201d Lyonne posted on X in January as she admitted to relapsing after 10 years of sobriety. \u201cGrateful for love & smart feet.\u201d<\/p>\n Lyonne arrived at the screening with Ronan Farrow\u2019s boyfriend Hamer Morgenstern. Getty Images<\/p>\n Lyonne was seen leaving the party with journalist Farrow and Morgenstern in tow. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post<\/p>\n The \u201cOrange is the New Black\u201d alum also cited hockey player Sophie \u201cBambo\u201d Braverman as one of her driving forces. Deadline previously reported that she wrote and is set to direct a biopic about Braverman biopic, set to begin production this summer.<\/p>\n Last month, Lyonne wrote on X, \u201cProud to report this kid is doing a whole lot better & back on her feet.\u201d<\/p>\n She appeared sober at the party for the Peacock doc \u201cLorne!\u201d after turning up to the event with journalist Ronan Farrow\u2019s boyfriend Hamer Morgenstern. \u201cThey lean on each other, in a nice way,\u201d said a source. She was pictured leaving the bash with Farrow.<\/p>\n The \u201cRussian Doll\u201d star turned up at the \u201cEuphoria\u201d Season 3 premiere Wednesday night in LA clad in a see-through black top and a nude girdle \u2014\u00a0hours before she was removed from a flight to NYC. Matt Baron\/BEI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Meanwhile, \u201cSNL\u201d stars including Sarah Sherman and late night host Seth Meyers were also seen supporting Lyonne throughout the evening.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s obviously going through something very challenging right now and unfortunately she has to do that in the public eye to some degree, which compounds things,\u201d said the friend. \u201cThis is something that just takes you over. You have no control \u2026 it\u2019s just so sad because Natasha has been fine for years.\u201d<\/p>\n The actress was propped up by movie producer Brian Grazer as they walked the red carpet. Getty Images for HBO<\/p>\n Trouble has been brewing for more than a year, Page Six is told.<\/p>\n Lyonne confided in those around her that she was going to rehab last April as she prepared to launch Asteria Film Co., an AI film studio focused on ethical, copyright-cleared technology. It\u2019s not clear if that happened. She started the company with media exec Bryn Mooser, whom she has been dating.<\/p>\n Lyonne found fame at seven years old on \u201cPee-Wee\u2019s Playhouse\u201d. Getty Images<\/p>\n Lyonne (on lap) played Opal alongside the late Paul Reubens as Pee-Wee Herman. Getty Images<\/p>\n She was slated to direct her feature film debut, \u201cUncanny Valley,\u201d<\/a> a hybrid project featuring AI tools, co-written with Brit Marling and set in a \u201cparallel present,\u201d but it\u2019s not certain if the film has gone into production.<\/p>\n Hollywood pals have been sticking close, we\u2019re told. Movie boss Brian Grazer was seen propping Lyonne up as she walked the red carpet, clad in a sheer top and no bra, at the premiere of Season 3 of \u201cEuphoria\u201d Wednesday in Hollywood.<\/p>\n Hours later, she boarded a Delta red-eye from LA to NYC, where she planned to tape an interview with Drew Barrymore for her talk show.<\/p>\n After a dangerous drug habit in the aughts, Lyonne (right, with co-star Yael Stone) made a comeback in the Netflix hit series \u201cOrange is the New Black\u201d as inmate Nicky Nichols. \u00a9Netflix\/Courtesy Everett Collection \/ Everett Collection<\/p>\n Detailing more of the incident, an onlooker told us, \u201cAt least four cabin crew came over to Natasha \u2026 they kept saying \u2018Ma\u2019am,\u2019 ma\u2019am,\u2019 but they couldn\u2019t even get her attention when they were bending over in her face, she was so, so out of it.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was slumped down in her seat with her feet up on the seat in front of her, and her laptop open on her legs. The cabin crew kept coming over and closed the laptop. They took it out of her hand and put it to the side, they asked her to fasten her seatbelt, but she didn\u2019t ever.\u201d<\/p>\n While the onlooker said that Lyonne was never \u201cdisruptive,\u201d they added, \u201cShe was so out if it, it was unsafe. In an emergency she wouldn\u2019t be able to move. There truly were multiple flight attendants, at least four, plus a gate agent. They tried to get her attention and no one could. It took a long time to get her up.<\/p>\n Lyonne co-created, wrote, directed and starred in the Emmy-winning Netflix series \u201cRussian Doll.\u201d \u00a9Netflix\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n She went on to star in two seasons of Peacock\u2019s \u201cPoker Face,\u201d which has not been renewed. Peacock<\/p>\n \u201cAt one point, one of them shook her and, in her signature raspy voice, she said, \u2018You scared me.\u201d <\/p>\n When Lyonne got up to go to the bathroom, passengers were fearful she would lock herself inside. Instead, she came out, eating a bag of pretzels.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe was very peaceful and walked off the plane of her own volition,\u201d said the onlooker. \u201cShe didn\u2019t cause a scene.\u201d<\/p>\n Lyonne has been dating media exec Bryn Mooser and the pair attended the Vanity Fair Oscars party in February 2025. They also teamed up for Asteria, an \u201cethical\u201d AI film studio. Getty Images<\/p>\n On Friday, she wrote on X, \u201cI took a Lunesta once seated, to ensure some shut eye on the Delta One red eye flight to NYC. Boarded seamlessly with just a backpack and sneakers, eager for a nap. Plan was to be bushy tailed & beauty rested, as I was meant to head straight to glam for a slot with our beloved @DrewBarrymore<\/a>, upon landing. Was looking forward to seeing Drew & an in depth convo, but I guess ICE had other plans & I was detained instead. Sign of the times, I guess. Thanks for all the love and support. Never had a problem with @Delta<\/a> or @TSA<\/a> before. Heart is with our unpaid@TSA<\/a> workers.\u201d<\/p>\n Lyonne was just seven years old when she was cast in the recurring role of Opal in \u201cPee-wee\u2019s Playhouse.\u201d She described her childhood as unstable and turbulent.<\/p>\n Lyonne dated \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d vet Fred Armisen for eight years before their split in April 2022. She\u2019s seen with Armisen and Maya Rudolph before hosting \u201cSNL\u201d in May 2022. NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images<\/p>\n The actress joked she split with Armisen because she wanted a swimming pool and he didn\u2019t. NBCU Photo Bank<\/p>\n When she was eight, her boxing promoter father moved the family to Israel, where \u201chis dreams were about bringing Mike Tyson to the Tel Aviv Hilton and becoming the Don King of Israel,\u201d she told Rolling Stone.<\/a><\/p>\n She thought she might grow up to be a spy, though she said the \u201chypervigilance I was experiencing was more about being a kid in an unsafe home. I was just developing this high emotional IQ, for better or worse, about the human condition.\u201d<\/p>\n After her parents divorced and she moved back to New York with her mom, she was kicked out of the Upper East Side yeshiva where she had been on scholarship for selling pot. She then started NYU at 16 to study film, before dropping out.<\/p>\n Lyonne (front left) co-starred in \u201cAmerican Pie\u201d in 1999, one of the biggest movies of that year. \u00a9Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n In the late \u201990s, Lyonne rose to fame with roles in \u201cAmerican Pie,\u201d \u201cBut I\u2019m a Cheerleader\u201d \u00a0and \u201cSlums of Beverly Hills.\u201d<\/p>\n Insecurity led her to drugs, the actress has said, and she was arrested for a DUI in 2001, then charged in 2004 with mischief, trespassing and harassment of a neighbor.<\/p>\n After attending court-appointed rehab in 2006, Lyonne slowly began to turn her life around. \u201cI was definitely as good as dead,\u201d she told Entertainment Weekly in 2012.<\/a><\/p>\n After achieving her own sobriety, Lyonne was part of John Mulaney\u2019s 2020 intervention that led to him going to rehab and getting clean. Getty Images<\/p>\n She had a big comeback with the Netflix hit \u201cOITNB, in 2013, playing inmate Nicky Nichols. Her character\u2019s heroin use was something that the actress was all too familiar with.<\/p>\n In Season Three, Nichols underwent heart surgery as a result of drug use, just as Lyonne had. No makeup was required to create the post-op scar.<\/p>\n \u201cBy no means was that an enjoyable scene for me,\u201d Lyonne told People magazine. \u201cI had to call on memories of painful feelings \u2026 my experience was so similar but yet so far removed.\u201d<\/p>\n