Elaine Stritch seems drunk

[lovebwy]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 1:12pm

in this video from last night. So sad. She was so good for years and now she's off the wagon.

I hope she gets the help she needs.
Elaine Stritch speaks at Chicago International Film Festival

Posted: 10/22/13 at 1:28pm

Fixed the headline

[madbrian]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 1:31pm

I read an article that said she decided to start drinking again. At 88, she can do as she damn well pleases. I guess it's better to be open about it, rather than sneaking it.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 1:32pm

Well, I know what you mean, but here she's different. Slurring words, being overly emotional. She needs help. I wonder if she still has an AA sponsor.

[morosco]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 2:13pm

Playing devil's advocate here, people with diabetes can experience hypoglycemia (abnormally low blood sugar) which has many of the same symptoms as being drunk. Slurring words, confusion, unusual behavior, etc.

[artscallion]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 2:14pm

I understand what you mean, mb. But I don't think drinking can fall under "do as she pleases" for Elaine. Drinking doesn't please alcoholics. It's a painful compulsion that makes them miserable but they're driven to do it anyway. It's not that she's doing as she pleases like she's giving into a weakness for ice cream because she enjoys it even though it's bad for her. She fell off the wagon and now can't help herself. lovebwy is right. She needs help.

[jv92]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 2:15pm

Well, she supposedly "delighted the audience" according to the article. It's like the old Forbidden Broadway parody...

AND WHEN I GET DRUNK, THE AUDIENCE APPPPLAUUUUUUUDDDDS!
OOOOH, STRITCH!

[artscallion]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 2:23pm

morosco, that's certainly a possibility. Though, as mb said, she has recently admittied on a few occasions that she's gone back to drinking.

[jv92]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 2:26pm

Also, she's in her late eighties. Some people in the biz like Sheldon Harnick, John Kander, and Angela Lansbury (who is also 8 might be sharp as a tack and full of vigor these days, but I don't think Stritch falls into that category. She's always been an eccentric lady, and I think old age has made her more eccentric.

[canmark]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 2:48pm

I think she's delightful in that video. I would have loved to be in that audience. I remember seeing her a couple of years ago at the Toronto film festival (at the screening for the Garth Drabinsky documentary) and she was so fun in her introduction to the film (she appears in the film, as she had been in shows that Drabinsky had produced). I don't think she seems drunk in the video. She's old and a bit dipsy, her health is not the best, she's probably on medications, yet she can command an audience and have their rapt attention. What a woman!

But who is that man holding her up? Her personal assistant?

Updated On: 10/22/13 at 02:48 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 2:52pm

LOL. I like that people think she actually "stopped" drinking.

You guyz is funnee.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 2:53pm

Is this news?

[lovebwy]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 3:09pm

I don't think she was drinking at all during At Liberty. She was sharp as a tack.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 3:15pm

I think the interviewer is way more drunk than she is. Good god.

[madbrian]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 3:15pm

She's been so open and honest about so much of her life, I don't know why she would lie about twenty or so years of sobriety.

In that video, it's unclear to me whether she's just old, a little tipsy, medicated, or some combination of the above. Her speech does seem slurred, but there could be several reasons for that (including booze).

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 3:18pm

To be honest, I see less of an alcoholic behavior and more of senility/old age catching up with her.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 3:39pm

The woman is icon who has reached a rather sad part of her life. Haven't we got better things to do than sit around and speak ill of her?

If she's drunk, so what, who cares. She's 88 years old and in fragile health. Maybe she's decided to enjoy the rest of her time as freely as she can.

If she's not, which I tend to believe, she's clearly senile and time is taking its toll. She was an astonishing talent... I just love watching her, drunk, sober, angry, sad, happy. So thanks for posting the video regardless...

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 3:41pm

*an icon... Ugh. I wish I we had that edit button back!

Posted: 10/22/13 at 4:24pm

Elaine Stritch is old, a little tipsy, medicated, or some combination of the above.

If I were a Hollywood producer I'd get a camera, a couple cases of vodka and a sofa and start TV's funniest reality show "Lilo & Stritch."

[lovebwy]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 4:48pm

She has admitted in several interviews that she's gone back to drinking. I think it is very bad for her and she needs help pronto.

That video just made me sad is all...

[ACL2006]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 4:51pm

not drunk. she's 88 and likely had one drink before this.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 4:56pm

She doesn't seem drunk in this... figuring out where to stand while being blinded by a spotlight isn't unusual and her memory going and difficulty hearing seem more age-related than alcohol-induced.

Whether she's drinking or not doesn't really concern me.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 5:10pm

"That video just made me sad is all..."

And if she were black, it would make you.... angry?

[jv92]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 6:18pm

"To be honest, I see less of an alcoholic behavior and more of senility/old age catching up with her."

I absolutely agree. Stritch was always sharp and funny-- even at 84, 85. She very quickly got elderly and uncomfortable.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 6:29pm

I don't think she's drunk either. Even at her last few shows, her old age was showing… forgetting song lyrics, names, etc. It's sad but that's life.