Us Weekly 362, January 21 2002

Uneasy Ryder

How a star who had everything got busted for shoplifting and drugs

By Todd Gold

Nine years ago, Winona Ryder was in trouble - if not exactly a girl interrupted, then a young woman with personal problems. Burned out from shooting The House of the Spirits in Europe, wracked by her breakup with her first serious boyfriend, Johnny Depp, and suffering from insomnia and anxiety attacks, she felt that her grip on reality was slipping away. "I thought I was losing my mind," she said. "You know when you are just so tired you can't sleep?"

Ryder checked herself into a hospital, where she rested for two days, recording her thoughts in a journal and reading J.D. Salinger's Franny & Zooey. After filming Girl, Interrupted, a 1999 movie that eerily mirrored her own situation, she spoke about her time in the hospital, making it clear that even someone blessed with extraordinary beauty, brains, talent, wealth and fame can go through blue periods.

"One of the things I thought for years, which is kind of f---ed up, is that I'm not OK," said the actor, who kept her insecurities to herself because she worried that "people would think I'm a brat if I complained about anything." She explained: "If I say I was depressed, they'll attack me." Her revelation? "That's not true. I'm allowed to say 'Wow, I had a hard time.' "

These days, Ryder, 30, is going through a rocky period once again, only this time, at the behest of her lawyer, she's not allowed to talk about it. On December 12, she was arrested outside Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills and charged with stealing $4,760 worth of merchandise - reportedly clothes, hair accessories and handbags - and possessing pharmaceutical drugs (a potpourri of addictive painkillers thought to be Demerol, Percocet and Vicodin) without a prescription. Ryder's attorney, Mark Geragos, who has defended Whitewater figure Susan McDougal and former first brother Roger Clinton, tells Us that "there was no theft" and termed the incident a "misunderstanding that will be explained."

And the drugs? According to Geragos, a few days before she went shopping, Ryder reinjured the wrist she had broken in April while shooting her next film, Mr. Deeds, a comedy also starring Adam Sandler, and she was carrying pain relievers that had been prescribed by doctors. "Once the police see the prescriptions, I expect them to drop those charges," he says. "It's nothing."

Perhaps he's right, and whatever happened will be excused at Ryder's January 11 arraignment as what a former associate calls "the karma that comes with being a bit of a drama queen." However, the police maintain that they have not seen any store receipts or prescriptions ("The drugs weren't in the type of vials you pick up at Rite Aid," says Lieutenant Gary Gilmond of the Beverly Hills Police Department). So whatever the legal maneuverings, Ryder's day in court this week may not clear up all the questions about her behavior. "If the police bring us the evidence, we'll make the decision whether or not to file charges," says Sandy Gibbons, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles district attorney's office, who sloughed off Geragos's characterization of the incident as a mistake. "What do you think he's going to say?" she says. "Most suspects aren't Winona Ryder."

Indeed, Winona Laura Horowitz, as she was born, has been twice nominated for an Academy Award (for 1993's The Age of Innocence and 1994's Little Women) and has often been held up by people her age as a role model. Many of her films - such as Heathers, Edward Scissorhands and Reality Bites - have become Generation X touchstones. In 1993, she lent comfort to the parents of murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas, a former neighbor of hers in Petaluma, California, and she has campaigned to free jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Since breaking up with Depp, she has dated Matt Damon and a who's who of alternative rockers, including Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner, Beck and, most recently, Pete Yorn. "She's Ava Gardner but add 80 IQ points," says a friend.

Ryder fits the profile of a Saks customer, not a criminal. She commands an estimated $6 million per film, lives in a $3 million Beverly Hills home, likes wearing the classic styles of designer Giorgio Armani and, as one of her friends tells Us, "has impeccable, really gorgeous taste."

Many in Hollywood did not take the news of her shoplifting arrest seriously. Soon after the incident, free winona T-shirts began popping up across L.A., from studio soundstages to the shops on fashionable Melrose Avenue. E! Online gossip columnist Ted Casablanca reported going into Saks and asking two saleswomen if Ryder had been in lately. "Faster than it takes to max out your credit card in a joint like that," he wrote, "one of the smock-covered babes stretched her plump forearms skyward and yelled 'Free Winona!'"

Yet Ryder's actions in the three-story granite-and-marble shoppers' mecca did catch the attention of Saks security personnel on that pre-Christmas Wednesday evening. Police said store security observed her for more than a half-hour as she used scissors to remove sensor security tags from several items and place the goods in her shopping bag.

Around 7 p.m., Ryder left the store and was immediately stopped by two security guards - one male and one female - who escorted her back inside and called the police. When the officers arrived, they handcuffed Ryder, took her to the Beverly Hills station and led her upstairs to the second-floor jail area, where she was fingerprinted, photographed and then allowed to call her attorney. Despite the circumstances, she was polite and pleasant - the officers described her as a "nice lady." Finally, at 11:40 p.m., she was released on $20,000 bail.

Geragos asserts that Ryder bought merchandise at Saks, has receipts and was stopped simply because store clerks in different departments were unaware "what personnel were doing in other areas." "I don't like to make statements that will bite me in the butt," he says, "but I have with my own eyes seen charges for that day at Saks."

Does that mean Ryder could have bought some pieces and then not paid for other merchandise by mistake? "It's been reported she didn't purchase any items, but I think that's categorically untrue," he says. "She did purchase thousands of dollars of items. I assume they're claiming she took merchandise, too. The fact is that my client never had any intent to deprive anybody of any property."

If it turns out that she did take merchandise, Ryder - who in 1997 admitted that she was the object of a citizen's arrest after stealing a comic book when she was 12 - would not be the first celebrity to be caught shoplifting. Also accused of pilfering: tennis star Jennifer Capriati (jewelry, in 1993); former Miss America Bess Meyerson (department-store items, in 1988); '40s actress Hedy Lamarr (drugstore sundries, in 1991); film critic Rex Reed (CDs, in 2000); and rap star Ol' Dirty Bastard (sneakers, in 1998). Tales of celebrity shoplifting are a colorful part of Hollywood lore. "For years, I've heard about a former sex symbol who's supposed to be a klepto," a Hollywood executive tells Us. "Supposedly, her assistant calls after she's been in the store and asks how much she owes."

Why do wealthy, high-profile people steal things they can afford? According to Dr. Robert Millman, a professor of psychiatry at Cornell University, celebrities can often develop overriding - but fragile - feelings of grandiosity. If they don't receive the acclaim that they have grown used to, he says, "they really sink; they plummet, like bursting a narcissistic balloon. . . . It's self-involvement of 'I've failed, I'm the worst, I'm alone.' It's tremendously isolating. [Then] they actually take physical or personal risks . . . because they are not adequately paying attention to the outside world."

Ryder has kept a low profile since her arrest. She spent the holidays with her family and has, in the past few weeks, been at several film-related meetings. Even though "she's doing well," according to a close associate, "she's obviously upset by the situation. It was horribly embarrassing to her." According to several sources, Ryder has failed to return phone calls and e-mails, which is unlike her, and for some, that's reason to worry. "She's very smart when it comes to her profession," a former co-worker tells Us. "As for her personal life, she's confused. She's very childlike. It's almost as if she hasn't appropriately learned to grow up." In addition, Ryder's longtime housemate, a male clothing buyer, moved out prior to the holidays. "Winona can't be by herself," the co-worker adds. "She hates to be alone."

She rarely has been. Ryder was 7 when her hippie parents, bookstore owner Michael Horowitz and teacher Cindy Horowitz, moved her and her two brothers, Jubal and Uri, from their home in Winona, Minnesota, to a commune in rural Northern California. Lack of convention was the norm. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was a friend of the family's, and LSD guru Timothy Leary was her godfather. Once, her mother screened old movies in a barn during the day, and Ryder was allowed to stay home from school to watch.

When she was 11, Ryder's parents moved to Petaluma, a small town outside San Francisco, and she took acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater. Four years later, Ryder was cast in Lucas, her first film. By 18, she was on Hollywood's fast track on- and offscreen, having starred in 1988's Beetlejuice and fallen in love, in 1989, with Depp, who got a tattoo that said Winona forever.

However, by 1990, Ryder began to show signs of being physically and emotionally fragile. In that year, she backed out of playing Mary Corleone in The Godfather: Part Three after reportedly catching the flu. According to a friend of Ryder's, she injured her ribs wearing a corset during The Age of Innocence and suffered from an ear infection on Alien: Resurrection four years later. Last spring, she broke her wrist making Mr. Deeds, and this past August, she came down with a severe gastroenterological problem that forced her out of the film Lily and the Secret Planting. Yet the day after she flew back to L.A. from the London production, Ryder was photographed hiking in Franklin Canyon near her home in Beverly Hills. "Very strange, since she was supposed to be resting," says a photo-agency source.

Ryder's personal life has been plagued with unfortunate reversals as well. Her close friendship with Gwyneth Paltrow mysteriously evaporated almost as soon as it started. "Don't ask," she told an interviewer two years ago. In 1997, the two became inseparable after meeting at an Armani fashion show. Their relationship fizzled just as quickly, reportedly when Paltrow landed her Oscar-winning role in Shakespeare in Love after seeing the script in Ryder's apartment. "I wasn't around for the main fight, but from what I understood, some heavy punches were thrown on both sides," says a friend of the pair, speaking figuratively. "The friendship burned out real fast because it was on high speed from the start."

Earlier this month, Ryder also had to quell reports in The National Enquirer that her ups and downs stem from a drug problem that worsened after her two-year relationship with Damon ended in early 2000. The actor's representatives deny that Ryder has a substance-abuse problem. "Because of her upbringing, she's certainly experimented and would say that to anybody," a woman who has worked with Ryder tells Us. "But she wasn't doing drugs when I was around her."

But she does like to have fun. Last June, Ryder was partying hard at New York's Russian Tea Room with Courtney Love, who shared a setup of scotch, vodka and wine with her friend before performing a scorching set of old torch songs. "Ryder was a brilliant emcee," says Love, who at one point during her boozy set declared, "We're the two most f---ed-up Jewish intellectual c---s on the planet." What does Love think of her pal's latest jam? "I don't know, and I'm not tattling," she says. "She's not a bad person. She's a good actor. She's a good friend."

Ryder has remained devoted to the family of Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped from a slumber party in 1993. Ryder offered a $200,000 reward and volunteered in the search effort. (Three months later, Klaas was found dead; Richard Allen Davis was convicted of her murder in June 1996.) The actor still sends the family Christmas cards and donates money in their name to charities. "She was totally genuine," says Polly's father, Marc Klaas, of Ryder's support during the search. "She shed real tears, showed real concern and took time to help a desperate family. She was our angel." Some in Hollywood say Ryder will be able to fly above her legal problems, however they're resolved. "I'd hire her in a second," says Tom Rothman, the chairman of 20th Century Fox Studios. "She's a fantastic talent, a professional, and the people who work with her know that. Talent and decency will win out in the end." Adds Klaas: "Whatever went down, no one got hurt, and there was no evil intent. She will be fine."

She may even shop again - at Saks. The store's corporate spokesperson, Lori Rhodes, says Ryder is welcome back: "I can't imagine why she wouldn't be . . . if she came in and paid for something."