Amanda Bynes Placed on 72-Hour Mental Lockdown

SkyBell said:

I imagine to know who she is, you'd have to be around my age (20) or thereabouts. She had a very popular show on Nickelodeon; It was ridiculous and stupid, but pretty much everyone I grew up with remembers it.

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I'm 38 and know who she is. But she also had a sitcom on the WB network for about 4-5 years, and did 7 movies, and numerous magazine covers (including Maxim).

At one point, she was pretty hot...that's the only reason I know about her. Nowadays, not so much! How someone goes from this:

to this

in just a few years is beyond me.

But I must agree with the majority of posters in this thread; celebrity gossip in general is a waste of time, child stars especially.

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This, I will agree with.

Shrink said:

Or, perhaps, several sharp blows upside the head.

Or maybe the loony bin in which she currently resides could conveniently lose the key...and then we would have to pay attention to some really important stuff...like some other totally useless moron with no discernible talent or reason for any attention.

Cranky old SOB, ain't I. I just find these sad excuses for humans to be the object of any attention to be an incredibly sad comment on the state of our culture.

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Pay attention people. This guy knows ****.

CaptHenryMorgan said:

This topic is a waste of internet bandwidth. And there's plenty of it, so that goes to show you how irrelevant it is.

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I have two unlimited data plans, and yet, I still feel my data was wasted by reading this.

benthewraith said:

It's called the "Baker Act" here in Florida, we even use it as a transitive verb, "Baker Acted".

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Heh, we call that sectioning here and use the same way. "He's been sectioned."

In fact on that note here's a funny video for everyone else who wasted their time on this thread:

Does no one in this thread believe mental illnesses are real?

Would a young actress with cancer be treated the same way?

bobob said:

Does no one in this thread believe mental illnesses are real?

Would a young actress with cancer be treated the same way?

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probably.

No one knows who she is.

bobob said:

Does no one in this thread believe mental illnesses are real?

Would a young actress with cancer be treated the same way?

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I have a mental illness. I just don't give a **** about random "celebrities."

bobob said:

Does no one in this thread believe mental illnesses are real?

Would a young actress with cancer be treated the same way?

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Actress!?

Appearing in films of dubious value does not an actress make.

It's not the mental illness part that is the issue...it's the who-gives-a-s*** about this "celebrity" part.

...This is ****ing hilarious.

Anybody who watched Nickelodeon from 1996 to the early 00s knows who Amanda Bynes is. So probably 16 year olds to 27 year olds. Of course there was a bunch of other things she was in later on.

She probably has a mental illness...maybe schizophrenia. She could also be doing an ass ton of drugs. Not everyone does dumb stuff for attention.

GermanyChris said:

probably.

No one knows who she is.

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Anyone probably over 30ish and not from the United States (or had access to U.S. TV/movies in the mid/late 90s) probably has no idea who she is, but she was an incredibly successful child/young adult actress, until the past 6 months-year, had seemed to perfectly transition into her post child/young adult fame into a quiet and productive life.

For a while, it appeared like she would be one of the few/rare child stars who did not go wrong. Now it's just another sad story, so people are just too bitter to care or admit they Googled her in this thread.

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It really shouldn't be news, but people also shouldn't be so inconsiderate about it either. This "NEVER HEARD OF HER! Who? Don't care!" attitude is ridiculous. I don't know any of you, either, but I wouldn't gloat if I heard you had a severe injury or died. Basic human decency is all that's needed.

SkyBell said:

I imagine to know who she is, you'd have to be around my age (20) or thereabouts. She had a very popular show on Nickelodeon; It was ridiculous and stupid, but pretty much everyone I grew up with remembers it.

But I must agree with the majority of posters in this thread; celebrity gossip in general is a waste of time, child stars especially.

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Thank you for taking the time and trouble to explain who she is.

bobob said:

Does no one in this thread believe mental illnesses are real?

Would a young actress with cancer be treated the same way?

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I have no difficulty in believing mental illness is all too real, and I truly sympathise with anyone who suffers from it. That is not my problem with these sort of threads. My problem, rather, is with the confusion of celebrity status with news of some substance and the substitution of these stories for real news.

I have a further concern which is that - as a feminist - I am really getting rather fed up of stories which salivate over the attractiveness of young women (s though their appearance was their only noteworthy or worthwhile feature, a view they are clearly encouraged to internalise and collude in - as evidenced by the tragic and horrific images posted by samiwas) and then proceed take a kind of judgemental almost salacious joy in their - almost preordained downfall.

In some ways, this seems to be a sort of schadenfreude - as in if you are young and attractive, there must be a price to be paid for the homage our world is obliged to pay to the attractive - a price which is paid in the virtually vindictive glee disguised as concern for the inevitable mess some of these people - lacking internal resources - make of their lives.

Shrink said:

Actress!?

Appearing in films of dubious value does not an actress make.

It's not the mental illness part that is the issue...it's the who-gives-a-s*** about this "celebrity" part.

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To some extent, I'm with you; but I pity someone who is encouraged to define herself solely by her appearance, and who is then derided when her life falls apart and the looks are considered to have faded or become spoiled.

malman89 said:

Anyone probably over 30ish and not from the United States (or had access to U.S. TV/movies in the mid/late 90s) probably has no idea who she is, but she was an incredibly successful child/young adult actress, until the past 6 months-year, had seemed to perfectly transition into her post child/young adult fame into a quiet and productive life.

For a while, it appeared like she would be one of the few/rare child stars who did not go wrong. Now it's just another sad story, so people are just too bitter to care or admit they Googled her in this thread.

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It really shouldn't be news, but people also shouldn't be so inconsiderate about it either. This "NEVER HEARD OF HER! Who? Don't care!" attitude is ridiculous. I don't know any of you, either, but I wouldn't gloat if I heard you had a severe injury or died. Basic human decency is all that's needed.

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No, the 'never heard of her' and asking 'who'? is not ridiculous. As you yourself have pointed out, those of us who are not from the US, and who are over 30 (and I come under both headings like some sort of Venn diagram) are not likely to have heard of her, so some reference to who she is might possibly have been a good idea when discussing her on a thread.

Actually, I think it shows the utterly US centred nature of the forum that US centric cultural references are taken as the norm in the western world and it is assumed that everyone automatically knows them; believe it or not, this is not always the case outside of the massive continent of North America itself.

While I am thankful that some people have explained who she is, and why her story is considered a news story, I really do dislike the awful trivialising of news, and the confusion of the the illness of some celebrity with a real news story.

When I watch, or read, or listen to a major news broadcast, I want to know what is happening in the country in question or the world at large, and I hope to hear facts, possibly, in an ideal world, followed by intelligent analysis. I really couldn't care less about popular culture and would much prefer that you keep that in the entertainment section of the TV schedules, where I don't have to watch it, and can avoid it when and where possible. The last thing I want is entertainment stories - so-called 'infotainment' - leaching and seeping into a mainstream news broadcast.

But, maybe that is just me.

I'm sorry, people who remember this.

Scepticalscribe said:

I have a further concern which is that - as a feminist - I am really getting rather fed up of stories which salivate over the attractiveness of young women (s though their appearance was their only noteworthy or worthwhile feature, a view they are clearly encouraged to internalise and collude in - as evidenced by the tragic and horrific images posted by samiwas) and then proceed take a kind of judgemental almost salacious joy in their - almost preordained downfall.

In some ways, this seems to be a sort of schadenfreude - as in if you are young and attractive, there must be a price to be paid for the homage our world is obliged to pay to the attractive - a price which is paid in the virtually vindictive glee disguised as concern for the inevitable mess some of these people - lacking internal resources - make of their lives.

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I hope that's not what you got from my post, that I somehow enjoy her downfall and not only expect it, but celebrate it. I find it very sad, and even sadder that this seems to happen to so many young TV and film stars. I have tried on numerous occasions to figure out what drives so many of them into this path. Obviously, it is drugs on many occasions, but what leads them to the drugs? If it's a mental disorder, when did it manifest, as, in this case at least, she seemed perfectly normal less than five years ago. I can't imagine that even if you handed me a billion dollars tomorrow, that my life would change much more than living in a bigger house and enjoying life more. So why does it destroy so many others?

Also, forgive me for finding someone of the opposite sex attractive. If that's offensive, I don't know what to say. EDIT: I see that I said "that's the only reason I know about her" which was a complete mis-use of words.

samiwas said:

I hope that's not what you got from my post, that I somehow enjoy her downfall and not only expect it, but celebrate it. I find it very sad, and even sadder that this seems to happen to so many young TV and film stars. I have tried on numerous occasions to figure out what drives so many of them into this path. Obviously, it is drugs on many occasions, but what leads them to the drugs? If it's a mental disorder, when did it manifest, as, in this case at least, she seemed perfectly normal less than five years ago. I can't imagine that even if you handed me a billion dollars tomorrow, that my life would change much more than living in a bigger house and enjoying life more. So why does it destroy so many others?

Also, forgive me for finding someone of the opposite sex attractive. If that's offensive, I don't know what to say. EDIT: I see that I said "that's the only reason I know about her" which was a complete mis-use of words.

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No, not at all, that was not at all what I got from your post. Actually, mine was a general observation on the sort of ghastly lives led by so many people in her position - and the responses to the tragedies (sometimes self-inflicted), but so often a response to the vortex in which they find themselves - that seem to accompany so many such lives - and I was merely commenting on the pictures you posted, which had shocked me. Indeed, I assumed you had posted them to show how graphically tragic her decline was and is.

FTR, Amanda Bynes work is not all worthy of disdain.

She made two very good kids/teen comedies - - She's The Man and Sydney White. Yeah, they're not Citizen Kane, but they are both above average quality work within the genre. She also had a supporting role in Hairspray, the best film musical of the past decade.

I forget what channel they're on but my kids watched and enjoyed the old reruns of the Amanda Bynes show. I'm not sure why so many people seem to have some hate. I myself have pity for this person who seems to be a lost soul at this point