Louise Lasser recounts the time when she was arrested for trying to buy a dollhouse

I remember when this was big news because Mary Hartman was the hot new show. I thought she was stoned when it happened and acting strangely? That was the word at the time. Anyway, the writers turned it into an episode of Mary Hartman, which was smart of them and her. (In the episode, Mary says it’s a bizarre dream she had).

The owner asked her to leave when she didn't have the money to buy the dollhouse she wanted, but she refused. She's said before that she was trying to pay with a credit card instead, but I get the impression that this guy didn't take credit cards -- lots of places in the 1970s didn't take credit.

But in reality, cops weren't shy about arresting celebrities for assumed drug use back then. Neil Diamond and baseball player Bill Lee are two I can remember who were busted in what seemed like sketchy circumstances, as was George Harrison in the UK. So if cops got the idea that Lasser was high, they would have happily arrested her for "trespassing" just so they could search her purse.

I vaguely remember "Free Mary Hartman" t-shirts when this whole thing went down.

Here's her story at the time:

[quote]she went to a charity boutique to buy a $150 antique dollhouse for her wardrobe mistress’s birthday. The, clerk refused to accept her American Express card. “I had a 102° temperature and a blood infection,” Louise continues. “I didn’t yell, but I said very quietly like a child, ‘I’m not leaving without my dollhouse.’ ” When the cops were called, they arrested Lasser for nonpayment of two traffic tickets and then discovered in her purse 80 milligrams of cocaine (only $6 worth) that Lasser claims a fan had given her four months earlier. “I’m not a coke user, and I hadn’t used that stuff,” she says. “But you can’t plead innocent if you’ve got it on you.”

Fate was on a bogus mission for Louise that day. The shopbottom comes off like a fuckhead as do the cops for running her in for two unpaid parking tickets instead of just telling her to leave.

She is genuinely the funniest person I ever met, celebrity or not and she's not even trying to be, just in normal conversation.

She is a scene stealer. Both her and Madeline Kahn were great.

Every scene either one was in, they completely stole.

Pay your traffic tickets. This happens to people all the time. Daily. If the cops run your ID, anything that is outstanding comes up and... Poof! You're arrested. Non-payment of traffic tickets turns into a bench warrant for your arrest. They don't go looking for you, but when they realize they have you anyway, you get locked up and forced to settle the outstanding matter.

This even happens to people who do pay the bill, but the clerk has failed to credit the payment correctly.

But having cocaine on you when the cops arrive is always a complication. A big one.

Charity boutique = thrift shop

Wasn't the dollhouse big enough for her to climb into?

It's weird that MHMH has almost never in the last 30 years been rerun on TV, especially now that there are dozens of nostalgia networks and mesothelioma channels where it would get decent ratings.

When they recently started re-airing Mary Hartman episodes 5 or 10 yrs ago, I was surprised how well it holds up. I was under the impression it was probably overrated just because it was so bizarre and totally different from any previous show. But no it was quite good, just decades ahead of its time.

How long was she married to Woody Allen???

Wow, I had no idea Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman lasted for 325 episodes. I remember a much shorter run. PLEASE Netflix or Hulu, (fuck Amazon) stream this!

4 years, r12

Great interview here. She also discusses Woody though it's a few years old.

Parts of the first two seasons of MHMH hold up brilliantly. Love that there is no laugh track.

Just think: if Woody Allen had never dumped her, his life might be a whole lot easier.

Louise Lasser

Shortly after her cocaine bust, Lorne Michaels banned her from SNL after a drugged-out appearance as host of the show.

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman / Louise Lasser Interview

[quote] Shortly after her cocaine bust, Lorne Michaels banned her from SNL after a drugged-out appearance as host of the show.

She must have been higher than the Challenger the day it exploded if she was too zonked out for Snorted Nine Lines.

Wow. I didn’t realize she is 79 and Woody is 83.

[quote]Shortly after her cocaine bust, Lorne Michaels banned her from SNL after a drugged-out appearance as host of the show.

She talks about SNL in that interview at R15 and says she wasn't banned.

The main problem apparently was that she refused to work with anyone except Chevy Chase, and she wasn't technically banned, but Lorne wasn't going to hire her again.

A lot of the "incoherence" people mention nowadays looks very scripted to me.

I bought the complete series of MH MH - and it's brilliant at times and still hard to get through. It ran like a soap - five days a week. It's interesting to see how Woody tried to turn Mia into Louise when he directed her in some of his films.

Fun fact: Louise Lasser is always photographed with bangs because she has a large, quite prominent vein across her forehead.

Watch Louise obsessively rubbing her teeth with an index finger on Mary Hartman, and you'll know she's full of shit about not using coke.

[quote]The main problem apparently was that she refused to work with anyone except Chevy Chase, and she wasn't technically banned, but Lorne wasn't going to hire her again.

Did you read the interview? They wanted to do a smarmy skit about dicks size. She didn't want to do it.

[quote] I just didn’t want to do the men’s cocks sketch. I just couldn’t imagine performing it in front of my parents; do you know what I mean?

[quote]Chevy Chase came in, and you know we both kind of hit at the same time, and the only thing I can think was that it was just sort of threatening to him, to have a girl, and he was so mean to me, really mean, like-a-bully mean. And I didn’t understand it.

She still seems a little...I would take any recollections she has, especially that dollhouse one, with a generous grain of salt.

MHMH could be rebooted.Not that it will but it could.

Jane and Laraine never bitch about SNL but I wish they would.

[quote] MHMH could be rebooted.Not that it will but it could.

Soaps were arguably in their prime in the 1970s. They are but a shadow of their former selves today.

When did she morph into Penny Marshall?