After months of bizarre behavior, Amanda Bynes has been hospitalized and held for mental evaluation in California.
The 27-year-old was taken into custody by Ventura County police officials who responded to a disturbance in a Thousand Oaks neighborhood Monday night.
What was the disturbance? Apparently she set a fire in a stranger’s driveway.
According to TMZ, the former Nickelodeon child star was found standing near a small blaze carrying a red gas tank.
“TMZ just spoke to the woman whose driveway Amanda built the fire on, and she tells us, she had no idea what was going on until cops knocked on her front door. She says cops asked her, “Do you know anyone by the name of Amanda Bynes, or why she would have some vendetta against you?” She said no … not surprising because the woman is elderly.”
(The article also has photos of Bynes shopping in Santa Monica yesterday, barefoot and wearing what looks like only a long t-shirt)
When the police arrived, they determined that she needed to be place on a 5150 hold – which is a 72-hour involuntary hospitalization for mental evaluation. A 5150 hold is the same lockdown that Britney Spears was placed under back in 2008.
It’s hard to deny that the actress has seemed increasingly erratic and disturbed. She allegedly threw a bong out of her apartment window, she’s claimed someone is impersonating her around New York and she’s tweeted insults and slurs at other celebrities, mostly calling people “ugly.” (You can check out a timeline of her strange behavior here.)
Let’s hope this mental health evaluation will give her the chance to get the help she needs.
