Thursday, July 2, 2026

Tragic Jinx: Both Anne Heche and Actress Who Followed Her in Soap Role Have Had Tragic, Drunken Car Accidents

Share

★ Make Showbiz411 your Preferred Source on Google

A sharp eyed fan pointed this out to me.

This could only otherwise have happened on an actual soap opera.

There’s a tragic link between Anne Heche, who had a terrible, drunken car accident this past weekend, and another actress.

Heche played the role of Marley and Vicky Love (twins) on the NBC soap, “Another World,” in the late 1980s. She won a Daytime Emmy award and left for greener pastures.

Her successor was actress Jensen Buchanan, who took over the roles in 1991 and played them until the 35 year old soap ended in 1999.

Heche now is in ICU in a Los Angeles hospital after plowing her car into a Los Angeles home on Friday. Her car, a Mini Cooper, is burnt to a crisp. According to reports, the home was destroyed. Friends and neighbors of the owner have started a GoFundMe campaign for the now homeless woman. There are pictures of a possible vodka bottle in Heche’s car taken right before the accident.

Strangely enough, Buchanan has a similar, slightly more awful but parallel story. In 2016, she was arrested for a DUI that resulted in the near death of the person she hit. (He was severely injured, according to reports.) Buchanan had a blood alcohol content level of 0.34 when she reportedly veered onto the wrong side of Highway 154 and into the path of an Arizona driver, nearly killing him. 

The former soap star, who’d been married for 10 years to top Hollywood talent agency owner Sam Gores, was sentenced to one year in County Jail and five years probation. And here’s the kicker: she was released from jail subsequently, having served about a month and a half of custody time. But in 2018 she was remanded back to prison for allegedly violating the probation. She was cleared, however, after a hearing.

Heche, of course, won’t be charged with anything until she’s back to health and what actually happened has been determined. Her accident was just that, an accident. But the connection between the two actresses is stranger than fiction.

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News