Hollywood haunts
Celebrities: they’re just like us!
It was pretty early and [my then-boyfriend] was like, ‘I have to leave.’
I had a scratch on the side of my body.
VH1 (2); Neilson Barnard/Getty Images; Larry Busacca/Getty Images; Saban Films/Roadside Attractions; Richard Knapp/A+E; Douglas Sacha/Getty Images
I was like, what the fk?
In that sense, I’m hoping it’s Lizzie and not Andrew, you know?"
But someone shook my arm to the extent that I sat up," Ladd remembers.
Everett Collection
“I was looking to see who shook my arm.
I’m looking all around the room.
At the foot of my bed was an etheric ghost silhouette of a woman’s body.
Saban Films/Roadside Attractions
I thought I was dreaming, okay?”
She skipped the parade, but made it to the Eisenhower for her performance.
But so did the ghost.
Sundance Institute
“He looked at me and said, ‘What did you say?’
And I said, ‘I did not say anything, what didyousay?'”
In the second act of the play, Ladd says she heard the whisper again.
She asked me to do something for her," Ladd explains.
“He went crazy.
He said, ‘Oh my God, you’re the one to tell her story.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
And I said, ‘Martha who?’
Because I didn’t know which Martha everybody was talking about!
And he looked at me and he said, ‘Martha Mitchell.’
Gregory Pace/REX/Shutterstock
I said ‘Martha Mitchell?
Are you talking about the attorney general’s crazy old alcoholic wife?’
And he got livid with rage.
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
He said, ‘How dare you?
She was not an alcoholic.
She was the Cassandra of Watergate.
VH1
She brought all the villains down with truth.
She’s my friend.’
And he said in the present tense ‘She’s my friend.’
VH1
So I said ‘Ok Maury, I’ll meet her.’
And he said ‘Good heavens, Diane Ladd!
I said ‘When did she die?’
VH1
He responded: “I don’t remember the exact quotes, but I remember the substance.
Both Diane and Martha were friends of mine and both appeared on my show.”
Call to ‘action!’
Mettie Ostrowski for EW
The experience inspired Ladd to embark on a three-decade mission to tell Mitchell’s story on the big screen.
Mitchellopenly criticized the U.S. government amid the Watergate scandal before she died on May 31, 1976.
“She wanted me to tell her story.
A+E
She wanted me to help fulfill her destiny,” Ladd says.
“I’m going to promise you one of the greatest films, okay?
I’m going to bank my 50 years in show business on that.
A&E
“[Martha] was inside all of the shenanigans, she knew what was going on.
She knew the truth and she cared about her country.
It’s one of the greatest love stories that’s ever been told.”
Everett Collection
But the house needed the touch of a WomanTM before it could feel like a proper home.
That’s when things got weird.
I walked out of the room again like, wait a second, I did that twice.”
Everett Collection
She says it was partially instigated by the nefarious presence in their home.
or odd noises in the kitchen (spoiler: no one was there!).
It was enough to literally drive one roommate mad.
Todd Williamson/Getty Images
“Our friendships deteriorated.
One of the girls legitimately lost her mind and is now fully missing,” remembers Cracker.
Whatever it was, speculatesCracker, “it split up a group of friends and ruined us.”
Venturelli/WireImage
“When you’re watching a movie you’re like, ‘Get out of there!
It’s the house!’
So you just put it under the rug,” Cracker admits.
VH1
“I came home and the house was apparently empty.
I heard mild laughter [upstairs]…
I hadn’t heard my roommate laugh in so long.
VH1
“I opened the door and the room was blacked out fully, the windows were covered with blankets.
She was sitting and laughing into the heating vent…
I was like, ‘Brooke, what are you doing?’
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
And she turned around and was like, ‘What do you want!?’
It was the craziestExorcisttransition I’ve ever seen in person.”
“We captured some incredible [footage].
Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly
Our first episode is about poltergeists in one of the most notoriously haunted structures in America.
Nothing is staged, nothing is trick-cut no B.S.
I believe there are probably ghosts out there.”
Andrew H. Walker/REX/Shutterstock
We spent 45 minutes on the most rugged, brutal mountain trails.
It’s 1 in the morning.
Until the playful spirit of a young girl decided to toy with her, that is.
Jesse Grant/Getty Images
“I had this vision of a little girl standing next to me and staring at me.
“I was tripping!”
Thus, the next morning she asked hotel staff about the history of the building.
Tasia Wells/Getty Images
“They were like, ‘Oh!
[I was on] the floor she normally does it on!”
“She’s just there and you’re existing in her world.”
Everett Collection
Google everything… “I saw one of the park rangers who I’ve known since I was a kid.
“He was like, ‘Well, I’ve seen a lady in this white gown [before]!
And I was like, ‘Ok great, I’m not crazy!'”
Everett Collection
The moral of both stories?
Lily Collins needs to Google every (potentially haunted) space she enters before setting foot inside.
I was waiting for her head to spin around and projectile-vomit green.
Deadra Bryant/Lifetime
Ever since then I’ve been a little leery of going to church sometimes!”
Luckily, an ambulance was called and the ordeal ended shortly thereafter.
“She wasn’t in immediate danger.
VH1
Apparently the demon left,” she finishes.
Ming-Na Wen
Macau-born actress Ming-Na Wen (Mulan,Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
is no stranger to the supernatural.
That was the first thing I said when we bought the house and moved in.”
That, she would soon find out, was a big mistake.
“She’s just staring up there at the emptiness.
I came over like, ‘Michaela, what are you looking at?’
And she goes, ‘The lady.’
‘Bitch, I just want to let you know!’
Over 15 years later, Wen says, “those windows are still there!”
though she’s thinking about redoing the home this year.
It felt like the bed lowered.
I was so scared because I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming,” she recalls.
“I was laying there petrified.
When the sun came up I turned around and nobody was there.
The incident prompted Cho to ask her landlord if she could break the lease.
But the ghost had other ideas.
Dead rabbits, garbage disposals, and broken leases, oh my!
When I did that, the oven started beeping and it wouldn’t stop,” says Cho.
So I just left!”
‘It really was literally the Devil’s Triangle!’
“I think it’s a spirit who was lonely.
It did feel like a male spirit.
It felt like he just wanted to get in bed.
It was sort of paranormal flirting,” she remembers with a laugh.
“It was toxic masculinity on another level, from the beyond!
It really was literally the Devil’s Triangle.”
“I’ve never felt more like Michael Jackson than I did here.
Surreal things happened behind the scenes.
“Any scenario where I’m living with strangers, I’m automatically annoyed…
But on top of that, there were ghosts there, and they made their presence known!
I decided to align myself more with the ghosts than the people.
They were easier to get along with.”
I had to remind the ghosts of thatandthe clowns of that by flexing on them both.”
