Sean Young: Still Crazy After All These Years?

Sean Young, who was arrested at an Oscar post-party on Sunday, is shown twirling her dress on the red carpet at Cannes in 2002. According to our information, she was not asked to leave. (Reuters)

Troubled actress Sean Young is in the headlines again this week. And again, it's not because of a professional achievement.

Young was placed under citizen's arrest at the Governor's Ball following the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night in Hollywood, after her thwarted attempt to crash the party resulted in a scuffle with the security guard.

Young spent several hours in jail Sunday night before being released on $20,000 bail. She is now demanding a public apology from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -- sponsor of the Oscars -- and threatening a lawsuit if she doesn't get it.

We hope Young isn't holding her breath. Despite some impressive work in Blade Runner and No Way Out, and some casting near-misses that could have catapulted her to the A-list, the 52-year-old is a far cry from an industry darling.

But has Young been made into an industry pariah unfairly? Here's a look at her sometimes disturbing, often sad, and occassionally brilliant run-ins with Hollywood.

Sean Young vs. Oliver Stone (and Charlie Sheen, and Daryl Hannah)

In the first Wall Street movie, Young played the small role of Gordon Gekko's wife, Kate. But from the get-go, she was angling to play Darryl Hannah's more prominent role of Bud Fox's (Charlie Sheen) girlfriend. Young was reportedly so persistent about replacing Hannah that Sheen, fed up, taped a note to the back of her head that read, I am a c**t.

Stone was no more of a fan: Young was so disruptive on set that he cut her role down and shipped her off to a bus station after wrapping a scene early. (Here's a link to the original screenplay in which Kate has more lines.)

Still, the actress found bittersweet vindication: Hannah went on to win a worst supporting actress Razzie for her work, and Stone later said Young was right: He should have let her take over.

The James Woods Incident

It's not entirely clear what, but something happened between Young and James Woods on the set of The Boost in 1988. Though both deny that Young ever Krazy Glued her co-star's penis to his leg, there was clearly a misunderstanding that presumably had something to do with unchecked on-set chemistry.

I was like, 'Jimmy, look, these are normal feelings, if we feel this way in six months, we'll revisit the concept,''' Young told Entertainment Weekly in 2007. ''It was a crush being turned down, that's all. ... So sue me! And he did.''

According to court documents obtained by People magazine, Woods and his then fiancee, Sarah Owen, filed a $6 million harassment suit, accusing Young of leaving a decapitated, iodine-doused doll on his doorstep, and of mailing photographs and graphic representations of violent acts, deceased persons, dead animals, gore, mutilation and other images specifically designed to cause Woods and Owen ... great emotional distress. The People article quotes witnesses who claimed Young and Woods definitely had an affair, and that he broke it off because of Owen (who he later married and divorced).

''It is so retardedly stupid that anyone could have believed it,'' Young insisted in 2007. According to EW, the lawsuit was for only $2 million, and it was settled out of court in 1989.

'It boils down to two people plotting to set me up and make me look like I was a crazy person, partially because of their own mental illness, partially because of revenge, Young said in the 1992 EW profile.

''I love and admire Sean and she's actually half-right, Woods told EW at the time.

But it was a different story in 2007. Approached for comment in the follow-up story, Woods sent angry emails to EW, accusing Young of striking a ''jihad of terror'' against him and his fiancée, and that the lawsuit was ''was certainly not about spurned advances, as they were most assuredly not spurned. EW excerpted some of the emails against the wishes of Woods' lawyer, who insisted that EW publish only a bland, brief statement about the scandal.

The Crazy Catwoman Campaign

Young was originally cast as Catwoman in Batman but was replaced by Kim Basinger when she injured herself during rehearsals. Apparently expecting to be recast in the sequel Batman Returns, the actress resorted to some unsettling antics in order to convince Warner Bros. and director Tim Burton to give her the part: Young showed up on the studio lot wearing a homemade Catwoman costume, and later went on the Joan Rivers show to continue her campaign (in full costume).

But her interview with Rivers -- who was sympathetic -- was about much more than a single role.

Hollywood has become an unfortunate situation where art and commerce ... are at odds, Young said. And art is sort of like an endangered species and the big blockbuster makes it possible for people to gain more power and do better roles; to demand more and better roles.

Rivers discussed Young's reputation as being crazy and/or difficult, and suggested that perhaps the actress's problem was that she talks too much.

What they try to do is make you feel like you can't do anything else, Young said. I can do plenty of other things.

Yes, but why should you? Rivers asked.

Well, because ... the choice is either I remain the honorable person that I feel that I am, which is an honest person Young said. I've learned to be a lot more quiet than I used to be, but certainly I'm not ever going to be a phony person or a person who doesn't believe I have to stand up for what I feel is important.

Clips of the interview are available on Young's own YouTube channel, msyPARIAH. The interview is cut with behind the scenes footage of Young preparing for the talk show along with some artistic scenes wearing the catsuit.

Young -- who was fully aware of how the stunt was received -- touched on it in the 2007 Entertainment Weekly interview.

''The fact that I made them see me, that aggressiveness on my part was just not allowed for women to do, Young said. If a guy had done that -- if Jim Carrey had done that, if Sean Penn had done that -- it would have been, 'Ha-ha, what balls!' But for me it totally backfired.

The actress discussed it again in a 2011 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, where she was open about her struggles to find acting work and blamed the Catwoman incident on the reluctance of studios to cast her.

Asked exactly what happened there, Sean said: Well , let's see, I got in a limo and then when we went up to go talk to the director about it. ... They asked who was in the limo and I said, Well, Catwoman.'

And then they let me on [to the studio lot] and a sort of barged in and then kind of said, 'Well, I think you guys should talk to me.' Because I was in the first one and had broke my arm and I wanted them to ... give me five minutes of their time. And they didn't, so I sort of slapped their hand and then they got petty on me and they didn't call me anymore.

Letterman then asked her to explain why she thought she stopped getting calls.

If you're a woman who stands up for yourself, that's not particularly something that makes men love you.

I realize I'm a lawful slave now and I'm ready to pay my dues, Young later added. I don't mind being walked all over. Walk all over me.

The 2006 Vanity Fair Party

Sunday night wasn't the first time Young has been tossed from a post-Oscar party: In 2006, wanting to take the opportunity to network with power players, she crashed the Vanity Fair bash, reportedly sneaking in behind Jennifer Aniston.

Young was quickly exposed and escorted out the back door by a security guard. She discussed the incident in the 2007 Entertainment Weekly interview.

''It was degrading,'' Young said. ''But when you have nothing to lose, it's really not that big of a deal.''

The DGA Awards: Young vs. Schnabel

Young was ejected from the 2008 Director's Guild Awards for heckling Julian Schnabel during his remarks. According to a witness, Young had been shouting at the stage throughout the show. After she got really out of hand during Schnabel's speech, she was escorted out of the venue wearing a white fur coat.

The day after, Julie Chen discussed the incident on David Letterman's show.

Julian Schnabel was onstage about to say a few words about directing his film, Chen said. And he was moved and trying to find the words to say and there were a few pauses. And everyone's waiting to hear him speak and she said, 'Get on with it!' And she just yelled.

So you're at an awards presentation and she's just heckling the winners? Letterman asked. I like that. That's excellent. We need more of that kind of stuff.

I hope this starts a trend, he later added. This would be so good if we could look forward to this.

Young entered rehab the day after the DGA incident.

What now?

When it comes to someone with Sean Young's reputation, is any press really good press? After lashing out at the Academy and those responsible for throwing her out of the Oscar party, Young seemed to be looking at the silver lining -- if briefly.

Young has been periodically updating her Facebook page to chronicle the post-party and arrest fallout.

On Monday, she wrote: One thing I remembered this morning, was to think of things that happen as not happening to you but FOR you....

But her good spirits seem to have faded a bit since then.

My neck is killing me, and my arms are still sore from sunday night [sic], she wrote early Tuesday. I think when those security guards descended upon me, I got hurt. I went to the doctor's but I'm in agony...I can't believe those barbarians....I refuse to take any painkillers...

Even if Young is on the unstable side, it's difficult not to imagine that a more successful actress displaying similar behavior would be viewed quite differently. It seems that Young is perceived as unpleasantly unbalanced because she is no longer at the top of her game -- and desperately wants to be.

Earlier this week, IBTimes did a story on Woody Allen's chronic absenteeism from the Oscars: The Academy would love to have him, at the ceremony or the after-party of his choice, but he wants nothing to do with it. Considering both of the artists' sometimes strikingly similar sentiments about Hollywood, it's tempting to make a comparison.

Hollywood at the moment is dismal. Films are made for commerce, not art, Allen said in 2004 -- years after Young's interview with Joan Rivers when she insisted art and commerce were at odds in Hollywood.

There are great filmmakers -- Martin Scorsese is as good as there's ever been -- but even they have to work within the system, Allen continued.

Of course, Woody Allen -- who achieved early critical success, and has a reputation for being easy to work with on set despite his misgivings about the system -- enjoys the rare luxury of being able to work largely on his own terms.

Both Young and Allen despise Hollywood, for some of the same reasons -- but in her rejection, Young is still courting it.

''The city of angels? It's the city of devils. The city of smiling cobras. This [town] eats venom for breakfast, she told EW in 2007. ''I've been forced to deal with my character assassination. I never hurt anybody in this business, ever.

I'm not Julia Roberts,'' she later said. ''And I could have been.''