Amanda Bynes: From Ask Ashley to Go Ask Alice? Hopefully Not.

       

Amanda Bynes strikes again.  On Monday she was detained for a mental health evaluation after she was found in the driveway of a California residence, lying down next to a "sizable fire" and trying to "snuff flames on her left pant leg."  According to an article in The Daily News yesterday, a man driving by saw her and pulled over; by the time he reached her, she was sans pants and chasing her dog.  The good samaritan, Andrew Liverpool, put out the fire while Bynes ran off and ducked into a nearby liquor store to wash the gasoline off of her Pomeranian.
        The clerk at the store said that she entered the back room without permission and that when he followed her she "reeked of gasoline" and "seemed freaked out" while she rinsed the dog off in a sink.  After waiting to talk to the firefighters, Liverpool got back in his car and went to look for Bynes.  He spotted her talking on her phone on the side of the road.
        Liverpool called 911 with her location and proceeded to block her from getting into a cab, which is allegedly when he recognized her - as a star and a former classmate - apparently Bynes briefly attended the same high school as Liverpool.  "She said she had to go, that her dog was burnt," Liverpool told reporters.  He said the dog was wet, but didn't seem to be burned in any way.  Bynes jumped into the cab but police caught up with her and she was taken to a local hospital, where she is currently waiting out a 5150 hold - an involuntary hospitalization for mental evaluation.

     

        That's the best thing for Amanda Bynes right now, an evaluation.  She set the fire in the driveway of complete strangers who live around the block from her parents, whom she hasn't spoken to in months.  This is an obvious cry for help.  Her recent antics make Britney's (a fellow member of the the 5150 club)

meltdown a few years back look pretty boring.  She was arrested last May for hurling a bong out the window of her NYC apartment when police arrived, responding to a complaint that the actress had rolled and smoked a joint in the building's lobby.  Shortly after, she claimed on Twitter that she was sexually assaulted by the officers who arrested her.
        She will obviously do anything she can think of to get attention - from her recent affinity for outrageous wigs to shopping at Bloomingdale's in nothing but a T-shirt - but the kind of attention she needs is psychiatric.  Her life in the public eye is playing out just like her signature sketch on Nickelondeon's "All That."  She started out all sweet and cute but she is quickly spiraling out of control.  In fact, I bet if Amanda asked Ashley, she'd get an earful.