Los Angeles (Reuters) - Troubled former teen star Amanda Bynes was placed in involuntary psychiatric care last Friday, hours after she tweeted accusations of sexual abuse by her father, then retracted her comments.
Bynes, 28, who has become known in recent years more for her legal woes and bizarre public behaviour than her acting, was taken by a car service to Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena after landing in Los Angeles, said reports on TMZ.com and E! Online. She apparently thought she would be taken to a hotel to meet her parents, Rick and Lynn.
The parents, as well as the police, were seen arriving at the hospital, said the reports. Under Californian law a person may be detained for mental health evaluation for up to 72 hours.
The development came after Bynes tweeted that her father had fondled himself in front of her and asked her for sex.
Later, she tweeted a retraction before boarding the plane to Los Angeles, blaming the comments on a "microchip" in her head. "My dad never did any of those things. The microchip in my brain made me say those things but he's the one that ordered them to microchip me," she said.
Her mother also rejected the "absolutely horrible" comments in a statement via the family's attorney, said E! Online.
"Rick has been the best father and husband a family can ask for. He has never abused Amanda or our other children physically or sexually," she said. "These allegations stem from Amanda's mental state at the moment. They have no basis in reality."
Bynes' siblings, Jillian and Tommy, said in a statement via the attorney that they were "disturbed beyond words that Amanda would come up with such a fabrication as a way to avoid getting much needed help or treatment", reported TMZ.com.
Bynes became a star at the age of 13 when she had her own comedy, The Amanda Show, on the Nickelodeon television network. She was previously placed under psychiatric care after she allegedly started a small fire in front of a Los Angeles home in July last year.
Lynn's one-year conservatorship over her daughter's legal and medical decisions expired recently, said the Los Angeles Times. Under the conservatorship, Bynes had been living with her parents.
Recently, Lynn denied talk that her daughter had been diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and blamed the erratic behaviour on alleged marijuana use.
On Oct 4, Bynes was arrested on a misdemeanour charge of driving under the influence of drugs in Los Angeles, the California Highway Patrol said. She was later released from jail after posting US$15,000 bail, according to records.
She is also on three years' probation after pleading no contest in February to a separate misdemeanour charge of reckless driving with an alcohol component stemming from a 2012 incident when her BMW swiped the side of a patrol car in West Hollywood.
