Lien Arrested
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Jennifer Lien, best-known to Star Trek: Voyager fans as Kes, was arrested in Tennessee earlier this month.
The actress was arrested for allegedly exposing herself to neighborhood children.
Crying children tripped Lien’s wrath, according to their mother, Carey Smith. “[She] just started saying vulgar things, I mean really bad, vulgar stuff,” said Smith. “And I just told her to mind her own business, keep on walking.
“All of the sudden, here comes her shirt up. She started flashing, woo hoo, and I said, ‘What respect is that for kids?’ And there was none. And then all of the sudden, she turned around and dropped her pants.”
The police were called and a warrant was served on Lien several days later. The actress, sitting nude on the couch, refused to go with the deputies and threatened them.
This isn’t Lien’s first encounter with police. The former actress has been arrested before for aggravated assault, resisting arrest, evading arrest, reckless endangerment, and domestic assault.
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Poor girl. 🙁 Hollywood wasn’t very kind to her and her career listing on IMDB seems short and unremarkable. I didn’t even know there was a “Men in Black” TV series until I looked her up. Very sad…
Not that it wouldn’t be tragic anyway, but I’m always bothered by Jennifer Lien’s issues a little more because she wasn’t supposed to be cut from the show. nnApparently the producers wanted to make room for Seven of Nine so they needed to get rid of a character. nGarrett Wang was going to be let go. But right before the producers were about to do it they found he’d been named one of People Magazine’s 50 most beautiful people. Because of that Ensign Kim got to stay and Kes was cut instead. nnI can’t help but wonder if things would have turned out better if Lien had stayed on the show. Probably not, these issues are usually deeper than that. But it always bothers me.
I wouldn’t let it bother you in that regard– all shows and all roles are transitory, it’s the nature of acting, and plenty of Trek actors have carved out at least semi-lucrative convention appearance careers on far less than she had so i wouldn’t feel bad watching Voyager or anything. Issues such as hers indeed go wayyy deeper than that, and what we should feel bad about is that we leave the legal system to deal with people who should have better access to mental health or addiction services. Not everyone can be saved from themselves of course, but as a society we at least could try harder. nnIt’s people getting cut from society that’s the issue, in other words, as opposed to cut from a show. In general, that is– I don’t know the specifics of Jennifer Lien’s history, but i doubt anyone deserves to end up where she is. It’s really hard to read this latest news. nnPS: do you have a source for that Garrett Wang anecdote? I’ve heard that in a couple other places, just wondering where it originated from.
Sad to hear this also…it certainly has been rumored for many years that Mr. Lien has some pretty serious demons in her closet. nI’m sure there is more to this story, but I will say that I hope Ms. Lien is OK in the end and can get any of the help she may need before it’s may be too late.nnnJon
Time has not been kind to Lien.. Very sad to see, especially based on how I’ve seen way more fringe sci-fi actors make a killing on the convention circuit.
IIRC, she did make a few appearances in her early days, but stopped sometime after she was removed from the show and I vaguely remember her receiving some less-than-kind comments from certain elements of the “fandom” about her increased weight. She seemed to disappear almost entirely after that.
Just from the picture she looks like she has problems. She doesn’t look like 41, more like over 50.
You mean the cartoon? That was a fun show.
she looks ‘spaced’ out in that pic.
I certainly agree she should have been kept and Wang let go (a cast with equal numbers of men and women? Wonderful!), Kew was such a soothing presence in the cast of characters.nStill, Lien put up a very positive front in her interviews since then, she seemed so upbeat about her family and second career after leaving acting. I’m quite worried about what drove her to be in this sort of state. nAlso, speaking of states – Tennessee is not going to be much help for her and her neighbors aren’t exactly Samaritans.
She seems to have left Hollywood on her own though, which I completely understand, so this gradual downward spiral for her is puzzling.
“PS: do you have a source for that Garrett Wang anecdote? I’ve heard that in a couple other places, just wondering where it originated from.”nnnYeah, I’ve been trying for a day to remember and I can’t. I remember it being spoken in a special somewhere but that isn’t very useful. It is on imdb’s trivia page for what that’s worth and Garrett Wang has made it clear he wasn’t liked by Rick Berman (just search YouTube for “Garrett Wang Berman” for that). But that’s all I’ve got.
Thanks, that led to some interesting reading..! Didn’t find an exact source, but it certainly seems plausible based on their disdain for one another. It’s weird that Voyager seems to have had so much behind the scenes drama.
I don’t know if she’s mentally ill or addicted to drugs or what, but it’s clear that she needs help, and I hope she gets some. It does seem as if a hospital would be a better place for her than a jail…
When did Jennifer Lien morph into Nick Swardson?
She and Erin Moran ought to pool their resources.
Oh ya, I love the MIB cartoon more than the film and happily own the first season on DVD. She was great in it.
I’m really sad hearing this and hope Ms. Lien gets the help she needs. I’m also sad for the children she flashed and hope everyone involved can move forward from this.
I can’t give any provable source… but what was said above is known to be pretty must the truth. Harry was left near death at the end of season three, then suddenly recovers in season four. Kes was the likely next one to go, as they were finding it difficult to know what to do with her. Let’s give her long hair… oh that didn’t fix it, crikey let’s get rid of her. For a show that was desperate to get ratings up, Wang’s nomination was what saved him.
The years have been…kind.
FWIW, I remember going to the Vegas convention a few years ago and she was listed among the guests in attendance. It was only after about the first day that we found out she wasn’t going to be there. No explanation was given as to why. I remember everyone being really bummed though because she doesn’t do very many appearances.
I absolutely adored Kes, and “soothing presence” is such an excellent way to describe her. Unfortunately, they couldn’t have kept her around too much longer anyways without resorting to some deus ex machina. She only had a lifespan of 7 years, and was already 2 years old when she joined the Voyager crew, leaving her only 2 years left to live.nnnnSure, if they’d decided to keep her around, they would have found a way around that (with the aforementioned deus ex machina, something like Q popping by and extending her lifespan, maybe), but then viewers might have felt cheated out of what could have been a heartbreaking but well done story.