Marianne Williamson and Laura Dern were roommates in the '80s — and Twitter can't deal

Suzy Byrne
·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment
Updated

Marianne Williamson had Twitter abuzz during Thursday’s Democratic debate — and she continues to be a hot topic as people learned she was once Laura Dern’s roommate.

The spiritual teacher, self-help author and friend of Oprah’s answers during the debate have been dubbed weird and kooky — and her accent has been dissected. But there have been a lot of exclamation points over the fact that she and the Big Little Lies star once lived together in L.A. in the 1980s.

The tidbit was included in a New York Times profile on Dern in May. The actress, daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, “finished her high school coursework a year early,” it said. “Her mother helped her attain legal emancipation, which made it easier to work. At 17, she moved into her own apartment, where her roommate was” Williamson, who is 15 years older. Williamson had “started Project Angel Food, to feed people with H.I.V./AIDS, out of their living room.” Dern briefly enrolled at UCLA, but “two days into the semester, she withdrew to do Blue Velvet.”

In an interview soon after with U.K.’s The Guardian, Dern explained that her mother only allowed her to leave home at 17 on the condition she live with Williamson, who was older and more established. So they weren’t “college roommates” per se.

This explains it well:

So Twitter has been freaking out over the connection. Old photos resurfaced:

Dern’s Wikipedia was updated:

Though “best known for being former roommate” of Williamson seems a bit much:

People have been speculating that Dern channeled Williamson in some of her roles — especially Enlightened, which saw Dern as an exec who had a “philosophical awakening.”

Some other reactions:

Of course, Nashville actress Connie Britton was roommates with another Democratic hopeful, Kirsten Gillibrand, in college. They both studied in Beijing and lived together there. Small world.

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