‘Army Wives’ Actress Escorted Off Stage After Odd, Rambling Speech

Actress Kim Delaney, currently starring in the "Army Wives" and formerly of "NYPD Blue," had to be escorted off the stage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Thursday after delivering a jumbled, odd, and confusing speech.

Delaney was attempting to talk at the Liberty Medal Award presentation for Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. But something went horribly wrong and in the middle of the presentation a stage a voice came over the sound system and a man wearing a headset escorted her off the stage.

“As I try to comfort wives, husbands, families, fathers, children...loved ones, made good, what I’ve learned is the Constitution Center,” Delaney said at one point during the event. You can watch part of it below:

So what happened? Alcohol? Drugs? Well, according to CBSPhilly.com, the flub may have been the result of production confusion:

Following a series of apparent backstage production problems at the  Liberty Medal award presentation at the National Constitution Center on Thursday evening, actress and Philadelphia native Kim Delaney seemed to make a valiant attempt to rescue the production by going on stage without introduction or teleprompter, but then delivering a stumbling speech.

An offstage announcer may have skipped over a section of his script when off stage whispering could be heard and the announcer suddenly said, “Kim Delaney…”

[...]

But according to those in attendance, it appeared her teleprompter was not working, and Delaney appeared to struggle to deliver her speech, making long and awkward pauses between sentences.

You can hear some of the confusion in a recording obtained by CBS.