Catherine Zeta-Jones was crying for help and struggling to cope with depression long before she checked into a Connecticut psych ward.
The gorgeous actress dropped some clues last year that she was forcing a happy face — fearing that otherwise she’d sadden loved ones around her.
“I don’t just bring myself down, I bring everyone around me down,” Zeta-Jones had told The Sunday Times of London.
“It’s like a dark cloud, ‘Uh oh, here we go,’ and have to snap out of it.”
A rep for Zeta- Jones earlier this week confirmed the Oscar winner was briefly hospitalized last week and treated for bipolar II disorder. The “Chicago” actress could barely hold it together in 2010, in the face of husband Michael Douglas’ life-and-death struggle with cancer.
Zeta-Jones last year said she didn’t want to give in to darker emotions.
“I try and stay positive; being negative isn’t good for my personality,” Zeta-Jones said. She also gave a rambling victory speech at the Tony Awards, forcing produc ers to not- so-gently play her out to music.
While on Tony’s big stage, Zeta-Jones made a crack about her good fortune to go to bed every night with her Hollywood hubby Douglas.
“It wasn’t the most elegant thing to say, was it? I was so caught up in the moment, I don’t think I knew what I was saying,” she later ex plained. “Standing up there I felt speechless but obviously I said something but it was such a surprise that my brain didn’t really connect to my mouth. What I said about Michael was heartfelt.”
Zeta-Jones’ rep said the actress sought psychi atric help so she could be in top form for upcom ing movie shoots.
She’s slated to star in “Lay the Favorite,” which begins production in two weeks in New Orleans.
A production executive said filmmakers have kept in touch with Zeta-Jones’ camp — and her handlers promised she’ll report to the set on time.
Additional reporting by Ian Mohr