Yasmine Amanda Bleeth (born June 14, 1968) is an American former actress. Her television roles include Caroline Holden in the long-running series Baywatch and Lee Anne Demerest on the soap opera One Life to Live.

Biography

Bleeth dated Matthew Perry in 1996. She met her future husband, strip club owner Paul Cerrito, at the Promises clinic during her first stay there. Bleeth would later comment, "They say you shouldn't get into any relationship in the first year of sobriety — especially with someone in the program, but Paul and I fell in love immediately." They were married in Santa Barbara, California on August 25, 2002, and now live in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona.


Charity work
Bleeth was the 1998 spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraising campaign, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. In 1998 it occurred on October 9, and was called the 'Wear Jeans to Work' campaign. Through Bleeth's help, $5 million was raised on that one day to help the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Her primary message to women was to pay attention to their bodies; her mother was initially misdiagnosed by a doctor who thought that she was going through early menopause.

Bleeth donated the proceeds of her $10,000 win on Celebrity Jeopardy! to breast cancer research. Bleeth has been a spokesperson for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation who, along with corporate sponsor Ford, put together the nationally run Race for the Cure.


Cocaine addiction and arrest
In December 2000, Bleeth voluntarily entered the Malibu-based Promises Rehabilitation Clinic to overcome a cocaine addiction. On September 12, 2001, Bleeth was arrested in Romulus, Michigan after her car pulled off the highway and wound up on a median on Interstate 94 as she and her future husband, Paul Cerrito, were heading to Detroit Metropolitan Airport. No other cars were involved. Police found four syringes with an injectable form of cocaine in them and a small plastic bag with cocaine residue on it. The next day police conducted a search of her hotel room, and they found more cocaine and drug paraphernalia. In November 2001, through a plea bargain, Bleeth pleaded guilty to possessing less than 25 grams of cocaine and to driving while impaired. She was sentenced in January 2002 to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service. Bleeth's lawyer, Jerry Sabbota, stated that the actress was satisfied with the plea bargain, noting that her record will be cleared of any felonies after she fulfills the terms of her probation. "When all is said and done she'll have a traffic ticket on her record. She wasn't treated any better than anyone else, and she wasn't treated any worse," Sabbota said. Her attorney stated that Bleeth was receiving therapy from the founder of the Promises Rehabilitation Clinic. Bleeth completely fulfilled the terms of her probation as of January 2004, and her record was cleared as previously determined by the plea bargain. In an issue of Glamour from April 2003, Bleeth wrote a three page article entitled "Back From my Drugs Hell" about her rocky path to recovery, her cocaine addiction, and her struggle to remain sober. Bleeth wrote that her cocaine habit was so severe that she collapsed at a photo shoot for Glamour, and she went without sleep for five days at a time. She wrote that "consciously trying to stay off drugs is now part of my life and always will be."