Owen in a 'cloud of depression'

SUICIDE bid star OWEN WILSON plunged into a “cloud of depression” after splitting with KATE HUDSON, a friend revealed last night. The 38-year-old Wedding Crashers actor has a reputation as a Hollywood party animal. Yet he failed to show at summer beach bashes thrown in Malibu and Beverly Hills. And pals described him as “MIA” — missing in action. One friend said Wilson’s rift with film beauty Kate late last year hit him hard. The pal added: “He seemed to go into a cloud of depression. He was down and didn’t open up. He kind of changed.”

Wilson was still under observation in a hospital detox unit after slashing a wrist and swallowing pills. He issued a plea for privacy in what he called a “difficult time” but made no mention of his suicide attempt. Pulp Fiction star SAMUEL L JACKSON was one of the first visitors to his bedside at LA’s Cedars-Sinai hospital. Friends fear Wilson was pushed over the edge by magazine photos of Kate, 28, kissing her new fella, comic DAX SHEPPARD. But rumours in the US suggested the star also had a drink and drugs problem.

And another friend said the star rowed with a close pal before cutting his wrist. Model Izabella St James told how Wilson used to be a regular at wild parties at the Playboy mansion, often leaving with two busty blondes. She said: “He liked threesomes, especially with blondes.” Wilson has dropped out of his latest movie project Tropic Thunder, which is directed by pal BEN STILLER.

Tropic Thunder was scheduled to shoot in several weeks. Other in-the-works projects such as Drillbit Taylor and Marley & Me are progressing as scheduled. Meanwhile, Owen's friends and colleagues have been quiet, awaiting his lead.

A look at Wilson's collaborations with filmmaker Wes Anderson, which he has called his most personal films, are often comedic meditations on depression, alienation and suicide:

•Bottle Rocket (1996). Wilson and brother Luke star as aimless and less-than-sane buddies on a crime spree. Luke's character was recently released from a psychiatric clinic.

•Rushmore (1998). Bill Murray plays a depressed industrialist who in one scene sinks himself to the bottom of a pool to isolate himself. He finds new passion competing with a prep-school student for the love of a teacher.

•The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). A functional dysfunctional family is the center of this story. Wilson's real-life brother Luke acted out a stark suicide attempt, slashing his wrists in a sink.

•The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004). Wilson stars as a soft-spoken young man who believes a famed oceanographer (Murray) is his father. He reveals that his mother committed suicide.

•The Darjeeling Limited (2007). Wilson stars with Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as estranged brothers who go on a spiritual quest in India. Wilson plays a control freak whose face and arms are scarred from a motorcycle crash that may not to be as accidental as it first seems.

We wish the best to Wilson, not because he is a star, or rich, or Hollywood-connected, but because he’s a human being with an illness, one that can be treated just as physical ailments can be treated. We hope in time he recovers and can speak openly of his struggle, because the public might be more receptive to the educational process for mental illness and its sufferers if the words come from a movie star. Any boost in education would be welcome, not just for the benefit of the millions of people who suffer from treatable mental illnesses, but for society as a whole.