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'Hangover' Star Zach Galifianakis Pays Rent For Homeless Woman, Takes Her To His Movie Premieres

Galifianakis has known Elizabeth 'Mimi' Haist for almost three decades and when he learned she was homeless, he found an apartment for her in Santa Monica.

Source: Getty Images/Roy Rochlin / Stringer

We all know Zach Galifianakis as a man of jokes in Hollywood. But he also happens to have a generous heart of gold that not many people seem to know about. Almost a decade ago, the 52-year-old rescued a homeless woman from the street and provided a roof over her head and has also been taking her to his movie premieres. 

He first met Elizabeth "Mimi" Haist, a laundrywoman in Los Angeles, in 1994 when he had just arrived in Los Angeles. He was a regular at the Fox Laundry, where she volunteered, and lived off tips from customers. After the success of The Hangover, Galifianakis stopped visiting the laundromat. But in 2011, he learned that Haist was homeless and decided to help her out.

Source: Getty Images/Frazer Harrison / Staff

Haist had been married for 30 years in the past but had no family left anymore. When Galifianakis found out the situation of the then 82-year-old, he immediately found her a one-bed, one-bath apartment in Santa Monica and started covering her rent and utilities. He even introduced her to actress Renee Zellweger, who furnished the apartment for her. The actor shared a strong bond with the octogenarian and then started inviting her to movie premieres. She was even Galifianakis' date to the third installment of The Hangover films in 2013. "I'm looking forward to it, I like the excitement of it," Haist told The NY Daily News.



 

Previously, she had been to the premiere of the second Hangover movie as well as The Campaign. No one knew who she was and Haist enjoyed confusing the press and fans. "All the fans were taking photos and I waved at them, I said, 'They don't know who I am!'" she said of her red carpet adventures. Galifianakis would pick her up from home in a limo and they would attend the premieres together. "If he's in town, he takes me. Otherwise, he lets me take a friend. I dress up nice and a friend helps me with my makeup. It's fun, not something I've ever dreamed I'd experience. The limo takes me home afterward," Haist explained. After the premiere, Haist and Galifianakis hit the after-party where she has met all the stars and drinks lemon drop martinis with Grey Goose vodka.



 

Galifianakis' Hangover character, Alan, is unique and is always doing unexpected things. Speaking of the character, director Todd Phillips stated, "If you talk to people who love these movies, they’ll often say they wish they had a friend like Alan, and that’s largely attributable to Zach. He has such sweetness behind his eyes, that he can say and do almost anything and you’ll think, ‘Oh, he didn’t mean it like that.’ So he gets away with all sorts of things." Galifianakis seems to share the same kind-hearted nature with his onscreen persona and we could all do with more people like him in the world.