foolish watcher

We lost the patron saint of America today; we lost our sparkle.

Therese Odell
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💔💔💔

@dollyparton

Happy Valentine’s Day ❤️ I will always love you!

♬ I Will Always Love You – Dolly Parton

Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

The Television Academy’s first “Legacy Award” will, fittingly, be awarded to I Love Lucy. 

A 30 Rock 20th Anniversary Show has been set at Radio City Music Hall for October 11, and I can’t go goddammit.

Don’t be rude about Kim Kardashian to Glen Close; she’s not having it.

Despite this headline, there is absolutely nothing “shocking” about Bari Weiss wanting to hire Chris Cuomo. 

Our stupid trade war with our neighbor Canada extends into Hollywood.

They are now threatening to tear down the Kennedy Center if they can’t put President Pedophile’s name on it.

Azerbaijan is REALLY MAD at CNN.

Jelly Roll wasn’t afraid to get political and make fun of President Mushroom’s … weight last night while guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!

All of the people who nearly hosted “Weekend Update” … but didn’t.

Your ESPN is about to become more expensive.

You can buy Jon Stewart’s original Daily Show couch on Facebook Marketplace. 

Brandi Glanville just spilling all the hot goss.

Jimmy Kimmel has no plans to retire, thanks.

This guy points out that the only way the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger works is at the loss of films, shows, and jobs. There’s just no financial way around it.

Congratulations, Amber Ruffin and Kelsi Cleary-Hammarstedt!

#MeToo

Hayden Panettiere’s untimely death is such a sad and messy and complicated situation, touching on substance abuse, domestic abuse, and perhaps the primary mover of it all: child stardom. Everything about Panettiere’s life is being re-inspected in the wake of her passing.

Reportedly, when Panettiere died, she was with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson. In her memoir, Panettiere said Hickerson had been abusive towards her multiple times and once spent 45 days in jail as a result. Around the time the memoir was released, he admitted to TMZ that he had been abusive, attributing it to “drugs, alcohol, abuse.” Hickerson had been arrested twice last year on drug offenses, arrests that were disclosed when he tried to get his domestic abuse charges expunged from his record. One of her Hollywood neighbors claims she called 911 half a dozen times to report disturbances at Panettiere’s apartment, and there were notices posted around the property instructing residents to call 911 if they saw Hickerson on the property. In fact, during her book tour earlier this year, she had barred Hickerson from her appearances. Three months later, he was with her when she passed from an overdose.

Apparently, in her final months, Panettiere was suffering from mysterious debilitating pain that she attributed to injuries she suffered as a young person in show business. While the officials say there is no foul play involved in Panettiere’s death, the D.E.A. has joined the investigation, and Panettiere’s long history of substance abuse has been pointed to.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Addicts aren’t patient,” she wrote in the memoir, which was released in May. “When we’re shaking, nauseated, anxious, lonely or depressed, we need instant relief that sends us into that pain-free place called denial.”

In her tone-deaf comments about her daughter’s death, her estranged mother blamed Hickerson, but it was Lesley Vogel, Panettiere’s mother, who put her in the business in the first place, which many have pointed to as the start of Panettiere’s troubles. Many child stars have come out following Panettiere’s death, calling for changes to the industry to protect children:

Melissa Gilbert (perhaps not the best spokesperson at the moment) has called for fellow child actresses to start a group to lobby for child performers.

Anna Paquin noted that it is “not a coincidence that so many former, specifically pre-sexualized female, child ‘stars’ have profoundly sad lives and untimely ends.”

And many fellow child actresses showed up in the comments:

Rose McGowan called for children to not be put in show business.

And Christy Carlson Romano, star of Even Stevens, compared child stardom to CTE:

Early fame is like CTE. Not as a diagnosis. As a way of thinking about repeated impact. We now have language for youth sports: protocols, helmets, parents worried about concussions. But we have almost no language for what happens when stress, scrutiny, rejection, adult pressure, and the collapse of privacy become the architecture of a childhood.

Young performers are still treated as exceptions. Lucky exceptions. Cute exceptions. Talented exceptions. Exceptions whose labor powers one of the most profitable storytelling machines in the world, while their mental needs are treated as inconvenient or irrelevant. Social work be damned.

I do hope that if anything good can come from the tragic loss of Hayden Panettiere, it is that something in how Hollywood changes and they figure out how to protect its most vulnerable. I’m not holding my breath, though.

Child actress Raquel Lee has sued Disney for negligence, claiming that she was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted as a child on the set of the 2001 movie, The Poof Point. The Hollywood Reporter separately found that Lee reached a confidential settlement agreement with actor Mark Curry in 2015. He played her father in the film.

Following the suicide of ex-girlfriend Katherine Early, comedian Reggie Watts has been accused by multiple ex-girlfriends of abusive behavior, pushing them to do drugs and engaging in non-consensual acts. Podcast Comedy Bang! Bang! has dropped his theme song as a result, and some UK music festivals have dropped him.

Rot in jail, rapist.

Florida Republican Michael Caruso has been arrested for five felony counts of child abuse, accused of kidnapping and molesting a young child, who was under five at the time. He had previously been accused by his ex-wife of molesting their children.

The FBI is investigating Eric Swalwell for sexual misconduct allegations.

Kroy Biermann Jr., son of Kim Zolciak and Kroy Biermann, was arrested for alleged aggravated sodomy and aggravated sexual battery. The Biermann family has denied the allegations.

Nathan Gallagher, one of the stars of Below Deck, was arrested on domestic abuse charges in Australia.

NFL Ravens player Rashod Bateman was arrested for domestic violence.

I’ve avoided commenting on this NBA Failclown, Enes Kanter Freedom’s desperate bid for attention by claiming he will join the WNBA’s draft because he identifies as a woman now, as some kind of illogical argument against transwomen in women’s sports, because I wasn’t interested in giving him exactly the attention that he was begging for. AND ALSO THERE ARE EXACTLY ZERO TRANSWOMEN IN THE WNBA, BUT EVEN IF THERE WERE, IT’S THEIR BUSINESS, THEY CAN MAKE WHATEVER RULES THEY WANT. But then this asshole went to a WNBA game and disrupted it because he wasn’t getting the attention he wanted, and explain to me how this behavior is “protecting” women in sports? Because to me, it’s just as disruptive and disrespectful to the sport and the women playing it as throwing dildos onto the court is, which apparently is happening again.

Again, notice that it’s only men who go method. Women are not allowed such bullshittery.

Once again for those in the back: cancel culture does not exist.

Because we live in a culture in which multiple adults saw this ad from conception to execution and had no problem with it. Yes, apologies have been made, and the ad has been pulled, but the fact that this is considered comedy at all within the bro-sphere should be alarming to all of us.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here. 

Renewals

Cancellations

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

R.I.P.

Dolly Parton, Beloved country legend, actress, producer, amusement-park-haver, philanthropist, patron saint of this God-forsaken country who didn’t deserve her. I’m devastated.

If you’re as sad as I am, you can donate to Dolly’s Imagination Library and bring a little light into a child’s world. I’ll post the countless tributes tomorrow.

James Lew, Stunt performer and coordinator who performed in many TV shows including T.J. Hooker, The Fall Guy, The A-Team, Falcon Crest and Murder, She Wrote to Roseanne, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Walker, Texas Ranger, Alias and Westworld, and movies including Action Jackson, Timecop, Lethal Weapon 4, and the Rush Hour movies. He also worked closely with John Carpenter on Big Trouble in Little China, They Live and Escape From L.A.

Chris “Block” Gordon, Star of Street Outlaws: Fastest in America

WATCH THIS

Jeopardy! Masters: Season premiere. 7 p.m., ABC

Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young: I do not care about football, college or professional or flag. That said, I’ve always had a soft spot for this young man, both when he was at the University of Texas and in his professional career, and I was genuinely concerned about him when he went off the grid. Glad he made it out the other side. Netflix

American Masters: Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World: A look at the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet known for her love of the natural world. 9 p.m., PBS

Late Night:

TUES. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Jeopardy! Masters
(repeat)		 Celebrity Family Feud
(repeat)		 Celebrity Family Feud
(repeat)
CBS NCIS
(repeat)		 NCIS: Origins
(repeat)		 NCIS: Origins
(repeat)
CW WWE NXT
(new)		 Local
FOX Kitchen Nightmares
(new)		 Beat Shazam
(new)		 News/Local
NBC America’s Got Talent
(new)		 Password
(new)
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