Latest news with #Let'sBeClear
Daily Mirror
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Charmed viewers floored over cast switch up in original pilot episode
The unaired pilot episode of the supernatural television series Charmed could have sent the show in a completely different direction if a major role hadn't been recast Charmed fans were gobsmacked after stumbling upon snippets of the original pilot episode which features a different actress in the role of Phoebe. The hit supernatural drama series tells the tale of the Halliwell sisters - Prue, Piper and Phoebe - who unearth their destiny as the "Charmed Ones", learning they're extraordinarily gifted good witches destined to wield their new magical powers to protect innocents from evil. In the first episode of the series, the three sisters reunite in their childhood home where they uncover the secrets of their ancestry; they're the latest in a long lineage of good witches, and each of them has distinctive supernatural abilities. Charmed aired for eight seasons, spanning from 1998 to 2006 and was a massive success, amassing a cult following that still persists today. All prospective TV shows are pitched alongside a pilot episode, which aims to provide an accurate depiction of a show's premise and themes, while also showcasing the selected cast members in their respective roles. Pilots are filmed and screened in an attempt to persuade producers and networks to give the green light to a show and commission a full first season. Some pilot episodes end up serving as the official launch of a show, while others are re-filmed and, in certain instances, re-cast based on feedback from studio executives or other industry insiders. In the unaired Charmed pilot, the character of Phoebe - portrayed by Alyssa Milano in the show's official run - was initially played by Lori Rom. Phoebe, the youngest Halliwell sister - known for her power of premonition - starts off as a free-spirit but matures significantly through her trials as a Charmed One. The eldest sister Prue was portrayed by Shannen Doherty, who sadly died in 2024 after a lengthy ordeal with cancer. Prior to her death, Doherty had made waves with her podcast Let's Be Clear, inviting old co-stars and industry insiders to discuss their journey in showbiz. In one episode, she and former co-star Holly Marie Combs, who played Piper Halliwell in Charmed, chatted about the show's original pilot episode. Doherty described initial Phoebe actor Lori Rom as "wonderful" and commended her seamless fit into the cast, and her "quirky" touch. Both actors disclosed that Rom backed out of Charmed due to the clash between its supernatural themes and her religious beliefs. Shannen respected her choice, commenting: "[It's] not the decision I personally would have made, clearly, but I do respect her for putting her faith and her values first." Alyssa Milano replaced Rom in the role and crafted an unforgettable Phoebe, winning over the hearts of the fans and establishing herself as a firm favourite. In a recent post on Reddit, a fan shared a string of images from the unreleased Charmed pilot, which shows Doherty and Combs as Prue and Piper, with Rom instead playing Phoebe. The fan, shocked by this discovery, captioned their post: "Just found out that they shot the pilot with another actress playing Phoebe!" This revelation sparked a flurry of speculation from viewers about what might have been if Rom had stayed on for the eight season run, while some die-hard aficionados were quick to mention this revelation was old news within the community. Tensions between Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty were no secret; their strained dynamics led to a notorious shake-up at the end of season three. Doherty left the series with her character Prue coming to a dramatic demise, paving the way for Rose McGowan to step in as surprise half-sister Paige Matthews – a love child of the Halliwell's mother and Sam, her Whitelighter, which is essentially a guardian angel of witches in the world of Charmed.
USA Today
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Tori Spelling calls Shannen Doherty's 'shocking' Oscars in memoriam snub 'triggering'
Hear this story Shannen Doherty's in memoriam Oscars snub was a tough pill to swallow for Tori Spelling. In an episode of the "Let's Be Clear" podcast released Monday, the actress said it was "heartbreaking" and "truly shocking" that Doherty, her former "Beverly Hills, 90210" co-star, was left out of the in memoriam segment at last month's Academy Awards. "I couldn't believe it," she said. "When the in memoriam stopped and she hadn't been included, my heart dropped. It sank." Spelling went on to say that Doherty, who died from cancer last year, not being honored at the Oscars "personally felt a little triggering to me because this is the third person that I love that has been left out of the" in memoriam segment after her father, producer Aaron Spelling, and her former co-star Luke Perry were also not included after their deaths. "For all of us watching that loved her and loved her work, it felt like not only was she robbed, but we were robbed," Spelling said. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. Though Doherty was perhaps best known for her television work on shows like "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Charmed," Spelling argued she should have been honored at the Oscars because "it's really the big screen where her career thrived." Doherty's notable movie credits included "Heathers" and "Mallrats." Michelle Trachtenberg left out of Oscars' in memoriam tribute Spelling spent the rest of the podcast episode looking back at Doherty's career, offering her the tribute she felt the actress was denied at the Oscars. Doherty, who played Brenda Walsh on "Beverly Hills, 90210," died in July after a battle with cancer at age 53. She was one of a number of actors controversially left out of this year's Oscars in memoriam tribute to those who died over the past year, with Olivia Hussey, Tony Todd and Michelle Trachtenberg also not included. Perry's absence from the Oscars' in memoriam similarly sparked backlash in 2020 after the "Beverly Hills, 90210" actor died the previous year from a stroke. At the time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in a statement, "The Academy receives hundreds of requests to include loved ones and industry colleagues in the Oscars in memoriam segment. An executive committee representing every branch considers the list and makes selections for the telecast based on limited available time."
Fox News
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Growing Pains' star Tracey Gold says TV mom Joanna Kerns helped save her life during anorexia battle
As her character Carol Seaver on television's, "Growing Pains" dealt with the perils of adolescence, actress Tracey Gold struggled with her own problem: a debilitating eating disorder. The studio's actions - which included asking her to lose weight and subsequently gain some back, as well as writing jokes about her weight into the show - made it difficult for Gold to separate herself from her character. However, in the same way art influenced reality, Gold says it was her TV mother, Joanna Kerns, who would ultimately look out for her, pressuring the crew to help get her healthy. After three seasons, Gold noticed the writing on the show "became a little edgier," as the program angled to "be funnier" and "stay on top." "Unfortunately, I think in that time it became at my expense, and it became because they started to have Mike Seaver make fat jokes about Carol Seaver," she said of Kirk Cameron's character, who played Gold's older brother on the show, during an episode of the late Shannen Doherty's podcast, "Let's Be Clear." A member of the cast, but only a child, Gold said she felt she did not have much say in the direction of her character. "One thing you have to know about being a child actor. I always say this when I talk to kids who want to be child actors, I'm like, you have to be the best person on that set. You watch the adults messing up. You watch the adults, you know, laughing, forgetting their lines. They are allowed to do that. You, as a child actor, you need to get there. You need to know your lines. You shut your mouth and you do your job," she explained. "The ambiance on a set is that way. So when these jokes would come in, I really had no voice, so I would sort of just be like, I don't think I'm allowed to say anything. But I had power, a little bit, because Carol Seaver was all of a sudden, she was mine and I had created her and I was known for her, so all of a sudden I also felt protective of her a little bit." Gold said at the time, she was not hyper-fixated on her weight, so jokes were easier to accept, although after going on hiatus one summer, things changed. "I came [back with] the freshman 15 basically, and then the jokes accelerated when I came back and became meaner," she recalled. "It was out of my character to speak up, but it was hurting me, and I was sensitive to it. And I knew I had gained a little bit of weight, and I had never had that problem before." Although she had struggled in the past with disordered eating, the catalyst then had been different. "It was about staying childlike, you know, scared of hitting puberty." Gold found herself negotiating with the crew, many of whom were men. "Whether I like it or not. The set did have an element of misogyny to it because they're always bringing in the beautiful actress of the week … a few years older than me and coming in and, you know, dolling them up and sexualizing that and all of those things," she said. "It was a boys club. It really was a boys club." "They would say, you don't have any brothers, so you don't know what this is like. This is what brothers and sisters do to each other," said Gold, who grew up with four sisters. Although the jokes continued to hurt, "It'd be like a joke like, 'Here comes wide load.' And you're not talking just about Carol anymore. You're talking about me, Tracey Gold. And now I have to be in front of an audience that's laughing at me and my body and my weight." The studio eventually called Gold's father, who was her agent, and requested she lose weight. "That was a blow," Gold said, who would end up on a 500 calorie diet. "So within a month I had lost 20 pounds. Easily," she said. "I did it and I did it quietly, and I didn't tell anyone I was doing it. I just went and did it. And all of a sudden, everybody's coming up to me on the set, you know, everywhere, kind of going, 'Oh my god, you look so good, you look so beautiful, you look so amazing.'" "At that time, I think everybody … meant well, but in my view of it, it was like, was I that embarrassing before? Was I absolutely kidding myself that I could go on National TV, be Carol Seaver, and I really was that person they were saying those jokes about?" Things then shifted - for the worse. "Something hit me, and I'm like, 'I will not be the butt of anybody's joke again,'" she said. The actress would go days without eating. "I would make negotiations with myself. But as I'm doing this, I'm getting lower and lower and lower and lower in weight. But you know, you're in Hollywood, and everybody just kept giving me compliments. And it was making [my then-boyfriend] furious that everybody was complimenting me because he knew I was sick," she said of her husband Roby Marshall, whom she was introduced to by Kerns. The couple married in 1994, two years after the show ended. Her weight influenced the show. "And then all of a sudden, the jokes came about Carol's working out. Carol becomes homecoming queen." "It reinforces….that like having like 10, 15 extra pounds on you when you're 18 and figuring it out is really just bad. And it put me into a tailspin that I just found I couldn't get out of. You know, people asked me, did I think it was a cry for help? No, I don't. I think it was a really internal thing. I don't think I wanted help at that point. I wanted to keep myself safe and protected. It was a self-coping mechanism to keep myself safe," she explained. "I became very, very, very self-protective of myself and I kept continuing to lose weight. And I remember - and it was the irony of all ironies - they basically said to me, they called my dad once again, this is a few months later, and they say, 'We need Tracey to gain weight. She's getting too thin on camera. She's looking not healthy.'" Although she tried to get healthy, Gold said it was too late. "I had taken to throwing up and stuff," she admitted. "I remember [Marshall] came one day to my dressing room and he nailed the bathroom door shut. He went to the prop department … He's like, 'I need a nail and hammer' … And they're like, 'Why?' And he's like, 'I'm gonna nail Tracey's bathroom shut.' And they're like, 'Thank you. Thank you for looking after her. We're so worried about her.'" At one point, Gold went on vacation with Marshall to Florida, and the expectation on set was she would return healthier. "He thought he could take me out of California or Los Angeles and I could suddenly eat. But I couldn't," she said. Unfortunately, she contracted bronchitis and lost even more weight. A doctor ended up coming to the set and sending her home. "I'm like, OK, that's fine, I'm sick. I don't feel like being there anyway," she said of being sent home. "And they're like, she needs to go somewhere before she comes back on the set. And I didn't know, till years later, but it was Joanna Kerns, god bless her…she called the studio and she said, this girl's gonna die on your watch if you don't step in and do something. And something was done." Kerns did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment. Gold said - without any help from the show - she found an in-patient program that was all about "tough love," although she would sign herself out against doctor's advice days later. "I took a cab home, against anybody's advice. The only person that would speak to me from a pay phone was my husband. Everybody else would hang up on me because they were told to hang up. I mean they thought they were doing the right thing. And I took a week to find the right doctor. And I go to doctors, I tell them what I was going through and, because it was so public, it was like living in a fishbowl. And it broke the news and everything like that," she said of her health becoming tabloid fodder. Eventually, she found UCLA's Eating Disorder Institute, where she was able to receive out-patient treatment. "I started to find my voice, and that is such a powerful thing as a woman, as a child actress, as an actress." "I loved 'Growing Pains' and I have the best memories of 'Growing Pains' but that was, you know, a hard time for me. And you know, do I blame the writers? I always say no, because I was the one that was very susceptible to it. I think if I had been on the cheerleading team and a cheerleading coach had said the same thing to me, I think that would happen to me, I would have gone down a road of restriction. And you know, was it magnified because I was on TV? Possibly. I'll never know." "Growing Pains" aired for seven seasons between 1985 and 1992.
