One one hand she’s apparently fairly litigious, and on the other she’s a lot more famous (or infamous) now via the trial so a new show would have built in publicity.
If you are a producer or director do you roll the dice and include her or avoid her?
$4 million dollars?
I can hire twenty struggling, attractive, talented actresses who aren’t going to go all lawyery on me for dropping them from my show for that kind of money.
So no, I would not hire her. There’s only room for one high maintenance diva on my set, and that’s going to be me. (Although I prefer to be called an “artist.”)
You let her produce her own reality show, taking advantage of her notoriety while placing the burden of working with a diva squarely on her own shoulders.
Otherwise you ask yourself if she’s worth it. Often as not, the answer is “no.”
What’s the upside to this risk? Being sued for millions vs the perfect actress to play a wooden she-male model? She’s not black enough for a re-make for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
I think you may be overstating this point. I do sort of recall that there was a lawsuit when they killed her off Desperate Housewives, but it’s long since gone from the headlines and from most people’s minds. She was never that show’s big draw anyway, and I can’t imagine large numbers of viewers tuning into something new just to see Nicollette Sheridan.
So no, I don’t think I’d cast her.
Actually it’s been in the entertainment news headlines daily since last week - it’s finally come to trial and she’s been testifying.
And no, her career’s done. No one’s going to risk hiring her.
I sit corrected. Guess I missed this tidbit.
Still, I don’t think I’ll change my answer.
For most actors, these things hurt big time. Take Cliff Robertson who was blacklisted for blowing the whistle on a check forgery scandal.
There’s a lot of dirty stuff going on backstage in Hollywood. A lot. The people who do this know that the actors and such won’t usually sue since it will hurt their careers.
Note that the very top stars usually aren’t hurt when they sue. Bruce Willis and the like are basically immune. There’s always somebody willing to hire them.
Sheridan is not anywhere close to being in that category. Her career is toast.
Is there no producer who can resist slapping her?
Not, too, that Robertson was reporting an actual crime and got blacklisted for it. Sheridan will find it very hard to find work for years.
Well, at least now she’ll have something else to blame it on, other than her own lack of talent.
This just in: Sheridan sues Robertson for $ 5 Million…
I know James Garner sued someone (NBC Universal, I think) over not receiving royalties he was due for The Rockford Files. It took a while, but he settled out of court. He still had a pretty healthy movie career after that. And there were eight made-for-TV reunion movies, but they aired on CBS. I don’t recall him headlining another TV show (except for voiceover work), but that may have been because of the physical grind of doing a weekly show. Rockford took a bit of a toll on him.
(The suit, from what I’ve read, was about profits from syndication. Garner claimed that they were syndicating The Rockford Files and Quincy M.E. as a package, and listing all the money in their ledgers as going to Quincy to hide the profits, of which Garner was entitled to a share. I just did a quick web search to refresh my memory, and found an article about Jack Klugman suing over profits he’s entitled to for Quincy, and which the studio claims is $66 million in the red after 25 years of syndication. Hollywood writers are creative. Hollywood accountants are fucking magicians.)
Considering her fame level is currently, at best, “that woman suing the show with Teri Hatcher and Eva Longoria” I am thining it will hurt.
Almost certainly hurt her. Raquel Welch was about the same age when she was fired from the movie “Cannery Row” after a few days. She won a huge lawsuit, about $15 million, but her career, which was faltering, pretty much died. Even when a few years later when she wowed Broadway critics in “Woman of the Year”, one of Katherine Hepburn’s most famous movies.
Sheridan could rebound. Suzanne Somers managed to get on Patrick Duffy’s first role after “Dallas” and “Step by Step” ran for seven years. Sheridan showed an ability to make what was supposed to be a small role on “Desperate Housewives” and reached equal status with the other four actresses. But she is also facing the hard sad reality of Hollywood. There aren’t a lot of roles for women in their 40s and above. maybe a supporting role as the mother on a Hilary Duff made for TV movie but that is usually about it.
During this year’s Oscar telecast, someone made an aside about a film like “Titanic” never having showed a profit. It was good for a real roar of laughter from the crowd.
Nothing makes money in the film business. Nothing.