Television shows may seem like a lot of fun to film when you're watching them from the
couch, but in certain cases, they can be an absolute torture. Just like your own workplace,
sometimes there are relationships on the TV set that are slightly less than perfect.
Grey’s Anatomy’s Katherine Heigl created tension to the extreme when she publicly removed
herself from Emmy consideration the year after she won the award, blaming the writers for
not giving her enough good material.
Rumors that she was a diva on set and difficult to work with continued up until she left the
show about a year-and-a-half later. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, Grey's
Shonda Rhimes seemed to imply that it was Heigl who catalyzed Rhimes', quote, "no a**holes"
policy on the set of her follow-up hit, Scandal. Rhimes didn’t bother mincing words in the
interview:
"There are no Heigls in this situation [...] I don't put up with bulls--- or nasty people.
I don't have time for it"
Years later, in an interview with Howard Stern, Heigl spoke about the controversy, saying,
"I went in to [see] Shonda and said, 'I'm so sorry. That wasn't cool, and I should not
have said that.' And I shouldn't have said anything publicly. But at the time, I didn't
think anyone would notice. [...]
Yeah, probably.
In 2014, TMZ reported that Glee co-stars Naya Rivera and Lea Michele got into a legitimate
tiff while filming an episode of their hit musical-comedy series. To this day, nobody
really knows what the fight was actually about.
During a 2017 interview on E! News, series creator Ryan Murphy finally addressed the
feud, saying,
"I feel like in the case of that show, that show was just a s**tstorm of difficulty.”
“What do you do when you're 18 years old or 19 years old and you wake up one day and
you're world famous? I think a lot of that was informed by their youth and being involved
in a phenomenon."
Fans of CBS show Criminal Minds were shocked in August 2016 when news broke that the series'
star Thomas Gibson would not be returning as Agent Aaron Hotchner. It turns out that
Gibson had initially been suspended for two episodes after kicking writer and producer
Virgil Williams during an argument. Eventually, however, he was written out of the show, on
which he'd appeared for 11 seasons.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the incident occurred during an episode that Gibson was
actually directing. THR further explains that this wasn't the first time Gibson had lashed
out at a coworker; he allegedly pushed an assistant director for the show a few years
earlier, and ended up in mandated anger management classes. It also seems that Gibson had a contentious
relationship with his co-star Shemar Moore; in August 2016, Vulture reported on a seemingly
shady Instagram video that Moore posted right after Gibson was fired and then deleted, saying,
"I'll just say this: I believe in karma."
A battle over creative control erupted during the first season of Roseanne, one that the
eponymous star ultimately won. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Roseanne Barr revealed
how she forced ABC to part with writer and creator, Matt Williams, saying:
"I said, 'I want to break the contract, I quit.' They told me Matt would be out by show
13. Thirteen has always been my lucky number. So I ate s*** until then."
After cleaning out his desk, Williams spoke to The Los Angeles Times, claiming that his
dismissal was, quote, "symptomatic of an industry disdain for writers in general." Those words
would ring true in the years that followed, as Barr continued to feud with her writers.
Barr got pretty candid when Entertainment Weekly had a, quote, "Roseanne family reunion"
in 2008, and she didn't hold back when she described her writer team as “egocentric”.
The actor revealed that she wouldn't even refer to them by name, using numbers she'd
allocated instead. Amy Sherman-Palladino, who would later create Gilmore Girls, said:
"The writers did not think it was funny. Anytime you tell someone, 'I'm not going to learn
your name, here's your number,' you're diminishing their worth."
When Roseanne was renewed for a belated 10th season in 2017, Barr claimed that all the
drama was ancient history. She told Entertainment Weekly, quote, “I don’t want to fight
no more.” Yet, she just couldn't stay out of trouble — Barr was sacked the following year after a racist tweet.
“I knew it!"
"No, no, wait, Roseanne! This is a mistake!"
"You bet it is!”
In 2005, at the peak of the success of ABC's primetime soap, Desperate Housewives, the
principal cast members reportedly got into it at a shoot for the cover of Vanity Fair.
According to People, ABC told Vanity Fair that Teri Hatcher couldn't get first dibs
on wardrobe or take over the shoot, suggesting that the rest of the cast wasn't happy with
her behavior on set.
Hatcher ultimately arrived at the set early, setting off a chain of events that allegedly
ended with Marcia Cross storming off the shoot and Hatcher crying on the phone. The feud
between Hatcher and the rest of the Desperate Housewives cast reportedly continued throughout
the show's seven-season run.
In 2010, Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan sued ABC for wrongful termination
and battery after claiming she was hit on the head by the show's creator, Marc Cherry,
and subsequently written off the show for complaining about the incident.
The suit went to trial in 2012, during which Cherry testified that he tapped Sheridan on
the head, and that the tap was only done to help demonstrate how Sheridan's scene should
play out. A judge ultimately declared a mistrial after the jury became deadlocked. Subsequent
lawsuits were tossed out, as well.
As an aside, Cherry's testimony also seemed to confirm Hatcher's feud with the rest of
the cast. At one point, he recalled an incident in which Hatcher and Sheridan were fighting
on set, as reported by E! News:
"Nicollette pulled me aside and told me that Teri Hatcher was the meanest woman in the
world, because of how she was acting."
Incidentally, Cherry also testified that co-stars Eva Longoria and Felicity Huffman were, quote,
"relieved" when Sheridan was written off the show.
The irony of the show's title couldn't have been lost on those who worked on NBC's beloved
but highly troubled show, Community. The community college comedy made unwanted headlines in
2012 when star Chevy Chase was accused of using the N-word on set, according to Deadline.
Chase reportedly used the slur in protest, after being shown some dialogue he didn't
agree with, suggesting that his hopelessly bigoted character Pierce would be asked to
use it in reference to his Black co-stars the way things were going. The cast didn't
appreciate his reasoning, however, and he promptly apologized. Joel McHale would later
tell Howard Stern that Chase claimed Richard Pryor permitted him to use the n-word.
Showrunner Dan Harmon clashed with Chase on numerous occasions. Speaking to The New Yorker
in 2018, Harmon recalled a time he had to apologize to Donald Glover after, quote, "a
particularly rough night of Chevy's n on-P.C. verbiage."
What did Chase say, exactly? According to Harmon, Chase told Glover that:
"People think you're funnier because you're Black."
Harmon believes that Chase was threatened by the clearly talented Glover, who refused
to take the bait. The actor and musician told the publication:
"I just saw Chevy as fighting time. A true artist has to be okay with his reign being
over. I can't help him if he's thrashing in the water. But I know there's a human in there
somewhere — he's almost too human."
“I’m done with whatever you call this. Adios.”
When Shannen Doherty left Charmed amidst mysterious circumstances in 2001, she left a trail of
rumors about a beef with co-star Alyssa Milano. Doherty, who portrayed Prue, told Entertainment
Tonight that she decided to split because she was totally over on-set feuds?
"There was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work. I'm 30 years
old and I don't have time for drama in my life anymore."
But did she really walk away, or was she asked to leave? In 2013, Milano re-stoked the fires
somewhat when she appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, and said:
"I don't know if [Shannen] got fired, we never really found out what happened. There were
definitely some rough days."
When Milano spoke to E! News four years later, she revealed that she and Doherty privately
reconnected via Twitter after Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer. She said:
"I think that what she has gone through, [and] motherhood in my life, I think it just changes
people. I'm so happy that she's feeling well. I prayed for her every day that she would
feel well and I can't wait to see her."
Doherty was in remission at the time, though sadly, she would receive a second breast cancer
diagnosis in 2019. In a February 202 INstagram update, the actor said that she was focusing
on looking after herself and, quote, "embracing every day."
Sex and the City co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall reportedly fell out in 2004,
when Cattrall discovered she was being paid much less than SJP for the hit show's final
season. Parker later played down their beef in an interview with Elle, claiming it was
fabricated. She said:
"I don't think anybody wants to believe that I love Kim. I adore her."
She did, however, acknowledge that there was some friction when she spoke to Marie Claire
in 2010, blaming the show's long hours, saying:
"There are times when all of us have been sensitive, and sometimes feelings get hurt."
Parker seemed ready to move on, but Cattrall had other plans.
When Piers Morgan interviewed Cattrall in 2017, she said that she's never been friends
with her Sex and the City co-stars and that Parker in particular "could have been nicer"
to her. SJP's attempts at friendliness blew up in her face when Cattrall's brother tragically
died the following year — when Parker sent her condolences, Cattrall lashed out in a
fiery Instagram post, saying:
"Let me make this VERY clear (if I haven't already). You are not my family. You are not
my friend."
Cattrall went on to accuse Parker of exploiting her tragedy to further Parker's, quote, "'nice
girl' persona." Yikes.
According to E! Online, actress Janet Hubert was fired from her role as Aunt Vivian after
the third season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, due to "creative differences"; actress Daphne
Maxwell Reid was quickly brought in as a replacement.
What led to the shocking cast swap? Star Will Smith shed a little light on the backstage
drama in a 1993 radio interview, saying,
"I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be The Aunt Viv of Bel Air Show...No
matter what, to her I'm just the Antichrist."
Smith's co-star Alfonso Ribeiro also riffed on the feud during a comedy set, saying bluntly:
"There were days when we were all on the set and she would literally go off on people.
[...] We felt like, when we were doing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, that we were a family.
[...] She, at that point, ruined that, and she made it very difficult for us to work,
and unfortunately she was then fired."
For her part, Hubert denied any wrongdoing in a 2016 interview on The Real, momentarily
speaking of herself in the third person:
“Janet Hubert was never difficult on that set. Janet Hubert was so professional, it
wasn't even funny.”
She went on to say:
“I think Will simply needed to win, and I think sometimes when you get caught up in
a lie and those things never happened. She never left the set. I never left the set.
We got along great.”
Two and a Half Men star, Charlie Sheen, appeared to burn bridges with creator Chuck Lorre in
2011, going on a bizarre series of rants that led to his firing from the popular sitcom.
Lorre apparently joked that he would be mad if the hard-partying Sheen outlived him. Sheen
took this personally, and proceeded to trash Lorre to numerous outlets. He called Lorre
a "clown" on The Alex Jones Show, and would later brand him, quote, "a stupid, stupid
little man and a p---- punk" when TMZ asked for his thoughts.
It probably won't surprise you to learn that Sheen didn't let it go. Six years after he
was sacked, he once again went off on Lorre, calling him a, quote, "ridiculous impostor"
during an interview with KIIS 1065's Kyle and Jackie O, exclaiming:
"Chuck Lorre, I hope you're listening. Hey Chuck: Suck my f------ butt."
But in 2018, Sheen expressed some uncharacteristic remorse when he spoke to Australia's Today
Show. Asked if he'd made up with Lorre yet, Sheen said:
"I haven't in person. It is a thing I really want to mend."
Even though The X-Files came back for another season in 2016, and co-stars David Duchovny
and Gillian Anderson seem like best of pals now, it wasn't always smooth sailing on the
set of Fox's sci-fi smash hit. In a February 2015 interview with The Guardian, Anderson
admitted that:
"there were definitely periods when we hated each other. [...] Hate is too strong a word.
We didn't talk for long periods of time. It was intense, and we were both pains in the
arse for the other at various times."
For his part, Duchovny told Variety that, quote, "The crucible of doing that show made monsters
out of both of us."
It seems that in this instance, time heals all wounds, however, and Duchovny and Anderson
are now able to work peacefully side by side. Duchovny further explained to Variety:
"Once we got to step back, it was like, 'Oh, wow, we really like each other. The way we
work together has changed.'"
All's well that ends well, and now that everyone's best friends again we just want to know:
when's the next season coming?
Emotions regularly run high on Empire, and reports suggest that the turmoil can sometimes
continue after the cameras have stopped rolling. In 2017, tabloids claimed that execs had been
dealing with behind-the-scenes mm between Taraji P. Henson and season 3 guest star , who
were apparently refusing to film scenes together.
According to insiders, Long's difficult behavior with the hair, wardrobe, and makeup teams
prompted an angry reaction from the series regular. TMZ reported:
"They stopped speaking to each other when they were on set. Our sources say it was next
to impossible to film the scenes they did together, and that's why they had actually
blocked out how to shoot those scenes separately."
A second source told E! News that things escalated when newcomer Long overstepped her mark, saying:
"Tensions calmed between them towards the end of the season, but it comes down to the
fact that they both have been in the industry for so long and both want to be the star.
Unfortunately for Nia, Taraji is the star of Empire and no one and nothing will ever
change that."
Henson has remained tight-lipped in the years since, but Long seemed to stir the pot when
she spoke to TV One's Uncensored in 2018, saying:
"Nia Long knows her light, Nia long knows her makeup, Nia Long knows her hair — and
you probably can't talk me into something else. If you want to call that difficult, then sorry."
Much has been written about Lena Headey and Jermone Flynn's rumored romance, but what
exactly went down between these two Game of Thrones stars? Headey's Cersei Lannister and
Flynn's Ser Bronn of the Blackwater shared the screen briefly during season 3, but they
curiously never appeared in a single scene together after that.
The two are thought to have met back in 1993, when Headey appeared on Soldier Soldier, a
British drama series headlined by Flynn and his one-time musical partner, Robson Green.
Flynn denied that anything was going on when The Sun questioned him about Headey in 2003,
though, interestingly, he refused to, quote, "rule out a relationship with her."
Whether they dated at the time remains unclear, but if they did, it didn't last. Headey married
from 2007 to 2012, then married again in 2018. It's the period in between that she supposedly
got involved (or re-involved) with Flynn, though The Guardian once mentioned rumors
of some overlap.
Whatever happened, it apparently ended badly. An insider told The Sun ahead of the Game
of Thrones finale in 2019:
"Lena and Jerome have not filmed together due to a bad break-up. They kept the full
extent of it secret but it was a very turbulent relationship and it has been very awkward
on set. [...] She appears to have a genuine hate towards him."
Star Trek legends George Takei and William Shatner remain locked in a feud that has spanned
several decades. They worked together from 1966-1969, and would co-star in six Star Trek
feature films, giving them plenty of time to get under each other's skin. Their beef
became common knowledge when Takei opened up about it in his 1994 autobiography To The Stars,
claiming that Shatner would pretend not to know him on set, and even had a movie
script altered so that Takei's Sulu wouldn't get his own starship. It's been a tit-for-tat
war of words ever since.
The feud flared up big time in 2008, when Shatner claimed to have not been invited to
Takei's wedding. Shatner was quoted by The New York Post as saying:
"There's such a sickness there, it's so painfully obvious that there's a psychosis there. I
don't know what his original thing about me was, I have no idea. I didn't read his book
that was printed many years ago."
Takei told The Edmonton Journal that Shatner's invitation must have been lost in the mail.
And in 2019, when The Guardian asked Takei what his dream dinner party would look like,
he appeared to take a shot at his old foe with his answer, saying:
"My colleagues from Star Trek, with one exception."
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