What kind of monster would fire Kermit the Frog? Why was one star kicked off her own show? And
how did Tobey Maguire's salary demands nearly end the Spider-Man series? Keep watching to find out!
Steve Whitmire, the voice of Kermit the Frog for 27 years, was fired by Disney in 2017 and there
are at least three different versions of why he was let go. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter,
Whitmire painted himself as the last holdout from before Disney's acquisition
of "The Muppets" in 2004. He told THR he was given two reasons for his firing — for being
"outspoken" and critical about changes to Kermit, and for refusing to work on a specific project.
Disney and the Muppets Studio had a different story. They told The
Hollywood Reporter Whitmire was, quote, "overly hostile and unproductive," and claimed he had
been dismissed for patterns of behavior that he'd displayed, quote, "over the course of many years."
But according to Gizmodo, the real reason was simple: money. Unnamed sources told
Gizmodo that Whitmire had asked for a higher salary than any other "Muppets" performer,
first class flights to and from his home, and a separate salary for his wife,
who worked as Whitmire's manager. Instead, they fired him, and the blame game began.
"What they really wanted was for me to frame this as I moved on, and that I had retired,
and it was just disingenuous."
Following his appearance as The Red Skull in 2011's "Captain America: The First Avenger,"
actor Hugo Weaving made it clear that he didn't really want to return to the MCU,
telling Collider he had, quote, "done [his] dash with that sort of film."
Of course, he had already signed a multi-picture deal,
but he seemed confident that Marvel wouldn't force him to fulfil those obligations.
It turns out he was right, but it was mostly a matter of money. In 2020,
Weaving told Time Out Marvel that he had actually been willing to play the Red Skull again in 2018's
"Avengers: Infinity War" and 2019's "Avengers: Endgame," but Marvel had offered him, quote,
"much less" money than before. When the two sides couldn't reach an agreement,
Weaving was replaced by Ross Marquand, who couldn't have been more thrilled.
"I'm a huge Marvel geek myself, I used to draw comic books when I was a kid."
"So this is just… this is all just very amazing."
The late Valerie Harper was a successful sitcom star throughout the '70s. She rose
to fame on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," eventually earning her own spinoff series
"Rhoda." She led her own series again in the '80s, NBC's "Valerie," in which she played a
mother trying to raise three sons mostly on her own. Coincidentally, the series also proved an
early high point in the career of a young Jason Bateman, who played Valerie's eldest son David.
"Valerie" proved a hit and at the end of Season 2, Harper decided to take advantage of the situation,
figuring they couldn't make her show without, you know… her. According to People, she originally
received $56,750 per episode, along with 10 percent of the show's adjusted gross profits.
For Season 3, Harper asked for a significant bump to $100,000 per episode
and 35 percent of the adjusted gross profits. When NBC said no, Harper stopped showing up for work.
NBC came back with a counter — $65,000 per episode and 12.5 percent — but apparently
they quickly changed their minds, because she was fired after filming only one more episode.
Her character was killed off, and the show was first renamed
"Valerie's Family" and eventually "The Hogan Family." Harper had the last laugh,
though, winning nearly $2 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit in court.
In July 2012, Jennifer Lopez told the world she was leaving her position as
judge on "American Idol." She broke the news on Ryan Seacrest's radio show "On the Air,"
just a day after Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler announced his own exit from the show. At the time,
J-Lo told Seacrest she was leaving because "Idol" was monopolizing her time, explaining,
"I honestly feel like the time has come that
I have to get back to doing the other things that I have to do."
According to TheWrap, though, J-Lo was actually fired for demanding too much money.
They claimed that J-Lo asked for a raise from $15 million per season
to $17 million. But since ratings were declining, Fox instead fired her.
Of course between her musical career, her acting, and more, it's doubtful J-Lo felt
much financial hardship in the interim, but even if she had it wouldn't matter much.
She was rehired the following year and remained as a judge until the end of the series' time on Fox.
"I missed everything about it. It was really hard for me to walk away when I did."
Hard to believe, but Tobey Maguire was actually fired from "Spider-Man
2" over salary demands, nearly derailing the beloved franchise.
As recounted by Screen Crush, when Maguire learned how much Sony had made from 2002's "Spider-Man,"
his $4 million payday seemed far too small a slice of the pie. So during negotiations, Maguire simply
didn't show up. When he was supposed to report to get his face and body scanned for the visual
effects of "Spider-Man 2," Maguire said that — due to "mild discomfort" in his lower back from an
injury sustained while filming 2003's "Seabiscuit" — he wouldn't be able to show up for work.
Rather than suffer what they saw as a bluff on Maguire's part, Sony fired him and soon
afterward director Sam Raimi and some of the producers met with future Spidey villain Jake
Gyllenhaal about taking over the role. Maguire reportedly had his future father-in-law,
who was then the Vice Chairman of NBC Universal, help convince Sony to bring Maguire back instead.
For the first six seasons of the drama "One Tree Hill," Chad Michael Murray played the
series' main character and narrator, Lucas Scott. But at the end of the sixth season,
Lucas and his wife left Tree Hill, North Carolina with their newborn daughter.
After their departure, "One Tree Hill" stuck around for three more seasons.
So why did Murray leave the show? Turns out he was fired over money demands after trying to negotiate
a pay raise for the show's seventh season. Murray then appealed to the fans to save his job, saying,
"They're not bringing me back next year [...] because they
want to save money. [...] Start blogging and being pissed off."
Apparently whatever blogging or other attempts were made by fans weren't successful,
because the final three seasons of the drama unfolded without him, for the most part,
other than a cameo appearance partway through the show's final season.
There remains no official word on exactly why Jaimee Foxworth's "Family Matters"
character disappeared in the show's fourth season,
beyond co-creator William Bickley saying it was for, quote, "budget considerations."
In "Mama's Wedding," Foxworth's character Judy is present. Then,
at the start of the next episode, she's gone and is basically never mentioned again. Rather
than recast Judy for the show's five remaining seasons, her existence was utterly forgotten.
One persistent rumor puts the blame for her departure on the doorstep of Foxworth's mother,
though. Supposedly, Foxworth's mother Gwynn Fox demanded more money for her daughter.
Instead, Foxworth was fired.
None of that has ever been confirmed, though, and it may all be rumor. What's not a rumor, though,
is the fact that Foxworth never got a job acting on television again.
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