[ad_1]
Wendy Williams’ publicist stated this week that the previous discuss present host would be “mortified” by the way in which she was portrayed in her two-part docuseries, “Where is Wendy Williams?”
“She thought we were focusing on the comeback of her career,” Shawn Zanotti informed NBC on Wednesday. “She would be mortified. There’s no way you can convince me that she would be OK with looking and seeing herself in that way.”
Zanotti, who has labored with Williams since 2021, stated she feels the 59-year-old was “exploited” by the producers of the Lifetime documentary.
Williams has been identified with main progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia and is in a remedy facility, a consultant revealed simply days earlier than the documentary aired.
Zanotti stated she hasn’t spoken to Williams since she entered the ability final April, in response to NBC.
“When I mentioned [doing a documentary] to Wendy, she immediately said: ‘Yes, I would love to do it. I would love to be able to get my story out there,'” Zanotti stated.
But Zanotti stated the documentary is “not the project that [Williams] signed up for. That’s not the project [the producers] brought to me. That’s not what I told her this was going to be about.”
Producer Mark Ford, govt producer Erica Hanson and Brie Miranda Bryant, an govt at Lifetime, have now stated they wouldn’t have shot the documentary if that they had identified about Williams’ analysis.
In a dialogue about whether or not the documentary is exploitative, Ford informed The Hollywood Reporter that issues had been edited in a sure means as a result of “[w]e wanted people to understand the journey of the filmmakers and how upsetting it was for all of us in certain instances and also how outrageous in some ways the situations were. Like, Wendy would be left alone without food, completely on her own in that apartment with stairs that she could easily fall down. There was no one there 24/7. So, these are just all the questions we had throughout.”
He added, “But, of course, if we had known that Wendy had dementia going into it, no one would’ve rolled a camera.”
WENDY WILLIAMS SPEAKS OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE DEMENTIA, APHASIA DIAGNOSIS ANNOUNCED
Bryant defined, “The diagnosis that was announced was not the information that any of us had going into it. So, people were watching the journey with information that we didn’t have in those first two hours, and I think that’s part of the confusion and the upset and outrage.”
Ford additionally informed the outlet, “This project never would’ve aired if we couldn’t steer it toward the hopeful ending or the ending that we have here with the family engaging and telling their story. I don’t want to speak for Brie, but we never would’ve aired something that didn’t have Wendy’s best interests and her family’s best interests at heart.”
Williams usually seems confused within the docuseries, at one time not even recognizing her supervisor. It additionally seems to indicate her battle with alcoholism, with empty bottles mendacity round.
Williams mentioned her substance abuse points whereas internet hosting her discuss present, which was canceled in 2022.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Her supervisor confronts Williams about an empty bottle in a single scene of the docuseries, asking if she drank the entire thing in someday. She solutions, “Yes — no.”
“There were a lot of good moments. None of those good moments were shown,” Zanotti informed NBC of filming the docuseries.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
She added, “I don’t think [the diagnosis] would have stopped them at all. The producers were asking questions throughout the entire time — would ask questions where she would somewhat seem confused, and I feel as though it was done to be intentional at that moment in time to make their storyline. Again, this was presented as a documentary to her, but to me, it looked as though it was a reality show of a circus, a circus to her downfall.”
Williams is now underneath a monetary guardianship. Her guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, filed a lawsuit to maintain the documentary from airing. It was dismissed by a choose citing the First Amendment.
Ford informed NBC, “Wendy was a associate, in addition to her guardian, her supervisor, all our legal professionals — all people’s signed off and was conscious all of the methods via what we had been filming.”
“I believe the intentions around this documentary was to make money and ratings — that was it,” Zanotti stated.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
She added, “That should have never aired, that documentary, the way that it was put together, or so they’re calling it, should not have been put out that way. That is not the project that she signed up for.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Lifetime for remark.
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink