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A brand new documentary specializing in and starring Wendy Williams has been the topic of intense criticism from followers — and even members of the star’s personal PR workforce — who branded the mission exploitative and uncomfortable.
The two-part docuseries, The place Is Wendy Williams, aired Saturday and Sunday on Lifetime.
Two days forward of the discharge, Williams, 59, and her workforce printed a press release that stated the star was identified in 2023 with main progressive aphasia (a language-related dysfunction that impacts dialog and literacy) and frontotemporal dementia (a mind dysfunction that impacts persona and behavior, in addition to reminiscence).
The now-public information of Williams’ psychological decline made the documentary a troublesome watch for a lot of, together with Shawn Zanotti, who started working as Williams’ publicist in 2021.
Zanotti, who seems within the documentary, advised NBC Information on Wednesday she felt Williams was “being exploited” by producers.
“She thought we have been specializing in the comeback of her profession,” Zanotti stated. “She could be mortified. There’s no method you may persuade me that she could be OK with trying and seeing herself in that method.”
The episodes, whereas highlighting the cultural impression of Williams’ discuss present profession, present the star in quite a lot of susceptible moments.
All through the documentary, lots of Williams’ relations claimed they’d been reduce off from contacting Williams, who the household stated was surrounded solely by individuals on her payroll. Within the second episode, Williams’ supervisor, Will Selby, finds an empty vodka bottle by the star’s mattress and confronts Williams about alleged heavy ingesting.
Within the documentary, Williams is commonly agitated, weepy and confused.
Zanotti advised NBC Information that the ultimate product of The place is Wendy Williams? just isn’t what was initially agreed upon.
She stated she advised Williams’ guardian (who was court-appointed in 2022) that she “didn’t agree with what was occurring with this documentary.”
“I made it very clear to the guardian. The manufacturing firm was conscious of that,” Zanotti recalled. “I didn’t agree with the way in which this was shifting and shaking. And as an alternative of them coping with it with me, they determined to disregard me. They ignored me from that second, and I by no means heard from them once more.”
In 2022, Williams was appointed a authorized guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, who would oversee the star’s funds and well being selections. The guardian was appointed after Wells Fargo froze Williams’ accounts and advised the courts there was sturdy motive to consider that Williams was an “incapacitated individual” who’s “the sufferer of undue affect and monetary exploitation.”
Morrissey sued Lifetime’s guardian firm, A&E Tv Networks, forward of the documentary’s launch in an try and bar it from airing, USA At present reported. The lawsuit was dismissed over First Modification rights.
“My concern at this level is: What’s actually occurring? Who actually does have her greatest curiosity at coronary heart?” Zanotti questioned.
Morrissey has not commented publicly in regards to the documentary or being Williams’ guardian.
‘We didn’t know she had dementia,’ say filmmakers
The place is Wendy Williams? was filmed between August 2022 and April 2023. Producers on the mission stated they have been, on the time of filming, unaware of Williams’ cognitive points.
In an interview with At present, govt producers Mark Ford and Erica Hanson, who can be showrunner, stated they perceive why a few of Williams’ followers have moral issues in regards to the documentary.
“We formed the documentary, in the end, in a method that we felt may benefit Wendy, her household and the world at giant,” stated Ford. “What began as a narrative about Wendy and her biography became one thing very completely different. (It grew to become) extra about what it’s like when your member of the family, who you care about, is positioned underneath authorized guardianship and also you don’t have any entry to her anymore?”
“We didn’t know that she had dementia,” added Hanson. “Some days, Wendy was on and really Wendy. Different days, she wasn’t. All of us felt this was a posh and delicate story to inform, and all of us felt a terrific accountability to do it with dignity and sensitivity.”
The pair claimed to haven’t spoken to Williams since filming wrapped in 2023.
Ford stated he felt Williams would have been positive with utilizing clips that confirmed empty liquor bottles and take-out orders in her dwelling as a result of “it’s simply the reality of what she was going by means of.”
“Wendy was a accomplice in addition to her guardian, her supervisor, all our attorneys, everyone’s signed off and was conscious all of the methods by means of what we have been filming,” he continued. “There was by no means something that was achieved behind her again. She was very forthright and open about the whole lot.”
Regardless, lots of Williams’ followers and viewers of the documentary thought the endeavour was slimy and conscienceless.
Williams hosted The Wendy Williams Present from 2008 to 2021, profitable admiration and a good bigger following of followers who appreciated her trustworthy, typically dramatic, recounts of popular culture moments and her personal historical past of habit and struggles with Graves’ illness and lymphedema.
The Wendy Williams Present was cancelled in 2022, and the primetime discuss present slot taken by Sherri Shepherd.
Lifetime didn’t reply to a International Information request for remark earlier than press time.
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