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 crew — who branded the undertaking exploitative and uncomfortable.
The two-part docuseries, Where Is Wendy Williams, aired Saturday and Sunday on Lifetime.
Two days forward of the discharge, Williams, 59, and her crew printed a press release that stated the star was recognized in 2023 with major 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 tough watch for a lot of, together with Shawn Zanotti, who started working as Williams’ publicist in 2021.
Zanotti, who seems within the documentary, instructed NBC News on Wednesday she felt Williams was “being exploited” by producers.
“She thought we were focusing on the comeback of her career,” Zanotti stated. “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.”
The episodes, whereas highlighting the cultural affect of Williams’ discuss present profession, present the star in various susceptible moments.
Throughout the documentary, a lot of Williams’ relations claimed they’d been lower off from contacting Williams, who the household stated was surrounded solely by folks on her payroll. In the second episode, Williams’ supervisor, Will Selby, finds an empty vodka bottle by the star’s mattress and confronts Williams about alleged heavy ingesting.
In the documentary, Williams is usually agitated, weepy and confused.
Zanotti instructed NBC News that the ultimate product of Where is Wendy Williams? isn’t what was initially agreed upon.
She stated she instructed Williams’ guardian (who was court-appointed in 2022) that she “did not agree with what was going on with this documentary.”
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“I made it very clear to the guardian. The production company was aware of that,” Zanotti recalled. “I didn’t agree with the way this was moving and shaking. And instead of them dealing with it with me, they decided to ignore me. They ignored me from that moment, and I never heard from them again.”
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 instructed the courts there was robust purpose to consider that Williams was an “incapacitated person” who’s “the victim of undue influence and financial exploitation.”
Morrissey sued Lifetime’s mum or dad firm, A&E Television Networks, forward of the documentary’s launch in an try to bar it from airing, USA Today reported. The lawsuit was dismissed over First Amendment rights.
“My concern at this point is: What’s really going on? Who really does have her best interest at heart?” Zanotti questioned.
Morrissey has not commented publicly in regards to the documentary or being Williams’ guardian.
‘We did not know she had dementia,’ say filmmakers
Where is Wendy Williams? was filmed between August 2022 and April 2023. Producers on the undertaking stated they have been, on the time of filming, unaware of Williams’ cognitive points.
In an interview with Today, government producers Mark Ford and Erica Hanson, who can be showrunner, stated they perceive why a few of Williams’ followers have moral considerations in regards to the documentary.
“We shaped the documentary, ultimately, in a way that we felt could benefit Wendy, her family and the world at large,” stated Ford. “What started as a story about Wendy and her biography turned into something very different. (It became) more about what it is like when your family member, who you care about, is placed under legal guardianship and you don’t have any access to her anymore?”
“We didn’t know that she had dementia,” added Hanson. “Some days, Wendy was on and very Wendy. Other days, she wasn’t. We all felt this was a complex and sensitive story to tell, and we all felt a great responsibility 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 effective with utilizing clips that confirmed empty liquor bottles and take-out orders in her dwelling as a result of “it’s just the truth of what she was going through.”
“Wendy was a partner as well as her guardian, her manager, all our lawyers, everybody’s signed off and was aware all the ways through what we were filming,” he continued. “There was never anything that was done behind her back. She was very forthright and open about everything.”
Regardless, a lot of Williams’ followers and viewers of the documentary thought the endeavour was slimy and conscienceless.
Williams hosted The Wendy Williams Show from 2008 to 2021, profitable admiration and a good bigger following of followers who appreciated her sincere, typically dramatic, recounts of popular culture moments and her personal historical past of habit and struggles with Graves’ illness and lymphedema.
The Wendy Williams Show was cancelled in 2022, and the primetime discuss present slot taken by Sherri Shepherd.
Lifetime didn’t reply to a Global News request for remark earlier than press time.
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