CAST NEWS - SHANNEN DOHERTY

SCARE TACTICS HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
ADDED: 09.07.03

Sci Fi serves up a treat with trickester Shannen Doherty in a special full-hour Halloween edition of the channel's new hit series SCARE TACTICS. Slated to premiere in October, the season of ultimate prankster-ism, this best-of event will serve up the scariest of the scary - as friends set up their friends in hysterically nightmarish pranks - with mischievous host Shannen Doherty joining in by taking her own friends to the wild side of SCARE TACTICS. Featuring the best, cruelest and most humorous pranks from the series, the special will also treat viewers to some of the pranks that never made it on-air - featuring jokes that went awry, the pranksters who couldn't pull it off, and the "marks" that refused to be suitably impressed by a big guy in a rubber alien suit trying to frighten them.

This follows Sci Fi's recent announcemnet that it would produce nine more episodes of the half-hour hidden camera show (with a sci-fi twist) to air beginning in August. New episodes of the series air every Friday at 10pm (ET/PT) through September.

SCARE TACTICS, a delightfully wicked half-hour weekly series, takes the hidden camera to all new heights. Set up by friends and loved ones, unwitting ivctims take centre stage in elaborately staged "sci-fi" hoaxes, skillfully designed to tape into their wildest fears - from a mock alien encounter to babysitting in a haunted house.

Viewers laugh along with the hilarious reactions of the show's "stars" as they're caught off-guard and on-camera. SCARE TACTICS is produced by Hallock Healey Entertainment (SPY TV).

Since launching in April, SCARE TACTICS' producers have received over 5,000 requests from people wanting to set up their friends and family in future episodes. SCARE TACTICS was created by Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey and produced by Hallock Healey Entertainment. Hallock and Healey most recently served as producers of NBC's summer hit series SPY TV. BACK TO THE TOP

WHAT SCARES SHANNEN DOHERTY?
ADDED: 18.06.03. SOURCE: TV GUIDE ONLINE

As host of Sci Fi's guiltiest pleasure, SCARE TACTICS (which returns with new episodes Friday at 10 ET), Shannen Doherty is an accomplice to all manner of terrifying pranks. So she can't be entirely surprised by our first question: What would really freak her out?

"It would have to be something to do with water or sharks," she admits, perhaps foolishly, to TV GUIDE ONLINE. "I'm petrified of sharks. Petrified. Like, I know I'm going to get eaten one day."

Aha! Now we've given the altered-reality prankathon's producers the info they need to spook their star. Yet for some reason, the BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 and CHARMED actress isn't quaking in her boots. What gives? "I don't think they'd do that to me," she says. "If you pulled a prank on me with a shark, I'd probably have a heart attack.

"That's like finding out somebody's worst fear and making it a reality," she continues, possibly trying to reassure herself that she won't soon be playing fish food in a small-screen remake of JAWS. "On our show, we do supernatural [stunts]. There are really sharks, but are there really aliens? That's the difference."

That being the case, Doherty doesn't feel the littlest bit of remorse for the big jolts that are given to her series' unwitting victims. "If I saw somebody react in a bad way at the end, then yes, I might feel bad," she offers. "But I've only seen people laugh and be like, 'Oh my God, that was the coolest thing ever!'

"As as that's their reaction," she adds, "then we're doing our jobs." BACK TO THE TOP

SCARE TACTICS GETS ADDITIONAL EPISODES
ADDED: 07.06.03

SCARE TACTICS, the weekly half-hour hidden-camera-prank show starring Shannen Doherty, has received an additional nine-episode order from the Sci-Fi Channel.

The series stages stunts such as mock alien encounters and haunted-house baby-sitting capers, and has garnered a lawsuit from one disgruntled unwitting victim. The new episodes premiere from 20 June.

The series is produced by Hallock Healey Entertainment (SPY TV). BACK TO THE TOP

BAD-GIRL TAG LEAVES DOHERTY POUTING
ADDED: 09.04.03. SOURCE: THE KNOXVILLE NEWS-SENTINEL, 04.04.03

At 32, Hollywood bad girl Shannen Doherty fears life will pass her by.

She has posed partially nude in Playboy magazine twice. A drunken-driving charge resulted in probation and a fine. She's been married twice and left two primetime series in a huff.

Scare Tactics, a new pranks show, is her latest. She hosts the action and participates in pulling off some of the tricks.

The show's marks are victimised by elaborate science-fiction and horror-related pranks. One segment has a raver thinking aliens are trying to abduct her. Another has a man convinced he's entered a contaminated room.

Scare premieres at 10 tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Even as she plugs her Scare, Doherty says she is a bit directionless and frustrated these days. She wants to enroll in college and study politics and may do more to help abused children.

"I haven't figured out what to do. I haven't figured out what I am supposed to offer this world yet," the former Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed star says.

"I think my fear is that I won't. I have that nagging in the back of my head that I should be doing more, and I am not."

The war stirs her up, and she supports President Bush.

Might she run for an office?

She says she would "if I wasn't condemned for my past."

But the media would have a field day with her background, she says.

"It would be brutal."

What critics say bothers her.

"But I can't be so worried that I clam up," she says. "One of the unfortunate things about me is that I am incredibly transparent.

"I don't think I hide anything well in my life. I think that I am happy. I am happy because of some of the things I have gone through in my personal life. I have survived.

"It has made me stronger. Anytime you survive traumatic experiences and come out the other side, then you can say, 'I can get through this. This person hasn't devastated me, and I still do have my integrity and pride.' It puts you in a totally different place.

"I'm in a different head now. I take things a little bit lighter now but I have a different standard for my life and the people who enter my life because of the effect they have on me."

The Memphis native describes herself as a Republican with liberal opinions on such issues as abortion. Doherty is single now and has no children.

Regrets? She has a few, but "everything I have been through has put me where I am today," she says.

Doherty says she won't abandon acting. However, she frets the scandal headlines are getting more attention than her acting skills.

"Half the time" her talents are "overshadowed" by her "personal antics," she says.

"My fear," she says, "is that I will not have accomplished what I am supposed to on this Earth. I definitely think we are all here for a reason.

"I don't think I know what mine is yet. It's like, 'Oh, God, show me the way.' I want to do it now." BACK TO THE TOP

SCARE TACTICS PRESS RELEASE
ADDED: 01.04.03

Scare Tactics turns your fears into a terrifyingly funny reality

Shannen Doherty hosts new series premiering exclusively on Sci Fi April 4

The unforgettable Shannen Doherty enjoys letting loose as the instigator and host of Sci FI's first reality series Scare Tactics, launching Friday, April 4. This half-hour hidden camera show (with a sci-fi twist) launches with a double dose of back-to-back episodes beginning at 10pm ET/PT.

Scare Tactics goes where other hidden camera shows wouldn't dare. Set up by friends and loved ones, unwitting victims take centre stage in elaborately staged pranks designed to tape into their deepest fears. From encounters with aliens to babysitting in a haunted house, victims are caught off guard and on tape. Part of Sci Fi's "alternative reality" programming slate, Scare Tactics is produced by Hallock Healey Entertainment (Spy TV).

Veteran film and television actress Shannen Doherty most recently starred for three seasons as "Prue Halliwell" on The WB series Charmed - for which she also directed a number of episodes. She has also starred in the Showtime original film Jailbreakers, and played the title role in NBC's bio-pic Margaret Mitchell. Doherty's other series work includes Our House, Beverly Hills 90210, 21 Jump Street, Life Goes On, Obsession, Friend Till the End, and The Other Lover. Her feature film credits include Heathers, Mallrats and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Each Scare Tactics hoax is shot as if it's a stand-alone sci-fi short film - with the victim as the unwitting star. It's in these "movie-moments" that real emotion takes over, as we watch people react to a startling new version of a reality in which ghosts, Bigfoot, clones and aliens really do exist. Victims are predominately spotlighted at the behest of their best friends, who have asked the Scare Tactics crew for a little assistant in playing elaborate, fun, and bizarre pranks on their loved ones!

Scare Tactics was created by Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey and will be produced by Hallock Healey Entertainment. Hallock and Healey most recently served as producers of NBC's summer hit series Spy TV. BACK TO THE TOP

NEW DOHERTY SERIES SUED FOR PRANK
ADDED: 18.02.03. SOURCE: THE LA TIMES

Scare Tactics, a new Sci-Fi series hosted by Shannen Doherty is being sued for a prank played on a member of the public.

The series, scheduled to premiere on the Universal Studios-owned cable channel in April, uses hidden cameras to film the reactions of unsuspecting witnesses to horror and science-fiction-style scenarios such as haunted houses and alien abductions.

The trouble is, one of the witnesses contends she suffered real-life trauma from her experience.

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Los Angeles resident Kara Blanc claims she suffered emotional and physical trauma when the Channel and several other co-conspirators allegedly abducted her and forced her to witness a staged homicide by an alien being she thought was real.

SFC could not be reached for comment. BACK TO THE TOP

DOHERTY FINDS LOVE AGAIN
ADDED: 14.11.02

Hot on the heels of our previous stories, Shannen Doherty has started seeing someone new.

The former Charmed star, whose marriage to Internet gambling site owner Rick Solomon crumbled after just nine months, is now stepping out with 32-year-old actor Johnny Messner, who appears in the upcoming Bruce Willis flick Man of War.

A source tells US Weekly, "They're dating. They spent Halloween together, and they've been having quiet dinners together ever since." BACK TO THE TOP

DOHERTY TO DIVORCE...AGAIN?
ADDED: 25.10.02

According to a report in US Weekly, it looks like Shannen's nine month marriage might be over.

The former Charmed star, who recently tied the knot with Internet gambling mogul Rick Solomon, is telling friends she's done with his hard-partying ways, reports the magazine.

According to unconfirmed reports, Doherty's had enough of her husband not taking his work home, but rather to Las Vegas. Solomon reportedly made a habit of disappearing for days on end. The actress seems to be taking the matter to heart, given she was spotted just last week at a movie premiere party minus her wedding ring.

An unnamed source told the magazine, "Rick's been sober 18 months, but twice in the past month, he's just gone off - once to Vegas - and disappeared. He didn't tell her where he went. He left and partied all night. Shannen's in a good place. She's taking up surfing, is really involved with animal causes - she doesn't want this type of trouble in her life."

Doherty's second gamble at marriage seems to be following the same direction as her first, to actor Ashley Hamilton. The couple was married for less than a year before calling it quits in 1994. BACK TO THE TOP

SCI FI SNAPS UP SHANNEN
ADDED: 28.06.02. SOURCE: HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

The [US] Sci Fi Channel has tapped Shannen to be the host of their new show Scare Tactics, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey, both from NBC's Spy TV, created the show, which uses hidden camera tactics to film sci fi inspired pranks on people. Pranks will involve everything from haunted houses to alien abductions. The show will launch in October as a primetime series. BACK TO THE TOP

DOHERTY DOES MARRIAGE - AGAIN

06.02.02 - Shannen Doherty's personal life just entered rerun season, reports E! Online.

Known for her instant engagements (and quickie separations), Shannen has got married after a whirlwind romance.  Again.

The actress' rep confirmed today that Doherty, 30, exchanged "I dos" with 32-year-old movie producer Rick Solomon in Las Vegas.

"She got married last weekend and she's happy," says Leslie Sloane, Doherty's publicist.

The wedding was attended by a handful of friends and family.

No word yet on where the newlyweds will be vacationing.

Sloane said she did not know exactly how long Doherty and Solomon have been an item, but if reports are to be believed, the newlyweds apparently have not been together more than a month or two.

As late as November, gossip columnists and supermarket tabloids still had Doherty romantically linked with Australian actor Julian McMahon, who costarred with Doherty in Charmed and on last year's TV movie Another Day (which Doherty also directed).

Of course, blink-and-you-miss-it romance is a Doherty speciality.

Back in her 90210 days, Doherty infamously swapped vows with Ashley Hamilton, son of preternaturally tanned actor George Hamilton, in September 1993 after knowing each other for a whole two weeks.  To no one's surprise, the couple separateed five months later and divorced the following April.

For those keeping score at home, Doherty has also had several false starts at the altar.  She was briefly engaged to photo-studio owner Dean Factor in 1991 before calling off their one-year relationship to hook up with real-estate developer Chris Foufas.  They exchanged "commitment rings" in 1991 and separated in 1992.  In December 1995, Doherty got engaged to actor-director Rob Weiss (Amongst Friends) before the two split five months later.  She's also been linked to former Brat Packer Judd Nelson (one of the few she didn't get engaged to).

Doherty has cultivated a reputation for being a tad tempestuous onscreen and off.  Her prima donna antics led to behind-the-scenes strife and her eventual exit from both 90210 and Charmed.  Her legal dossier includes a 1992 nightclub scuffle, a 1994 lawsuit by an ex-landlord who said she trashed her rented house and stiffed him on the rent and a 1997 lawsuit by a woman who alleged Doherty's dogs bit her.  She was sentenced to anger-management counseling in '97 after she smashed a car window with a beer bottle during an argument outside another L.A. club.  And just last year, she pleaded no contest to drink-driving charges and was sentenced to five days in a work-release programme.

According to Sloane, Solomon is an independent movie producer (not to be confused with the other Rick Solomon who produced Free Willy, Traffic and I Am Sam) and owner of an online gambling site (hence the Vegas nuptials).  According to the New York Post, Solomon has previously been attached to such model-heiress types as Devon Aoki, whose family owns the Benihana chain, and Paris Hilton of the famed Hilton Hotel clan.

The Post also says Solomon once was kicked out of a trendy New York nightspot after trashing the place.

Sounds like a perfect match for Doherty.  Back to the top

WB PRESS TOUR SNIPPET

17.01.02 - A Shannen snippet from Keith Marder, The WB's director of corporate publicity at the TV Critics Winter Press: "Her punishment for drunk driving was changed to picking up trash on the side of the freeway, so you can tell your readers if they want to send fan mail, just chuck it out the window."

Thanks to Chris B. for sending that one into Charmed-UK.  Back to the top

ANOTHER WANDA U-TURN

09.10.2001 - Back in June, Planet Piper quoted E! Online's Wanda as saying she'd "bet on [Shannen guest starring on Buffy].  Shannen and Sarah are good friends, Shannen's available, and UPN would kill to get another big-name WB defector.  All's fair in the love and ratings war."

Not for the first time, she's done a complete U-turn.  Asked about IMDB listing Shannen as playing "Sarah Giles" on Buffy, Wanda said last week: "it's complete bunk.  If Shannen's going to be on Buffy, it's news to everyone I know related to the show, including Joss Whedon.  We were on set just last week...and I assure you, there was no Shannen in sight.  From what I hear, that's a rumour she started herself."  Back to the top

SHANNEN ON TRASH DUTY

07.10.2001 - Shannen will be working off her drunken driving charge by picking up trash from the side of the road.

The actress, who left both Charmed and Beverly Hills 90210 under a cloud, was arrested on 28 December last year for driving under the influence.  Tests revealed she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 percent, well above the state's legal limit of 0.08 percent.

On Tuesday, a California judge imposed the minimum sentence for the 30-year-old actress, who had already worked off part of her debt to society by lecturing teens about the dangers of drinking and driving.  Instead of spending two days in jail, she'll now serve five days in a work-release programme as part of her sentencing.

"Thank God, I did not injure anybody," Doherty told teens at a Thousand Oaks, CA, teen centre, according to People magazine.  "There hasn't been a day gone by that I haven't wanted to relive that decision to get in my car."

Doherty said that on the night in question, she was upset from "boyfriend problems and everything else," and that she drank "two or three margaritas" with friends before driving home on the Ventura Freeway and being pulled over at 3am for weaving.  She was arrested and spent the next 10 hours in jail.

"It's probably one of the most humiliating, degrading experience you can ever go through," she said.  "It's affected my career; it's affected the way I look at myself."

This isn't the first time the actress has been in trouble with the law.  After a 1996 incident in which she smashed a bottle on a man's car in Beverly Hills, she was put on probation and ordered to undergo anger-management counselling.

Source: MrShowbiz.  Back to the top

"WE WEREN'T PAID TO BE BUDDY-BUDDY"

02.09.2001 - Shannen's departure from Charmed was featured in the New York Post on 24 August, with a remarkably calm account of why she left the show:

TABLOID tempest!  Shannen Doherty has few more unkind words for the people assocaited with her old job, Charmed.

That includes her former co-star Alyssa Milano, TV titan Aaron Spelling and The WB network, which publicly supported the producer when he unceremoniously dumped her from one of the network's hottest shows last May.

"I think they handled it badly," Doherty tells next week's issue of TV Guide of Spelling.

Doherty reportedly had asked to be let out of her contract with the show last December after clashing with Milano, her co-star and former close friend.

But when Spelling's office finally called Doherty's lawyer last spring to grant her wish, she was insulted Spelling hadn't broken the news to her himself.

"The fact is none of us were paid to be buddy-buddy and hang out," Doherty says.  Her tabloid hi-jinks were already in high-gear even before she left Charmed thanks to a drunk driving arrest last December and a rough 10 hours in a Ventura County sheriff's department holding cell.

"I don't really like being touched," she said.  "I'm unbelievably claustrophobic, and I have really bad anxiety.  There were a few moment when I was very dramatic and thought, 'I'm not going to live through this.  I'm going to hyperventilate and just die.  Right here in jail.'"  Back to the top

HAS TV'S WILD ONE LOST HER CHARM?

31.07.2001 - From Thursday's New York Post:

Has Shannen Doherty's reputation for being a difficult diva finally put the kibosh on her career - or will it bring her one step closer to becoming the next "It" girl?

Doherty made a hasty exit from The WB's hit supernatural series Charmed at the end of last season after reportedly clashing with her co-stars - especially Alyssa Milano, who became more popular among fans of the show than Doherty or Holly Marie Combs.

And on her way out, she based the show's executive producer, Aaron Spelling - who had fired her once before from Beverly Hills, 90210.

"The lack of appreciation he's showing for me as a human being and as an actor is overwhelming," Doherty says about Spelling in the August issue of Details magazine [read the full article here].

But her tirades and bad-girl image could work in her benefit, some Hollywood insiders say.

"She's a babe, she'll be fine," says one high-powered PR whiz.

"In fact you could argue that it's spicy to stick it to Spelling," he said.  "Certainly people have [done that] before, and Alyssa Milano is not exactly an 800-pound gorilla.  Doherty's a babe, and babes tend to do well over time."

Doherty's latest troubles include a drunk-driving rap, but that hasn't stopped her from being cast in a TV movie called Another Day, which airs on USA in October.

She also appears in Kevin Smith's new film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the latest installment of characters made famous in Smith's movie, Clerks.

But it's likely that Doherty's abrupt exit from Charmed may haunt her for some time, especially in light of reported friction between she and Milano - and comments she directed by Milano in Details.

"I mean, what do we do?  Say a few lines, sit in our trailers and get paid a fortune," she says in the magazine.  "And yet there was a person there that bitched about her job, day in, day out."

And ripping Spelling hasn't exactly enamored Doherty to her Hollywood pals - although she hasn't completely written off ever working with the TV titan if he ever deigns to hire her again.

"You know, I said that after 90210, so you never know," Doherty has said about working with Spelling again.

The problem is that Spelling is responsible for gift-wrapping the two biggest boosts to Doherty's career - her role as Brenda Walsh on 90210 and as Pru[e] Halliwell on Charmed, The WB's second-highest-rated drama behind 7th Heaven.

In a strange twist, Doherty left 90210 in a similar fashion after clashing with Spelling and other members of the show.

At the time (1994), she vowed never to work with Spelling again, and shortly thereafter her career took a nose dive - before Spelling resurrected her career by hiring the actress for Charmed in 1998.  Back to the top

SHANNEN SPEAKS OUT

20.07.2001 - Speaking of her USA TV movie, Another Day, which she produced and starred in, Shannen told TV Guide Online that "it was something I was petrified to do.  It was the first time I read a script and thought, 'I don't think I can do this character justice.'  And I'm the type that if something scares me, I have to do it."

The site also asked her about why she left Charmed, Rose McGowan and reality TV:

After all the rumours about why you left Charmed including backstage feuding with covenmate Alyssa Milano - would you like to take this chance to clarify things for the record?

You know, I don't really want to be given the opportunity to clear the record.  I have absolutely nothing to say.  Details magazine will be out in August - that's probably the most honest interview that you'll ever read with me.  I picked one magazine to tell the true story in and... if somebody wants to read it, then great.  My opinion is, it really doesn't matter.  I moved on, they moved on and who cares?  You know, everything gets so blown out of proportion by the press that after a while, you just gotta bury your head in the sand and go, 'I'm done talkin' about it.'

Any parting advice for your replacement, Rose McGowan?

[Grins mischievously]  No, I think Rose will do a fine job, actually.  I think Rose can hold her own and she's very sexy and beautiful - and I think it's actually going to make for a very interesting show, to be honest with you.  I wish them all the luck.

For fun's sake, what do you think of the Survivor phenomenon?

I find all those reality-based shows a bit disturbing, actually.  I just think that it's saying something about society that everybody wants to peek in on other people's lives 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  And that to me is disturbing because they do it to me on a constant basis.  Now that it's been brought into TV, I find it a bit disgusting.

Any fears about actors being supplanted by reality TV?

They'll never take our jobs away from us.  Never.  It's a fad.  People will get sick of reality-based shows, so I'm not worried about it taking anything away from me.  What I am worried about is [the voyeurism of] society being consumed with other people's lives.  Back to the top

CHARMED SHE'S NOT

15.07.2001 - A brief snippet on the Shannen-Alyssa fued from Friday's New York Daily News:

Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano played good witches who battled the forces of evil in TV's Charmed.

Now that Doherty has been banished from the show, there's no love lost between them.

"I think my passion for my work was too overwhelming," Doherty tells Details magazine, hinting that she wasn't the one who wore the diva tiara.

"[We] sit in our trailers and get paid a fortune," she says, "and yet there was a person there that bitched about her job, day in, day out."

Doherty claims she wanted to leave the show, but she's still steamed that she has yet to hear from producer Aaron Spelling, who made the decision for her.

"The lack of appreciation he's showing for me as a human being and as an actor is overwhelming."

Spelling had no comment.  Back to the top

"NO MORE SPELLING"

08.07.2001 - "No," Shannen Doherty says emphatically when asked if she'll be doing any future projects with producer Aaron Spelling.  Then she laughs.  "No, but, you know, I said that after 90210, so you never know."

While fielding questions about her upcoming USA movie Another Day (which Doherty produced and stars in), the actress is blind-sided by reporters who are more curious about her recent drunk driving arrest and abrupt departure from Spelling's hit WB drama Charmed, widely speculated to be the result of increasing friction between her and co-star Alyssa Milano.

Despite several re-wordings of the question, Doherty refuses to rise to the bait.

"I think as an actor, at some point you have to discuss your work as opposed to your personal life.  I may have led my life very publicly up until this point, but at the age of 30, I'm trying to actually live it somewhat privately now."

A story of fate, in Another Day Doherty plays a young woman whose boyfriend dies in a fire.  Five years later she has an accident of her own and awakens to find that it's two days before her boyfriend's death.

Not that she's completely cut the ties of her less-than-Charmed past.  Former co-star Julian McMahon also stars in the basic cable production.

"I think that there's so many talented people in this business," says Doherty.  "We as actors get to encounter all sorts of different personalities in people, and that's pretty wonderful."  Source: zap2it.com.  Back to the top

"WHAT CAN SHE DO FOR MY CAREER?"

08.07.2001 - Shannen cropped up in the Daily Express this week, where columnist Carol Sarler reported that the former "teen star of Beverly Hills, 90210, surfaces from obscurity at the age of 30 to complain that men often date her while thinking only about 'what can she do for my career?'  At a wild guess, I'd say about as much as she's done for her own."  Back to the top

FORMER 90210 CO-STAR ON SHANNEN

30.06.2001 - In an interview with TV Guide Online, Shannen's former Beverly Hills, 90210 co-star Brian A. Green (looks like his real-life ex Tiffani-Amber Thiessen isn't the only one to change her name) had this to say about her:  "There's one thing I have to say about Shannen.  Everybody calls her a bitch, but from day one of 90210 it's always been about the work for her.  If she doesn't think something's good, she's gonna insist that it's changed and made better.  Not because she's this control freak, but...How bad is it that your lead actress wants the show to be better?  I'm not saying she's always used the best tactics, but if people would step outside their egos and try to understand that she's aggressive because she's passionate, it would be better.  But they want to jump to a quick conclusion and just say she's 'difficult.'"  Back to the top

WANDA: DOHERTY WILL GUEST ON BUFFY

26.06.2001 - Further to the previous story, E! Online's Wanda says that she'd "bet on this one actually happening.  Shannen and Sarah are good friends, Shannen's available, and UPN would kill to get another big-name WB defector.  All's fair in the love and ratings war."  Back to the top

SHANNEN THE VAMPIRE SLAYER?

16.06.2001 - Having just quit The WB's second most popular show, it seems that Shannen has her sights set on the network's former third most popular programme.

This week's Ted Casablanca column on E! Online claims that since "Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shannen are really good friends...they've been talking about doing the show together, with Shannen as a recurring character."

And I thought Joss Whedon was in overall charge of Buffy...

E! Online also quotes a source on Another Day giving this positive account of Shannen's time on the TVM: "Sure, she can be hard to take.  But, look, she knows what she's doing.  She has the experience.  Hell, she knows more about how to make that movie than the others!"  Back to the top

SHANNEN'S DUI SENTENCE

16.06.2001 - The former Prue Halliwell was sentenced on Tuesday to either 10 days in jail or 20 days of work-release duty, after pleading no contest to drunk-driving charges.  As we reported back in December, Shannen was pulled over for allegedly weaving across a Southern California highway in her Ford pickup truck.

The actress, who didn't show up for sentencing, was ordered to pay $1,500 in fines and was put on probation for three years.  She's also not allowed to drive with any alcohol in her system, and has to attend a series of DUI classes.

Prosecutors had pushed for a standard punishment - which would have included Doherty picking up trash by the roadside - but Judge Charles Campbell ultimately agreed to let her work off some of the time by doing speaking engagements at teen centres and meetings for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

"Our office's position was that she should do what everyone else does," said Ian Morse, deputy District Attorney for Ventura County.  "We don't feel she should do less beside she's a celebrity.  If she were truly repentant, she would do the speaking engagements on her own.  But the court's position is that she's in a unique position to help people in the community."

Either way, the judge will determine the exact amount of community service on September 10, when Doherty is due back in court for a progress hearing.

The actress had initially faced up to six months in jail, partly because prosecutors chalked up a "special enhancement" against her for refusing to take a breathalyzer, although prosecutors said a penalty as stiff as six months in the slammer was unlikely.

Prosecutors also said that Doherty was later given a "non-consensual" blood test, which registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 percent - over the state's 0.08 legal limit.  Doherty's lawyer previously denied that her blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit.  Back to the top

ANOTHER DAY FOR SHANNEN

13.06.2001 - Entertainment Tonight's website has a mini-interview with Shannen, where she discusses why she's leaving Charmed and her new film, Francis Ford Coppola's Another Day.

Entertainment Tonight: How did you get involved with this movie?

Shannen Doherty: I was sent the script and I was told that Francis Ford Coppola was producing, so I really didn't need to read it.  I'm supposed to go meet him and hang out with him when I go back to L.A.  Then I actually read the script, because I thought I should sort of know what I'm doing, and it was amazing.  It sort of fell right along the lines of the decision of what I wanted to do with my career.  I wanted to do work that was really fulfilling and really challenging.  If I read something that I find a little scary because I'm not quite sure I can pull it off, that means I have to do it.  That was the case with this script.  It was so heavy emotionally that I thought, "Can I do this?"  So, I took it and it's been amazing.

ET: Tell us about the story of this film and why you found it so compelling.

Shannen: I find the whole story compelling because it's about life and death, fate and destiny.  It's a woman's journey, going through a tragedy and trying to make the best of that tragedy, and coming to terms with it and coming to terms with loss and death and then finding new love.  It's a great movie.

ET: We want to set the record straight about you leaving Charmed.

Shannen: I think there's always going to be rumours.  As far as I'm concerned, it adds to the whole mystery of my career.  It certainly didn't hurt me after 90210 that there were rumours floating around.  It won't really affect me now, either.  I went in to Paramount in December and asked them to let me off the show.  That was my request.  I was unhappy, and I just felt that the work wasn't fulfilling, and that there was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work.  I just didn't want to be a part of it.  I'm 30-years-old and I don't have time for drama in my life anymore.  I'm really focused and I just want to do good work and to prove my ability with actors who really care and who want to be there every single day.  I don't want to be with people who bitch about their job, and complain about it and say that they hate it or anything else.  I want to work with people who care as much as I do, because that's when you do your best work.  I'll miss Holly (Marie Combs) a lot.  That's really the only thing I want to clear up and I know that she wants to clear up.  We've spoken like every single day since I've been in Winnipeg, and she's one of my best friends and I love her dearly.  There were never, ever, any problems between the two of us.

ET: I think it's neat how you talked about the film you're doing now, with the tragedies and the ups and downs.

Shannen: It's so weird.  Life imitates art, art imitates life.  I've never felt more satisfied and calm and at peace and excited in my entire life.  It's exciting, taking a huge risk of leaving a hit TV show, which is really only a hit for The WB.  If we were on NBC, we would have been cancelled after like six episodes.  But it's still a hit in its own right, and I think to leave that, to go into the unknown, is unbelievably exciting, because I can do anything.  I woke up and I went, "Okay, I can take as many guitar lessons as I want.  I can travel as much as I want.  I can ride my horses as much as I want, and I can go do theatre as much as I want.  I can do serious work."  And that's amazing.  Back to the top

"CHARMED IS FOR 12-YEAR-OLDS"

09.06.2001 - Shannen wasted no time in cursing her former show when she spoke out for the first time since leaving Charmed.

In the July issue of Moveline, she admitted that The WB drama was beneath her.  "On Charmed, there were a couple of moments when I gave the most brutally honest performance I could ever have given as an actor," the 30-year-old actress said.  "What you saw came from my gut.  And when I looked at those moments, I knew that they weren't being given their proper due, because they were on Charmed.  It's a show for 12-year-olds!  I used to always think, 'Why can't I have that John Travolta comeback thing where I'm taken seriously?'  I'm ready to take on bigger and better."  Back to the top 

SHANNEN: DID SHE QUIT OR WAS SHE FIRED?

15.05.2001 - The "did she jump or was she pushed" argument continues, but here are a few quotes on why Shannen quit Charmed -

USA Today quoted a source as saying she was fired for "becom[ing] increasingly difficult, alienating fellow cast and crew members."

TV Guide Online, quoting Doherty's spokesperson, Leslie Sloan, said that couldn't be further from the truth.  "She was not fired," said Sloane, "she asked six months ago to be released from her contract."  Her rep said Doherty was looking to work in other creative adventures including co-producing a film for USA Networks with Francis Ford Coppola entitled Another Day.

A statement from Aaron Spelling said, "We have had a long and prosperous relationship with Shannen and we didn't want to hold her back from what she wanted to do.  We wish her all the best and much continued success."

However, E! Online's Wanda claims that the actress was sacked, and that losing her was better than losing Alyssa Milano: "The girls have been at each other's throats all season, fighting about wardrobe and face time.  It became so heated that Alyssa told the producers she refused to work with Shannen next season.  When she carried through on that threat, hiring a lawyer to get her out of her contract, the producers had no choice but to pressure Shannen to leave.  Losing one of the girls is bad enough, especially given the show's 'power of three' premise, but losing Alyssa would have been the end of it all."  Back to the top

THE POWER OF TWO FOR SEASON 4?

12.05.2001 - Charmed is coming back for another season on The WB but don't expect Shannen Doherty to be be there as, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the actress has left the series.

Production company Spelling TV confirmed her departure on Friday, but no reason was given ("We have nothing we can tell you right now," is the apparent quote, prompting rumours that the actress was fired).

Relationships between Doherty and Alyssa Milano are reported to be frosty at best but, ironically, according to a recent UK webchat, Shannen hinted that Alyssa wanted off the show for next season.

This leaves Charmed without one of its central characters and could lead to another casting change - originally Lori Rom was cast as Phoebe in the series' pilot but Milano was brought in when the series went to production.

Doherty was known for her attitude and temper on her previoous series, Beverly Hills, 90210 and was fired after four seasons.  The character of Hunter Fallow in the The WB's Grosse Pointe was loosely based on Doherty, who had a recent run-in with the law when she was arrested for drunk driving last year.  She pleaded no contest to the charges earlier this month (see previous story).  Back to the top

SHANNEN GUILTY OF DUI

01.05.2001 - Shannen yesterday pleaded no contest to charges of drunken driving and driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit.  She also admitted to a special circumstance of refusing to submit to a chemical test.  She is to be sentenced on June 12.

The actress was arrested in December after California Highway Patrol officers said they saw her Ford pickup truck weaving.

Prosecutors said her blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent, well above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

As a first-time offender, Doherty will likely face 48 hours in jail or five days in a work-release programme, Deputy District Attorney Ian Morse said.

Because of the special circumstance Doherty will also be given some additional punishment at the discretion of the judge, possibly more time in custody.  Back to the top

SHANNEN WEBCHAT

26.04.2001 - Shannen will be giving a brief livechat on Living's website tomorrow morning at 11.30.  Here's the post on their forum from Sinead @ Living:

We've got Shannen here on Friday morning, available to talk to all of you from 11:30-12noon. We'll have her web-cammed up too!

DON'T MISS THIS!!

She's over to record some links for the Shannen Doherty's Weird Weekend exclusively on Living at the end of June, and we've managed to nab a half an hour of her time while she's here to have a chat on our site.

It'll be in the TV Chatroom - See you all there!!!   Back to the top

SHANNEN IN JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK

27.03.2001 - Shannen will reprise her Mallrats character in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which also stars Buffy's Eliza Duskhu.  Back to the top

SHANNEN PLEADS NOT GUILTY

24.03.2001 - Shannen pleaded not guilty yesterday to drunk-driving charges in Ventura County, California, according to her lawyer.  A judge set an April 30 trial date for the actress, who was pulled over last December after she was allegedly weaving across a Southern California highway.  Back to the top

SHANNEN GUEST STARS ON GARY & MIKE

27.02.2001 - Phish Phry - Somewhere in Vermont, the boys end up at a Phish concert where Gary inadvertently ingests a nasty hallucinogen and wakes up married to a 50-year-old hippie chick with four kids.

As always, things get complicated as Mike becomes smitten with Gary's new teenage stepdaughter Breeze (Shannen Doherty) while the relentless Officer Dick closes in on the pair and does some tripping of his own, on Gary & Mike airing Friday, March 16 (8-8.30pm, ET/PT) on UPN.

Providing the voices are Christopher Moynihan as Gary, Harland Williams as Mike, Shannen Doherty as Breeze and Kurtwood Smith as Officer Dick.

The episode was written by Howard Gewirtz.  Fax Bahr, Adam Small, Will Vinton and Tom Turpin are the executive producers.

It carries a TV PG parental guideline.

Source: zap2it.com.  Back to the top

THE ART OF BEING SHANNEN DOHERTY

18.02.2001 - Shannen is the latest WB star to get an Art of Being feature on the WB's website.  Here's what she had to say:

Why I'm the first in line at Blockbuster

My fans tell me what a glamorous life I have.  If only they knew how many nights I spend alone with my dogs eating chicken pot pie.

Just (don't) shoot me...

It sounds incredibly spoiled to say that being on the cover of Rolling Stone was a lot of pressure, but it was.

A true soap star

I was a really good kid, but once, I said a dirty word, and my mom washed my mouth out with soap.  I was 18 years old - a grown woman - and there she was washing my mouth out with Irish Spring.

Why life's a drag sometimes

I think I looked like a freak [during the cross-dressing episode of Charmed].  If I saw that man [me] coming towards me, I would've run!

The difference between love and hate

They are basically the same.  Either way you feel passion.  Back to the top

COURT CASE LATEST

04.02.2001 - Actress Shannen Doherty's lawyer on Friday said his client was not driving drunk when she was arrested last month in Thousand Oaks, and said that she will vigorously defend herself on any charges.

"Ms. Doherty vehemently denies that she was driving under the influence," said Trent Copeland, who appeared in Ventura County Superior Court Friday on her behalf.  "We'll do whatever it takes to defend her."

Doherty was scheduled for arraignment Friday, but Commissioner Ruben De LA Torre continued the arraignment until Feb. 23.  The Superior Court uses commissioners to handle limited types of cases, such as traffic court matters.

Doherty, who is best known for her role as Brenda Walsh on the TV show Beverly Hills, 90210, was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers on Dec. 28 after they noticed her black 2001 Ford pickup weaving in and out of lanes.  She was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and was released several hours later on her own recognizance.

Doherty faces a misdemeanor DUI charge, according to the Ventura County district attorney's office.

Copeland said his client did not appear in court Friday because she is busy with her work schedule on the WB series Charmed.

Source: LA Times.  Back to the top

SHANNEN ARRESTED FOR DRINK DRIVING

30.12.2000 - Shannen Doherty was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving on Thursday after officers saw her black pickup weaving on a California freeway, according to Reuters.

The 29-year-old WB Charmed star was stopped by officers at about 3am PT after officers observed her truck weaving across lanes on the Ventura freeway while driving in Thousand Oaks, north of Los Angeles, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Moriarty.

Doherty was given a field sobriety test at the scene, Moriarty said.  She was then taken to jail for a blood test to determine her level of intoxication before being released several hours later and ordered to appear in court on Jan. 26.

This is not the first time the former Beverly Hills 90210 star has had trouble with the law.  In 1997, a Beverly Hills judge ordered her to attend anger-management counselling after she smashed a beer bottle on a car window during an argument.

Source: zap2it.com.  Back to the top

BITCHES AND BABES

To mark the start of Aaron Spelling's Titans, E! Online is running a feature entitled Aaron Spelling's Bitches and Babes.  Charmed's Shannen Doherty was featured as one of the former:

No one knows women like Aaron Spelling.  The prolific papa of prime-time pulchritude has crafted archetypal hotties and haughties for more than four decades, on shows like Dynasty, Charlie's Angels and The Mod Squad.  With the arrival of Titans - his 70th series - it's time to honour the best of Aaron's beauties

Spelling Connection - Brenda Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210; Fox, 1990-94

Bitch Dish - A former child actor (Little House: A New Beginning), Doherty nabbed the role of Brenda Walsh after being recommended to Aaron Spelling by daughter Tori.  And though her character, the smug, whiny, clingy Brenda, would inspire the notorious I Hate Brenda newsletter, it was Doherty's off-camera antics - showing up late (or not at all) to the set, temper tantrums and other diva behaviour - that allegedly led her costars to demand she be fired, which she was at the end of season four.

Bitchiest Moments - as Brenda: Moving in with Dylan after her 'rents made her stop seeing him; getting pissy with Kelly and boyfriend Dylan when they hook up, even though she flirted with some college student while she was in Paris for the summer.  As Shannen: pissing off Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder by trying to use her fame to meet up with him in a hotel.  "Maybe she knows that if I knew her work," Vedder said, "I would never hang out with her."

All She Does Is Bitch - "[People] aren't separating Shannen and Brenda Walsh.  They hate the character, so they automatically hate me."  Back to the top

SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

28.02.00 - US viewers will be able to catch Shannen in the TV movie Satan's School For Girls on ABC at 8pm ET on Monday 13 March.

Shannen stars alongside Charlie's Angels star Kate Jackson and Roswell's Julie Benz (also Darla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in this remake of a 1973 film.

In the original, Kate Jackson played one of the school's students, while this time around she plays the school's dean, Olivia Burtis.  Julie Benz plays Allison and Shannen plays Beth Hammersmith, who is distraught and deeply puzzled by the suicide of her sister.  Her search for an answer leads her to her sister's school, Fallbridge Women's College, a seemingly serene and tranquil school in New England.

But the idyllic campus is held in the grip of evil, personified by a mysterious secret club known as "the five".  As Beth gets closer to learning the terrifying secret of the school, she uncovers a sinister web of intrigue and danger that puts her own life in peril.  For Beth, the horror is just beginning.

The TVM is from Spelling Television while Charmed's executive producers Aaron Spelling and E. Duke Vincent perform the same roles here.  Back to the top