At this point into quarantine, I’m starting to think that celebrities are competing in a secret game of Who Wants To Be Dragged On Twitter. It feels like new famous people are coming out of the woodwork to be problematic, tone-deaf, or just plain dumb nearly every single day, and I honestly have to thank them for all the prime content. Just yesterday, we had Ellen DeGeneres getting dragged for making a joke about being in jail, but it’s already time to move on to today’s bad look. Today’s celebrity Twitter dragging is one Tori Spelling and the reason is totally ridiculous.
On Tuesday, Tori Spelling posted on Instagram, inviting her followers to a virtual meet-and-greet. The event, which is actually happening today, includes “live, individual video chat,” and allows you to “take virtual selfies” and download the full video after. Okay, fun! I’m not sure how a “virtual selfie” is any different from a regular screenshot, but getting to talk one-on-one with Tori Spelling is pretty cool, right? She said there were only 20 spots available, so it’s definitely an ~exclusive~ opportunity.
Well, Tori neglected to mention one important detail in her Instagram post. Upon going to the link, you can reserve your spot—for a cool $95 fee. LOL, in what f*cking world?! As a young millennial who’s never watched an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, I’m aware that I’m not the target audience for this, but like… is there even a target audience for this?
Based on the online reaction, I’m gonna say the answer is “not really.” First of all, Tori Spelling is not exactly at the pinnacle of her career right now. One tweet called her a D-List celebrity, and like, I don’t know about that, but I certainly wouldn’t pay almost $100 for a few minutes of small talk over a crappy internet connection and a screenshot with her.
$95…to take virtual selfies with TORI SPELLING Who in their right mind would do this?? It is clearly the end of days👇 #COVID19 #QuarantineLife https://t.co/CJYKkBKh7c
— Karen Huger’s Hair (@KarenHugersHair) April 8, 2020
Especially right now, so many celebrities are more accessible to their fans than ever, so charging that much for a virtual meet-and-greet feels ridiculous. Celebs are going live on Instagram every 10 minutes, making TikToks, and generally making more boredom-fueled content than we can consume. What makes Tori think that we’e all clamoring for a bit of time with her?
But Tori Spelling’s level of fame isn’t the main issue here. As you’re probably aware, there’s a little global pandemic happening right now. Millions of people have lost their jobs, the healthcare system and other essential parts of our society are under immense strain with resources in short supply, so there’s no shortage of worthy causes to donate to. While Tori Spelling’s financial issues have been incredibly public over the years, I’m pretty sure shelling out for her virtual meet-and-greet doesn’t count as a charitable donation. If you’re considering spending the $95, please go give that money to something worthwhile.
Since the mostly negative public response, Tori’s Instagram post has been deleted, but the site to sign up for the event is still live. Hopefully the die-hard Tori fans, wherever they are, will still be able to find it. The meet-and-greet is in just a few hours, but unsurprisingly, it looks like there are still spots available. Thank god! Funny enough, a video from Tori Spelling on Cameo is $100, so when you think about it, maybe $95 is actually a good deal?
Images: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com; torispelling / Instagram; karenhugershair / Twitter
I was hopeful that February would be less of a nightmare than January, but it’s not off to a good start. On Tuesday morning, Shannen Doherty, the beloved star of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed, announced that her cancer has returned, and this time it’s stage 4. In an interview with Good Morning America, she opened up about the diagnosis she received a year ago, and why she’s choosing to go public with it now.
Shannon publicly fought breast cancer from 2015 to 2017, before announcing she was in remission. While she was public about her cancer diagnosis the first time, she wanted to handle this time differently. In the interview with GMA, Shannen says that she didn’t want to share her diagnosis, and initially she never planned to. She kept quiet about it even while she was filming last year’s BH90210 reboot, only sharing her health struggles with Brian Austin Green. She says that being open with Brian helped her make it through the filming process, and also helped her to deal with her grief for her late costar Luke Perry.
While she wished to stay private this time, sadly her hand was forced because of a separate legal issue she’s dealing with. As if the cancer wasn’t hard enough, Doherty is locked in a legal battle with State Farm over damages to her home in the 2018 California wildfires. While she believes she is owed much more than what she received, State Farm claims that she “failed to take adequate steps to mitigate the damages claimed, if any.” They say that they’ve paid her over a million dollars already, but she’s sued them for additional damages. The case is now set to go to trial, and it was made clear that details of her health would soon be made public in court documents.
Regardless of the details in the legal case, it’s really f*cked up that Shannen Doherty didn’t have a choice to deal with this struggle in the private way that she wanted. I’m no legal expert, but I don’t see how a court case about her house is directly connected with her cancer diagnosis. While State Farm put out a statement saying they “empathize with Ms. Doherty’s health issues,” it seems like the actual empathetic thing to do would’ve been to figure out a solution that didn’t involve sharing her private information with the world.
In the GMA interview, Shannen makes it clear that the court documents are the only reason she’s speaking out now, saying “I want it to be real and authentic, and I want to control the narrative. I want people to know from me.” I’m glad she’s taking control of the story surrounding her health, though I wish this was a story we never ended up hearing. Stage 4 cancer is no joke, and if Shannen wants privacy during this time, she should have it. Shannen Doherty has a tough fight ahead of her, but hopefully she can keep her head up and make it through this.
Images: Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock
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The new BH90210 is really taking off, and as a dramatic bitch who loves complicated story lines and plastic surgery, I’m living for it. Episode four begins with yet another dream sequence—that’s four episodes and four dream sequences, so I guess that’s just like… going to be a thing. This is a good one, though, with Gabby in her pink prom dress and terrible hair yelling “You said you liked me!” while wielding a chainsaw on the counter of The Peach Pit. I was really connecting to her sentiment, but unfortunately her alarm goes off before she can do any damage, which is too bad because Andrea finally getting her revenge could be a very watchable plot point.
Later that morning, a flustered Gabby and Emily Valentine, who’s playing a fake version of herself in this reboot but will forever be Emily Valentine to the world, are out for daytime drinks discussing Gabby’s newfound sexual fluidity. Gabby awkwardly knocks over her martini while trying to be sexy, and then Emily is all like, “Oh no! did you think this was a date!? Sorry I messaged you on a dating app and asked you to drinks and am constantly flirting with you at work, I guess this one’s on me!” Like yeah, Emily Valentine, you heartless monster, of course she thought it was a date! Why do you always have to f*cking ruin everything!?
Meanwhile, Brian Austin Green’s wife, Lala, loses it when her no-autotune song leaks and is convinced it was Brian’s freaky little new assistant, Zack. While Brian insists it couldn’t possibly have been the teenager whom he’s known for all of 10 days, the little twerp pops in like a snitch and says he saw Lala’s stylist of five years lurking around in her private at-home studio. Lala, who’s supposed to be a Beyoncé-esque superstar, ends the conversation with an eye-roll and hires a private investigator behind his back. We never really found out how Jay-Z got caught, did we?
Ian’s bizarre feud with the new head writer comes to a head when it turns out she like…totally sucks at writing. The whole cast sits in silence after the table read and has no problem telling the overzealous, inexperienced writer that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She insists that she doesn’t even need this incredibly high-paying gig (she most definitely needs it) while refusing to write down any of their ideas or complaints.
With their first shoot day the next morning, the cast, and now-top-Fox-executive Emily Valentine, head to what is quickly becoming The Peach Pit of the reboot, a Soho House-esque private club, to guzzle $18 cocktails and write an entire new pilot for the next morning. Ian, who is crushing on the terrible writer, insists she find a private place to go and be with her thoughts before attempting her own rewrite, and inexplicably gives her the keys to his car. He starts secretly filming the cast with his phone as they argue and make up over and over, and sends the writer the videos. Suddenly she completely understands every single thing about the cast and writes a brand new, 60-page pilot in the matter of a few hours from the passenger seat of Ian’s parked car. Naturally, the entire cast gushes over it and praises the inexplicably-angry writer’s new work.
Jennie’s daughter Kyler, to whom Jennie promised a role in the reboot, is forced to fake audition for the role so as not to be too obvious with overwhelming nepotism: “I get nepotism, I’ve been dealing with it for 30 years!” Tori jokes about herself. LOL Tor, if you can’t laugh at yourself who can you laugh at? I guess all those hard-working actors who didn’t stand a chance because your Dad was rich! As it turns out, Kyler totally sucks at acting, and the poor actress they brought in so it seemed real turns out to be a young Meryl Streep, so Jennie and Tori decide Kyler will play Tori’s daughter instead of Jennie’s. Kyler is thrilled about working closer with “Aunt Tori,” until she gets the script and realizes she’s essentially a featured extra and whines about it for the rest of the episode, all without looking up from texting. My advice: start a Bling Ring situation for the excitement and continue spending your mother’s money.
Kyler then reveals that she slashed her mother’s tires in an effort to keep her new bodyguard Wyatt around, which is like, really sweet I think. Oh yeah—in case you forgot, they’re all being stalked and harassed by someone who randomly pops in with little bloody dolls and chilling camera lens zooms.
Jennie tells Wyatt that Kyler was to blame for the tire incident, not the psycho killer, and they almost share a romantic parking lot kiss before Wyatt explains he needs to prioritize his career as a bodyguard over his romantic connections. If I had dollar for every time a guy used that excuse with me I would have enough money to pay off one of my credit cards!
Shannen finally makes her way to LA in her sherpa-inspired garb, then immediately leaves again because she doesn’t like the energy in the room. She goes to meditate cross-legged in the lobby while mulling over her decision to return. After Emily Valentine is done guiding Gabby into dating women (while still being married to the sweetest old man alive) she announces that Shannen is making double what everyone else is making. With almost no conversation at all, they all have a come-to-Jesus moment, and Shannen agrees to do the show for double the money. All is fair in love and desperation to be relevant again!
Lala calls hot-ass-daddy Brian and tells him that the private investigator discovered that yerppp, turns out it was her faithful stylist that leaked her song…but also that his new assistant Zack is a psycho who’s been stalking him for years. Win/lose for Lala! Brian is appalled that the stranger he barely knows, yet trusts to be with his children alone, would lie to him! After getting yelled at for being the psychotic stalker that keeps following them all around, Zack confesses he’s not a stalker, he’s Brian’s—wait for it—son. Before we get to delve into that mess, we cut to Gabby and Emily Valentine making out over freshly printed scripts, and Tori bashfully telling Jennie she still has feelings for Brian, who she dated fully 30 years ago. Like, get a grip bitch, we all want to f*ck him…he’s literally married to Megan Fox. None of us stand a chance.
The next day, they joyously arrive to the set, and they’re greeted by a red spray-painted door reading “STOP ACTING LIKE I’M NOT EVEN HERE.” The creepy, Halloween-themed door opens while the cast waits, smiling and ready for this crazy reboot to kick off. But instead of revealing a new Peach Pit or West Beverly High, literal flames pour out of the door and the credits roll. Looks like assistant Zack wasn’t the psycho after all!
I’m excited to see what next week has to bring, whether it’s more cast members sh*tting on the sanctity of marriage or a psycho serial killer trying to wear Tori Spelling’s skin!
Images: FOX; Giphy (5)
Few events fill us with a warmer sense of nostalgia than when our favorite actors from beloved TV shows reunite for a quick dinner or a picture. Like when Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, and Jennifer Aniston reunited for an Instagram selfie, or when the stars of Clueless appeared on a panel together and then snapped a cute pic. I mean, the only thing better than one of these little reunions, which is really just former cast members hanging out together, is when the actual show comes back for a reboot. Well, 90s kids, today we’re getting a little bit of both, because two stars of the classic Beverly Hills, 90210 hung out and uploaded an Instagram ahead of the show’s reboot.
The new Beverly Hills, 90210, which will be called BH90210 (original) went into production in May, and is basically an imagining of what would happen if all the original actors (Tori Spelling, Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris, Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth, Brian Austin Green, and Jason Priestley) got together to make a revival of Beverly Hills, 90210. Uhmmm, what? That’s confusing because it’s literally what is happening. This is all too meta for me. And this isn’t the first time that there’s been a reboot of the iconic show—the CW had its own 90210 series that aired from 2008-2013, and not a single person I know watched it, but clearly it did pretty decent if it stayed on the air for 5 years.
Anyway, the new BH90210 reboot is supposed to air August 7th on FOX. But in the meantime, Shannen Doherty and Jason Priestly got together on some sort of farm (?) in front of a log cabin (?) and posted a pic. “And just like that, the twins are back,” she captioned the pic. If you’ll recall, Shannen and Jason played twins Brenda and Brandon Walsh (those names, I can’t), until Shannen left in season 4 and she was written out of the show.
Most of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 cast will be returning for the reboot, with the exception of Luke Perry, who sadly passed away earlier this year, and Tiffani Thiessen, who is busy filming her Netflix series, Alexa & Katie. BH90210 is set to start airing August 7, so set your DVRs now (are DVRs still a thing?).
Images: Shutterstock; theshando / Instagram
It’s a sad day for Riverdale and 90210 fans, as news broke that Luke Perry passed away at age 52. Perry had suffered a massive stroke last Wednesday in his home in Sherman Oaks, California. TMZ reported that when paramedics arrived at Perry’s home after his stroke, he was responsive and talking, but his condition deteriorated. Unfortunately, he never recovered and passed away on Monday.
Perry first became a household name as an actor in the 90s, when he played Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210. He played McKay from 1990-1995, and then again from 1998-2000. More recently, he was known for playing Archie Andrews’ dad, Fred, on The CW show Riverdale. Riverdale executives told TMZ, “Luke was everything you would hope he would be: an incredibly caring, consummate professional with a giant heart, and a true friend to all. A father figure and mentor to the show’s young cast, Luke was incredibly generous, and he infused the set with love and kindness. Our thoughts are with Luke’s family during this most difficult time.”
At press time, the Riverdale Twitter had yet to release any statement about Perry’s death, as had KJ Apa (who plays Perry’s son on Riverdale), Cole Sprouse, Camila Mendes, and Lili Reinhart. However, the Riverdale writers room Twitter account posted a touching tribute to Perry.
Luke Perry… you were a joyful and vibrant soul. You will be missed but most certainly your legacy will be remembered forever. Rest in love and peace, friend. #Riverdale
— Riverdale Writers Room (@RiverdaleWriter) March 4, 2019
Molly Ringwald, who plays Perry’s estranged wife on the show, tweeted, “My heart is broken. I will miss you so much Luke Perry. Sending all my love to your family. #LukePerry”
My heart is broken. I will miss you so much Luke Perry. Sending all my love to your family. ❤️ #LukePerry
— Molly Ringwald (@MollyRingwald) March 4, 2019
When the initial news of Perry’s stroke broke, Shannon Doherty, one of Perry’s 90210 costars, posted a picture of the two of them on Instagram, writing in the caption, “My friend. Holding you tight and giving you my strength. You got this.”
Just days ago, it was announced that Beverly Hills, 90210 was slated for a six-episode revival, with Jennie Garth, Jason Priestley, Tori Spelling, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green, and Gabrielle Carteris confirmed to play their original characters. Shannon Doherty and Luke Perry were not attached to the revival at the time, but it was reported that Fox was keeping the door open for either to appear on the show.
Perry’s rep told TMZ that the actor was surrounded by family and close friends at the time of his death, including his children, fiancée, ex-wife, mother, step-father, brother, and sister.
Images: Shutterstock; theshando / Instagram, riverdalewriter, mollyringwald / Twitter
