Cashing In On Farrah Fawcett’s Death
FARRAH FAWCETT is dying. Her cancer is on the telly. Anorak’s Man in LA has more:
Friends of Farrah Fawcett tell us her passing is near. Her doctors confirm the sad inevitability. And as the brave, beautiful blonde takes her final breaths, the battles surrounding her are amped up amid the emotion and panic among her loved ones and those who want something from her alike. The friends and colleagues who’ve been kept away from Farrah since her longtime/sometimes lover Ryan O’Neal moved in and took over her affairs have taken to various websites and press releases with accusations that we can’t repeat unless or until we or someone who’s paid to do the work can prove them.
The most unseemly deathmatch is between the true Farrahcites, the network news buzzards who preach high standards yet grovel in the dirt as they ape the tabloid form in search of the next bug “get.” Word tonight is that the good folks at NBC and NBC News are in an uproar that old Barbara Walters and her crew at ABC’s 20/20 hijacked the sequel to their high-rating tabloid special “Farrah’s Story” for ABC’s own “Love Story,” set to air Friday night and getting a lot of play for Ryan O’Neal’s jocular announcement that he plans to marry Farrah on her deathbed if “maybe we can just nod her head.”
Tonight we hear that NBC’s biggest fear is that Farrah will pass away in the next 48 hours, leading to giant ratings for ABC. So NBC plans to counter-program with three primetime hours of Farrah Fawcett on Friday night, rerunning “Farrah’s Story,” the maudlin, morbid tale helmed by and starring Ryan O’Neal, followed by a “special” one-hour retrospective on Farrah’s life hosted by Meredith Vieira.
This is not tribute. This is not homage to a princess. One insider tells TabloidBaby what it is: “NBC is looking to crush ABC.”
“Farrah’s Story,” you’ll remember, was a two-hour recut of the cancer journal documentary Farrah had produced with producer Craig Nevius. But as her condition worsened, O’Neal took over not only her affairs but the doco, pushing Nevius aside (Nevius sued), and with the help of the heavy hands at NBC Dateline, turning Farrah’s story into Ryan’s real-life Love Story.
Farrah’s journals, we’re told, are being turned into a book by Alana Stewart, her friend who helped film much of Farrah’s treatment at cancer clinics in Germany, and who later sided with O’Neal in the doco heist after demanding a fat payoff for her work. The book, we’re told will be announced after Farrah’s passing, “for maximum effect.”
April 2nd, 2009:
– TB
Posted: 25th, June 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
