McGowan Is Charmed To Step In For Doherty
Actress Rose McGowan is negotiating to replace Shannen Doherty in Spelling Television's hit TV drama Charmed' at the WB network.
Sources say the witching hour is nearing and, barring a last-minute implosion, McGowan will join Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs as the third in a troika of sisters with mystical powers.
McGowan, former girlfriend of shock rocker Marilyn Manson, would play a long lost sibling the duo didn't know they had.
McGowan has starred in such films as the black comedy ``Jawbreaker,'' ``Scream'' and ``Ready to Rumble,'' and most recently starred with Kip Pardue and Robert Forster in theindie film ``Rat in the Can.'' McGowan recently guest starred on the sitcom What About Joan.'
She will bring edginess to the WB's second-highest-rated show, which is exec produced by Aaron Spelling, E. Duke Vincent and Brad Kern. The producers were faced with replacing Doherty after the former Beverly Hills, 90210'star made her second hasty exit from a Spelling series. Doherty, who directed the season finale, decided to seek other opportunities, and it seemed clear that Milano and Combs weren't unhappy Doherty left the coven.
The network wasn't commenting but acknowledged that talks were ongoing.
E!Online June 12, 2001
Doherty Gets Speaking Gigs Over Jail
With Charmed no longer on her schedule, Shannen Doherty now has something else to do with her time. The former star of the witchy WB series was sentenced Tuesday to either 10 days in jail or 20 days of work-release duty, after she pleaded no contest to drunk-driving charges. Doherty, 30, was arrested in December after she was pulled over for allegedly weaving across a Southern California highway. Doherty, who didn't show up for Tuesday's sentencing, was ordered to pay $1,500 in fines and was put on three years' probation. She's also not allowed to drive with any alcohol inher system, and she'll have to attend a series of DUI classes.
But the real sticking point Tuesday was over what kind of community service the actress would be allowed to perform, instead of jail time. Prosecutors pushed for a standard punishment--which would include Doherty doing the always-enjoyable roadside trash pickup. But Judge Charles Campbell ultimately agreed to let her work off some of the time by doing speaking engagements at teen centers and meetings for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
"Our office's position was that she should do what everyone else does," says Ian Morse, deputy District Attorney for Ventura County. "We don't feel she should do less because 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's due back in court for a progress hearing.
The actress initially faced up to six months in jail, partly because prosecutors chalked up a "special enhancement" against the actress for refusing to take a breathalyzer test when she was stopped along the Ventura Freeway. But prosecutors said a penalty as stiff as six months in the slammer was unlikely. The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol December 28 at about 3 a.m., while driving in the northern Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks. Authorities said they spotted her Ford pickup drifting across several lanes of the freeway. Once stopped, Doherty refused to take a breathalyzer test, but officers booked her on suspicion of drunk-driving. Prosecutors said 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.
All told, it's been a tumultuous couple months for the erstwhile Brenda Walsh. Last month, Doherty announced she was leaving her hit series Charmed after three seasons--marking the second time she's bolted from an Aaron Spelling show. (She was fired from Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1994.)
This latest departure came amid reports of on-set tensions between her and costar Alyssa Milano. Doherty, however, told Movieline magazine she left because she thought her talents were being wasted on a show "for 12-year-olds." But in the meantime, it appears Doherty's talents will be put to use elsewhere--like Ventura County community centers.
E!Online June 12, 2001
McGowan Feeling Charmed?
Is Rose McGowan living a Charmed life? The actress, best known for her roles in teen thrillers like Scream and Jawbreaker, is in talks to join the hit WB drama, taking over the not-so-dearly departed Shannen Doherty, a source close to the show confirmed Tuesday.
Doherty announced last month that she was exiting Charmed at the conclusion of the season, leaving behind her supernatural sisters on the show, Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs. While the show's on-screen characters battled the forces of evil, it was the backstage battles that landed in the gossip columns. While officials at the WB and Spelling Entertainment (the show's producers) refused to comment, rumors were rampant that Doherty and Milano crossed broomsticks one time too many. For the record, Doherty, who previously quit the Aaron Spelling-produced 90210 after a stormy tenure, initially said she left because, "I feel that I have accomplished everything I set out to do when I returned to series television."
Then in an interview with TV Guide, Doherty said, "I just didn't want to be a part of it...I don't want to work with people who bitch about their job and complain about it and say that they hate it or anything else." And in a recent sit-down with Movieline, she said she had given "the most brutally honest performances" of her career and that such quality was being wasted on a show "for 12-year olds."
When last we tuned into Charmed, the third season cliffhanger saw Doherty and Combs' characters attacked and left for dead by a demon assassin. While Combs obviously survives for season four, Doherty's Prue will not. As the show's braintrust brewed up a plot to explain a new presence on the show ("She's going to be the long-lost little sister Alyssa and Holly never knew they had. And wait until you see what we came up with to explain why she's been lost: Nobody ever knew she existed," Spelling tells Entertainment Weekly), a frantic witch-hunt to find a suitable Doherty sub was launched. Candidates reportedly included Tiffani Theissen (who took over for Doherty on 90210), Jennifer Love Hewitt, Denise Richards, Soleil Moon Frye and Irene Malloy before producers began focusing on McGowan.
In addition to having the right acting credentials (her résumé also includes shockers like The Doom Generation and Devil in the Flesh), the 27-year-old actress was, appropriately enough, engaged to shock-rocker Marilyn Manson for two years before they called it quits.
As she once noted in an interview, "I think if I had lived back in Salem, I would have been burned at the stake." Sounds like a natural for the job.
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