Nicollette Sheridan Strikes Back!

The Nicollette Sheridan Lawsuit: Hit Him Back, Hit Him Hard

Inside Television 594
Publication Date: 3-9-2012
By: Hubert O’Hearn


A short follow-up on last week’s column regarding the Robocall Scandal in Canada. I’ve been looking for a short, easily digestible example of how CBC News has been cowed by fear of the Harper Government. On Sunday evening’s National news, there it was. In the course of a story re-capping the Scandal thus far. In it was the line, ‘The Conservatives charged the Liberals with making calls from a US based call centre.’ That charge had already been proven baseless before March 4; this was not mentioned. Shameful.

Speaking of shameful, I’ve been closely following the wrongful dismissal lawsuit actress Nicollette Sheridan filed against ABC and Desperate Housewives producer Marc Cherry. Currently before the courts in Los Angeles, the case encompasses the lousy way Hollywood treats women. It is massively ironic that at the precise same time as record numbers of women-centered television pilots have been ordered up for the 2012-2013 season, both network and producer have been shown up as champions of the ‘know your role and shut your mouth’ school of neanderthal thought-grunting.

Unemployed wine-drinking actress found living on beach...

Here is the case in short: Sheridan alleges that her character, Edie Britt, was written off the show following the fifth season because she complained to ABC after Marc Sherry hit her. Not hit her with an insult. Not hit her with a suspension. Not hit her with a hardball contract offer. We are talking about the throwing of hands and a shot to the face. Sheridan is suing for $6 million and frankly I hope Judge Elizabeth Allen White orders triple damages.

Cherry admits to the contact. Herewith a transcript drawn from his testimony under questioning from Sheridan’s attorney, Mark Baute, as drawn from The Wrap, an industry newsletter:

Baute re-phrased and asks what portion of Cherry's body came into contact with Nicollette Sheridan.
Cherry said, "My fingers." Baute asked, "On your right hand?"
Cherry said, "Yes, they are attached to my right hand."
Asked what part of Sheridan's body he made contact with, Cherry said the left side of her head, with an open hand.
Baute asked if Cherry asked permission to make contact with Sheridan.
Cherry said, "I felt I had permission."
When Baute repeated the question, Cherry said "permission was understood."
After Baute repeated the question in various forms, and the judge ordered Cherry to answer directly, Cherry said that "no," he did not ask permission to make contact with her.

Because Sheridan immediately went to ABC’s Human Resources department, the suit alleges, the puffy-faced and ironically named Cherry wrote her off the show. Cherry’s defence is that the actress complained about her dialogue and had trouble learning her lines. Shame! Horror! Shock! If every actor (or politician for that matter) who dropped a line or didn’t like something they had to say was fired, television would consist of nothing more than test patterns and weather reports.

At the nut of it, here is why I am cheering for Nicollette Sheridan to take ABC and Cherry downtown to Chinatown, coming away with every nickel she can get. First, hitting anyone at any time is just plain wrong. Abuse against women is wrong. Treating women like disposable tissue is wrong. Abuse of power is wrong. The ultimate proof is that despite being a star of two highly-rated series (Sheridan first was a wondrous vixen on Knots Landing) have you seen her cast in any series or motion picture since leaving Desperate Housewives? No, I didn’t think so. She has been effectively black-balled since ABC swept the original complaint under the rug then tossed the rug into the incinerator.

Be seeing you.