I really hope this Melissa McCarthy story isn’t true. I suspect that there’s a kernel of truth somewhere in here, but it’s being exploited to make Melissa sound like a diva. So, Melissa seemed to come out of nowhere last year with Bridesmaids (which earned her an Oscar nom), and she ended up becoming one of the most talked-about actresses of the year. With that buzz came lots and lots of scripts and movie offers and deals and opportunities. But! Melissa was and is still contractually obligated to appear in her starring role on CBS’s Mike & Molly. I always see the commercials for it when I’m watching The Good Wife, and I always think, “Wow, that’s weird that Melissa is still stuck doing that sitcom.” According to The Enquirer, Melissa feels the same way:
Plus-sized funny lady Melissa McCarthy thinks she’s too big for TV – and insiders say she wants off of ‘Mike & Molly’! Bolstered by her recent success on the big screen, the 42-year-old actress has become a “raging diva” on the set of the hit CBS sitcom.
“Melissa’s head has swollen to epic proportions,” revealed a Hollywood source. “She complains about the quality of scripts and grumbled about the direction the show is going in. She came back this season with a huge chip on her shoulder, and it’s creating a lot of tension and bad feelings on the set.”
Melissa’s big-screen breakout was in last year’s ‘Bridesmaids’ and she’s just wrapped ‘The Heat’ with Sandra Bullock. After that, returning to the daily grind of filming a TV show was apparently tough for her to swallow.
“She’s suddenly one of hottest actresses in town and she’s been inundated with films cripts,” the source explained. “The sky’s the limit for her professionally, and she feels TV is holding her back from superstardom. It’s obvious she wants out of Mike & Molly now.”
But Melissa is locked into the show for at least another year.
“She actually approached producers to see if she could get out of the contract of even buy her way out… but ‘Mike & Molly’ is a huge hit for the network, and they certainly aren’t going to let their biggest draw walk away from it.”
[From The Enquirer, print edition]
I would suggest that Melissa pull a “Clooney,” and I’m not even talking about some kind of sex act involving handcuffs, a goat, a silk scarf and Agent Bedhead. When George was hitting it big in films, he still had a contract for ER. Clooney didn’t try to fight the contract, he didn’t try to renegotiate, he didn’t pitch any diva fits. He honored his contract and simply asked ER’s producers and directors to see if they could be slightly more accommodating to his film schedules, which they did with no fuss. So, that’s what Melissa should do – fulfill her contract with the show for what I’m assuming is for this TV season (2012-13) and next year’s (2013-14) and then be done with it.
By the way, have you seen the trailer for Melissa’s new film with Jason Bateman, Identity Thief? Um… I’m going to see this. In the theater. I LOVE the combination of Jason and Melissa.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
I think I read somewhere somewhat recently, that the main guy (can’t remember his name) believed he was the lead of the show and was acting like a jerk. I don’t know that I beleive any of it..
I saw him on a talk show once and while he was very polite, he seemed like he was a very angry man. The show isn’t very good, so despite how much I like McCarthy, I don’t watch it.
There was a Blind Item: CAN you name the Emmy-winning funnygal who’s telling her series’ producers to count her OUT for next season because she can no longer endure the constant sniping and back-stabbing of her petty, green-eyed-monster co-star?
Everyone guessed Billy Gardell (Mike) but it’s not looking like that’s true. Maybe that’s what she wants people to believe?
I’m not a fan of her new hair color. It’s far too dark for her. 🙁
She seems very down to earth. but people handle fame in different ways.
I really like her.. but man her new movie with Jason Bateman looks terrible and so jsut wrong and i typecast her yet again as the weird overweight woman. UGH.. please do more. And Jason is a nice guy and all, but he is the same character in pretty much all of his movies.
To me, she will always be Sookie from the Gilmore Girls.
To me, too.
Yep, that is how I will always see her!
Yep. Agreed. Miss the Sookie days.
Ditto. The original sookie. God I love her.
Me as well. And she was wonderful in that role. She and Lauren Graham had such wonderful chemistry.
I would sooo have watch a Sookie spinoff. I guess she and Jackson would’ve had to leave Stars Hollow, tho, to explain why the Gilmores were never around.
Doubting this- sounds like someone at the show resents her success, or it’s just another example of the tabloids trying to knock someone down.
I love her and tried that show but didn’t like it at all, it felt very dated to me, so I could understand her wanting it to improve. But wanting something to be better does not automatically make you a diva.
The Jason Bateman movie looks okay but I really want to see the one with her and Sandra Bullock.
I love her and I don’t want to believe this is true. In all her interviews she’s really down to earth and hilariously self-deprecating, it seems out of character for her to suddenly be so snobby.
“The truth is, anybody that becomes famous is an ass for a year and a half. You’ve got to give them a year and a half, two years. They are getting so much smoke blown, and their whole world gets so turned upside down, their responses become distorted. I give everybody a year or two to pull it together because, when it first happens, I know how it is” –Bill Murray
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000195/bio). I believe Mr. Murray nails it here….
I literally JUST finished reading the oral history of SNL yesterday, and that is one of the most memorable quotes in the book.
He also says that if you’re still acting like an asshole after two years, it’s permanent.
Sadly, there is probably more than a kernel of truth to this little rumor.
But it always happens when a career hits a high. And the actor is “stuck” with a well paying TV show.
What happens most of the time, is what happen to Katherine Heigl.
Instead of being gracious and working well with the network till your contract is done. Become a nightmare on set.
Make everyone miserable.
Till you get your way. They get rid of you. So you can run off and a movie star.
Only to find out, that being a “movie star” is very fleeting.
And being a nightmare, did not stop when you left the successful TV show.
Now you have flops and no one wants to hire you since you have “personality” issues.
And Melissa’s costar… Billy Gardell… is a funny guy. He has been on numerous shows. And this was his big break too. Which is now going to hell because he is working with a “movie star”.
And I suspect that Katherine Heigl would give anything for a successful TV show right about now…
The basic fact is that most actors cannot afford to burn bridges. Especially those trying to make the transition from TV to film. Look at Katherine Heigl.
And I didn’t see Hautie’s comment before I posted, which I totally agree with!
It’s kind of believable…I remember Tom O’Neil at Goldderby complaining that she was refusing to do interviews to promote the Emmy nominations for her show this year.
Jason Bateman is my boyfriend.
I don’t know much about MM’s show or career other than she’s funny as hell .
Hope you don’t mind that he’s my boyfriend , too!! Mine..:) I think he’s an underrated actor, compared to a lot of bozos out there.
If she said that, I agree with Melissa – the writing on the show is so bad! Too many drug and sex jokes. It could really improve and become a witty show, could revamp and stay a while. The only thing that makes me watch Mike & Molly is her charm. I DO like that on the show she is pretty, stylish, and not playing some typecast weird character. She’s just fun to watch. So I put it on when I’m ironing because I enjoy her as an actress. I hope she can find a way to do TV and movies.
She ought to hang onto the tv show. If she thinks she’s going to have a bigtime movie career as anything other than the fat chick/ sidekick, she ought to look at some movie history and figure out how many obese woman become anything other than the comic relief or hot chick’s best friend.
JASON!!!!!!!!!! Holy s word I love that man….Melissa too 🙂
In addition to George Clooney, Johnny Depp’s star shot up while on 21 Jump Street. He honored his contract and acted professional during his stay. It was the producers that eventually suggested they let him out of his contract – much to his relief, I am sure.
In light of him acting like an @$$ these days, I like to remember who he was back then.
Mike and Molly is only fun because she is on it, Mike is good too, but the rest of the cast are buffoons who add nothing to the quality of the product.
Writers should stop assuming we are all morons who only respond to potty humor.
I hope this is an exaggeration of Melissa’s current behaviour, if not an outright lie, because I LOVE her. She seems like someone I’d love to hang out with!
I think all TV actress who think they’re “too good” for television after a big movie break should take a long hard look at Katherine Heigl and learn what not to do…
I like Melissa, so I’m hoping she isn’t getting all fame bitchy.
She is probably complaining about the scripts because they are truly terrible and the direction of the show because it is terrible as well. Molly is portrayed as a shrew to an extent and Mike the lovable doofus. She needs some better material.
Why’d they have to start the article by pointing out she’s plus sized? “Plus-sized funny lady!” Stupid.
I’ve never seen the show, but complaining about the script doesn’t sound like diva behavior to me, it sounds like an actress is unhappy with the quality of the script. She’s the one who has to play the role. One of the writers is probably the “inside source” complaining about her. I was expecting this story to be a lot juicier from the title!
This. I can totally understand how frustrating it would be to get offered potentially good film projects and have to turn them down because you’re contracted to do a TV show where the writing isn’t as great. Spending 10-14 hours a day performing off of bad scripts when you could be working on something more fulfilling? I think that would turn me a little bitchy too, and I’m a fairly nice, boring, undramatic girl.
I doubt she thinks she too big for TV or that this is an ego thing. It sounds like just a typical artist thing where you want to work on the best quality projects available to you. If I’m wrong, then I’ll put my money on the Bill Murray quote. Give her a couple years.
I don’t see her as leading lady material in any film, but I could be wrong. I do think she needs to lose weight, and I am not talking about becoming a size 0. A size for normal American women.
A goat? HAhaha.