Melissa Joan Hart plays a daughter on a mission to save her father in the new Lifetime movie The Bad Guardian,
premiering May 18. Leigh, played by Hart, is shocked to learn her
elderly father has been put under the control of a court-appointed
guardian (La La Anthony)
after a fall. In her TV Insider interview, Hart reveals she was stunned
by what she learned about guardianships while filming the movie.
“The story just seemed unbelievable to me,” Hart tells TV Insider.
“First of all, that this is happening all across our nation and that
there’s this corruption within this guardianship. It’s a $2.9 billion
business, so I was just fascinated to learn all this and to see how
people would struggle with this.”
She adds, “Of course, we know the stories of Britney Spears and Wendy Williams
that are going through these conservatorships or guardianships, but in
their cases they’re high-profile women that are young and trying to get
themselves out of it.”
This deep dive into guardianships was “all brand-new information” for
Hart. “I was aware of the Britney Spears situation but that seemed very
different,” she explains. “That was her own father coming in and
putting her in a conservatorship, and then her trying to break out of
that and the whole Free Britney thing. It was almost like the opposite
of this story in a sense. That’s the only kind of understanding I had of
a guardianship before the movie.”
In The Bad Guardian,
Leigh and her family don’t have the money to “fight the big fight
against the corruption that happens in a lot of these cases and how
someone can move in and take over a family member and take over
everything from their medical decisions to their bank accounts to their
home, their property, everything. I really like the idea of shedding
light on this and maybe helping people find some information to find a
way out of it.”
Leigh’s fight for her father and exposing this bad guardianship reminded Hart of “Erin Brockovich
about a small town woman trying to fight the system. That’s what I
really loved about playing this character. Leigh was trying to navigate
this big, crazy world that’s been going on for a while and nobody’s
really cracked the case, so here she is trying to save her family.”
The Sabrina the Teenage Witch
alum believes “there’s a place for guardianships” in certain
situations. “There’s definitely people out there that need someone to
advocate for them or make decisions for the,” or “they don’t have a
family member that can help out,” Hart notes. “But anywhere there’s a
lot of money, there’s power and greed and corruption. I feel like that’s
the story we’re telling.”
Wendy Williams’ guardian,
Sabrina Morrissey, accused A+E Networks of exploiting the former TV
personality in Lifetime’s “Where Is Wendy Williams?” documentary.Lifetime
Wendy Williams’ guardian claimed A+E Networks “shamelessly exploits”
the former talk show host in Lifetime’s “Where Is Wendy Williams?”
documentary.
Morrissey alleged that Williams, 59, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal lobe dementia and aphasia in
May 2023, was told the two-part series, which aired Feb. 24 and Feb.
25, would paint her “in a positive manner like a phoenix rising from the
ashes.”
She further claimed that when A+E Networks released the trailer for
the documentary on Feb. 2 they benefitted from “unconscionably
exploiting [William’s] condition, and perhaps even disclosing her
personal and private medical diagnosis, for perceived entertainment
value and the prurient interest of television viewers,” per the
documents.
“This blatant exploitation of a vulnerable woman with a serious
medical condition who is beloved by millions within and outside of the
African American community is disgusting, and it cannot be allowed,” the
filing read.
“We look forward to the unsealing of our papers as well, as they tell
a very different story,” a spokesperson for A+E Networks tells Page
Six.
Morrissey’s lawsuit was originally filed in the New York County Supreme Court on Feb. 20 —
after the trailer was dropped — in an attempt to get a judge to order a
temporary restraining order against the release of the documentary.
According to the documents, A+E Networks started filming Williams following a signed contract in January 2023.
However, Morrissey argued that Williams lacked the capacity to enter
the agreement and sign on to the documentary as an executive producer
due to her condition.
She then referenced Williams’ court-ordered guardianship, which she entered in February 2022, adding the former TV host was “incapable of managing her own business and personal affairs,” the documents read.
Morrissey further said Williams nor herself approved of how the media
mogul was filmed and portrayed in the trailer and documentary after
being told it would serve as a comeback following the cancellation of
“The Wendy Williams Show,” which ran from 2008 to 2022.
Morrissey slammed A+E Networks for “unconscionably exploiting [William’s] condition” for the benefit of audience interest when the trailer for the two-part series was released on Feb. 2. Lifetime
Additionally, Williams’ manager for the project, William Selby,
claimed he didn’t review A+E Networks’s trailer or the Lifetime
documentary, per the documents.
A source close to the matter also questioned who “approved the final
product, if not Wendy or her guardian,” slamming A+E Networks for moving
forward with the project given Willams’ condition.
“Anyone with eyes could see that something was very wrong with
Wendy,” a source told Page Six. “The producers knew or should have known
that Wendy was suffering from dementia during filming.
“They certainly knew that she suffered from dementia before they
aired the docuseries because it was announced by press release.”
The source furthered, “Wendy did not consent to this docuseries. She was not shown and did not approve the footage.”
The “Where Is Wendy Williams?” documentary showed Williams constantly
drinking despite her known issues with alcohol abuse, crying over the
details of her finances and becoming irritable with those around her.
Her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., also appeared in the series, claiming his mother’s dementia diagnosis is due to her alcoholism.
Morrissey claimed A+E Networks didn’t get her approval on the content added in the trailer or the documentary. Lifetime
“[Doctors] basically said that because she was drinking so much, it
was starting to affect her headspace and her brain,” the 23-year-old
alleged. “So, I think they said it was alcohol-induced dementia.”
While Morrisey proved to have an issue with the series, Williams’ family thinks otherwise.
Last month, Alex Finnie — Williams’ niece — allegedly claimed her
aunt told her family “now is the perfect time” to do the documentary so
she could take “ownership” of her story.
“That conversation [about her wanting to do the doc] was crystal clear,” Finnie told ABC News.
“Family was shut out,” she explained. “Her guardian has not released
that information [pertaining to where Williams is] to us. I haven’t seen
her in about nine months.”
Williams’ relatives allegedly don’t know the TV star’s whereabouts despite her occasionally talking to them on the phone.
