Charlie Sheen vs. Chuck Lorre: who’s right and who started the fight?
Like the chicken and egg question, the Charlie Sheen saga must have started somewhere and it would be interesting to know what could have sparked the fury on both Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre, though mostly on Charlie.
Charlie Sheen’s anger to CBS producer Chuck Lorre can be likened to a Hawaiian dormant volcano that was triggered by the magnitude Japan quake, resulting an even more damaging eruption that had caused domino effects with insurmountable impact.
Charlie’s boiling anger has caused jobs to hundreds of production staff of US hit TV series and his own job at very lucrative fee, making him the record-breaking highest-paid television actor today after negotiating with the show’s producers in August 2010.
Cancellation of the show has also caused the producers millions of dollars for “Men” has consistently been America’s most-watched television program.
Charlie began his weeks of rant on February 24 when interviewed by Alex Jones on a radio syndicated program and since then, all hell broke loose for “Two and a Half Men”.
The fate of the show was cemented with the 11-page notice of termination, with an additional 10 pages of links as evidences of Charlie’s soured relationship with CBS and Warner Bros. The lawyer representing the show led by John Spiegel of Munger, Tolles and Olsen sent the 11-page termination notice on March 7 to Charlie Sheen’s lawyer, Marty Singer of Lavely & Singer, officially firing Sheen from “Two and a Half Men”.
Since then, the questions that are probably running through everybody’s minds could be “Who is telling the truth?”; “Who is right?” and “Who started the fight?”
Charlie said
We heard what Charlie had reverberatingly said over the weeks. We have seen his anger, we have felt his exasperation. The actor said that Lorre has been pushing him around, a claim he made when he made the infamous-phone call on February 24 to Alex Jones’s radio show, making insulting remarks on "Men" producers but zeroing in on CBS producer, Chuck Lorre.
“Clearly, I have defeated earthworm [show creator Chuck Lorre] with my words – imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists,” Charlie was quoted as telling Alex Jones and was picked up by virtually all media outlets and news website, signaling weeks of rants-war instigated by the beleaguered actor.
Charlie just could not stop making quotable, surprising remarks against his own show and waging war against his bosses.
Charlie had called Lorre names: "There's something this side of deplorable that a certain Chaim Levine — yeah, that's Chuck's real name — mistook this rock star for his own selfish exit strategy, bro. Check it, Alex: I embarrassed him in front of his children and the world by healing at a pace that his unevolved mind cannot process," Sheen was quoted by IBTimes in a February-27 report.
The star of the most-watched television network called the show “runaway frickin’ juggernaut.”
It was no doubt that Charlie was furious. The public heard him over the radio and seen and watched him on internet webscasts and major television programs from big television networks in America: “Today” with Jeff Rossen, “Piers Morgan Tonight” with Piers Morgan; “The Dan Patrick Show”, and many more.
Charlie Sheen was everywhere: on television, radio and he even launched his own e-talk show, “Sheen’s Korner” that all allowed him to rant his personal tirades against the big bosses of the popular sitcom. Piers Morgan even called him “The Che Guevara of Television”.
But like the chicken and egg question, the Charlie Sheen saga must have started somewhere and it would be interesting to know what could have sparked the fury on both Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre, though as mostly and clearly seen from Charlie.
But the questions are "Was it Charlie who launched his personal tirades on the show’s producer giving them the most quotable quotes they used against him in ten pages of media coverage enumerated on top of the eleven page argumentation of the case?; Did he first launch the attack? Or was he reacting to what was told of him? Was it true he was being pushed around, to which he vehemently detested?"
What could Chuck Lorre have said
Has Charlie had a valid point in getting so angry for the world to see? Or was he reacting on what was said albeit indirect and unknown to the public by Lorre? The bankable producer is known for his “vanity cards” at the end of his every show. The vanity cards are discussed by Sheen at some point of his conversation with radio host Alex Jones.
"Vanity cards" are the images that show creators display at the end of a broadcast of one of their shows. Some famous ones include Joss Whedon's "Grr. . . Argh" and Gary David Goldberg's "Sit, Ubu, sit! . . . Good dog," Sheen was quoted as telling Jones by Victoria K. Walden of Yahoo Contributor Network.
Citing Sheen, Walden described the ‘vanity cards” as used at the end of Lorre’s every show, containing ‘musings, poems, short memoirs, whimsical short stories, or whatever else Lorre's whim might inspire him to write’.
And Charlie had hinted in his conversation with Jones that he was a target of Lorre’s vanity cards, particularly in the last few cards for “Two and a Half Men”.
In one set of vanity cards at the end of “Men”, Lorre wrote, said Walden: "I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I don't have crazy, reckless sex with strangers. If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really pi**ed."
The article noted a second set of vanity cards which could have been read as an attack to Sheen when Lorre wrote: "He felt dead inside. No matter how hard he partied, he could never escape that simple fact - inside, dead."
Could these vanity cards enough reason for Sheen to blew his top? Did he have enough reason to get furious at his boss? Was Charlie a good man like his ex-girlfriend, Kelly Preston said, echoed by his co-star, Holland Taylor?
Chuck Lorre’s attorney has asserted in the 11-page termination letter that Lorre has just been concerned with Charlie’s health.
Is this corollary to Sheen’s claim that he was being pressured by Lorre’s camp to undergo rehabilitation program on alcoholism, pressuring him to join Alcoholics Anonymous and that which resulted in the actor referring to his bosses as bunch of “AA Nazis”?
Lorre’s camp asserted that they even prepared a jet for Sheen to transport him to the proper rehabilitation clinic only to be turned down by the actor. Was it right for the actor to push getting back at work and continue production of eight more episodes of “Men”? Or could he have gone to rehabilitation as suggested by his bosses? Was this what Charlie meant by hating “being pushed around anymore”.
Responses to these questions can shed light or at least help you argue who between the two started the fight and who could possibly be right and who was at the wrong side of the fence?
But an equally important question could be, “Who is winning”? Was it really Charlie? Or was his Goliath of bosses from Warner Bros. and CBS.
Who has got more to lose?
In this fight, Charlie has got more to lose He may have millions after having successfully convincing his bosses to increase his take home fee but his bank account could go down the drain overnight and he will wake up one day penniless if there is truth to his continuous use of drugs and generosity to his family of ‘porn stars’.
Can this be another case of David and Goliath, Charlie as the helpless David who is in need of help, whose only solid job in his acting resume is "Two and a Half Men".
Charlie may be America’s highest-paid television actor but he is David when fighting Goliath of CBS, Chuck Lorre. Why would Charlie who got a lot to lose wage war against his bosses?
Aside from “Two and a Half Men”, Lorre has two other hit shows making him the most successful producer on American television today: "The Big Bang Theory" and "Mike and Molly." He was also the man behind the success of other television series like “Dharma & Gregg”.
And like what Alec Baldwin said in his article, “Two and a Half Men is Better Than None” published by Huffington Post over the weekend, these network and studio big shots are just that: they are big shots and they are always right. And they can make the life of any star miserable: no matter how popular he is and no matter how much millions he raked in for his studio.
If actors like Sheen are armed with fame and popularity, the big honchos are armed with one thing: a metaphorical book Baldwin called, “How to Handle Actors” [like Charlie Sheen].
As Baldwin warned, “You can't win. Really. You can't. When executives at studios and networks move up to the highest ranks, they are given a book. The book is called How to Handle Actors.” And one principle held dear in that book is that no actor is greater than the show itself when the show is a hit. And, in that regard, they are often right.”
What would Charlie and Chuck do next? What should they do? What is the right thing for them to do?