Today's Blind Items - The Gaslighter

This actress was almost at the A+ level at one point in her career.  She was a young actress in an ensemble cast of one of the most popular television shows of all time.  The character she played was beloved by audiences and her acting was great.  She is a multiple award winner/nominee.  As I already wrote, the television show our actress starred in was one of the top rated shows at that time and was also critically acclaimed.  The ensemble cast was a group of talented young actors and actresses, several of whom went on to become even more famous as their careers progressed.

The sad thing is that our actress, who I'll call Ms. D, has pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth.   At the height of her fame, she inexplicably decided to walk out on the show.   Not only did she walk out on the show, but she also forfeited what would have been an incredible amount of money in the process.  Of course, there were diversionary tactics used to explain her departure from the show--the usual stuff about how she was difficult and demanding, and also that she was just downright crazy. None of this was true.  What actually took place is that something very bad had happened to this actress at the hands of another cast member on the show.  We'll call him Mr . A.   Mr. A was almost as popular as Ms D. was at that time , but beneath his wholesome exterior he was hiding a very dark side. To be blunt, this dude was a sociopath.  Anyway, the real reason Ms. D walked out was not only because of what she experienced, but also because others involved with the show chose to look the other way.  In fact, the higher-ups around the show made it clear to cast members that the situation was to be hushed up so that there would be no bad publicity.  Mr. A also gaslighted Ms. D., big time, in order to keep her quiet.  He had everyone on the show conned.  It was so bad that our actress began to suffer from serious health problems from the stress and those close to her were afraid she would end up hospitalized.  So... she bolted from the show for her own health and sanity and pretty much faded into obscurity.

After her departure, the show continued on, as did the careers of Mr. A and the other cast members who had turned a blind eye to what happened.   A few years passed and Mr. A became even more famous and wealthy thanks to his role on the show.  His increased fame placed him in more elite social circles where he crossed paths with another actress.  This actress, who I'll call Ms. T, is what I'd consider permanent A list.  At the time she encountered Mr. A., she was not really acting very much, but still maintained her A-list status for other reasons.  Anyway, Mr. A. crossed paths with Ms. T because of mutual friends and also because of a business matter they had in common.  Unlike Ms. D,  Ms. T had been around the block a few times and recognized the red flags with Mr. A's personality pretty quickly. She is no shrinking violet and was not about to put up with any crap from this guy.  Ms. T saw the warning signs after our actor attempted to make a business situation as miserable as possible for her.  She told him in no uncertain terms that he better back off-- and as is the case with these personality types, when Mr. A realized was onto him, he made sure to stay out of her way.

Although Ms. T's heydey as an actress was pretty much over at that point, our actress was (and is) very well liked in the industry.  She has lots of loyal and powerful friends.  And  Ms. T made sure that ALL of them heard about her miserable experience with Mr A.  Since our actress has never been known to say an unkind word about anyone, that made her story that much more credible.  Her powerful friends that heard the story were even more disturbed by it because at the time she crossed paths with Mr. A,  she was going through a very vulnerable time in her life.   Mr. A honed in on that and attempted to exploit her.  Luckily our actress saw through that and was able to avoid harm.  Ms. T's friends were so disgusted by this story that they spread it around like the plague and before long, almost everyone in the business had heard it (and believed it).

Mr. A continued to work on this very famous show, but once the show ended, he suddenly found himself struggling to get more work.  No one would give him the time of day.  This is surprising given that a number of the actors from this show went on to further successes after the show was over- but he didn't.  It was clear that people in the business were aware of our actor's issues and were avoiding hiring him.  What is even better is that that none of those old castmates were willing to help Mr. A find new work either.  They all felt guilty about the situation with Ms. D- and no longer wanted to be tainted by any association with him, especially since Ms. T's story was widely known at that point.

What makes this all so interesting is that Ms. D and Ms. T recently met one another for the first time.  They were introduced by a mutual friend who was aware of both of their stories.  Since Ms D was really not in contact with many people in the business anymore, she was had not heard Ms. T's story when it was circulating around.  The two women have since become very close friends and consider themselves part of each other's families.    This is a very unlikely friendship but they have totally bonded over their mutual loathing of Mr. A.  What is even more intriguing is that Ms T is urging Ms D to write a book about what happened to her. Ms. T has even offered to pony up the cash for Ms. A to hire lawyers in case there are legal problems with the book.  It will be interesting to see if the tell-all gets written.  If so, I would imagine there will be quite a few in the Industry who will be very nervous about the prospect of being called out for not intervening in Ms. D's situation with Mr. A.