Ha! Where do we start?
There are many problems with Hollywood that have been slowly coming to light in recent years.
Most recently is the #MeToo movement - which I'm not going to go into detail here, there is plenty of information in the spotlight at the moment.
Suffice to say, for those genuinely effected I support you, for those taking advantage of the movement and accusing people unjustly I say shame on you!
But there are other issues, many other issues, but I am going to put the spotlight on one that I have been following closely.
I am a fan of several TV shows, but in the last couple of years, I became a fan of the TV series Lethal Weapon.
I was a fan of the movies with Aussie Mel Gibson and the ever-charming Danny Glover. So I was very sceptical when it was announced it was being made into a TV series.
How could they possibly live up to the standard of the movies?
Most importantly who would play the very integral role of Martin Riggs? This is the pivotal role and whoever took the part was going to have massive shoes to fill.
Enter Clayne Crawford.
I had seen Clayne in another of my favourite shows, the now finished Leverage, where he guest starred in 2 or 3 episodes. I thought he did a fantastic job with the role he was given, but I didn't follow him past that until I saw him in Lethal Weapon.
To go into everything that has happened since would make this post far too long, but I will attempt to give the most important details.
First, you need to know that not only did Clayne do the role of Riggs justice, he surpassed Mel Gibson!
That's a big statement, but there are many, many fans that agree with me.
He brought the struggles of depression, PTSD, guilt and finally the process of starting to rebuild his life and find happiness again to the screen so well that so many people related significantly.
But things started to unravel behind the scenes.
People's egos started getting too big believing they should be the show's main star and not liking that someone who is not as big in the industry was starting to overshadow themselves, especially as they have done other very popular sitcoms and movies in the past.
This person then started "leaking" detrimental reports to the media and did a massive public rant on Twitter. They brought race into the equation for no real reason other than they could, they lied about things that happened on set (this has been proven to be lies by others) they turned on fans who questioned them as to why they were making this so public and it became quite nasty.
They also threatened crew members with job loss, manhandled one of the showrunners and refused to do table reads or action scenes in an action show. Among other things.
So now you know the background of the main problem, which is ....
Warner Bros, who makes the show and Fox, who distributes the show, have done nothing!
They fired Clayne, using him as a scapegoat but the other person has not been reprimanded in any way!
They have completely bowed down to this person's apparent "big star" pressure believing the show would not work without them.
But how does Lethal Weapon work without the actual Lethal Weapon?
The production bigwigs rarely went to set, never intervened to try to fix the issues before they became major problems and just basically buried their heads in the sand and then wondered why it all blew up in their faces and then scrambled in the wrong direction to try to fix it!
Clayne has apologised for any part he played in the issues and has since stayed quiet on social media, instead, he has gone about his business of working with his charity foundation.
https://twitter.com/CCF_Birmingham
It should also be pointed out that many, many co-stars from previous projects have spoken out in defence of Clayne saying that the person those from Lethal Weapon are trying to portray him as is not the person they all know and love. There are also many fan encounters that have described him as sweet, generous and kind.
While the other person involved in the equation has left his nasty tweets on his Twitter account and has not apologised or taken responsibility for anything and doesn't feel he should.
It is very apparent to fans that standover tactics and bullying are rife in Hollywood, not just against those of the female or LBGT equation but also by those who think they have the star power to get what they want.
As stated above a certain person brought race into the equation. Now I am sure there is a lot of racism happening in Hollywood but I would like to point out racism works both ways. Racism can and does occur against people for all sorts of reasons and it is wrong, but my main point is it can happen against ordinary white people too and I think that gets lost sometimes. There was no reason for this person to bring race into what was happening other than they were using it to try to get their way.
Well, the fans are fighting back.
We are standing up for Clayne and insisting that Warner Bros and Fox fix the issues post-haste if they have any chance of keeping the show going past the 13 episodes that have been ordered for season 3.
We have been involved in a Twitter campaign over the past 4 weeks, we have sent truckloads of snail mail, email, and props like spray cheese (something the character Riggs ate a lot of in the show) to the studio and we are not giving up. We have also let them know we will NOT be watching Season 3 at all as a result of their poor management of the whole situation.
While we agree, Clayne has not been completely innocent in the events that happened behind the scenes, the way this whole fiasco has been dealt with is completely unfair, unprofessional and unbecoming of what we expect in this day and age.
Hollywood needs to clean up its game in a big way as people are becoming more aware of the almost mob-like environment they have harboured so far.