This is really an odd twist. Leah Remini– doing a great job with her anti-Scientology series “Aftermath”– is the cause of real misery for another actress, Erinn Hayes.
Hayes was signed to the CBS sitcom “Kevin Can Wait,” starring Kevin James. They did one season together, it was a hit, and Hayes should have looked forward to several more.
Instead, she’s out as James’s wife on the sitcom. Now CBS execs say when the series returns, there will be a time jump, and Hayes’s character will have died. In the interim James will have found love with Remini’s character, who was introduced at the end of last season as a guest star.
Remini, of course, co-starred with James for nine seasons on “King of Queens.”
So basically, Kevin can’t wait. The chemistry with Remini was just like old times. So Hayes gets the heave-ho.
How will they explain the sudden death of a beautiful young woman? Was she dressed like a peanut in a parade and shelled by an elephant? That’s what happened to Chuckles the Clown? Killed in a terrorist attack? Run over? Dead from a fast moving disease?
There’s something really unpalatable about all this. Hayes is 41 has been working steadily in TV for almost two decades. A series deal is a nice pay off for hard work in an iffy career. I don’t know her and I don’t watch the show, but I feel bad for her. And it makes me a little queasy about Remini, who’s basically taken a job from another actress. This is especially bad at CBS where no actress heads up any of their prime time shows. Was Hayes so interchangeable?
Ironically, the name of the two part episode in which Remini co-starred was called “Sting of Queens.” And this really does sting.
