Sheen was charged last week with felony menacing and two lesser counts in connection with a Christmas incident in which
What does that mean for
Insiders say that the producers can likely rejigger
the remainder of this season’s production schedule while Sheen prepares
his defense. But the long-term situation is much more uncertain. And
uncertainty drives TV executives nuts when it comes to a cash cow like
“Men.” The sitcom is TV’s most-watched, with an average of nearly 15
million viewers this season, according to the
itself in the unenviable position this May of having to announce a fall
schedule that relies heavily on “Men” without even knowing whether the
star will be available to shoot new episodes starting in late summer.
That could impact the network financially because the “upfront” market
is where the bulk of commercial time is sold during late spring and
early summer.
“Men” has been the anchor of
top-rated Monday comedy block since 2005, when “Everybody Loves
Raymond” went off the air. But advertisers may stay away from Sheen’s
sitcom, or at least bid down the price of commercial time, if the star
still faces serious legal problems.
Through spokespersons,
Sheen’s spokesman,
said the actor had missed a table read for “Men” the day he was charged
last week. He referred other questions about the upcoming work schedule
to Lorre.
The situation is especially complex because the network and
have banked so heavily on the series, in its seventh year, lasting at
least through the 2011-12 TV season. “Men” over the years has become
expensive to produce, in large part because of Sheen’s high salary. In
2008, a TV Guide survey ranked him the highest-paid actor on TV, making
claiming the network had failed to reimburse the studio as promised for
deficits it had incurred making the show. The case was settled last
year when
renew “Men” for three more seasons and also gave a multiyear pickup to
“Big Bang Theory,” another Monday comedy produced by Lorre.
However, that deal could end up going bust if Sheen — the onetime star of films such as “Platoon” and “
Sheen’s co-workers and defenders have tried to
downplay his situation. When a reporter asked about the actor’s arrest
at a January media gathering in
Mueller has reportedly stopped cooperating with
authorities and expressed a desire that the case against her husband be
dropped. But Levenson said prosecutors may still use the tape of her
911 call to authorities, in which she said Sheen had a knife. “I’m
scared for my life and he threatened me,” Mueller told the dispatcher.
The overall legal climate also may bode ill for
Sheen. “Prosecutors don’t want it to look like he was given a break
because he’s
don’t want to be a celebrity in the post-O.J. era. Judges have gotten
sick and tired of celebrity justice.”
Sheen’s current predicament may not seem surprising
given his history. He’s admitted to serious drug abuse in the past and
was the only major celebrity whose name surfaced in the black book of
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