BLIND GOSSIP

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Expect An Uproar

SOLVED!

[Blind Gossip] This cable TV drama has been on the air for more than one season.

The new season is not a happy one!

While it is an ensemble show, the cast is led by an actress who makes everyone miserable.

She is a just a nasty, negative person. Complains about everything. She got so mad about something she actually threw a prop and hit someone with it. If she doesn’t get her way, she accuses you of discriminating against her because of her age or her gender. Everyone has had it with her.

How bad is it? They were actually discussing how to write her off the series.

If they fire the star of the show, expect a huge uproar. From her!

Similar: Firing Delay

TV Show:

Actress:

[Optional] Do you think the show could survive without her?

SOLVED!

SPOILER ALERT!

TV Show: Animal Kingdom

Actress: Ellen Barkin

Well, that was fast!

Your friends at Blind Gossip had heard that Ellen Barkin, the lead in Animal Kingdom, was written off the show.

We just didn’t know exactly when it would happen or how it would happen.

Now we know!

It was last night!

They gave her cancer AND shot her!

Wow…

From EW:

Animal Kingdom boss discusses killing [SPOILER]

WARNING: This article contains spoilers about the August 13 episode of Animal Kingdom. Read at your own risk!

For years, Smurf has been the head of the Cody family, even when the boys didn’t want her to be. (Even when she was behind bars.) But when Animal Kingdom‘s fourth season saw Smurf get the news that she had cancer, things took a turn. And in Tuesday’s penultimate episode, Smurf took matters into her own hands: starting a gunfight that was supposed to end her life. But when Pope saved her, she asked him to finish the job, handing him a gun and threatening to shoot him if he didn’t kill her. In the end, it was J who pulled the trigger and killed the Cody family matriarch, played by Ellen Barkin.

“A big part of the challenge on any show is to try and keep it feeling real for the audience in the sense that it’s still fun to watch because you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen,” executive producer John Wells tells EW about the decision to kill Smurf. “We ended up spending a lot of time talking about: What do we do this year to keep shuffling the deck and mixing things up? It’s the animal kingdom, not everybody’s going to survive. We were feeling that we were repeating a little bit the Smurf stories. We had told the Smurf stories in the present that we wanted to tell but what we were really interested in is how did she get to be Smurf? And that led to where we ended up. We came to the realization that the thing that would shake the family up most is if Smurf wasn’t there to hold them together anymore.”

Once the writers landed on killing Smurf, they had to figure out the best way for her to go out — or rather, the worst.

“We started to talk about, ‘Alright, so how would she go? What would be the worst scenario for Smurf? Is it that she gets shot during a crime? Is it that somebody from her past returns and kills her? Should it be that one of the guys gets so frustrated they do it?’ Then we realized the worst thing for someone like Smurf — who somehow, even though she knows it’s not real, believes that she’s immortal, and that these kids can’t live without her —would be to discover that she’s dying,” Wells says. “She doesn’t ever want to be perceived as weak. She doesn’t want pity. What would really terrify her would be losing control of herself and her body. Then there were endless conversations about who would actually shoot her. The cast was very interested in that. We really didn’t let anybody know until when we gave them the script for the read-through.”

As for Barkin’s thoughts on Smurf’s big goodbye, Wells says, “She comes from the movies where you normally do three months and then you’re done. So she was surprised it lasted this long. But she understood and thought it was a really good story, and she was really excited when we shot the scene. It’s a great final Macbeth moment.”

Animal Kingdom airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.

Why would we put an animal as the photo for a blind item about a person? Because it’s ANIMAL Kingdom!

Congratulations to Jules2424 for being first with the correct answer!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. aaaTheMP says

    Ellen Barkin in Animal Kingdom.
    You dont get rid of a character like Smurf except its the only way to avoid that the other actors leave.

  7. timeoftheseason says

    Actress: Ellen Barkin
    Show: Animal Planet

    They just killed off her character. Clue is the lion and roar. She is older (age discrimination) and a woman (gender discrimination). She was also married to a billionaire for a long time, so I’m sure she’s used to always getting her own way and acting out when she doesn’t get it.

  8. Spyci Paprika says

    Actress: Taraji P Hanson aka Cookie Lion?

    TV Show: Empire

    Clues: Roar/Lion, the similar blind is also about Empire.

  9. pantheon9000 says

    Ellen Barkin from Animal Kingdom.

    It’s on cable and currently airing its fourth season. The storyline for the current season does indicate a potential exit. She is an older woman so it seems to fit.

    Clues: the animal image

  11. CatInTheHat says

    Animal Kingdom
    Ellen Barkin
    Absolutely and the sooner the better. Her out-there overacting is driving me nuts.

    • aaaplease says

      Oh I would have been SO disappointed had it been her. She seems delightful! I would love to have a pint with her.

  19. Chazpics says

    Easy.

    Animal Kingdom.
    Ellen Barkin.

    She has ALWAYS had a bad reputation for her on set behavior.

  21. capricorn says

    Show: Empire
    Actress: Taraji P Henson

    Clues: roar, lions, Lyons, etc.

    I genuinely hope this isn’t true!

  24. KCeagle says

    Animal Kingdom
    Ellen Barkin

    I’ve never really cared for her, though she is a good actress.. she just ain’t that pretty. I quit watching the show, and despite her central role as the mom, the real treat are the eye candy men who play her bank robbing sons… sighhhh

  25. Meowchie says

    This would make me so disappointed if my guess was correct. 😢 I like her in general and the show.

    TV Show: Claws

    Actress: Niecy Nash

    Clues: Cat picture represents the TV show title, and alliteration of the words “nasty, negative” (the letter N for her name).

  27. MissLemon says

    Ellen Barkin from Animal Kingdom; her character has cancer this season so she easily can easily killed off. She really hasn’t been at the forefront this season.

  31. ivyleaguer says

    Ellen Barkin – Animal Kingdom. She makes the show, I wouldn’t watch if she exits. And as it this season she has been explicit absent from several shows. I wonder if this cancer storyline is there way of getting rid of her. Also, it might explain why Scott Speedman quit the show.

  38. obsidianeyes says

    Based on the accompanying photo and previous blind attached i’d say

    Tv show: Empire
    Actress: Taraji P. Hensen

    Optional: I’d don’t think so. If it wasn’t already final season, I’d like to see what would happen if they did get rid of Cookie.

  39. gunther85 says

    Ellen Barkin
    Animal Kingdom
    I hope that’s not true because this season has been the best one yet.

  40. jules2424 says

    The clues make me think Ellen Barkin from Animal Kingdom. She does have possibly terminal cancer on the show. I don’t really think it would be the same without her character. Disappointing, if it is her.