'She Would Be Mortified': Wendy Williams' Former Publicist Believes She Was 'Exploited' in Bombshell Documentary
Did Lifetime do Wendy Williams dirty? Her ex-publicist Shawn Zanotti thinks so!
The PR expert recently spoke out against the network’s docuseries, Where Is Wendy Williams? — which aired on February 24 and 25 — claiming the former talk show host would not be happy about how she was portrayed by producers.
“I felt that [Williams] was being exploited,” Zanotti recently told a news outlet.
She explained how The Wendy Williams Show star — who was recently diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia — had a different perception of what the film was going to be like when she signed on.
“She thought we were focusing on the comeback of her career,” Zanotti shared of the project, which largely dove into Williams’ alcohol addiction and mental health issues. “She would be mortified.”
“There’s no way you can convince me that she would be OK with looking and seeing herself in that way,” she continued of her former client.
She noted how she and Williams jumped at the opportunity to do the series when they were approached, noting they wanted to “get [her] story out there.”
“That is not the project that [Williams] signed up for,” Zanotti said of Where Is Wendy Williams?
“That’s not the project [the producers] brought to me. That’s not what I told her this was going to be about. There were a lot of good moments. None of those good moments were shown,” she added.
An insider recently confirmed to Page Six that Williams did not watch and approve the docuseries footage before it aired.
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As OK! previously reported, the 59-year-old’s devoted fans seemed to agree with Zanotti on how Lifetime treated Williams during filming.
One scene that particular shocked viewers showed Williams having a severe panic attack over getting a "blu" e-cigarette pen, which clearly displayed her dementia diagnosis.
"How are you not concerned about her health? That scene over 'the blu' was a full blown manic episode! Who are these people around her? They're pissing me off!" one user said below an Instagram post of the footage.
A second chimed in, noting, "I hate this for her. Why did they even do this documentary? It doesn’t look like her life, they’re making it look like karma and that’s not fair."
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A third person added, "This show is so disrespectful to her legacy to say the least," while one more individual shared, "This is sad. Who thought this was a good idea to air? We aren’t that hard up for entertainment."
NBC News interviewed Zanotti.