This is 2020: Kirstie Alley attacks CNN, CNN attacks Veronica's Closet
The Trump administration treats politics as entertainment so it’s not all that surprising that so many performers have used it as a stepping stone to modern relevancy. Kevin Sorbo, Dean Cain, and Kristy Swanson have turned the MAGA agenda into an aesthetic, while a kook like Chuck Woolery can rebrand himself as a Trumpfluencer despite being a complete fucking weirdo. And then there’s Kirstie Alley, the Cheers actor whose loony tweets about politics and Scientology have made her hard to ignore, even for cable news juggernauts.
Alley, who loves capital letters and laugh-cry emojis as much as Don Jr., took aim at CNN this morning, accusing the network of inflating the severity of COVID-19, which, as of this writing, has killed nearly 230,000 U.S. citizens. “I now Know why my personal friends who walk around in SHEER TERROR of contracting Covid are simply CNN viewers! I decided to watch CNN myself to get a their [sic] viewpoint and oh my God DID I EVER!!!!” she tweeted on Friday morning, fingers bleeding from the sheer force of her posting. “IF YOU TOO WANT TO LIVE IN TERROR WATCH CNN!! FEAR OF DYING IS THEIR MANTRA! OMG!”
CNN’s Communications team, who apparently name-search themselves, went straight for the jugular when they popped into Alley’s replies. “Kirstie, you are welcome to change the channel—just like countless viewers did every time Veronica’s Closet came on TV,” the account tweeted. “But don’t downplay the loss of nearly 230K American lives. And please, wear a mask.”
Spicy! But is it accurate? Veronica’s Closet, in which Alley played the newly single owner of a lingerie company, aired 66 episodes across three seasons between 1997 and 2000. A respectable run, surely, but it’s telling that its ratings dropped by more than 50% when it wasn’t sandwiched between Seinfeld (or Frasier) and ER.
Alley, offering a shocked “meow”—we would, too, if we were attacked online by a major news organization—defends the show, correctly saying it was a top 10 series in 1997. CNN, however, remains correct in that many, many people did change the channel following that early success.
Anyways, just another day in 2020, when bygone sitcom stars get into petty online scrabbles with news organizations over the dangers of a pandemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands of people, leading to a congressman chiming in to defend a 20-year old TV show.
Oh, yeah, we forgot to mention…
Just shoot me.
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