Days after the release of the Lifetime documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?, the talk show host’s former publicist slams the special for exploitation.
While speaking to NBC News about the special, Shawn Zanotti stated she felt that Williams was being exploited. Zanotti also said that the former talk show host had a different idea of how the documentary was going to go.
“She thought we were focusing on the comeback of her career,” Zanotti pointed out about Wendy Williams’ documentary. “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.”
Zanotti further recalled producers at Creature Films and eOne Television approaching her and Williams to do the two-part series in 2022. Williams said yes and stated she would love to do it in order to get her story out.
“That is not the project that [Williams] signed up for,” Zanotti continued. “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.”
Just before the documentary was released, it was revealed that Williams had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
The documentary’s producers stated they didn’t know about her recent diagnosis. Mark Ford, one of the producers, even said, “If we had known that Wendy had dementia going into it, no one would’ve rolled a camera.”
Shawn Zanotti Doesn’t Believe Filmmakers Didn’t Know About Wendy Williams’ Dementia Diagnosis
Responding to Ford’s comment, Shawn Zanoitti stated she didn’t buy the excuse. She also said she doubted Wendy Williams’ diagnosis would have stopped the production team.
“The producers were asking questions throughout the entire time,” Zanotti pointed out. “Would ask questions where she would somewhat seem confused, and I feel as though it was done to be intentional at that moment in time to make their storyline.”
Zanotti repeated that she and Wendy Williams were presented with a documentary that was far from what the special was. “To me, it looked as though it was a reality show of a circus,” she said. “A circus of her downfall.”
Ford did say in his interview that questions were asked during the production. “We tried to be as transparent as possible,” he explained. “And the making of the film is as much a story in some ways as Wendy’s story itself. And that’s why we intentionally left a lot of the questions in.”