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UPDATE, TUESDAY AM: After skewering his old show Two And A Half Men with a barrage of insults last week, Charlie Sheen pulled back today but just a little. Sheen posted on his website a letter to his replacement on Men, Ashton Kutcher, apologizing for telling him he sucked. But Sheen refused to take back his comments that Men has become “a steaming pile of ass” with “bad writing.” Here is Sheen’s letter signed as his now-deceased Men character Charlie Harper.
Dear Ashton-
My bad.
I was disrespectful to a man doing his best.
I got excited and threw you into a crossfire.
The rest of my statement I stand behind.
You, however, deserve better.
Safety in your travels good sir.
- The “late” Charlie Harper
PREVIOUS, FRIDAY PM: Just as his new show, Anger Management, is gearing for production on its initial 10-episode order from FX, its star/producer Charlie Sheen embarked on the type of verbal rampage that got him in trouble with his previous employer Warner Bros. TV and ultimately got him fired from his previous show, CBS’ Two And A Half Men. Over the past 2 days, Sheen dropped the Mr. Nice Guy persona he had cultivated since he signed on for Anger Management last summer to return to his infamous warlock days. 
“Perhaps if Warner Bros. spent as much time and energy focusing on THEIR show, it wouldn’t be such a steaming pile of ass,” Sheen said of Men on Wednesday when asked by TMZ for response to the cease-and-desist letter from the studio banning the use of images of Sheen as his Man character to promote his new show. Then today, he called into TMZ Live, also reverting to an old habit he had during his wild days a year ago when he would regularly call into live radio shows to vent. “I’m tired of pretending Ashton doesn’t suck,” he said, an 180 degree from the thumbs-up he had publicly given his replacement Ashton Kutcher. “I’m tired of lying … I’m tired of pretending the show doesn’t suck … I’m tired of pretending Ashton doesn’t suck…It’s nothing personal … I just feel bad for him … he’s saddled with such bad writing,” Sheen concluded, shifting his insults to his favorite target of last year, Two And A Half Men showrunner Chuck Lorre.
There is no such thing bad publicity, they say, and a new show needs all the attention it can get. But I doubt this is the type of attention the marketing teams at FX and Anger Management producer Lionsgate TV are aiming for. Seeing glimpses of the foul-mouthed, loose-cannon Charlie Sheen of 2011 so early in the process on Anger Management will no doubt raise concern at FX, Lionsgate and especially Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury division, whose model’s success is tied to a show’s ability to go the distance, hitting the 100-episode mark and beyond. Was this a brief outburst provoked by the WBTV legal move or a sign of relapse? Or maybe Sheen is turning to Daniel Day-Lewis style of method acting, embodying his anger management issues-plagued character on and off-work.
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This comment field should be a conflagration in the morning.
The last sentence of the post fits the scenario. Now Charlie feels free to go off whenever he wants and chalk it up to “rehearsing”.
He’s right about 2.5 Men. It’s beyond terrible. If Jon Cryer had any dignity, he’d move on.
If you were getting paid in the range of $400,000/week to do a job you could do in your sleep AND you were getting every 4th or 5th week off AND you’d still have about 4-5 months every year to take a vaca or do something else…would YOU move on?
Exactly.
Who wants to be as dumb as Wayne Rogers? Or McLean Stevenson or David Caruso (before he was miraculously rescued by CSI: Miami)?
If you have a great gig, do it until they kill you (or the show) off.
2.5 Men ALWAYS sucked. If anyone on that show had ever had integrity it would have been canned after five episodes way way back.
But it’s good to see that Sheen hasn’t been able to keep the nice guy act up. It had to break eventually.
Totally agree. Don’t act like 2.5 Men was fucking Seinfeld. It wasn’t. Wasn’t even close. It was ALWAYS garbage.
That said, I also agree with those who say Cryer would have to be a fucking moron to bail on that paycheck. Get real. $400k per?!? Are you kidding? Is there a job on earth you wouldn’t do for 400k a week? I doubt it. Did I miss something? Was Hollywood beating down Cryer’s door before or since 2.5 men? Ride that horse until it dies, boy-o.
Yea, but everything CS states above is true. I watched 5mins of a recent ep and I only lasted that long as it was interesting to see where they placed the canned laughter. That was the only hilarious part of it, the parallel between each god awful line and the laugh track. What they’re trying to pass as comedy is truly insulting. It’s a train wreck.
I watched five minutes of 2.5 men a few years ago WITH Charlie Sheen. It was pretty bad, IMHO, then as well. Ashton Kutsher is not the problem. Charlie Sheen just can’t get over the idea that the show managed to go on without him.
Good luck stupid producers of Anger Management. People told you it would end up like that. That idiot is still crazy and high. He was behaving for some few weeks.
just shut up !! Anger Management here we will watch !
hey medias it is time to leave Charlie Sheen alone and to stop trying to destroy his career !! You make me sick..
First he is right, secondly this time he did that because Warner came to provoke him with these copyright stuff.
I can’t wait to watch his new show.
Yes, Two and Half Men does suck now. I think it’s partially the writing and partially Ashton. But it’s a little worrisome that Charlie is on the attack again. Of course this might prove to be in his favor. People may just tune in to the first ten episodes of his new series just to see what they perceive as a train wreck. And if enough tune in he gets the “back 90.”
This is what Charlie Sheen does, it’s his shtick, Lionsgate & FX may even be behind his, conveniently timed for publicity, tirade. His new show won’t be nearly as successful as “Men” was, emphasis on “was” because Ashton does suck, but it’ll do well enough for cable, and Lionsgate & FX will be pleased with the result… then Charlie will implode all over again.
Charlie…please take your meds.
Being told not to use promotional materials including the show I helped build after being let go from it would piss most people off. 100% not crazy response by Sheen.
What’s Adam Sandler’s stake in the ANGER MANAGEMENT series? Does he get a passive producing credit or a fee each episode because he originated the film? It’s weird that he even was okay with them remaking this in the first place…
I really hope Charlie isn’t back on crack.
Is he lying or at all over exaggerating? I don’t think so. It is beyond painful and embarrasing at this point. It honestly feels like watching regurgitated drivel the lousy writers stole from vintage TV Guides to insure they didn’t have to put any real effort into maintaining the appeal of an already tiring crapfest. What about the product being given doesn’t deserve to be called out at this point? If anything, Sheen’s current outburst, is subtitle to the point that you might actually find yourself believing he actually still cares about the legacy of the show. Is that honestly so hard for people to fathom as a possibility here?
2.5 Men has always been terrible.
As long as a cash cow gives milk, Warner and CBS will continue to milk it.
The fact that Two Broke Girls often out-rates 2 1/2 Men is proof that they can get one more season out of it, tops.
As for Sheen, what hasn’t been said?
Can he ever run out of enough feet to put in his mouth? The “horrible writing” is the same group that worked with him. And he bragged about contributing NOTHING to the show. So if the writing is terrible for Ashton, it was terrible for him.
A cash cow gives cash. That’s why they call it a cash cow.
Sorry, Charlie, I like 2 1/2 Men this year. It tried out a few things that didn’t work, but generally speaking, it’s a kinder, softer show this year, and I’ll buy this dvd series, where I might not have bought the others, principally because there are reruns any time of the day almost. I’ve always thought “Jake” is the best part of the whole show at any time. They don’t seem to know what to do with him now, but when he was little, it was classic.
Intriguing comment!
I think it’s interesting that you didn’t like the show earlier but really liked Jake. I find that they don’t know what to do w/Jake, Rose, the mom or Berta either.
All of those characters have lost their punch, their presence in the re-vamp.
I find the revamped show a mess — I watched the first three episodes and then a few weeks later gave it another try, hoping they’d've hit their groove.
But I’ve no empathy for Ashton’s character, nor do I see any reason for Ashton and Alan to be in each other’s lives at this point. That is, Charlie HAD to take Alan and his son in, they’re family…and w/that, there was a rich history between the characters of having to deal with their mom, mom’s husbands/BFs, problems from their childhood, etc. All of that is lost with Ashton’s character. The reasoning is so forced and feels phony.
And Ashton’s character (I cannot for the life of me remember the character’s name, and I can’t say I care) is so uneven. He’s this not-so-nice “nice guy” who sleeps around and takes advantage of women….but he’s nice about it. It really doesn’t work for me. One minute he’s all innocent, next he’s smugly smiling to himself for having tricked some girls into having a threeway. If he’s a phony, it’s not being played right.
Worse, Cryer’s Alan and Ashton seem to be in two completely different sitcoms. (As a comparison, look at how smoothly the writers of Cheers brought in Woody and, later, Rebecca.) It’s very weird.
The only thing breathing life into 2.5 Men at this point is Lorre’s ego and his desire to save face. Sheen is just building a buzz for his new show. It’s all so predictable and boring.
I just spent time with Charlie. He is looking and feeling great. These new comments were not fired from a loose cannon, but rather a sniper’s rifle. Let’s be honest, Charlie’s right. His old show stinks and so does Ashton.
Are you a hooker, porn star, or dealer?
Or sycophantic hanger on trying to hoover up the crumbs of coke and hookers that Charlie leaves behind.
Whether or not the show is any good (I’ve never liked it), it’s more popular now than it’s ever been. Sheen knows that his getting himself fired off of 21/2M was a screw-up of the first order; he got paid tall coin for playing himself, a sweet gig that he’ll never get back, and he even spread false rumors that he was in negotiations with CBS to get back on the show in an attempt to make it happen for real. Now he’s trying to scrape off a little of that 21/2M magic in order to get this new thing of his going. CBS is signaling to FX that they’re not going to let them just file the serial numbers off of 21/2M for their own show. On the positive side, we get to watch Charlie flail around some more, that’s always entertaining.
“more popular than ever”, interesting since this is its lowest rated season since its premiere season…and as for the money, he can potentially make more with AM than he did with 2 1/2 Men.
Jack i am suprised your stupidity did not already killed you…
Did you see TAAHM’s ratings lately? Not good, not bad either but definitely on a downhill. It won’t survive longer than 2 seasons imo while Sheen’s new sitcom will deliver, it gets the 90 episode order and then we’ll see. Sheen losing? Nah.
I’ve never understood what’s so funny about Chuck Lorre’s shows, but I can’t see a huge difference in the writing between the old and the new 2 1/2 Men.
well lot’s of us see it and we can tell one thing for sure : now it sucks !
Sheen brought sarcasm, wit and double-entendre irony to this otherwise generic CBS sitcom, not hard to get and yeah the first years the writing was also better.
Charlie Sheen = truth teller.
@Jack Flack …to what, another Hot Shots sequel?
Addiction has two personas DR Jeckell and Mr Hyde in light of what has just happened with WhitneyHouston this should be addressed so he can get the help he needs ….pull the plug on the show
Big Bang is still great … obviously the Lorre team is spending all its efforts on that. 2&1/2 is coasting on fumes, just as it was in Sheen’s last couple of years. Saw the exact same scene with Kutcher that had already been filmed TWICE before with Sheen: Bar scene where female bartender (same actress) fawns all over Sheen/Kutcher and ignores Cryer. I mean THREE times with a scene that wasn’t really funny the first time? But if 12 million people will watch do you really think 2&1/2 is going any place?
Yeah I think lost in all this is recognition that the show was already falling in the last year or two even with Charlie there. That being said it has take a cliff dive this season to completely unwatchable, whereas in Sheen’s last season it was merely not funny anymore. They should shut it down.
Agreed. It’s fallen from mediocre to amateurish. I watched a few episodes this season just out of deer-in-headlights shock that anybody could actually put it on the air as a professional product. I gave up when I realized it doesn’t even have the Plan 9 camp factor. If it hadn’t had the legacy behind it, it would’ve been yanked like “Work It!”
Charlie is just playing the press, like the big hairy mess, yet master manipulator that he is.
But we can all agree that the New 2.5 Men really does suck. It is painful to watch. Off the TiVo list for the first time in 8 years.
Charlie Sheen is a heaping pile of ass.
Charlie was the ONLY interesting thing about that show.
Not a chance. He was painful to watch the last few seasons. This season started off a little rocky, but it’s getting there and has been pretty damn good, all things considered.
He’s a genius. Go Charlie!