Child Stars Blast Hollywood After Panettiere's Death
Child Stars Blast Hollywood After Panettiere's Death
The News
Former child actors are publicly attacking the way Hollywood treats kids on set after the death of Hayden Panettiere, who died on Aug. 16 at 36.
Anna Paquin, who won an Oscar as a child, said of her generation of young performers: "We were not protected."
Rose McGowan joined her in calling the industry's treatment of child stars "profoundly sad," Deadline reported.
The tributes clustered around Aug. 21 — the day Panettiere would have turned 37.
Timeline
Panettiere, the "Heroes" and "Nashville" actress who began working as a child, dies at 36. The reports in this story do not state a cause of death.
Fellow former child stars including Hilary Duff, Alexa PenaVega, Christy Carlson Romano and Paquin pay tribute, according to CTV News.
What would have been Panettiere's 37th birthday. Page Six reports she had been planning to celebrate it with family and friends.
CNN publishes a timeline of what it calls her "troubling final months." Cleveland.com reports that her death has prompted former child stars, Hollywood colleagues and the brand Neutrogena to revisit the struggles she faced.
Reactions
Paquin's line — "We were not protected" — was the sharpest of the week, aimed squarely at the business rather than at any one person.
McGowan and Paquin both framed the treatment of child performers as an industry failure, Deadline reported.
Sylvia Jefferies, Panettiere's co-star on "Nashville," told Page Six: "It just kind of tears you up." She added: "It just was devastating."
USA Today wrote that Panettiere reached a generation of fans through her storytelling and her activism, and pointed to her own summary of how she was coping: "I'm doing my best."
What's Next
The immediate question is whether the criticism from Paquin, McGowan and others turns into anything concrete — the sources here record complaints about how child actors are handled, not any proposed rule or industry change.
None of the reports reviewed for this article announce a public memorial or release a cause of death.
More
Panettiere was a child star who carried the fame into adulthood. CNN reported that she navigated addiction and postpartum depression as an adult, and that her death came just months after she described feeling ready to start over.
CTV News noted that the people who understand that path belong to a small club — the contemporaries who grew up on camera alongside her, and who are the ones now doing the talking.
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