NEW YORK — Warner Bros. Television agreed Monday to pay the crew of “Two and a Half Men” for half of the eight episodes of TV’s top-rated comedy that were canceled by producers upset about the off-screen antics of star Charlie Sheen.
The troubled star called the agreement a “start.”
Sheen dominated the headlines Monday with threats of a lawsuit, two morning-show interviews and a rambling live stream on a website. By midday, his veteran publicist had quit.
It was just another day for the self-described party animal whose use of drugs, alcohol and prostitutes combined to shut down TV’s top-rated comedy.
In Sheen’s interviews with ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today” show, he boasted about his “epic” partying, said he’s fueled by “violent hatred” of his bosses, claimed to have kicked drugs at home in his “Sober Valley Lodge” and demanded $3 million an episode to return to work.
What may be amusement for fans is serious business in Hollywood. There’s a strong likelihood that “Two and a Half Men” will never be back, putting fellow cast and crew members out of work and costing producers Warner Bros. Television tens of millions of dollars.
“I’m supposed to be out there all humble and asking for my job,” Sheen said in an interview streamed live on . “No, I don’t do that. I don’t understand what I did wrong except live a life that everyone is jealous of.”
Sheen’s publicist, Stan Rosenfield, resigned shortly after the TMZ interview.
Both the ABC and NBC morning shows carried excerpts of Sheen interviews conducted over the weekend and promised more today. ABC aired the interview excerpts before even wrapping up the Academy Awards results, which ran on ABC the night before.
Sheen told NBC’s Jeff Rossen that he has spent years trying to be the “nice guy” on his show.
“I’m tired of pretending I’m not special,” he said. “I’m tired of pretending I’m not a total . . . rock star from Mars.”
Sheen said he’s bored now with cocaine. But he said he “exposed people to magic” when they partied with him and he loved doing drugs.
“What’s not to love?” he said on ABC. “Especially when you see how I party. It was epic. The run I was on made Sinatra, Flynn, Jagger, Richards just look like droopy-eyed armless children.”
