By: Hilary, Ridgecrest, California
A.B. Replies: Let me guess: You walked into Dr. Phil's studio expecting help and instead you endured a surprise verbal beating by a square-headed bully of a man who has beady little blinky eyes and a soul like a dried-up watermelon seed.
If that's what happened, you are, apparently, not alone. Neither is Dr. Phil, for that matter. Former guests of other talk shows--fake news show, all kinds of shows--have also complained of producer deception in recent years, making pissy statements to the media about, say, Da Ali G Show and the erstwhile Comedy Central experiment Crossballs.
In those cases, former guests say producers weren't totally forthright about the goofy type of show they were going to be gracing. Instead of appearing like the august and serious personages they thought they were, visiting experts and politicians were often mocked--and shocked in the process.
Meanwhile, at least two other parties have come forward in recent months to throw tiny spitballs at Dr. Phil. Like you, these former guests say show producers deceived them about the directions their episodes were taking. (For the record, this B!tch called show distributor King World for comment and got no response.)
One married couple says Dr. Phil hurt them far more than he helped. Keith Camire and his wife, Angela, a rising singer, say they wrote to Oprah's onetime protégé for advice on managing their debts. They also hoped for some pointers on how Angela could focus her already pretty decent career. The gal is no William Hung. She has already sung everywhere from Madison Square Garden to the Grand Ole Opry.
However, Camire tells this B!tch that the two were lured onto the show under false pretenses. Instead of offering the kind of advice they signed on for, the couple says the show focused on their marriage, twisting their story to make their union look miserable, belittling Angela's talent and blaming her dreams for all of the family's woes.
Not so, Camire tells me. I tracked the couple down, and given how miserable their experience was, they were hesitant to say much more. But they did say that most of the couple's debts have nothing to do with Angela's choice in profession, and the two are perfectly chipper together.
In an article in the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Phil producers have denied they did anything wrong to Keith and Angela.
As for the other talk shows, they've racked up plenty of enemies, too. In 2003, feminist writer Naomi Wolf felt so blindsided by her interview with Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G) that she wrote a prickly op-ed piece about her experience in a London newspaper. She even called an HBO lawyer to get her segment pulled from the show. (It was.)
Are these kinds of stealth bushwhackings common? Most talk-show producers insist to this B!tch that they do not deliberately lie to guests. But, they argue, the focus of each episode can shift constantly from its inception to its airdate, and it's not always possible to keep guests in the loop.
"The episodes start with the best of intentions," says Michelle Anton, an author and former producer who has worked on shows ranging from Leeza to Montel to Oprah, "but things change. It could change 10 times. I can't call a guest every time the supervising producer tells me there is a change."
My advice: Honestly, why turn to Dr. Phil at all? You can get verbal abuse from the Answer B!tch without ever leaving home.