Dr. Phil stands by disturbing Shelley Duvall interview
Dr. Phil McGraw says he doesn't regret Shelley Duvall episode that earned intense backlash over her portrayal
Aux News Shelley Duvall
Dr. Phil McGraw and the general public probably have very different impressions of his long-running daytime television show. If you ask McGraw, he might say that the legacy of Dr. Phil was helping people; if you ask anybody else, they might say the legacy was exploiting people. That divide is present when considering the infamous Shelley Duvall episode in 2016, in which the reclusive actor professed to being sick and shared disturbing delusions on camera. The show saw intense backlash after the interview, but McGraw sees no issues with it to this day.
“I don’t regret what I did,” Dr. Phil told Chris Wallace when asked about the Duvall interview on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace. “I regret that it was promoted in a way that people thought was unbecoming.”
Ah, the old, “I’m sorry if you were offended” non-apology. McGraw clearly doesn’t agree with those who found the situation unbecoming. “There are parts of that story that I haven’t talked about and won’t talk about in specific, but I can say generally that we worked with her family [and] with her for over a year off camera, after the fact, providing her opportunities for inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care. I can’t tell you the extent we went through,” he said. “And the people that were critical of it, nobody ever asked them what they ever did to try and help her. And the answer is not a damn thing.”
As a matter of fact, a 2021 Hollywood Reporter profile painted a picture of a still-reclusive star who has nevertheless created a support system that includes some of the very friends and fans who were critical of the Dr. Phil episode. A waitress pulled writer Seth Abramovitch aside to ascertain his intentions; later, she told him that “Everybody was appalled” by McGraw’s interview. “It just came across as craven and sensational.”
As for Duvall, she told Abramovitch she “found out the kind of person [McGraw] is the hard way.” Both her mother and partner Dan Gilroy disapproved of the interview: “A lot of people, like Dan, said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Shelley,’” she recalled. “He started calling my mother. She told him, ‘Don’t call my daughter anymore.’ But he started calling my mother all the time trying to get her to let me talk to him again.”
A spokesperson for the show stated to THR that they were “of course very disappointed” that Duvall declined their offers of help. “We don’t attach the stigma associated with mental illness which many do,” the spokesperson said in part. Despite not attaching any stigma to mental illness, the show still presented people suffering from mental illness to an audience who did stigmatize it. Don’t they bear some responsibility for that?
46 Comments
“Ah, the old, “I’m sorry if you were offended” non-apology.”
No, he is specifically and literally NOT APOLOGIZING.
“Don’t they bear some responsibility for that?”
For doing an interview she agreed to do?
Burn
Fuck “Dr.” Phil completely. I was a teen when he blew up via Oprah, and I lambasted him then as a worthless ghoul, and he still is.
Right, and fuck Oprah for giving that piece of shit quack Dr. Oz a platform as well (which also damn near made him a State Senator).
And don’t forget Marianne Williamson was her spiritual advisor. Who is probably not in danger of winning anything, but the only reason she’s even able to run is her Oprah-adjacentness.
Whenever someone jokes about how Oprah should run for President I groin. She isn’t Trump levels of stupid and on the surface he politics align with my own but she is still just a TV celebrity. And she has shown many times to associate with some shitty pseudo scientists and health industry quakes.
Didn’t know “groin” is a verb.
I just chuckle a bit, but to each their own.
When almost every fucking centrolib dickhead on TV jumped on the Oprah bandwagon after that speech I wanted to jump out a window. Just transparent lack of any sort of awareness across the board.
Whenever someone jokes about how Oprah should run for President I groin.Is that what you call doing that? Well, I won’t kink shame.
I wouldn’t groin to anything Oprah-involved, but if you’ve got a thing for MILFs with poor reasoning skills, well…
Wait are you telling me the woman channeling the ancient spirit Mafu wasn’t on the level?!
You need to learn english
A US senator. A state senator serves in the state senate.
Right. My mistake. Thankfully, much of his GOP base didn’t trust his contradicting and flip-flopping ass enough to secure him the win.
Even worse, a U.S. Senator, not just someone in the state legislature.
Correction, nearly a US Senator from the state of Pennsylvania where he definitely did not live…
Worse, almost a United States senator.Edit: Whoops, point has been made. That one kinda hit home with me.
I have never heard of Oprah doing any evil but she has been cruicial to several evil people building themselves into national celebrities.I’m just saying, if major dirt ever drops on Oprah on Epstien Island, I am primed to believe that shit.
Don’t forget Oprah gave a platform to Jenny McCarthy so she could spout her anti-vax bullshit.
Interesting that this article appears at the same time on the AC Club as a top-15 list of films/series based on Stephen King’s writings, and it had The Shining at #1 and did not mention Shelley Duvall (and what she went through for art) at all.
The story of Duvall’s experience on the Shining has been much-mythologized and exaggerated over the years, to the point where now many people believe she was straight up abused on set. There is a huge new book by Pixar’s Lee Unkrich about the making of the Shining that includes many interviews with cast and crew (including Ms Duvall) which provides a much more level-headed assessment – that it was a long shoot, Kubrick was a precise and particular director, that there were occasional tensions and arguments, but that she ultimately values her experience making the film and stands by Kubrick.
He hasn’t renewed his license in years. Please just call him Phil.
License to Phil?
Sup upon the finest of dicks, Phil.
My schedule’s kind of full right now. He’ll have to go downmarket.
Finally! It’s your time to shine, Bam, don’t screw this up!
Fuck that.Toss him a bad of rancid, bent dicks. Don’t be letting him taste the good stuff.
“We don’t attach the stigma associated with mental illness which many do,” the spokesperson said in part.
Oh, so it’s actually because they’re so exceptionally virtuous that they did something so exceptionally vicious.
I view Dr. Phil on the same level as Dr. Oz: quacks who are only interested in themselves and making money. They have no interest in helping people. Fuck them both.Oprah deserves some blame for both of them, since she “found them”. Some part of me thinks that she has a little more good in her than these two, but it’s probably not much.
Didn’t she also unleash “psychic” John Edward to prey on the public.I was gonna say “fake psychic”, but that’d be redundant.And Doc Oz promotes psychics, so she’s indirectly responsible for them too.
Was he the rapist who told people he was God? Because she gave that dude a leg up.And so many biographies or memoirs where it was revealed the author made it all up or stole it…there is probably a whole wikipedia page.My god I was kidding and she’s listed in three of themhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_memoirs_and_journals
It’s almost as though Dr. Phil is a giant piece of shit.
I can’t tell you the extent we went throughWhy stop lying now?
I’m guessing these “offers of help” all involved having her mental health journey filmed and broadcast on TV.
He’s a folksy huckster fuckstick, and though he’s enjoyed a life of wealth, his legacy will be that of a buffoonish quack with remarkably horrible architectural taste.
You talking about this? https://www.today.com/home/dr-phil-s-son-jordan-mcgraw-owns-home-was-basically-t171085
I think the lowest he’s ever gone was bringing on underage girls to brag about all the sex and crime they were doing while his audience jeers.Imagine living the rest of your life knowing that tape will always be floating around out there.
The “catch me outside” girl is actually pretty successful now, but it could’ve turned out very badly.
I mean I’ve read allegations of him or his producers providing addicts drugs so they could appear on the show. I want to say I remember them being sober too.
He would have lost his license for this….if he had one.
“Doctor” Phil has never had an ounce of scruples, so why would he start atoning for his actions now?
If she had such a support system around here why would they even consider letting her on this charlatan’s show?
his show isn’t still active is it?
I believe it’s been off for a few years now.Edit: Nope, apparently it literally ended days ago. Like last week. FML.
That…that was hardly the worse thing he did though I certainly remember it being gross. I remember my parents being glued to him during his debut year and my reaction at 14 being “this is just jerry springer but dressed up”. They, thankfully, came around as it became more glaringly obvious but soooo many people were onboard at the start. Geussing a big chunk of that was, of course, Oprah and the timeslot.The way he spoke to damaged & vulnerable people…my fucking god. Did anyone ever just attempt suicide after doing a Dr.Phil show? Because it wouldn’t surprise me.
I’d love to slap him on his big stupid head, and have a little tug on his mustosh.