Abby Lee Miller will not be ignored.
When it comes to the long-time Dance Moms host, there’s one thing on which we can all likely agree:
She sucks so very much.
No, wait, that’s not it.
She’s outspoken. That’s what we meant to write the first time.
In the wake of her abrupt and angry departure from Dance Moms, Miller has accepted invitations from basically every media outlet, clearly anxious to talk more at length about her decision to leave the Lifetime series.
“You just get to a point where you can’t take it anymore and I have been at that point for at least a year,” Miller told Kit Hoover of Access Hollywood on Wednesday night, adding in their interview that she grew “fed up” with how she was treated by producers.
“It’s not about the money,” Miller continued.
“It’s about the respect. It’s about the trust… I don’t want flowers or candy or anything like that, I just want somebody to say, ‘Wow, you’ve done a great job."”
In her epic Instagram rant on Monday, Miller cited fights she would often get into with executives over the show’s budget.
She has since mentioned how difficult it was for her to get simple costume ideas approved.
“Wait until Cheryl Burke deals with [no costume budget],” she told Entertainment Tonight of her confirmed replacement, adding of Burke and her history:
“At Dancing With the Stars, they have two floors — an entire building of seamstresses sewing, rhinestoning, fringe — she’s going to have to run downtown to Santee Alley and buy something off the street in her own car, at 4:30 in rush hour traffic after we wrap, when everything is closing, because that’s what I did for six years.”
We’ll write more about Miller in a moment, after we break out some violins and play a few pitiful notes in her honor…
We understand frustration in any job.
Miller is certainly allowed to complain about various aspects of hosting Dance Moms and, heck, she’s very welcome to walk away.
But she was also made very rich and very famous by the show and now she’s facing possibly jail time as a result of a bankruptcy fraud scheme to which she pleaded guilty last year.
It doesn’t seem like the ideal time for her to be putting producers on blast.
“This was a long time coming for me,” she told People Magazine in yet another interview, however. “Nobody knew. I was just so irate.”
The reality star explained to this publication that the “last straw” came at a competition when one of the program’s producers supposedly staged drama in front of unpaid families who were attending.
This is what she said about that incident, from her point of view:
I had about 50 kids and their families at the competition that are not on a TV show and don’t get paid. They were paying to be there!
They’re all there and the producer … has this psycho crazy woman – who I’ve never seen, never talked to, never met her – stalking me through the audience stating things like, ‘All your team left you. They want nothing to do with you.’ In front of 50 families from my studio.
He can’t understand why that would anger me! It’s absolutely nuts. That was the last straw for me.
In her chat with Entertainment Tonight, Miller was quick to compliment Burke as “great,” saying the show will have a different “vibe” with Burke in charge.
Her beef is clearly with those behind the scenes, not with the woman coming on to Season 8 and taking her place.
“They know how to push my buttons but it’s gone beyond that, to the point where it is so offensive as a woman,” Miller said of the producers.
“I think it’s detrimental to my health, to my mental health, to everything. It’s awful. There’s no privacy, there’s no respect.”
But would she ever return?
Some critics believe this is all a negotiating ploy by Miller.
She’s due to be sentenced for her financial crimes this spring and may be angling for a return if she can avoid prison time.
“Never say never,” Miller told People about the possibility of going back. “It just sickens me when people get creative credit with our ideas.
“A lot of things would have to change. Just the way they pull things out of their butts the last minute and it makes the costuming exhausting. They want me to come to meetings, pre-production, but on my own dime…
“There are certain aspects of the creativity, working in the studio creating and developing a dancer – I’m going to miss that.”
Good riddance to Abby Lee Miller, we say.
But if you want to relive her best and worst moments on Lifetime, you can always click on this link and go watch Dance Moms online. You may enjoy it.