Pauley Perrette was not killed off NCIS.
The veteran actress, who confirmed she was leaving this long-running drama last fall, bid farewell to viewers and to her character of Abby Sciuto last Tuesday night.
Will she ever return to the program that made her famous? Perhaps for the series finale?
Based on the last couple days of Twitter messages and reporting, this seems extremely unlikely.
As previously detailed on The Hollywood Gossip, Perrette left a series of cryptic messages on social media this past weekend.
They implied very strongly that the actress was bullied and/or assaulted while an NCIS cast member, an allegation that has left the Internet full of speculative chatter.
“I’ve been supporting ant-bullying programs forever. But now I KNOW because it was ME! If it’s school or work, that you’re required to go to? It’s horrifying,” Perrette wrote online, adding:
“I left. Multiple Physical Assaults. I REALLY get it now. Stay safe. Nothing is worth your safety. Tell someone.”
This barely even qualifies as an implication, right?
This is basically a full-on accusation.
Perrette added in a separate Tweet that she refused to “go low” for years, choosing instead to remain silent and not talk “publicly [about] what happened.”
She isn’t talking directly about it now.
But she certainly has fans of the show talking and wondering.
Who could possibly have been behind this bullying? How was it kept quiet for so long?
We don’t have the answers, but we do have access to a Radar Online source who claims Perrette and lead actor Mark Harmon did not get along at all.
To be clear, this report does NOT insinuate that Harmon was the abuser to whom Perrette is referring above.
It focuses alternatively on a different source of tension between actor and actress.
Back in October of 2016, Harmon apparently brought his rescue pitbull named Dave to the set. The dog proceeded to bite a crew member, leaving the victim with a wound that required 16 stitches to close.
“Mark was obviously horrified and made sure that Dave went through re-training and was frequently checked by his vet,” the source tells Radar.
Harmon didn’t being the canine back to the set again until a much later date because he couldn’t find a dog-sitter at the time and he would be filming for nearly 20 hours.
Radar writes that everyone on set was just fine with this decision… except for Perrette.
The Radar insider says Perrette was “furious” at Harmon for placing the crew in danger again and that she acted like a “diva” from this point forward.
“She refused to shoot scenes with Mark and she refused to sit on the same side of the table as him at table reads,” the insider alleges, adding:
“She even completely ignored him any time he tried to make amends.”
Despite this history, Harmon tried to get back on good terms with Perrette one final time before the cast filmed her final episode, which aired on May 8.
But he was rebuffed.
“Pauley was having none of it,” the source says. “She completely ignored him.”
This incident and this feud with Harmon may very well have nothing at all to do with the assault allegations made by Perrette in her disturbing Tweets.
But it’s all just very interesting to consider because NCIS is the highest-rated show on network television and no one has ever discussed any sort of on-set tension of this kind until now.
“It is true that I am leaving NCIS after this season,” Perrette Tweeted in October, explaining as follows:
“It was a decision I made last year. I hope everyone will love and enjoy everything Abby not only for the rest of the season but for everything she has given all of us for 16 years.
“All the love, all the laughter, all the inspiration… I love her as much as you do.”
Hmm… a decision she made last year? And she wrote this in the fall of 2017?
So she made the decision in 2016 then, right? Which is when this whole dog-related scandal broke out.
“I feel I have to protect my crew, jobs and so many people,” Perrette added over this past weekend. “But at what cost? I don’t know.”
To watch NCIS online and to see Abby’s goodbye, click on the video below:
