PANTERA Publicist Lashes Out At E! Network

August 22, 2006

Launch Radio Networks reports that a publicist for PANTERA has gone public with a blistering e-mail she sent to the E! cable network after it requested permission to re-enact the December 2004 onstage murder of PANTERA and DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. The entertainment and gossip network had apparently asked permission to dramatize the crime for a program called "25 Most Chilling Hollywood Murders". In her response, publicist Janie Hoffman wrote, "I realize there is nothing anyone can do to stop E! from producing garbage like this, as you've built your audience on the backs of other people's private lives, creating some type of warped reality out of your garbage...make believe it's your child who got his brains splattered all over a stage in Ohio. And then you turn on E! (and there it is). Oh, the magic of television!"

Hoffman concluded her missive by saying, "The answer is no, and on behalf of everyone that was there that night and everyone that misses him every day, you can take that no and shove it up your collective asses."

Meanwhile, Sam Machkovech of DallasObserver.com has posted his take on the entire situation, stating on his blog, "Rather than reply with a firm 'no thanks,' [Hoffman] pulled out the virtual cat o' nine tails to guilt the hell out of the lowly E! staffer; can't totally blame her, but really, why bother with the emotional plea? E! would kill Betty White on live TV (and then create a 'True Hollywood Story' about the death) if it meant higher ratings. (And one could argue this isn't that much different from the VH1 'Behind the Music' special about PANTERA that went on and on about the very murder in question and received total cooperation from the Abbott family. Well, perhaps there is one significant difference — the words 'chilling Hollywood murders' in the title, maybe?) No matter. The outrage is after the jump."

Abbott was shot to death just moments into a DAMAGEPLAN concert on December 8, 2004 at a Columbus, Ohio club. His killer, a disturbed 25-year-old ex-Marine, was slain by a police officer at the scene.

This past Sunday (August 20) would have Abbott's 40th birthday.

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