‘Glee’ Star Naya Rivera: The Curse of the Sitcom Kid
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
by Philip Recchia, BlogTalkRadio
While on the et of The Royal Family in 1991, actress Naya Rivera witnessed star Redd Foxx suffer a fatal heart attack at the age of 68. Eleven years later, she won a recurring role on The Bernie Mac Show – whose star, Bernie Mac, would die tragically of complications from pneumonia in 2008, at age 50.
Also during her Bernie Mac run, in 2004, Naya landed a guest spot on 8 Simple Rules, just months after star John Ritter fell ill on the set – on September 11 – and died later that day of a congenital heart defect.
Less than a year after Naya’s appearance on John’s final TV project, the sitcom tumbled to 94th place in the Nielsen ratings, and was unceremoniously canceled.
Now, with Naya’s latest sitcom, Glee, set to launch May 19 on Fox – immediately following powerhouse hit American Idol – she fears her co-stars will be put off by “The Curse of the Sitcom Kid.”
“Everyone on Glee is gonna be like, ‘Oh, something bad’s gonna happen because Naya’s on,’” she says this week on Dr. Blogstein’s Radio Happy Hour.
Earlier in the show, Naya, now 22, recounts her experience watching Redd’s demise.
“It was really weird because I was, like, five and a half, and I got rushed upstairs and I didn’t know what was going on. And now, looking back on it, I’m like, that’s freaky,” she tells host Dr. Blogstein.
“I watched a legend die.”
“Everyone thought he was joking. And then they were like, Oh, snap! He’s for real. It was kind of like the universe answering what he’d been putting out forever,” Naya adds, referring to the “I’m coming, Elizabeth!” fake-cardiac-arrest routine Redd immortalized on Sanford and Son during the ‘70s.
To hear the entire Naya Rivera interview, click play below:
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