Gilmore Girls revival: Melissa McCarthy absence explained

UPDATE: She’s in!

EARLIER: Amy Sherman-Palladino would like Gilmore Girls fans to know there is no bad blood between her and Melissa McCarthy.

Back in early February it seemed otherwise when McCarthy, who played Gilmore’s endearingly klutzy Dragonfly chef Sookie St. James, tweeted, “… sadly no one asked me or Sookie to come back to Stars Hollow. Wish them all the best!!” Now, Sherman-Palladino is setting the record straight. “Social media makes people angry at each other for no reason,” she tells EW. “There’s nothing malicious going on.”

When Sherman-Palladino and her husband/Gilmore co-producer Daniel Palladino first pitched the revival, they were asked about McCarthy. “We’d say, ‘Look, we know you didn’t hear a Melissa McCarthy arc in here because we are not naïve enough to think we’re going to be able to grab her for 60 days of shooting,’ ” Amy recalls. “Netflix was like, ‘We’d really like Melissa.’ I said, ‘We’d really like Melissa too!'”

Amy, who is represented by the same agency as McCarthy, says she’s been keeping tabs on her former cast member’s schedule. “I’ve been told by her people for months, ‘Can’t happen. Can’t happen. Can’t happen.'” As for whether McCarthy knows how badly Amy wants her? “This business of people and managers and reps. There are a lot of layers and you can’t really get to people and you don’t know how things are being conveyed and who’s talking on your behalf. All I can tell the fans is we love her. She was a big part of the show … There’s nothing juicy or hidden here. It’s a matter of she’s one of the top working actresses in films today and we are very proud of her.”

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Amy went on to give specifics just in case McCarthy should find herself with a free afternoon. “We’ve just put it out in the universe: We’re here until May 10. I know what the scene is. I’ll pre-light it for her. She can drive up, run in, shoot it, and run out. I can get her in and out in two hours. If she finds that time, I don’t care when it is, we will make it happen.”

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