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Fact Checking 'BH90210': Shannen Doherty Lives in a Yurt? Carol Potter is a Therapist?

By Kate Hudson | Celebrity | August 23, 2019 |

By Kate Hudson | Celebrity | August 23, 2019 |


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BH90210 keeps clipping along, and I love them for it. Episode three was about nothing, and everything—Tori Spelling is finally taking control of her life and asking for what she wants, Jennie Garth is moving on from her third failed marriage, and Ian Ziering did possibly the grossest drunk thing I’ve witnessed in a while.

If you haven’t seen episode three yet, fair warning—spoilers below.

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

OK—let’s cover the cast storylines that seem to be entirely for the show (and have no basis in real life) at present, first.

Jason Priestley—Unfaithful and Infertile?

In real life, Jason Priestley has been married to his wife, Naomi Lowde-Priestley since 2005, and they currently have two kids. So, this is all pretty much for the drama, friends.

Priestley’s real-life kids don’t seem to mind their erasure on the show, per an interview with TV Insider:

Your character on the show doesn’t have children, so how do your real kids feel about not being represented?

They don’t care. [Laughs]

Jennie Garth—Falling for her bodyguard, like in The Bodyguard?

One of the things I love about BH90210 is that they are leaning heavily into the tried and true tropes of the soap opera genre (make no mistake, the original 90210 was most definitely considered a nighttime soap) so of course BH90210 gave her a foxy bodyguard to help her move on from her third marriage. Real-Jennie is still with her third husband, so this seems all for show, too.

Brian Austin Green—Creepy assistant getting too close?

Brian’s storyline about a creepy assistant weaseling his way into his family appears to be all for the show. However, since I can’t leave you with just that, here’s a quote on how real-Brian developed the storyline show-Brian would have, per ET Canada:

“For me, it was tricky because of all the press that Megan and I have gotten. So, I wanted to come up with something where I would still be able to have fun but it would be close enough to what people might expect me to do in real life — like it’s not Megan, so I’m not married to a movie star — but people would believe that I would marry someone in music, because the character was so into music, and so was I at the time,” he continues. “It was a wink at what my life is and what the tabloids follow, but at the same time it gave us an opportunity to play and still have fun.”

Ian Ziering—The grossest drunk move I’ve seen in a while…

This is just a personal thing for me, but I had a very strong gag reaction to the moment when show-Ian took the bartender’s mat and funneled it into his glass to get all the leftover booze in it. Friends, that was truly gross, and also, kind of spectacular. I’ve worked in a bar. You do not ever want to do that; that thing is not sanitary. Just don’t. Please. So gross.

Show-Ian is dealing with the fallout of his failed marriage by punching the guy who was sleeping with show-Jason’s wife, and generally drinking the pain away.

Real-Ian is still married, and as far as I can tell, has never been arrested for anything like punching someone out, so this is all for show, too.

Gabrielle Carteris—Discovering her sexuality, with Emily Valentine?!

OK! Real-Gabrielle has finally commented on show-Gabrielle’s storyline, so you can get some intel straight from her, per ET Canada:

“The reason I wanted to explore my sexuality in the show, for Gabrielle and for Andrea is that I think that it’s real,” Carteris explained. “Women come to a time in their lives where they raise their kids, they’ve had their careers, their kids leave home, and they’re deciding, ‘Am I recommitting to my relationship? It’s been a great ride. Do I want to stay here? Maybe there’s something else.’”

“I think it’s important to tell the truth, and I think that people really do kind of seek where they are and what’s next in life,” she continued. “And I have a friend, a very dear friend actually, after 30 years of marriage, went through this journey. And I thought, ‘You know what? If I’m going to do the show, I want to do something that really is authentic, that really talks to where we are.’”

It seems like show-Gabrielle’s storyline is true for real-Gabrielle in an emotional sense, but not a literal sense.

I’m just here for show-Gabrielle to date show-Christine Elise (EMILY VALENTINE!!!) I nearly died when they matched on the dating app. Yes, please and thank you.

Tori Spelling—Going the extra mile to get Shannen?

I love the growth show-Tori is going through, mainly figuring out how to assert herself and get what she wants. We see show-Tori hop on a plane in the middle of the night, then get on a bus, only to climb a mountain to seek show-Shannen to come do the reboot. That’s dedication!

As far as real-Tori is concerned, per the entire real-cast in their interviews to promote BH90210, real-Tori and real-Jennie were the instigators of bringing the cast back together for the reboot, and the idea of making the show meta was entirely real-Tori’s. Per TV Online’s interview with Jason Priestley:

And where did it come up with the idea of not a straight-up reboot — not even a continuation?

The idea of the reboot being something very different actually came from Tori. Her whole point of departure on the concept was that our show initially back in 1990 was very groundbreaking and broke a lot of conventions in television at that time. So she contended that, just like our show did back then, this should break TV conventions again. And we all agreed with her, so we started to talk about how to do it, what would be the smart way to do that and sort of what we all came to was instead of just doing a straight-up reboot, in this golden age of reboots, where we just go back to playing Brandon, Brenda, Kelly, Steve, David, Donna and Andrea — let’s do a fake reality show where the actors try to get a reboot made of our original show, and what would that look like?

So, thank you, Tori—for bringing the cast back together!

Carol Potter—Licensed family therapist?

My friends, this is 100 percent true. Real-Carol is, in fact, a licensed family and marriage therapist operating her practice in Los Angeles. You can visit her website, here.

Shannen Doherty—She lives in a yurt?

Confession time. I f*cking loved Brenda Walsh, which is why I’ve saved her for last. She was always and forever my absolute favorite character on the show, and as much as I’ve really enjoyed spending time with the rest of the cast again, I have been yearning to see my forever fave rejoin the ranks, and not get one-off scenes. You can imagine, then, that my little ’90s girl heart nearly burst from happiness when show-Shannen made her triumphant return to the fray to take the official cast photo (in homage to one of the most iconic photos of the cast) set against the perfect musical choice of “Connection” by Elastica.

So where has our beloved show-Shannen been?

Living in a yurt, on top of a mountain in Peru, duh.

How do show-Shannen and real-Shannen stack up to each other, so far?

As you may have already know, real-Shannen was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and has since gone into remission. Additionally, she’s been married to her third husband, Kurt Iswarienko since 2011, and by all accounts, they do not live in a yurt on a mountain, so there doesn’t seem to be a huge overlap here…yet.

Undoubtedly we’ll get more of a glimpse into what show-Shannen’s been up to since she was last on 90210, but whatever is revealed, don’t expect her to revisit her head bitch in charge status too much. Real-Shannen would only do the show if she wasn’t cast as the villain, which fair.

Per USA Today:

“I’m not the villain,” Doherty said while promoting the new series (Wednesday, 9 EDT/PDT) at the Television Critics Association Wednesday. “I’m the antithesis of that. … I definitely am not interested in being a part of that kind of show.” The meta-series, in which the actors plot their own revival within the show, “is really focused on our friendship(s) … I just want to keep spreading good positive energy into the world as in real life, as does my character.”

Well, we’re halfway through the reboot, so as much as I’ll be sad to have it end, I’m looking forward to seeing a Christine Elise/Gabrielle Carteris date, so until then, we’ll see you back here next week to discuss episode four!