The Cast of Roseanne: WE WERE BETRAYED

After Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet gets her hit sitcom reboot canceled, her reeling co-stars are furious

The fallout was fast and furious. At nearly 3 a.m. on May 29, Roseanne Barr posted a tweet saying that if “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby” it would look like former President Barack Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, who is black. Though Roseanne apologized for the offensive post — and claimed she’d thought Jarrett was white — ABC execs swiftly canceled the outspoken conservative’s wildly successful sitcom reboot, Roseanne, calling its star’s comments “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.” Roseanne vowed to leave Twitter but instead went on the attack — even against costars Sara Gilbert ( Darlene) and Michael Fishman ( DJ), who’d both made it clear they were on ABC’S side. “Wow! Unreal,” Roseanne told Sara after chastising Michael for “throw[ing] me under the bus.”

The cast of Roseanne is heartbroken over the whole debacle. “They 100 percent feel betrayed,” a show insider tells In Touch. “They knew Roseanne was a live wire, but they didn’t think she was this self- destructive or that she’d take the whole cast and crew down with her.” ABC, the insider explains, stands to lose more than $60 million in advertising revenue from the show’s cancellation — and that’s just in the short-term. “The show could have gone on and provided years of security and stability for the cast and crew. But that’s all gone now.” Everyone involved in the show thinks ABC did the right thing, adds the insider, so they’re placing the blame squarely on Roseanne. “They feel, as one crew member said, ‘ punched in the gut.’”

MAKING EXCUSES In the days after the show was axed, Roseanne, 65, blamed her comments on “Ambien tweeting.” The star, who is Jewish, also said she’d thought Jarrett was “Jewish and Persian.” Roseanne insisted she’s “not a racist, just an idiot who made a bad joke,” claimed she “begged” execs not to end the show and chided liberals and accused them of trying to “lynch a Jew.” Eventually she tweeted her TV daughter and son, Sara and Michael, “I forgive u both, love u both.” That’s typical behavior for her, says the insider: “She veers between being destructive and acting smart and grounded.”

Now the cast and crew are dealing with the fallout of Roseanne’s volatility. Sara, 43, who’s one of the show’s executive producers and is largely credited with getting it back on the air this spring, “is devastated,” says the insider. ( The show’s original run was from 1988 to 1997.) “She knows that she and John Goodman ( Dan) and Laurie Metcalf (Jackie) will be fi ne, but she feels horrible for the rest of the cast, the crew, the writers — that’s the biggest issue.” Executive producer Dave Caplan told The Hollywood Reporter: “Everybody is still in shock at how quickly this all went down. It’s unfortunate because the writers did pass on other jobs to take this job, and nobody really knows yet what kind of compensation they’re going to get.” Simply put, says the insider, “Roseanne blew it for everyone. Big-time.” ◼