One Tree Hill fans think there may be some drama going on behind the scenes of Drama Queens.
At the beginning of March 2024, fans of the iHeart Media podcast—hosted by former costars Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz, and Sophia Bush—began to suspect that two of the three women were no longer on good terms. While Burton’s and Bush’s OTH characters, Payton and Brooke, had the most beef during the series’s run from 2003 to 2012 (we all know Lucas Scott’s name was on the damn door under Brooke’s name), this alleged feud involves Burton and Lenz, who played even-keeled Haley James Scott on the popular teen drama.
Here’s everything you need to know about the online discourse, which would probably be better suited for BookTok than The CW.
A bit of important background context first:
Over the years Burton, Bush, and Lenz have spoken at length about misogynistic and inappropriate behavior by show creator Mark Schwahn. Back in 2017, Burton, Bush, and Lenz joined other former stars of the show in signing an open letter accusing him of sexual harassment and manipulation.
On their own podcast the trio discussed how Schwahn would pit the women on the series against one another. In one instance, Burton and Bush were pressured to take part in a Maxim magazine cover shoot in 2006, while Lenz was told she was “too fat” for the cover and was replaced by castmate Danneel Ackles. However, Bush was led to believe Lenz turned the shoot down.
“When I said, ‘I don’t want to do it,’ I was like, ‘But Joy’s not doing it! She said no. Why does she get to say no?’” Bush recalled. “They go, ‘Well, she said no, so you have to say yes. She said no first.’ They scapegoated you to tell the three of us we couldn’t say no…. We weren’t mad at you but we were pissed about it.”
All this is to say, any discussion of “feuding” between these women is bound to bring up some intense feelings for fans as well as the actors themselves.
So what’s going on right now?
On February 29, Bethany Joy Lenz announced her new memoir, Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show.
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