Hi!

I'm an Angel viewer from Russia, where we recently (about a year ago, but it's recently, compared to USA) had this serial shown on tv for the first time (on channel «TV3»). Actually, from the very beginning I used to be one of those Angel/Doyle/Cordy fans who were shocked by Doyle's departure after «Hero». I used to watch Angel after that, but the downfall of the show after Glenn Quinn's leaving was too deep — those 9 episodes with him where the best of the series and actually what was after them is hard to even call «series», in my hamble opinion… I guess, «The 11'th hour» site published the best article on Doyle's departure.

Now about Glenn Quinn… First I heard of his death I was shocked like many others. Then I tried to get more information on it, cause the situation seemed to me rather weird and too hush-hush. And there I found out that finding the information won't be very easy… After Glenn's departure the show was losing ratings so badly, loads of viewers where protesting Doyle's death (for example the campaign «Bring back Doyle»), even David Greenwalt confirmed the show to have financial troubles (all the information I have is from the interviews and articles written online and in media, official and unofficial, and I am not responsible for its content or for it's being true or false). Also I heard that Greenwalt said that Joss Whedon had wanted Doyle to be killed not as cruelly as it was, but he, Greenwalt, had insisted that he wants it that way, he «wants Doyle's skin to melt». Also a writer Tim Minear confirmed in an interview that «Doyle used to suit the show and was extremely popular…», but «I killed him and I'd do it again». So, anyway, the most widespread version was: «Glenn Quinn died december 3, 2002 of a suspected heroine overdose on the couch of his friend he was staying with in North CA. The official cause of death was never annonced per family wishes». So, heroine overdose. Drug-addiction was also one of the rumours on Glenn's departure from Angel. That was the first thing made me feel weird: all the tv or movie stars I knew where surely on heroine had one really notable feature: I KNEW ABOUT it. First of all, it's LA where paparazzi work 24/7 to take a picture of a celeb got drunk or high. Nothing of that was about Glenn. Second, a drug-addicted person has a very specific behaviour, agressive and unsocial which is definitely not about Glenn… I saw him in interviews, I read them, I saw his pictures of that time. There was nothing in him of a drug-addicted person, sure, I come from what I know about such persons. And what does Hollywood know about them? Well, first — they are agressive and, when they are famouse or notable, they get involved in many scandals (remember our old and beloved Ozzy in his «good» days). That is, again, definitely not about Glenn… Celebs who pick up drugs, even sometimes, they usually got arrested for drugs (remember Nickole Richie or late Brad Renfro… or lots of else). Again, it's not about Glenn. They also got arrested almost every week for driving a car while intoxicated. Glenn was never alike them or involved in scandals like that. I must say that Glenn actually was one of the less scandal tv-stars ever… Site Maybe Tomorrow posted an article, saying it's an article first published in Ireland on Sunday (I looked in archives of that already closed tabloid newspaper, but unfortunatly could not find that article), and there was written that Glenn used to successfully hide his addiction to drugs and his friends helped him to hide the terrible truth «from the legion of his fans». That actually sounds too unreal: again, it's LA. In LA no celeb can hide anything for too long and there are no such friends who can hide it equally well… If there where «friends» with such skills in Hollywood who could hide everything from media and paparazzi, well, then any celeb would've payed millions to get such «friends»… There is nothing can be hidden when you are well-known, even a little.

Another thing again seemed weird was that all those rumours about Glenn being drug-addicted appeared after «Angel», not before it. Even more — most of them appeared only after that horrible date — december 3, 2002… And we never got a real proof of his addiction: again, behaviour, scandals, arrests, etc. Nothing of that again. Also another strange thing in this situation is David Fury's (another Angel writer) words. First time after Glenn's departure from Angel, when Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt sweared that Doyle's death was planned from the very beginning, Fury was the first to say something about «headaches» in show-business. Then, for my surprise, same Fury said in an interview (very close to december 3, 2002) that they're planning to bring Glenn back. Hmm… and wasn't it Angel's crew to speculate about Glenn's addiction to drugs, about being fired from the show because of them («Sources confirmed to „Ireland on Sunday“ that Glenn Quinn was fired from Angel because of his growing appetite for drugs» - from Maybe Tomorrow. The confirmation was made less then a week after december 3 — the „sources“ worked quite fast, ha?..) and didn't we recieve right after december 3 the information about Glenn's life «went so far downhill», about him being «bought out of his night-club for begging for money from customers (again, without any real «photo-documented» proof) and being all embarresment» (materials from FAD — findadeath.com, the Scott Michaels' site (mentioned in LA Times with a rapturous slogan «Scott Michaels knows where the bodies are buried») and from Maybe Tomorrow site). So, how could Angel's crew plan to bring back someone who was so «downhill», more then that — someone, who they themselves confirmed to be fired from their show because of drugs?.. How could they even consider it, if then, after december 3, their «sources» claimed Glenn being «all embarresment» at that time?.. That's another weird thing. Starting to see, that the untrue information had been coming from everywhere and thinking: for what?..

I also think of the show: it admited to lose raitings after Glenn's departure. It admited to have finantual troubles. It admited that loads of «mad-mail» where coming to the studio begging to bring Doyle back right till that date — december 3, 2002. And if they would really consider to bring Glenn back, they would, even as a guest star where his «embarresing» behaviour or some mystical «addictions» wouldn't just mean — it could have been one episode or two which would've brought Angel the highest raitings the show could ever have after Doyle's departure. In a normal tv-business it would have been done exactly like it. But for some reason Angel's crew prefered to work in a completely unnormal style… And losing raitings and with it — money. And it's all about money… The raitings where falling, the show was losing audience, viewers where annoyed by the decisions the producers chose to make — but Angel was still on air. How come? Ye, they had some audience thanks to Andy Hallet (the beloved Lorne…), Vincent Kartheiser and David and Charisma, for sure, but it all is SO insignificant and too little to stay on air for 5 seasons. Again, in a normal tv-business Angel would have been cancelled almost right after «Hero» - for losing raitings.

Another topic is Alexis Denisof (Weaseley). From his very first day on set he started to annoy the audience. Loads of viewers who had stopped watching Angel after Doyle's departure, started to write their angry blog-posts and fanfics where Doyle was coming back and I don't even want to repeat what happened to Weasely in such stories… Anyhow, Weasely wasn't a popular character — at all. And no matter how hard the writters and producers tried to make him a super-hero (gosh, that wasn't even funny…), Weasely was still annoying the most of the audience. That's again a strange thing: in a normal tv-business such characters who spoil the show, the raitings and not popular at all are getting written off immediately. In a normal business such character is SO far from being kept in a plot AS A REGULAR till the very end… And if it was a normal business in Angel, the producers and writters would do everything to improve the show's raitings, first of all by getting rid of the annoying character. And it's not an argument that they claimed to have problems with Glenn and simply had no chose. «Charmed» admited to have problems with Doherty, but they did everything to make their raitings stay high, they brought Rose Mcgowan who's character Paige became beloved and adored by the audience. That's what I call a normal tv-business. And the Angel's crew had their options, seing that Weasely just didn't work: they could «materialize» Dennis, for example — this character used to be much more popular than Weasely even staying a ghost… Or integrate Lindsey McDonald in «Angel investigations» - he was popular too. But no, no, they would keep Denisof till the end ignoring the audience again, for some very mysterious reason. What would Denisof bring into the show when he couldn't bring even raitings? (here, in Russia, the show's raitings fell so badly by the season 4, that Angel's time was even changed from 3 pm to 5 o'clock in the morning!)

On december 2, 2002, there was an article, posted online by Angel producers (now, unfortunately, it was deleted or replaced, but the discussion on it is still available on Angel fan-sites, for example, I read on whedonseque) called «Doyle is not coming back» saying «All you wanted to know about the death of Doyle». Then, just a little later, it was annonced on glenn-quinn.com that «Glenn Quinn passed away december 2, 2002». Yes, from the beginnin it was exactly that day written — december 2, not december 3… Only later it was changed to december 3, which is still an official date of Glenn's death.

After that news lots of Glenn's fans where shoked. They where discussing it on internet, waiting for some proof of the information, waiting for reliable to confirm his death, waiting for the news… On december 5(!) there still wasn't anything on it! More that that — fans desperately mentioned that even on internet it was still the only one unofficial site to report about it — glenn-quinn.com… Someone wrote on the forum about it december 5: «I hope we will NOT get the confirmation on it soon… cause it'll mean he's kinda… alive…» It was december 5!.. What the hell was going on?!! A well-known tv-actor dies in LA and there is NOTHING in the news about it for so long! I remember when Anna-Nickole Smith died, we in Russia heard about it in the news (with the shots from the place of her death) immediately! And Glenn used to be a huge tv-star (especially after Roseanne) beloved by so many — and for almost 3 days there was no confirmation on his death (even yahoo and google gave nothing more than just a link on that info on glenn-quinn.com or some websites that where just linking on it too…). How come?..

Then, the same december 5, on aintitcoolnews.com (a large site for tv and stuff by someone I heared named Harry Knowles aka Hercules. This site ones mentioned Tim Minear to be a «God» and David Fury ones admited in an interview that he used to read this website)there was a forum discussing that news about Glenn's death. The author, Herc, chose to call it like that: «Ain't it cool news? Glenn Quinn passed away december 3» (yeh, the date of death was already changed to 3, and glenn-quinn.com, again without any confirmation from reliable sources, wrote that the reason of his death is a suspected heroine overdose). On every angry remark on that awful title from his readers and Glenn's fans Herc «the mighty» used to just rudely chuckle. There still where no confirmation on Glenn's death and somebody wrote on Herc's forum something like: «Don't you think it all was a hoax?.. Don't you think that all these rumours are made by someone who had already tried to make us think that Glenn was fired from Angel because of drugs?» Right after that comment there appeared an another comment, don't remember, by whom, by Herc himself or someone else, saying: «Recently sources close to Angel confirmed Quinn's death to be an overdose». Of course, no one can say that this information about sources close to Angel was true and that those sources really made such a confirmation that time, but the fact is a fact: such a rumour used to be. So, how could any «sources» close to Angel do any confirmations when the cause of death wasn't even annonced officially (in fact, even Glenn's death wasn't annonced officially at that time yet…)?

Again, right after that, on the same december 5, we got a confirmation from a real «Angel source» - Tim Minear. He confirmed Glenn's death online, on his official site. How come Minear, a writer of a show wich Glenn had left almost 3 years ago, does such confirmation? Is he a reliable source, BBC, police, anything else? Why he confirms someone's death when it wasn't officially confirmed before by reliable sources? In fact, how could he even know about it at that time?.. As far as I know he never was in touch with Glenn or any member of his family. But still, the only thing that means is that Minear simply had no right to confirm anything.

And for some strange reason the official confirmation was made only after that (on december 6) in LA Times. Why so late?? Why Minear was first to confirm?.. It shouldn't have been like that.

So, the story tells us, that «Glenn with nowhere to live came december 2, 2002, to his friend Dwayne Higgins and asked him to stay in his apartment. At 9 pm Dwayne went to sleep, Glenn was sitting on the couch and seemed fine. The next morning Dwayne woke up at 10 am, saw Glenn sleeping on the couch (as he thought) and went out to do some errands. Only then when he got back in a lunch time about 12 or 1 pm he found out that Glenn was actually dead… " (material from FAD and Maybe Tomorrow).

So, according to that, Glenn was found dead december 3, after midday (about 12, 1 pm). I researched into the discussions made on december 3 about Glenn's death and here's one of the notes on the site of Firefly fans: «Ye, his death was confirmed by someone from Firefly's office and that source said that he died due to overdose». This note was made on 6 am(!) december 3… the time when Glenn wasn't even yet found dead! How come??? Maybe it could be some weird mistake, some server error or something (though, again, rather weird mistake), but the fact reminds — on december 3 there where no official confirmation made, but there came such information from Firefly's office (a serial Joss whedon and Tim Minear worked together on) made by some «source» telling us about «an overdose» when NO ONE could know the cause of death yet… and for sure no one had a right to annonce anything when no investigation was made and even Glenn's death wasn't annonced officially. I can't surely know who was that «source» from Firefly's office, but still remember Tim Minear to be the first to confirm Glenn's death a little later…

Everything about Glenn's death was so hush-hush and actually I'm not surprised that so many people never heared about it even untill now… (That «in loving memory of Glenn Quinn» made in the end of «The long day journey», an Angel episode, talkes only about the raitings of the show, if so many still never heared of Glenn's death) The whole story was unfull and uncomplete. As well we never got any identity of Dwayne Higgins as a personality, though he is considered to be the last man who saw Glenn alive and claimed to be he's «good friend» (though, I never saw his name mentioned next to Glenn before all that). Nothing more than some words like «friend» and «went out to do some errands»… I still don't get who the hell was that guy… Why no photoshots from the place of Glenn's death where made by paparazzy or someone else on december 3 and not shown in the news, as it always happens when a well-known tv-star dies in LA?.. And the whole story seems actually ridiculous in some ways. For example: «At 9 pm Dwayne went to bed» and «…woke up about 10 am». So, it means that the guy slept for 13 hours ahead??? And it's hard to believe that a big guy would go to sleep at 9 pm…

Also, as a daughter of a doctor, I never heared of an overdosed being ever mistook for a sleeping one… Also I researched into cases of overdoses among celebs and never found such a case — never just peacefully sleeping on the couch… How was it like? Dwayne had slept for 13 hours, then he got up, then brushed his teath and stuff, then had breakfast, then put up his clothes to go outside and for all this time he could't notice that his friend is actually not sleeping on the couch, but dead??.. Also this: «The official cause of death was never annonced per family wishes». How come? It is not a «top secret» subject, nothing about national safety or smth, it SHOULD have been annonced… again, never heared before about the cases where celeb's death wasn't officially annonced. "… per family wishes» - and why then there was a «Blvd of broken dreams» (the E! show)? So, never annonced by reliable sources «per family wishes», but family and friends where not against talking about it in this… hmm… well, not a very good programm…

Also, LA Times claimed that Dwayne said that «two weeks before Glenn's death he (Glenn) was celebrating the 50 days of sobriety». 50 days 2 weeks before his death?! Almost 2 months! And doesn't the story tell us that Glenn was «all embarrassment» exactly at that time?? And wasn't he «bought out of his night-club for his behaviour» during those «50 days of sobriety»?.. There are too many such absurdities in the whole story…

There where people, viewers, Glenn's fans who tried to find out more, to search for more facts or details, which is totally understandable, but for some reason their tries where sometimes taken for the «unrespectfullness». Why? They have a right to know… And all I can say is that Glenn is extremely loved by me and his Russian fans. And we too want to know… MY APOLOGIZE TO EVERYONE WHOM I COULD UNINTENTIONALLY HURT BY THIS POST.

Again, I'm not responsible for any sources, media and other notes I used here, or for it's content. It's all up to their authours. I'm just a viewer and a fan. Thanks everyone for taking time and reading. Sorry for mistakes in writting if I made them. Mary.

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