EXCLUSIVE: EVERYONE KNEW HAYDEN PANETTIERE WAS STRUGGLING — SO WHY DID SO MANY PEOPLE LOOK AWAY?

Hello, hello, hello…

Gayle King’s heartbreaking admission about Hayden Panettiere raises a question Hollywood may not want to answer: If people could see she was struggling, why didn’t more people step in while there was still time?

King said Panettiere was clearly struggling when they sat down in May, just three months before her death at 36.

“It was hard when she was here that day,” King recalled. “She was still, clearly still struggling.”

Those words are devastating now — but they also force an uncomfortable question about what happened before Hayden died, when she was alive, reachable and still fighting.

“Saying you knew Hayden was struggling after she died isn’t heroic,” a source tells Naughty But Nice. “The heroic thing would have been picking up the phone, showing up at her door and refusing to let her face it alone.”

Hollywood is built on relationships and vast networks of managers, agents, publicists, friends and colleagues who often know when someone is in trouble.

“We have to stop romanticizing concern after someone dies,” the source tells Naughty But Nice. “If people were worried about Hayden, they had a chance to do something while she was still here.”

That question now hangs over Hollywood: Why did so many people look away?

Hayden needed help while she was alive — not just sympathy after she was gone.

Cheers

Rob Shuter

And remember… if you’re going to be naughty, you’ve got to be nice. 💋