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Date and Issue: October 18, 1977.
Lynda Carter, TV's "Wonder Woman," has turned into a self-cen-tered prima donna who throws tantrums on the set, insults fellow workers and arrives late for work almost daily, say her coworkers on the show.
Success has gone to Lynda's pretty head, they say, and changed her from a sweet young starlet to a snotty, rude star. And in the words of one former associate, she's become "Wonder Bitch." The ENQUIRER spoke with Lynd's fellow workers on the "Wonder Woman" set and to some of her former associates, who saw that Lynda has been creating havoc on the set by: DEMANDING script and cast approval, even though she knows little about writing and not much more about acting.
INSULTING coworkers with her rudeness and sarcastic, biting humor.
INSISTING upon limousine service - even from her dressing room trailer to the set, a distance of only 50 feet!
CAUSING several key crew members to walk off the set due to her childish behavior, and creating serious morale problems.
"Lynda Carter has become a prima donna and has alienated many people because of her snotty attitude," one former close associate told The ENQUIRER. "No one likes her. "She is Wonder Woman in her own mind… she IS Wonder Woman who has become Wonder Bitch," the source added bitterly. Even Lyle Waggoner, Lynda's costar - and an actor who has the reputation of being an easygoing Mr. Nice Guy - admitted: "The `Wonder Woman' set is not a happy one." Another studio source complained that Lynda frequently interferes with the crew. "She has no professionalism and no respect for the company at all. She feels that she's an expert in writing, directing, lighting, acting and casting." "And it's common practice for her to be an hour to 1 1/2 hours late every day, while we sit around twiddling our thumbs."
The same source said Lynda's husband-manager, Ron Samuels, is behind many of Lynda's demands. He said Samuels insisted on a limousine to take her to the studio each morning - and a limousine on location to ,drive her 50 feet from her trailer to the location shot. Director Bob Kelljan said he clashed with Lynda over the placement of some props on the set. "She stomped off the set and I didn't see her for a half hour," he recalled. When she returned she had two producers and her husband with her. One of the producers asked Kelljan to apologize to Lynria and he refused. Then Samuels got into the argument, and he and Kelljan exchanged heated words. Kelljan recalled: "All of a sudden, he (Ron Samuels) charges at me, saying, `I'm gonna punch you out...'" "So our associate producer grabs him, picks him up and carries him off the stage with his feet in the air - flailing," Kelljan said. "There's no way I would do another `Wonder Woman' show," he added. Another studio source cited an example of Lynda's "sarcastic" humor. "She has a habit of pointing up people'. weak points like: `Hey, you've got a big pimple on your face, Isn't that something?' That's her kind of humor. Hurt some body." A member of the cast told how Lynda humiliated her makeup man, Karl Silvera, sa badly that he left the show. "Somebody must have said something about her makeup because she turned on him and said: `I don't want you to do my makeup anymore,' " the source said. "She said that to his face. He was crushed. "And he was so terribly embarrassed that he left the show." Silvera told The ENQUIRER: "I love Lynda dearly, but I just hate to see such a great change come over somebody who was so wonderful. I guess maybe that's what happens in this business to some people - they start believing their own publicity and they're in trouble." A former coworker told The ENQUIRER: "I've worked with Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, you can name them - and I never saw them treated the way Lynda's being treated, or getting away with the things she's getting away with . changing the scripts, rewriting the dialogue..." As a result of her interfer-ence with the crew, another source said, two key crew members recently walked off the set - Johnny Benson, assistant director, and Max Stein. the production coordinator. "It wasn't that they couldn't handle Wonder Woman anymore," said the source. "They could handle her - but they didn't want to. She was too ridiculous and absurd. They're the best and they don't have to put up with this crap. They said: `Who needs this nonsense?’” The same studio source said Lynch has refused to do publicity tours "because she's too big for that kind of stuff." At a personal appearance for children last Christmas, she refused to wear her Wonder Woman costume, according to Bobby Ocean, disc jockey with Los Angeles radio station KHJ. And at a big dinner held by CBS recently to kick off its new TV season, attended by TV station executives from all over the country, Lynda refused to go on stage with other CBS stars such as Carroll O'Connor, Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart, the studio source said. "They were all happy to get up on stage, take a bow and go off," the source said. "But Lynda was far too big to come out there. She walked out in .a huff from the backstage area and said: `I won't do it. I refuse.' "She wanted to be introduced from the table and wouldn't get up on stage with the other `peons' like Lucille Ball and people like that. It was too degrading for her." A former associate remembers that two years ago Lynda was "very very sweet, easy to work with and well loved by crew members" on a movie she was making. But when she saw Lynda recently she said Lynda was "distant . . . very snotty. She doesn't have time for little people anymore." Lynda was unavailable for comment, but her husband, responding to the accusations, replied: "All I can tell you " is that it's just a bunch of bunk . . . We have never been abusive or made demands that were unreasonable, and that's the truth."
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