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Related: Film discussion forum.

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Related: Film discussion forum.

Telly addicts

Abby Lee Miller from Dance Moms sentenced to a year in prision

68 replies

lottieandmia · 09/05/2017 21:01

How long has this gone on?

www.google.co.uk/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/101468018/

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youarenotkiddingme · 13/05/2017 06:57

The case has been hanging around for a couple of years I think. It came out in series 6 when they moved to LA. The mums stuck by her and tried to help her but that's why her behaviour got even more erratic.

From things she said and it was quite obvious as the show went on the series became more a set up than a reality follow the dancers show.

I hope a year bagged up will give her a chance to sit back and unwind before she has a heart attack due to the pressure

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ApplesinmyPocket · 13/05/2017 07:14

I felt a bit sad about this - but she pleaded guilty, there's no doubt she did commit a crime, so...

Does anyone know the US system - is her 'year and a day' sentence going to mean exactly that - or might she actually serve less time for 'good behaviour'?

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youarenotkiddingme · 13/05/2017 07:43

I don't know about the system.

But yes I feel sorry for her too. The programme started out of a series that was meant to follow 6 dance schools during the competition season and then they decided to follow ALDC due to the dance moms there.

From what I can gather it then became a made for TV reality series where Abby Lee had little control over what she did and the production co left her to deal with the fall out from the dance moms.

I suspect a lot if the changes to what had been previously said (e.g. X will get a solo and then doesn't) was driven by production co and not AL being the hard cow she was portrayed to be.

Although I do think she was unnecessarily harsh at times!

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DoomGloomAndKaboom · 13/05/2017 08:00

I think sending anyone to prison for that kind of crime is ridiculous.

I know she's been fined etc (which she should be) but who covers the cost of her imprisonment? Taxpayers, presumably. The irony.

Prisons should be for people who are violent, people who are a danger to society. She might be a danger to good choreography but she's hardly a murderer.

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youarenotkiddingme · 13/05/2017 09:07

I think they are using her as an example because she's an international face.

Whatever she did she paid up. The whole world has had access to view the stress this whole fraud case has placed on her. She's had punishment imo.

Sending her to jail will achieve nothing.

I did laugh too loud at crime against dance choreography!

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lottieandmia · 13/05/2017 14:06

Apples - some Americans I've spoken to about this say that because it's a federal prison she will do the full sentence. I think she can go to live in a halfway house after 10 months.

I think that although her behaviour towards her students is awful at times, she's a very damaged woman (emotionally) and I would hate anything bad to happen to her - she's very vulnerable. She had apparently expressed concern that she could be raped in prison as this happens a lot in the US

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ApplesinmyPocket · 13/05/2017 22:41

Thanks for that information, lottieandmia. Sounds like she'll be doing the full time then.

She's just had gastric band surgery too, hasn't she?

Met her once in London at a Dance Moms event and I must say I changed my mind about her after that. She wasn't nearly so 'mean' as she comes across on the show, and the girls clearly were fond of her and she of them.

Hope she gets through it ok!

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massiemal · 13/05/2017 22:42

She didn't declare a hell of a lot of money. It wasn't just a small time not declaring tax, it was millions I think.

I do feel for her but what she said to Chloe was despicable.

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lottieandmia · 13/05/2017 22:45

It was if it was true...

Wasn't it about $750,000?

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SheStoodInTheStorm · 13/05/2017 22:57

What did she say to Chloe? (I started watching dance moms post Chloe!)
I know all of the girls bar Brynn left x

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Lyricaldancer · 13/05/2017 23:06

Oh dear. I thought she'd avoid a custodial sentence

She did say some dreadful things, to many people, throughout the programmes, but I felt sorry for her towards the end. It was unpleasant TV, she was obviously under a lot of strain.

Chloe's mother did say they might return to the team if Abby was sent to prison, I don't know if she'll keep to that. So still potential new series, if it isn't crass to mention the new series at this stage.

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lottieandmia · 13/05/2017 23:09

According to Chloe's mum, Abby made fun of her eye, caused by a medical condition but Lifetime dubbed over it so that it sounded like she said 'your kid's washed up'

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massiemal · 13/05/2017 23:09

Chloe has returned.

Lifetime edited the cup but it has been confirmed Abby insulted Chloe's health condition.

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Lyricaldancer · 13/05/2017 23:16

She did get very personal at times. She told one girl, from another team, she should get her ears pinned back.

She had her dance teacher accreditation taken away didn't she because of her behaviour on the show? Like RAD or IDTA over here I think. I'm sure I read that in her book ( that I have the book, some of it is sensible, but lots of digs about Chloe, Brooke and Paige and their mothers)

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lottieandmia · 13/05/2017 23:17

I don't understand why their parents allowed them to continually take this tbh

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lottieandmia · 13/05/2017 23:17

As in I would have moved my kids

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massiemal · 13/05/2017 23:17

Yeah ... she is pretty bitter, I think. Yet I see her as sad rather than bad.

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Lyricaldancer · 13/05/2017 23:19

Yes, you could see it eroding their confidence.

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massiemal · 13/05/2017 23:19

They'd signed contracts.

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massiemal · 13/05/2017 23:20

Plus, from a showbiz POV the exposure was good.

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youarenotkiddingme · 14/05/2017 06:52

I don't condone any of the personal remarks Abby made to any of the dancers but in the case of Kelly and Christie they made Abby's life hell too. They were personal to her.

I always thought it could never be as bad as the TV show made out because Holly stuck with it and she's pretty normal!

As an aside Nia is an amazing performer - she has a natural stage presence.

One scene that always sticks in my mind is her telling casting directors how Nia took the character another way - her mother! I often wondered how true the whole scene was or if it was edited!

The one person who drove me most nuts was Melissa. That woman had more faces than a mask shop!

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neonrainbow · 14/05/2017 07:43

The one i don't get is holly. So smug about her supposed intelligence but still happy to put Nia's shot at fame above her childs right not to be bullied. Great parenting right there!

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lottieandmia · 14/05/2017 08:39

They'd signed contracts but it was clear this had been going on for years pre-dance moms.

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youarenotkiddingme · 14/05/2017 08:47

Yeah it was going on before the show.

Originally lifetime was going to follow 6 dance studios and was making a documentary about different dance schools around the USA.
Then they went to Pittsburgh! What they saw there changed their idea totally and they decided to make a whole show about ALDC. They hadn't planned on it being a 7 series reality TV show before then and even when they changed to just following ALDC.

I sometimes wonder if when you see the moms make more of a relationship with Abby towards the end whether the rumours about how the programmers directed her too much is true. They actually started to be compassionate towards her.

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massiemal · 14/05/2017 08:51

It hadn't - the girls were selected for the show. Prior to the show, Brooke and Paige danced in different teams, as did Maddie and Mackenzie (for instance.)

You see a very specific type of dance all the girls do - lyrical/contemporary/jazz usually, but the girls all took ballet, tap, lyrical, hip-hop - so had different teachers. Abby was the director of the company along with her mother, but the girls had very little to do with Abby herself, I believe. I think Maddie and Mackenzie knew her better as Melissa worked at the studio.

There was clearly bad blood between Kelly and Abby. Sometimes I was definitely on Abby's side. Other times I hated what she said about Brooke and I thought Abby was bitter about Kelly having married well - there were a few barbs about Kelly having done nothing with her life other than work on the Clinique counter.

I didn't like Christie at all in season 1. She came across as jealous and hostile and the girls were so young then it did really affect them. As the series went on, Christie really grew on me. I think for Christie it was a combination of having a naturally combative personality - she was raised in a very difficult home, I know, and - deducing here - I think to surivive, she had to fight. Chloe was always so meek and gentle she did it 'for' her. I think Chloe is more gregarious than was let on, or portrayed in the series anyway! Christie did have a very soft side to her. She showed real compassion to Abby when the dog died and she really backed Chloe up. I admired her for that.

Abby is a bizarre creature! But I do think she was never emotionally stable. She was talking to the girls about her dad's death once and was crying in front of them. I think she has very little support: no partner and possibly no real friends. I'm not sure. I also suspect she would have liked a child or children. She seemed to love and resent the girls at the same time.