Oh, what a tangled web Mama June is weaving down in Honey-Boo-Boo-ville, Ga. With names reading like Seuss, the familial menage of child pageant/reality TV star Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson is, to put it mildly, one hot mess. "Mama June" Shannon, clan matriarch, was in danger of losing her cash cow child star as she lost the family's cash cow TV show "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" says the Hollywood Gossip.
Why? Well, not for child abuse per se (thought naming a kid Honey Boo Boo is pretty cruel and unusual) but for child endangerment and neglect. Here's the sitch. Mama June has four daughters. Each has a different father, one of which June, until recently, didn't/couldn't name. Then one of June's boyfriends, Mark McDaniel, was found to have been molesting June's eldest Anna Marie "Chickadee" Cardwell. McDaniel was convicted and spent the last 10 years in prison.
Now, this is confusing. Sex offender records are public domain. And bad news and scandal travel fast. So all this was common knowledge. Especially in a tiny community like the one Honey Boo Boo's bunch lives in. Why then did TLC--The LEARNING Channel, mind--think it would be a good idea to feature such a notoriously dysfunctional clan is unfathomable. It's arguably actionable.
TLC cancelled Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, ostensibly when the sex abuse came to light. Some really cursory vetting must have been done by the network originally. You've got wonder if it wasn't TLC's discovery of abuse (that had to have been known for some time), but the show's viewing public hearing about it, that caused its demise.
So Here Come Honey Boo Boo was over and people talked a bit less glowingly about Shannon, questioning how she could have let this man get to her kids. If Mama June had just let it alone, everyone could have healed. But no, she has to go a do a fool thing like telling daughter Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon that this villain McDaniel who abused Pumpkin's older sister, might (note, just might) be Pumpkin's own dad! Traumatizing? Polarizing? Just a little.
Then, when McDaniel was released, June hooked back up with him says Fox News. She says it was only so Pumpkin could have "closure" with her might-be dad. Closure? More like opening a can of worms. Oh, and she did just happen to bump into McDaniel another time. But sorry, but Mama June can't have it both ways. Either she was ashamed and seeing him on the sly, in which case allegations are true. Or it just a bad judgement call and then an accidental meet-up. In which case you wouldn't be hiding it. And June had to be well-aware that contact with McDaniel was verboten!
Don't these seem just convenient excuses with value-added attention mileage? And regardless, visiting him was stupid, hurtful, dangerous and a violation of court orders. So June has decided McDaniel is the poor girl's baby daddy? June should have kept her new-found discovery quiet. Some things are better left unsaid and unknown.
TLC isn't paying Mama June for some show episodes because she had contact with McDaniel. June and live-in baby daddy Mike "Sugar Bear" Thompson, father of Honey Boo Boo, split up. He was understandably dubious-slash-pissed-slash-hurt that June would have anything to do with the molester.
Are you lost? Not yet? Okay, then fast forward to the present. Amid the sex abuse scandal, Georgia Child Protective Services finally woke up and asked itself hey wait, is June is even fit to raise Alana? Officials threatened to remove the girl. Why CPS would remove the one child whose dad is actually the most in the picture, is weird. Why they wouldn't remove the other two kids, just the TV show star, is weirder still. Sugar Bear wouldn't/couldn't push for custody of Alana--he's got no money since the show ended. (That show has a lot to answer for. But at least it did serve as a catalyst to bring the child abuse to light.)
Anyway, CPS has ruled Mama June can keep Honey Boo Boo, but not the child molester--if back with him she is or was or was planning to go. If McDaniel is in the picture, Alana (and hopefully the other children with her) is out. That's going to be tricky now that June's suggested to Pumpkin McDaniel is her dad. What if June tries to go after him for child support? What rights, if any, does McDaniel have to his daughter, if daughter she is? June really should have just kept her mouth shut and stayed away.
Also, the court stipulated that to keep Alana, another adult has to be present in the home and that adult must be the estranged Sugar Bear. So Shannon gets the milk and honey, but only with sugar. Yikes! If things weren't hot and cramped enough in that Little House in Georgia, they will be when the Shannon-Thompson-Cardwell-(McDaniel?) family is reunited.
Was this just a show-deprived chess move of June's to stay in the limelight? If so, good luck with that, June. Checkmate.
Why? Well, not for child abuse per se (thought naming a kid Honey Boo Boo is pretty cruel and unusual) but for child endangerment and neglect. Here's the sitch. Mama June has four daughters. Each has a different father, one of which June, until recently, didn't/couldn't name. Then one of June's boyfriends, Mark McDaniel, was found to have been molesting June's eldest Anna Marie "Chickadee" Cardwell. McDaniel was convicted and spent the last 10 years in prison.
Now, this is confusing. Sex offender records are public domain. And bad news and scandal travel fast. So all this was common knowledge. Especially in a tiny community like the one Honey Boo Boo's bunch lives in. Why then did TLC--The LEARNING Channel, mind--think it would be a good idea to feature such a notoriously dysfunctional clan is unfathomable. It's arguably actionable.
TLC cancelled Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, ostensibly when the sex abuse came to light. Some really cursory vetting must have been done by the network originally. You've got wonder if it wasn't TLC's discovery of abuse (that had to have been known for some time), but the show's viewing public hearing about it, that caused its demise.
So Here Come Honey Boo Boo was over and people talked a bit less glowingly about Shannon, questioning how she could have let this man get to her kids. If Mama June had just let it alone, everyone could have healed. But no, she has to go a do a fool thing like telling daughter Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon that this villain McDaniel who abused Pumpkin's older sister, might (note, just might) be Pumpkin's own dad! Traumatizing? Polarizing? Just a little.
Then, when McDaniel was released, June hooked back up with him says Fox News. She says it was only so Pumpkin could have "closure" with her might-be dad. Closure? More like opening a can of worms. Oh, and she did just happen to bump into McDaniel another time. But sorry, but Mama June can't have it both ways. Either she was ashamed and seeing him on the sly, in which case allegations are true. Or it just a bad judgement call and then an accidental meet-up. In which case you wouldn't be hiding it. And June had to be well-aware that contact with McDaniel was verboten!
Don't these seem just convenient excuses with value-added attention mileage? And regardless, visiting him was stupid, hurtful, dangerous and a violation of court orders. So June has decided McDaniel is the poor girl's baby daddy? June should have kept her new-found discovery quiet. Some things are better left unsaid and unknown.
TLC isn't paying Mama June for some show episodes because she had contact with McDaniel. June and live-in baby daddy Mike "Sugar Bear" Thompson, father of Honey Boo Boo, split up. He was understandably dubious-slash-pissed-slash-hurt that June would have anything to do with the molester.
Are you lost? Not yet? Okay, then fast forward to the present. Amid the sex abuse scandal, Georgia Child Protective Services finally woke up and asked itself hey wait, is June is even fit to raise Alana? Officials threatened to remove the girl. Why CPS would remove the one child whose dad is actually the most in the picture, is weird. Why they wouldn't remove the other two kids, just the TV show star, is weirder still. Sugar Bear wouldn't/couldn't push for custody of Alana--he's got no money since the show ended. (That show has a lot to answer for. But at least it did serve as a catalyst to bring the child abuse to light.)
Anyway, CPS has ruled Mama June can keep Honey Boo Boo, but not the child molester--if back with him she is or was or was planning to go. If McDaniel is in the picture, Alana (and hopefully the other children with her) is out. That's going to be tricky now that June's suggested to Pumpkin McDaniel is her dad. What if June tries to go after him for child support? What rights, if any, does McDaniel have to his daughter, if daughter she is? June really should have just kept her mouth shut and stayed away.
Also, the court stipulated that to keep Alana, another adult has to be present in the home and that adult must be the estranged Sugar Bear. So Shannon gets the milk and honey, but only with sugar. Yikes! If things weren't hot and cramped enough in that Little House in Georgia, they will be when the Shannon-Thompson-Cardwell-(McDaniel?) family is reunited.
Was this just a show-deprived chess move of June's to stay in the limelight? If so, good luck with that, June. Checkmate.
