He’ll be there for you.
A brand new documentary covers the life and loss of life of “Friends” star Matthew Perry.
Known as “Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy,” it’s directed and executive-produced by Robert Palumbo and premieres on Peacock Tuesday, Feb. 25.
“I don’t think it’s too soon for a [documentary]. I think the impact of his death is fresh,” he instructed The Put up.
Viewers will discover that Perry’s “Friends” co-stars David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc aren’t included on display screen to offer their views, however “understandably, they were reluctant to go on a documentary about Matthew at this point. Maybe many years down the line … We understand their decision not to appear,” Palumbo mentioned.
He added: “Many of us remember getting that news that he had died, and then eventually getting the details [that gave] sort of waves of anger … I feel like people still have him in their hearts and minds. As the facts began to come out about what happened to him, how he died and what possibly could have been a ring of people that sort of facilitated his death, I was really upset.”
Perry died at age 54 at his Pacific Palisades, Calif., house on Oct. 28, 2023. In response to his post-mortem report, his loss of life was resulting from “acute effects of ketamine,” and the way was unintentional drowning.
The “Friends” actor had been candid about his struggles with habit and substance abuse, which the documentary covers. The doc, nevertheless, does embody a sit-down with Morgan Fairchild, who performed his character Chandler’s mom on “Friends.”
“He was someone who wanted to be remembered, not so much for his time on ‘Friends’ but for how he has been able to help other people with addiction issues. I think that that’s still the case to this day, even after his death,” mentioned Palumbo.
“I think he will have a legacy of helping other people. And Morgan [Fairchild] thought that was really the most important thing to communicate.”
The documentary additionally covers the 5 arrests that had been made in Perry’s loss of life probe. A few of them are nonetheless awaiting trial, resembling Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Jasveen Sangha, who has been dubbed the “Ketamine Queen.” Each of them pleaded not responsible to the crime and US District Decide Sherilyn Peace Garnett has set the pair’s joint trial for March 4, 2025.
Extra on-screen textual content explains, “This program examines a legal case that has yet to be tried for all defendants. Statements about actions or defendants are alleged until determined by a court of law.”
“There were a lot of details about this case that were very surprising to me in many ways because, obviously, it’s about the underbelly of Hollywood,” mentioned Palumbo.
“This is something that I think a lot of people have seen before — Hollywood celebrities who have died tragically. But in this case, there were a lot of complications … One of them being the fact that his personal assistant had worked for him for many years was the person who actually helped him get some of the Ketamine over those final weeks, and actually injected him with the fatal injection,” he alleged.
Perry’s former private assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, pleaded responsible on Aug. 7, 2024, to 1 rely of conspiracy to distribute ketamine inflicting loss of life.
Palumbo added that the medical doctors who allegedly facilitated the prescriptions “that eventually made their way to Perry — they should have known better. Not just that they were treating any patient, but they were treating someone who had addiction issues, because he was so well-known and his addiction issues were so well-known … what they did was pretty consciously wrong.”
“That shady black market in Hollywood was something that was really interesting and disturbing to examine,” he added.
