Ashley Tisdale is making sure her viral essay about the pernicious parents she once surrounded herself with will continue to be a topic of discussion. The “High School Musical” standout is taking to Netflix to create “Toxic Moms,” a comedy series.
Alongside Tisdale, according to “Deadline”‘s Nellie Andreeva, Sabrina Jalees and Ali Wong are to be a part of the project. Andreeva also reports Wong might direct the series.
“Toxic Moms” is described as a “dark half-hour comedy following a sleep-deprived new mom who’s drawn into a clique of cool, wealthy mothers. But when the group reveals its darker side, the series asks: in the isolation of motherhood, how far would you go to taste community?”
Now for the viral essay …
Ashley Tisdale Said She Was ‘Frozen Out’ of Group Activities in Mom Group
In January, Tisdale wrote an in-depth piece for “The Cut” explaining why she left a toxic Hollywood mom group. She felt she was “frozen out” from group activities, which made her feel similar to being rejected in high school.
Getty“I now know I’m far from the only mother who’s been brought to tears by members of a group that’s supposed to lift everyone up,” she wrote … “It seemed that this group had a pattern of leaving someone out. And that someone had become me.”
It was about five years into trying to find this pseudo-sisterhood that she sent a text to the group chat excusing herself from the friendship.
“This is too high school for me, and I don’t want to take part in it anymore,” she added to her piece in “The Cut.”
Ashley Tisdale Doesn’t Name Names in ‘Toxic Moms’ Essay, But There is Speculation
She never fully came out to name these “toxic” moms, but in her essay, she said that despite internet sleuths (you know the kind), they will never figure out who she is referring to.
Speculations say she had been in mommy groups with singer and also former child star Hilary Duff, singer/actress Mandy Moore and performer Meghan Trainor. None of these women admitted publicly to anything tied to the group’s accusations and Tisdale.
GettyHowever, a former member of the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” Crystal Minkoff, detailed her experience with the group soon after the article was published. She did admit to keeping some names private, but mentioned Duff and Trainor as some of the celebrities that were in the group. Minkoff mirrored some of the things that Tisdale said.
“Ashley’s story was that she left the group, but my story is, I didn’t leave the group. I did the show…and they all went against me and dropped me,” she explained … “It’s hard to always include everybody,” she admitted, “But, I do think that if that was happening to her, she wasn’t reading it wrong. You know if you’re being pushed out.”
Minkoff added she reached out to one of the moms in the group and was told it was “ironic” that Tisdale was calling the group “toxic,” while she was “on her own.”
Tisdale noted that for the Netflix series, she will reflect on some aspects of the situation and the life of being a mom of two young children.
