Chenoweth Details Workplace Injury, Fear of Retaliation

New York, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – Actress Kristen Chenoweth says she regrets not suing CBS after being injured in an on-set accident.

Last week, Chenowith appeared on The Today Show and discussed her new book, “I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts: Mini-Meditations for Saints, Sinners, and the Rest of Us” where she talks about her experience as a new member of the cast of CBS’s The Good Wife. Chenoweth writes that after joining the cast she was hit by lighting equipment. 

A statement from CBS in regard to the July 11, 2012 accident said Chenoweth was hospitalized and suffered minor injuries.  

“This afternoon, while filming a scene for ‘The Good Wife’ in Brooklyn, a gust of wind blew a lighting silk out of place striking actress Kristin Chenoweth. She received treatment on the scene by the show’s medic until a New York Fire Department emergency medical team arrived and transported her to the hospital. All of us at the studio and the show are thinking about Kristin and wishing her a quick recovery,” the studio said in a statement.  

But Chenoweth said Monday the injuries were much more extensive and left her with a cracked rib, a skull fracture, a broken nose and teeth, and nerve, tissue and muscle damage. In August 2012, Chenoweth announced she was leaving the show.  

“(The lighting equipment) hit me full frontal and slammed me to the pavement,” she writes in her new book. “My head cracked against the curb, leaving a seven-inch gash that would have been worse, the doctor told me, if not for the tightly woven hair extensions that held my scalp together. That’s right. I owed what was left of my concussed brain to a well-placed line of hair extensions. Never — never — underestimate the power of a good weave.” 

Chenoweth said that she now regrets suing CBS at the time. Fear that she would never work as an actress again kept her from taking any action, she said.  

“It was suggested to me that I should never take action because I might not work again in the business,” she told TODAY. “And out of fear, out of fear and anxiety, I didn’t. And I just want to say to anyone out there who ever struggles with anything like this, don’t let fear rule your life. And by me sharing that story, I hope that encourages others to not do that.” 

According to Gordon Firemark, an entertainment attorney based in Los Angeles, many television and film productions will hire actors and actresses as independent contractors, making them ineligible for workers’ compensation benefits. But Firemark said in a blog post that new regulations in California may make actors employees instead of independent contractors.  

As Chenoweth was working in New York City, regulations around independent contractors at the time would have centered around an 11 part “control test,” which determines how much control the production company exerts over a worker.  

According to the University of Miami Entertainment and Sports Law Review, while many actors and actresses are often hired as independent contractors, but should be considered statutory employees instead. Because of the amount of control the production company has on when the actors work, how long they work and whether they can work for anyone else while working for the production company, the actor is technically an employee, the review said.  

“A solution exists to the actors' income and expense reporting dilemma which should satisfy the IRS, the unions, and the actors,” the review said. “The Internal Revenue Code and the Treasury Regulation acknowledge that certain individuals who are not employees under the common law are to be treated as statutory employees for purposes of withholding social security taxes.” 

Chenoweth said that more than a decade later, she still suffers from the injuries, including chronic pain in her neck.  

“We all have stuff that bother us,” she said in 2018. “I’m still learning how to deal with chronic pain. Yeah, I’ve still got it. But, you know what? I still work. I still am able to, so I’m lucky. I’m lucky I’m alive.” 

Chenoweth told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, she wishes that she’d listened to her dad. 

"I have long-standing injuries from that accident, so I wish I had listened to my dad who said, 'You're gonna want to do this,’” she said. “(He said) ‘and we're not the suing family, but when you're practically killed, you know." 

Chenoweth is best known for her role as Glinda the Good Witch in Broadway’s ‘Wicked,’ and for her roles on television on “The West Wing,” “Glee,” and “Pushing Daisies.” 

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