Charmed Changed Cast's Lives(2006)

Charmed Changed Cast's Lives

The cast and crew of The WB's Charmed told SCI FI Wire that they've married, divorced, had babies and bought houses over the last eight years of the series, which concludes in May. "I bought and sold three houses," star Rose McGowan (Paige), who is also a big Hollywood memorabilia collector, said in an interview on the show's set at Paramount Studios. "I own the original RKO letters, and I bought the big top-hat entrance to the 1930s Brown Derby. I couldn't have afforded any of that if it weren't for the show. Also, I spent about $150,000 on vet bills for my Boston terrier. I love her, but I couldn't have saved her if it weren't for the show. Actually, when I first got on the show, all I asked for was 'Please, God, let me make enough money to get my hair done two times a week.' And I got that, too."

Holly Marie Combs (Piper) said that she bought her first house, married a key grip she met on the show and had her first child in 2004. "We've shared a lot together," Combs said. "We're very much family, and we are entwined in each other's lives."

Speaking on a set that represented the attic of the house that the three Halliwell sisters share, Combs and McGowan teased each other about who is the worst at answering the other's e-mail messages and talked about the emotions they are going through as they near the final episode.

Alyssa Milano, who was married and divorced over the course of the series, said she wells up with tears every time she thinks about the final scene, which is the wedding of her character, Phoebe. "On the last day, everyone will be there," she said. "It's a really weird thing, and I haven't been able to articulate it no matter how many times I have had a conversation about it. You don't want to reminisce too much, because that's when the sorrow crawls all over your body and you want to lie down and crawl into the fetal position."

Brian Krause (Leo) said: "I've said goodbye 20 times in the last eight years. ... When I started the show, I was married and I had a 2-year-old, and now here I am: I have a 10-year-old, and I'm divorced. I now have the ability to kind of stop and ask myself what I want to do with my life now. Financially it has been amazing."

Krause talked about the toll on the crew, too. "You're here with the crew 60 or 70 hours a week, and I don't even know how people wash their clothes or what. They work their butts off, and I don't know how they do it. ... I mean, it has to take a toll. I mean, you're not there, and you come home at night, and there's money, but there needs to be more with your family."

Executive producer Brad Kern said that his son was born during the show and is 6 now. "I'm proud to say that I try very hard to be as much a part of his life as possible, but it was a 70- or 80-hour work week, six or seven days a week—he was born two years into the show—and now I want to spend six months with him," he said. "I told my agent not to call me. I've turned the answering machine off. I have six months to kind of catch up with my family and see where my creative juices lay and see what opportunities are out there for me."

The final episode will air May 21.

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