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Is 'Two and a Half Men' teen star being held hostage by Warner Bros. Talibank? (Talibank Thinking #9)

Nov 27, 2012

By Junior Campbell

Angus Jones Image: AFP

This is the question we must ask ourselves, given recent comments by 19-year-old Angus T Jones, who plays "Jake" on the hit US television series.

According to Sky News, the star, who is believed to be earning approximately $350,000 (£218,000) an episode appears in a YouTube video denouncing the show as “filth” and saying that he doesn’t want to be on it.

The suggestion is that he is being made to do so against his will – possibly because of a contract signed when (or since) he took on the role of “Jake” at the age of 10.

According to Sky, the video was recorded in Jones’ production trailer and was posted by the Forerunner Christian Church on Monday.

Charlie Sheen was fired by the show’s producers - Warner Bros. and CBS - last year, after he criticised them in a series of media appearances that then seemed bizarre.

Jones' denunciation may prompt a rethink of that assessment.

In the video Jones says:

"Jake from 'Two And A Half Men' means nothing. He is a non-existent character.

"If you watch 'Two And A Half Men,' please stop watching 'Two And A Half Men.' I'm on 'Two And A Half Men,; and I don't want to be on it.

"Please stop watching it. Stop filling your head with filth. Please. People say it's just entertainment.

"Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you you'll have a decision to make when it comes to television, and especially with what you watch."

In another clip, where he seems to be driving a car, the adolescent actor says it’s impossible to be a true Christian and perform roles like the one he plays on the show.

So, while Charlie Sheen took issue with the creative and management style of the show’s producers – and particularly its “overlord” creator Chuck Lorre - Jones seems to be objecting mainly on religious grounds.

Last September, while presenting an award at the Primetime Emmy Awards, Sheen addressed his former colleagues thus: "From the bottom of my heart, I wish you nothing but the best for this upcoming season. We spent eight wonderful years together and I know you will continue to make great television."

Sheen had by then settled with Warner Bros., after suing them for unfair dismissal in 2011.

His endorsement of the show may therefore be construed as a shining shrewd maneuver.

Perhaps Jones, fancying himself equally bright, is planning to get in on the litigation act.

As one source notes, he was full of praise for the program not long ago – lamenting that since his character “Jake” has been cast as having joined the Army, he only gets to appear on the show via Skype.

But Jones’ denunciations – which include suggestions that "Two and a Half Men" and other light entertainment shows are being used by “the enemy” (Satan) to corrupt the minds of unsuspecting Christians – seem genuine.

And appearing with him in the first part of the video is Christopher Hudson, a preacher who appears in a number of other Forerunner YouTube videos. He apparently is known online as Forerunner777.

Forerunner, which may have some affiliation with the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church, seems to specialize in exposing supposed “angels of light” (messengers of Satan) associated with the television industry.

In one video Hudson purports to expose the evil Free Masonry associations of MTV.

But it appears that Hudson has come in for some rather sharp criticism himself – as has the SDA, which, like the Mormon and Jehovah’s Witnesses churches, are regarded as cults by mainstream churches.

Deceptively quiet in the video recorded on the "Two and a Half Men" set with Jones, Hudson appears more fiery and fundamentalist in other Forerunner videos.

But on one website, “The Latter Days,” he is deplored as an “angel of light” himself.

One writer on the site posted the following comments last February: “I was almost deceived by the SDA via this very hardcore guy on YouTube that goes by the username forerunner777. He's very knowledgeable about the bible and can probably quote the bible forwards and backwards.

“This excited me as I was just getting into the word and was very hungry for anything that had the name Jesus attached to it. I then began to look up this guy and found out he promotes Ellen G. White books and he's talking about worshipping on the sabbath, the whole 'Sunday Law,' being under the law and everything else the SDA cult teaches.”

Maybe, just maybe, a Talibank corporate culture at Warner Bros. is the least of Jones’ problems.

Does anyone remmber a charismatic, fiery fundamentalist preacher named David Koresh? He too had SDA affiliations - specifically alligning himself with an SDA splinter group called the Branch Davidians.