A COVID Testing Site Almost Shut Down For Addison Rae's New Movie & People Were Pissed
TikTok star Addison Rae Easterling has been having quite the busy year. She blew up on the lip-syncing platform for her dance videos, joined the Hype House, became friends with Kourtney Kardashian, and landed a role in an upcoming remake of the 1999 rom-com She's All That. It's been smooth sailing for the most part as she added lots of great accomplishments under her belt, but some fans are pretty upset with her latest project at the moment. A Los Angeles COVID testing site almost shut down for Addison Rae's new movie, and while appointments were since rescheduled for the same date of the shoot, the backlash was swift.
Fans know that Easterling had nothing to do with the decision to close the Union Station coronavirus testing site in Los Angeles, California, personally, but they're still pretty pressed about the whole debacle. According to Deadline, after testing appointments for Dec. 1 were suddenly canceled, mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti stated that he was unaware that Miramax's shooting of He's All That would cause the site to close down on Tuesday.
The 504 people with appointments were originally offered appointments for the same day at alternative testing locations, but eventually Garcetti changed course and reopened the Union Station site. The messy back-and-forth occurred overnight on Nov. 30, just a day prior to Miramax's shoot date at the rail transportation hub.
Miramax told Page Six in a statement that they were also unaware of the cancellations: "This was not a request from Miramax and once they learned of the disruption, production asked that the testing company resume its services at that location." The production company also added that filming was not taking place near the exact testing locations at Union Station.
Easterling did not make a public statement on the matter, likely because the star had nothing to do with the actual cancellation of appointments, but that didn't stop the fiasco from causing chaos online.
It's still unclear why exactly the testing site was scheduled to close because of filming in the first place, and people want answers due to the mounting number of COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County, with over 2,000 people currently hospitalized due to the virus.
"Hollywood is alive and well!" television writer Carey O'Donnell joked on Twitter, attaching an article about the original reports of the testing site closing. Countless other users also chimed in; one wrote, "The Union Station COVID testing site getting shut down to film ... might be the point that capitalism finally breaks my brain."
People definitely have a right to be angry at this point, and many are even advocating that Hollywood movie studios should stop filming in the city altogether. Regardless, Easterling isn't really the one to blame for the closure and sudden reopening — let's just hope the movie is worth all this mess!
