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The latest round of Dirty Rotten Scandals exposure delves into the world of The Price Is Right.
No, the wholesome daytime game show doesn’t seem like a scandal-ridden house of horrors.
But model Holley Hallstrom, who spent nearly 20 years on the show, was left shaken by her experience — and by her firing.
She says that the shocking weight gain story behind her firing — which Bob Barker denied — was only a cover story.
‘The Price Is Right’ went wrong for her
From 1977 until 1995, Hallstrom appeared as one of “Barker’s Beauties” on The Price Is Right.
She says that her firing in 1995 was blamed on weight gain caused by medication.
That is horrible — but, sadly, she says that it was the cover story, not the actual scandal.
In the new episode of E!’s docuseries, Dirty Rotten Scandals, Hallstrom explains why she really left the show.
She says that it was retaliation — related to fellow model Dian Parkinson’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Barker.
In 1994, Parkinson filed a suit against Barker, accusing him of asking her to perform oral sex upon him.
She explained that she only agreed to the sex act because she feared losing her job.
Hallstrom had already faced issues — like pressure to get breast implants when she was first hired.
But the tension on set grew worse after Barker, with his wholesome family image, faced these sexual misconduct allegations.
“When Dian filed her suit, oh boy, that was the beginning of when everything got really bad,” Hallstrom said, according to Fox News Digital.
‘I was not present for those conversations’
“I didn’t want to be involved in it at all,” Hallstrom emphasized. “Barker wanted us to go on all these talk shows and say he was the victim and that Dian was lying.”
She explained: “I didn’t participate because I didn’t want to, and I thought it was tacky.”
Hallstrom added: “And also because I could not honestly say, ‘Oh yes, Dian is lying,’ or ‘Oh no, Dian is not lying.’ I was not present for those conversations.”
She shared: “I just avoided doing all of Bob’s PR tour. Finally, I was told I would be appearing on ‘The Suzanne Somers Show,’ period. And I did.”
Hallstrom recalled: “Of course, all they wanted was for me to say that Dian was lying. When Suzanne asked me if I thought Dian was lying, I just babbled some answer, and that was that.” But the story did not end there.
“But then that week, I read in the tabloids, ‘Holly says, ‘Dian is lying.’ I never said that,” Hallstrom described.
“I called the tabloid and demanded a retraction,” she shared. “They printed a retraction.”
Hallstrom continued grimly: “But that was the beginning of the big rift between Bob and me. That’s when I got on his s–t list.”
In 1995, Parkinson dropped her lawsuit, citing that it was emotionally and financially draining. Barker, who insisted that any sexual relationship had been consensual, took a victory lap.
“Barker went all over television saying, ‘Her case was dismissed, and I’m totally vindicated,’” Hallstrom described. “I said, ‘That’s not true.’”
‘It only got worse from there’
“I would not comment on that. I did not participate in those interviews,” Hallstrom shared. “I would not change my testimony to suit Barker. That’s when I was told my weight was a problem. I was off the show.”
“That was, well, probably the worst thing in my life at that point that had ever happened,” she went on. “It only got worse from there.”
What followed was a nearly decade-long legal battle, in which Barker sued her for defamation. According to Hallstrom, she turned down lucrative settlement offers because she did not want to surrender her right to speak on the topic.
“As soon as I said I was fired because of my weight, for the first time in his career, Bob Barker was bombarded with hate mail,” Hallstrom reported. “They would bring boxes, bags of letters to the network by the truckload.”
This chilling story of power and allegations plays out in more detail on Dirty Rotten Scandals: The Price Is Right, starting on March 18.
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