Sharon Osbourne fights her son’s battle, loses the PR war

Sharon Osbourne publically quit her job as host of America’s Got Talent this week citing ‘discrimination’.  She said it was in retaliation to her son Jack being fired from the upcoming show on NBC called Stars Earn Stripes.  The producers of the show said that he was never offered the job, but Mrs. Osbourne insists that he was fired because he recently learned he has Multiple Sclerosis.

Stars Earn Stripes is a physically demanding reality show where stars compete in realistic military training operations for charity.  NBC quickly said that they ‘don’t discriminate on any basis.’ Jack Osbourne called NBC a slew of expletives followed by the word liar and his mother walked away from the most popular show of the summer.

First off, I hope that Jack gets better with the treatment that he’ll be undergoing.

However, his mother needs to stop fighting his battles for him.     If Jack Osbourne was indeed fired without cause because of his MS then he has a contract or job offer to back him up and support him in court.  If the producers are telling the truth and he was never offered the job in the first place, then his mother is over-parenting a 28 year old grown man.

Take the celebrity element out of the situation and it boils down to a mother fighting her son’s battle.  One could also consider any angles of nepotism because her show, America’s Got Talent is on NBC, as is Starts Earn Stripes.  Drive that down even further and SyFy is owned by NBC, which airs Haunted Highway the show that, until recently, Jack was co-hosting.

Here’s a trailer for that SyFy show.  You can fast forward to 1:12 where he says that he’s passing the hosting duties to two other people.   If he was offered the new job and was physically able to do it, why is he on hiatus from his existing show?

If I was 28 years old and my mother was fighting my battles for me I’d be mortified.  Shut up mom, sit down and let me handle it please, you’re embarrassing me and exposing holes in my arguments.  The legal elements, if there are any in this case-will play out in the courts.

As it stands now, Sharon and Jack are urging a boycott of NBC.  However, in doing so, she’s drumming up press for Stars Earn Stripes and looking like a mother that is fighting a battle on behalf of her son.