Charlie Sheen’s announcement that he is HIV-positive is cause for concern, according to his former Two and a Half Men co-star, Jenny McCarthy. She played his love interest on the television sitcom and complained on her SiriusXM radio show today that Sheen failed to make the necessary disclosures, USA Today reported.
Sheen’s manager responded to the allegations in a statement to People magazine, saying that the actor contracted HIV long after he was on the show. But McCarthy is not the only woman who has complained already that Sheen failed in his obligation to disclose his disease, and it seems likely there will be more to come.
Mandatory Health Disclosures
On her radio show, McCarthy explained that actors must sign disclosure agreements. She reportedly said, “Before we do a job, we have to sign a piece of paper that says, ‘Do you have cold sores?’ You would think that there would be some type of … I don’t want to say, not criminal issue, but I don’t even know how to feel about that.”
McCarthy’s concern is not unreasonable, considering that many states actually do criminalize failure to disclose HIV status to sexual partners. People do go to prison for deliberately or negligently infecting partners. That said, McCarthy is talking about work, the contractual requirements that both she and Sheen were under.
She said, “If I have to be up front about a herpe, how could you not be up front about HIV? I look back and I’m like, OK, that would have been some valuable information,” she says. “Look how many people have played his love interest on the show. Not that you can obviously get it (HIV) through kissing, but still, that’s a big deal.”
Major Accountability With Many People
McCarthy was speaking on her radio show, Dirty, Sexy, Funny. She appeared as Sheen’s love interest on television during eight episodes of the sitcom Two and Half Men. This is what she has to say about it now.
“Playing his love interest on the show, even back in the day, I go, ‘Ick! That’s not fair. It’s scary.’ I have sympathy for him because, you know, he’s sick and it’s awful, but man he’s going to have some major accountability with many people in his life.”
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