Jack Coleman Calls Paparazzi 'Predatory' in Panettiere Tribute
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- Jack Coleman posted an Instagram tribute to Hayden Panettiere after her death at 36, recalling she called him "daddio" from the first day of the "Heroes" pilot 20 years ago and calling her "an extraordinary young woman who was blessed and cursed."
- Coleman described paparazzi with 300mm lenses as "predatory," saying photographers "hunted" Panettiere, hid in bushes behind his yard, and drove onto neighbors' lawns to photograph her.
- Coleman said by age 17 Panettiere was #1 on IMDB Pro and was routinely asked "obnoxious" questions — mostly versions of "when are you going to go off the rails?" — which he said "today, we'd recognize... as the misogynistic provocations they were."
- "Heroes" creator Tim Kring wrote in a Variety essay that Panettiere was "singularly talented" with "an almost savant-like quality about her work" and a rare ability to find drama, humor, and pathos in any scene.
- Co-star Sendhil Ramamurthy remembered Panettiere standing up for mistreated background actors on set and knowing every crew member's name by heart.
- Police said Panettiere's death was under investigation but there were "not any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances."
Why it matters: Coleman's account reframes Panettiere's public struggles as products of an industry that sexualized and surveilled a teenager, giving his tribute weight as both a personal eulogy and an indictment of how the entertainment press treated young women in the 2000s. The death remains under investigation, though preliminary police findings point to no foul play.
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