In what could only be described as a shocking display of appropriate parenting, Aaron Spelling once told his daughter, Tori, she had to be responsible for her own finances. While pimping her book, sTori Telling, in an interview with 20/20, Tori explained that she was expected to behave like most human beings and get her own job.
Consequently, Tori wasn't able to spend money like her mother did and found herself in hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, forcing her to consider bankruptcy.
“I know that might sound shallow to people," she said, "but that was my reality. I would sit and watch my Mom order stuff online, or in a catalog see a sweater and order it in 10 different colors. I thought ‘I have my own money - that’s what I should do."
Tori was absolutely right. That did sound shallow. She obviously didn't realize, through their dysfunctional relationship, that her mother was a nut-job who couldn't be relied upon to model proper fiduciary restraint. Neither did she realize that she hadn't acted in anything resembling a successful television show since the mid - 90's. At one point, she claimed she would rather suffer through bankruptcy, though, than ask for money from her father. Now we can applaud that, but think about this. Her answer to avoiding bankruptcy....was to get a JOB! Any acting job that came along, she claimed.
Sounds pretty rough, as if she had put in job applications at every Starbucks between Malibu and Beverly Hills. No, the truth is that "any acting job" probably made her more money in a couple days work on the set than a lot of Americans make in a year. And, sadly, she was only able to get those jobs because her father originally scored her the role of Donna Martin on 90210. If it seems we're being too hard on Ms. Spelling, we should probably mention her multi-million dollar wedding in 2005 and the near million dollar inheritance she received after Aaron Spellings death in 2007.
So her relationship with her mother was bad, her father expected her to work for her keep, and she was she had to deal with being rich - for awhile - and famous. That's a tough break, but at least she got a chunk of change from her father's will to pay the therapist to help her get over that pesky shopping addiction.
