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After three seasons of “Dead to Me,” co-stars Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate have found ways to chuckle.
Take a particular production still from the final season of “Dead to Me,” in which the two actors (who have become close friends during the Netflix series’ run) are shown leaning close, heads touching and eyes closed.
Christina Applegate (l.) and Linda Cardellini in “Dead to Me.” Saeed Adyani / Netflix
That picture popped up behind Cardellini and Kelly Clarkson during their conversation on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” prompting the actor to joke, “We always laugh because it kind of looks like a tampon commercial or something.”
That got Clarkson roaring, adding, “It’s amazing, like an ‘Afterschool Special’ in there.”
“Dead to Me,” which began airing its final season in November, first premiered in 2019. On the show, Applegate played the recently widowed Jen, whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run. She met Cardellini’s Judy, who appeared to know more about the death than she first let on, but the two became good friends.
Applegate, 51, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative autoimmune disease, in 2021, and went public with it that August. The condition made filming the third and final season of the show a challenge, and the show paused its production for five months so she could begin treatment.
Meanwhile, as she told the New York Times in November, Cardellini was invaluable to have on the set. “She was my champion, my warrior, my voice,” said Applegate. “It was like having a mama bear.”
Randee Dawn (she/her) is an entertainment journalist and author based in Brooklyn. In addition to writing for TODAY.com, Variety and The Los Angeles Times, her debut novel, Tune in Tomorrow, about a reality TV show run by mythic creatures, published in 2022. She’s also the co-author of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion. When not interviewing the stars or dabbling in speculative fiction, she dreams of the next place she can travel to, or cuddles her Westie. More at RandeeDawn.com.
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