A-listers Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones are reportedly seething after their son Dylan Douglas got knocked around on live TV during a bruising political panel on CNN.
Republican strategist Scott Jennings sliced into the shutdown debate on “NewsNight” and zeroed in on Dylan, firing off a pointed question that undercut the young Douglas’ claim that the GOP alone caused the crisis. The Hollywood power couple thought the whole exchange was “unfair and exploitative,” insisting their son was thrown into a partisan crossfire he wasn’t ready for, sources told Rob Stuter.
Zeta-Jones has allegedly fumed to friends that CNN set Dylan up, while Douglas believes the network “crossed a line” by letting the moment spiral into an on-air embarrassment. Insiders say the pair is so angry they plan to “blacklist the whole network” going forward. One source didn’t bother sugarcoating it.
“Dylan’s never been spoken to like that in his entire life. He’s always been the golden boy — adored, protected. CNN gave him a taste of the real world, and his parents hated every second of it,” the source said, according to Rob Stuter.
Jennings and Dylan tangled over the Senate’s funding bill and the record-breaking shutdown, with Jennings pressing him on which party actually voted to reopen the government. When Dylan tried pivoting to food assistance cuts, Jennings fired back that Republicans voted to fund SNAP 15 times while Democrats voted to defund it 15 times.
Leftist Sirius XM radio host Dylan Douglas never had a chance against Scott Jennings.
“You cannot put on the American people that Democrats were the ones that were hurting people”
“Who was casting the votes against opening the government, Democrats or Republicans?” pic.twitter.com/myO1JdHFDk
— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) November 11, 2025
Senate Democrats repeatedly dragged out the shutdown leading up to Thanksgiving, leaving the country with flight cancellations and travel chaos. President Donald Trump ultimately signed a funding bill on Nov. 12 that reopened the government after a 43-day standoff, the longest in U.S. history.
Reps for Zeta-Jones and Douglas did not immediately respond to requests for comments, The Daily Caller News Foundation said.
