What If Rob Lowe Really Is Leaving Parks & Recreation Over Personal Differences With Amy Poehler?

The countdown has truly begun for Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones to depart Parks & Recreation, their characters Chris and Ann having not only decided to leave Pawnee, but told their dearest friends their plans. And while no one (except Mark Blankenship) will probably miss poor Ann too much, Lowe's loss will be felt more keenly, at least in this household. [Insert your own "literally" joke here.]

The reasons for Jones's and Lowe's exits from the show are myriad. In addition to the fact that the show (arguably) never quite figured out what to do with her character, Jones co-wrote and starred in a well-regarded indie film, Celeste & Jesse Forever, last year; since then, she's sold TV pilots to three different TV networks. As for Lowe, he has a new series lined up to star in for NBC. These are two busy show business professionals who are, in all likelihood, leaving their jobs of the past several years for unimpeachably professional reasons.

Unless they're not.

Last night, Lowe appeared on The Late Show -- mostly to promote his new NatGeo special, Killing Kennedy, but naturally the subject of his impending departure from P&R came up, and Lowe suggested that he might have made the choice to leave the show for reasons other than his career.

Lowe is probably kidding around; after all, if he really were leaving the show because Amy Poehler is a prick, the last thing he would do is admit it publicly, right? UNLESS he is counting on the audience to make exactly that assumption due to the fact that he works in an industry known for how much everyone involved in it constantly and reflexively lies. Maybe the truth is hiding in plain sight, and the unthinkable is actually true: what if Amy Poehler really is a prick?! And maybe Lowe was not the first of Poehler's co-stars to use "humour" to show the world how difficult she actually is to work with!

In one sense, it wouldn't make any difference at all. Most of us don't know her personally and (sadly) never will; how she behaves with personal acquaintances won't affect us in any way. As long as she can credibly portray funny characters, some of whom are also likable, that's really all she's required to do; that she's also charming and hilarious on talk shows is nice, but it's really just a bonus. For the audience's purposes, for her to fake charisma -- if faking is, in fact, what she's doing -- meets our needs just as well as the real thing would do.

But…but what if Amy Poehler is the typical Hollywood jerk we probably just assume most actors are? What if Smart Girls At The Party is not a laudable project encouraging young girls to be confident and have fun, but a crass PR move meant to convince us that Poehler is a proud feminist who cares about bringing up the next generation of independent women? What if this sweet speech at the Time 100 a couple of years ago was written by her publicist to burnish her progressive cred?

Could we still love Leslie Knope if she were played by someone who's no different on the inside from a Scott Baio or an Amanda Bynes?!

Let's hope Rob Lowe was, in fact, kidding. And if he wasn't -- the nightmare scenario -- let's all join hands and pray that we never learn the truth.