OLTL: Actress FIRED!

[ReddFoxx]

I don't think Mauceri should be judged as a bad person, she is certainly entitled to her beliefs and it's not like she disrespected anyone by voicing her opinion to the producers. Her opinion might not be popular, but I wouldn't call her a terrible person.

[SteveFrame]

Again I also want to remind folks of the events of the last month and a half.

1) We have a story broken that says Engen walked out due to a kiss.

2) Weeks later the source reveals that it wasn't a kiss after all it was sex. He says he chose not to reveal that it was sex because he didn't want to spoil the story.

3) In the end he spoiled the story anyway - a week ahead of it's airing. What was the difference in spoiling it a week before and a few weeks before.

4) Now we are told that there never was a kiss at all. Adam and Rafe don't even kiss onscreen at all. All that is shown is them putting their shirts back on after sex.

5) Nothing is even shown.

It's clear to me that eitehr some stuff was written and then even thrown out with even the new actor in the role. Or something was reported that wasn't even true.

In the end it makes me clearly doubt that Engen just left due to anything gay at all. The other rumors seem a whole lot more important now that all this has come to light for me.

I am clearly more apt to hold off judgement from now on. I was heavily leanign that way before but now I am even more esp. where certain people are concerned.

[Errol]

I personally feel that the wording from the source is up to interpretation.

As some have already pointed out, the actress has appeared in a gay film without any qualms about her beliefs. Otherwise, why take part in a low budget film?

I think that means Carlotta's personal beliefs. Not the actresses. It clearly notes that Carlotta wouldn't have a positive attitude about homosexuality due to Carlotta's religion, not the actresses beliefs at all. It should have been, IMO, "it conflicted with the characters beliefs."

[ReddFoxx]

I think that assessment might be correct.

[SteveFrame]

Thanks Errol.

I attemtped to say the same thing on Facebook. But I was told by a noted journalist that actors should have no say in their characters at all.

Which I totally disagree with.

[All My Shadows]

If Daytime Confidential knew some basic damn English, then maybe there wouldn't be all of this drama. You do not use two subjects of the same sex in the same sentence ("She [Patricia Mauceri]" and "Carlotta") and then use a gender-specific pronoun ("her"). Some people will interpret it as "Patricia Mauceri's personal beliefs," and others will interpret it as "Carlotta's personal beliefs." Honestly, it could be either one. PM leaving because she doesn't like the writing for her character isn't that far-fetched either...Carlotta has been little more than wallpaper for years now.

Also, why did they recast so young? I know that KDLR is long gone, but imagine Saundra Santiago prancing around saying that she's David Fumero's mother? Awkwardo!

[Vanguardian]

Funny you should bring up Engen. Engen looks to me a lot worse than he did in the beginning. There's no kissing scenes at all; it's all implied so far. As for PM, I don't even know what to say. These homophobes are ALL ridiculous!!!!

[Vee]

Do people really mean to tell me that they think (I say 'think' because Mauceri has in fact said nothing) Pat Mauceri refused to play a story in which Carlotta was gay-friendly, and wanted to leave the show after fifteen years because of that, solely because it was a character opinion and not her own? People are comfortable with that theory? "I left because I couldn't play a bigot, even though I am not bigoted IRL?" Really, guys? Is this anything like the Chris Engen Twilight Zone rationale you guys keep throwing around? "Chris Engen obviously is not a homophobe because Nelson Branco overinflated the story and claimed he walked off the set, when in reality, Chris Engen merely quit with TPTB's permission after being faced with having to be sexually intimate with a male actor, and then got on his Myspace and talked about how he had certain boundaries and prejudices that needed to be respected - sounds totally different to me! No homophobia there!"

Uh-huh. I would look askance at any actor who tried to claim they left the show because their character was not a homophobe, when they themselves are not. Who does that? Honestly?

Unlike Chris Engen, Patricia Mauceri has always been close to my heart as an OLTL fan; I have loved her work and I will dearly miss her. But I don't ignore these things just because it's someone whose work I admire. Has anyone actually seen I Think I Do and know what PM's role was in it? For all we know she has five lines, nothing to do with the gay content itself and did it for a paycheck. And she's been on the show throughout several other GLBT storylines which did not, in the past, directly involve her. This one does.

[All My Shadows]

Well, at least there will be no claims that anyone is defending Patricia Mauceri simply because of her hairy chest.

[Soapsuds]

[SteveFrame]

I know that I'm just some stupid peon here and not all in the know like some of you are. And I obviously am some little dork fresh off the boat from dork Island and not enlightened as some of you. But I will state my opinion in the first place.

And I will leave the other stuff up to those of you so enlightened to know it all.

I only brought up Engen to prove one thing. That is that these so called sources aren't all in the know. I didn't say Engen was not a homophobe. I was simply saying that all that has come out to play since the report came out just brings it all into question for me.

It was reported it was because of a kiss. Then the reporter comes back and says there never was a kiss, but he chose to say kiss to hide the fact it was sex. When probed about that at Daytime Royalty he said that he did not want to spoil the story. But yet many over there pointed out that he spoiled the story anyway. So was there a kiss or was there not a kiss.

All I am saying is that where these folks are concerned I can't believe anything they say. And the way this whole report is written draws things into question.

The wording is way too ambiguous plus they say she was fired when you can't fire someone who doesn't work for you.

But again I am so stupid I don't even know what I am talking about.

[brimike]

Folks, listen to SteveFrame. It's not against PM's beliefs. It's against what she thinks Carlotta's beliefs would be.

That being said, I still disagree. Writers created Carlotta, and an actress added to that creation. If writers choose for Carlotta to be okay with homosexuality, she can be. There's nothing saying she shouldn't. Hell, if it's such a problem, I'm sure the writers would be more than happy to add in a line for PM that says "I've struggled with this vs. my faith for years, but I've decided that I still believe in my faith, but I accept all of man, just like Jesus did" or something along those lines, to make both parties happy. I think risking her job over this is a little bit ridiculous.

BUT having said that, nobody should label PM a homophobe. It's unfortunate this happened so soon after Engen, because considering how the web is, it'll all get scrunched together as one big homophobic daytime contingency. But I promise you, it's not.

[DeliaIrisFan]

When I first read this, it sounded like someone in the ABC PR department was worried that OLTL's gay story was going to be upstaged by all the backstage drama having to do with Y&R's gay story, so they made some calls and planted some "anonymous tips" to try to create their own backstage scandal. The more I think about it, the less it adds up.

First of all, why would the actress have even vocalized this, even if it is how she feels? The big difference between her and the actor from Y&R is that Patricia Mauceri is only recurring. She wouldn't be risking a lawsuit by refusing to act anything she didn't want to act, so no explanation was needed. Couldn't she have just said she wasn't available, and waited to be called back whenever they decide to trot out Carlotta again? She's been around for how many over-hyped gay stories on this show? Chances are, these characters will be gone in six months. But, with an openly gay executive producer and head writer, and a network that I'm sure is not going to mandate airtime for a 60-ish woman of color anytime soon, she would have to know that she'd be burning all of her bridges by making an issue of this, with no chance that she would prevail. And if she was even offered a role in this story in the first place, she obviously hasn't felt compelled to go around telling co-workers about these alleged beliefs regarding homosexuality up until now.

And this gay movie she was in that has been mentioned really makes this hard to swallow. Now, for all I know, maybe her character in the movie was a one-note, homophobe supporting character who served as the obligatory plot device in films of that genre. But surely she would have figured out that the movie itself was not advocating the things the character was espousing, and subsequently she would have not wanted to be a part of it?

Finally, why would they even bother recasting? Presumably, Carlotta being revealed to be gay-friendly is going to be played for comic relief, especially if the rumor about the plot point involving Cristian pans out. But I'm expecting that the humor will fall flat if the actress who has played her as the staunch, repressed matriarch for 15 years or so has suddenly been replaced with an actress who is probably most recognizable for having played a hooker on Miami Vice. What's the point? Why not just give the scenes to Moe and Noelle, just like they gave Carlotta's diner to them?

And yes, the article was poorly worded, but I don't buy that she quit over the inconsistency in Carlotta's character, either. She's been (shamefully) reduced to nothing more than a plot device for years and, in this economy especially, I can't imagine she wouldn't take a check for whatever scenes they want to call her in to do. It's easier for me to believe that Carlotta has no problem with gay people than it was to sit through that whole story a few years back in which Antonio was revealed to be Carlotta's long-lost love child with the godfather of the Santi crime family, who somehow also managed to father Adriana during Dorian's time in Mendorra or whatever. Or what about when Antonio was paired with RJ's daughter, Keri, and there was an overly long subplot in which RJ tried to break them up by making Carlotta think that Keri was a compulsive shopper who was up to her ears in credit card debt?

It could be wishful thinking on my part, but I'm thinking that what really happened is more along the lines of: OLTL had about two days worth of filler scenes involving Carlotta in this gay story planned, and the actress was unavailable at the last minute, and they did a temporary recast because scrapping the story at that point would have messed up the taping schedule, and come Thanksgiving or whenever, PM will be back to play Carlotta for her annual 5 lines of dialogue. Maybe I'm grasping at straws, because I really like Patricia Maucieri and Carlotta is a character I've wished were utilized more, whereas I am admittedly not a fan of Saundra Santiago from the horrible Santos era on GL. But this story really does sound too weird to be true. A straight guy who's been acting for a nanosecond freaking out about having to do a male-male kiss on national TV unfortunately sounds all too plausible to me. An experienced actress freaking out about something like this and letting it be known, after decades of managing to work in NY theatre and TV? Not so much...

That said, whatever may have happened backstage at OLTL, the handful of people crawling out of the woodwork to applaud this random actress for (allegedly) standing up for her "principles" is pretty transparent....

[SteveFrame]

I have seen the movie. I honestly don't remember what her character did or did not do. I was mostly looking at the men. And there are lots of them and lots of gay content in this movie. It is a heavily gay movie.

Tuc Watkins was wonderful in it.

Again as I and others ahve said other reports are coming out from other sources saying that Mauceri did not disgree because of her own personal beliefs. She simply did not think that Carlotta would be gay friendly based on her religious beliefs. And was adamant about the character. It had nothing to do with Mauceri herself - it was her character.

It comes down to basically they did not want her to have a say about the character. ANd if that is the case it sets a bad example because can any actor or actress be fired for sticking up to what they feel their character would or would not do. If that is the case then soaps are in serious trouble when we don't have writers anymore who research the characters or know them that well.

I personally myself do not buy Carlotta being gay friendly. I could see many characters on OLTL being gay friendly. Carlotta is not one of them.

[Vee]

brimike, I'm sorry but you're wrong. We don't know whose beliefs Mauceri felt this was against - hers or Carlotta's. The wording is that ambiguous. And frankly, even if it's claimed to be just Carlotta's, that is very suspect. Who would quit a long-running, beloved role over Carlotta not being homophobic?

DeliaIrisFan, I am as shocked as you are given Mauceri's long background, but I'm not so cynical or paranoid to believe it is an ABCD conspiracy to replicate a homophobia controversy from another network. Because if OLTL or ABC actually tried to scapegoat an innocent actor as a bigot simply for the sake of PR, especially one as long-running as Mauceri with a history with many continuing actors, they would face not only actor revolt but possibly legal action.

And you are right, the people rushing to defend Engen and Mauceri(?)'s "principles" are always very transparent.

And BTW Steve the word is that initially Carlotta would be intolerant, then would've come to be accepting and progressive. PM objected to that. Whether it was simply a character thing or not is extremely suspect at best.