OLTL: Actress FIRED!

[DeliaIrisFan]

This is how I'm imagining this conversation with Frank Valentini playing out...

PM: WTF? I've been on this show 15 goddamn years and you're giving some hyped up gay story to two bit players who most people probably thought one or both of them was the serial killer a few months ago? Take it from me, Frank, forget Kyle and Fish - what kind of name is that, anyway? You should have Marco discover that his mother and Carlotta have been having a torrid lesbian love affair for years, when everyone thought we were at the altar society! Don't you know lesbian is the new gay in daytime?

FV: Yeah, look how well that worked out for

Guiding Light

! You're fired! I don't want some homophobe on my show!

PM: A homophobe? What are you talking about? I had a cameo in

Trick

!

FV: Don't waste my time with your backpedaling and excuses! Have your dressing room cleared out by the end of the day! There are a million actresses who would be willing to play a tolerant ally of the LGBT community.

Sorry, I don't mean to make light of this. But I must say, if Nelson Branco can "make the movie thing make sense" then he should really be hired as a head writer of one of these soaps, because what PM is being accused of sounds more inconsistent than much of the plot-driven, paint-by-numbers, market-research-based crap that most soap characters are doing these days.

[brimike]

LOL! Great post. It's probably pretty close to the reality of the situation. But the sites and the press have to make it bigger. After all, that's how they get hits. It's all a business, folks. All of it.

[Antoyne]

Some people don't agree with homosexuality, I don't see what the big deal is.

[quartermainefan]

I don't understand. How do you agree or disagree with it? That's like saying some people don't agree with air.

[Scotty]

Why can't we all just get along? LOL

Maybe we should all simply agree to disagree.

[Doyen]

Homosexuality is parallel to air?

[quartermainefan]

It ia just something that is. It's like saying "Collies go against my beliefs" or "I don't agree with the concept of women". How can I disagree with something that isn't to be agreed with or disagreed with but just is? "I don't believe in trees!" What does that mean? Someone says homosexuality goes against their beliefs? Lets cut through the BS, they are saying "I am prejudiced against homosexuals, don't like them merely because they are homosexual, and by the way, could everybody please not try to compare this to racial bigotry because that means I have to see homosexuals as just as much being human beings as I do women, minorities and all religious groups...I don't want to do that. Thanks"

[Antoyne]

I have no problem with homosexuality but I also can understand people who do. It happens. It's life.

[baller]

I just can't help but think once again there's more to the story, that it's not as cut and dry as the report says. But like the Y&R story this will become the sound byte and nothing else.

[DRW50]

I feel the same way. Someone who has been on the show for 15 years is suddenly fired because of a very small part of a story? It's so strange. And why did they cast Saundra Santiago, who was on the show not that long ago? Did they just not have anyone else who was available in a hurry?

I had been enjoying the buildup to this story but now I'm afraid that viewers may just reject it entirely, since they may feel an attachment to the old Carlotta and may be upset if they learn she was let go because of this. It's depressing that now no gay story on soaps can go through without some controversy over what an actor will or won't play. It just makes other soaps less likely to try a gay storyline.

[Vee]

What I've learned from this is nobody knows anything. Even SOC seems to be running with stuff straight off the top of fans' heads from message boards. A million explanations or excuses: It's an ABCD conspiracy, she is fine with gays, but then another source says they knew gay content would set her off, then others say it is a Chris Engen copycat stunt (nevermind the fact that if ABC did that to this woman and endangered her livelihood with slander they would be vulnerable to litigation), and still others say it is what it is, she's homophobic...it's sad and pathetic all around but what it does for me is, once again, delineate just how many excuses people need to make for even the insinuation of homophobia in a performer. I honestly hope Mauceri isn't a bigot and this is all a big misunderstanding. But even if she is, there will always be this circus of either condemnation or apologia.

[DRW50]

I've heard the Chris Engen copycat stuff several times and I don't get it. Y&R's ratings have declined since that controversy began, it just gave a negative spotlight to the show and the story. I can't see why ABC would ever go, "Hey, let's fire a veteran actress cause controversial publicity worked out so well for Y&R."

I just hope people won't hold this against the Kyle/Fish story, and they'll take the story on its own merits, good or bad.

[Ann_SS]

So this is how Branco tried to explain the fallaciousness of his CE story. Branco is a joke.

[miajere]

Why didn't they consider airing this perspective to begin with? It shows how committed they are to telling this story, because like it or not there are people out there who are misinformed about homosexuality and have formed strong opinions against it. Carlotta's stance on such an issue could have been a real lesson on letting religious beliefs get in the way of understanding the people you care about. I'm surprised that a show so eager to break out with a new couple would cast that aside over a two minute comedy scene.

As for the actress, if this isn't true I hope it doesn't affect her ability to find work elsewhere. Rumors and accusations like this could very well encourage the same line of crap that got her fired- others justifying not hiring her for rumors of her so-called personal beliefs. What a sick cycle.

[Cheap21]

Anyone realize that they recasted Antonio's fake mother with his real mother? LOL. Too bad he's not here