Deep Soap: Rowell Cites Racism For Y&R Exit, GH’s Brenda Stirs Up Horror

by Sara Bibel

Aug 30th, 2010 | 9:11 PM | Comments 18

Victoria Rowell Is At It Again

It was the soap pseudo-scandal of the weekend. Last Friday, ‘The Young & The Restless‘ stars Kristoff St. John (Neil) and Darius McCrary (Malcolm) appeared on The Foxxhole, Jamie Foxx’s raunchy satellite radio show. (A link to the audio is available here.) What would have been notable only for McCready’s sexist (IMHO) remarks about his ex-wife and women in general, took a strange turn when Victoria Rowell, ex-Dru, called in to make the same allegations she has been making in interviews about her novel Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva and on Twitter, that nearly everyone who works on the show is a racist who mistreated her because of her ethnicity.

Kudos to co-host Lewis Dix who repeatedly pointed out that Rowell quit the show. She was not fired. Rowell claimed that Y&R discriminated against her by not allowing her to write or direct for the show. She makes a good point about daytime needing more diverse writers, directors and producers. So does primetime and film. It’s an industry-wide problem.

She is right that Y&R has not done as well in this area as other shows. This is especially problematic, given the show’s popularity with African American viewers. The only African American character on the show who has had frontburner storylines since Rowell left has been Lily (Christel Khalil).

Emmy winners St. John and Bryton (Devon), have done little more than support Lily through her various travails. That needs to change, not because it’s politically correct, but because talented actors should be used to their full potential. Hopefully, the heavily telegraphed love triangle between Neil, Malcolm and newcomer Sofia (Julia Pace Mitchell) will turn out to be a good storyline.

If Y&R had welcomed other actors into the writing room or the directors booth, Rowell would be right that she was being discriminated against. The show has not. There is only one actor in all of daytime who also directs for their show — ‘The Bold & The Beautiful’s’ Susan Flannery. There are no actors who also write for their shows, though there are plenty of actors who also have writing careers. The pace of daytime does not lend itself to people wearing more than one hat, the way primetime does.

Rowell exercised an obscure clause in her contract and opted to leave the show on virtually no notice, well before her contract was up for renewal, forcing some hasty, unsatisfying rewrites and a ridiculous presumed death via a stock footage waterfall. I was still with the show at that time, and I remember everyone, including then Executive Producer/headwriter Lynn Latham being surprised by her decision. Not being on set, I have no idea what transpired between her and the rest of the cast. I think it was a tremendous loss to the show, and more should have been done to get her to reconsider her decision at the time. I would like to think that the conflicts could have been resolved.

Rowell subsequently badmouthed numerous cast members as well as the network, the studio, and the show’s producers. Now she is complaining because the show is not welcoming her back. That’s like Steven Slater, the flight attendant who publicly quit then slid down the plane’s emergency slide, expecting his job back. The only time I can think of an actor leaving a show mid-contract and being allowed to return is ‘Days of Our Lives‘ Melissa Reeves. It was clear that she left for personal reasons. The show still sued her for breach of contract. She never spoke about the situation publicly. She ultimately mended fences with the show and returned five years later.

Rowell placed St. John and McCrary in a terrible position, by ambushing them and forcing them to respond to her accusations, accusations that had nothing to do with them. If they disagreed with Rowell, they looked like they were defending racism. If they agreed with her, they were criticizing their current bosses. It was a no win situation. St. John revealed that he did go to bat for her with the show’s producers, who opted not to bring her back. This seems like a lousy way to repay him for his loyalty. I am not sure whether Rowell’s goal is to put pressure on the show to rehire her or simply to generate publicity for her books, but I cannot imagine that anyone on Y&R would be eager to bring her back when she is doing everything she can to damage the show’s reputation.

I'm going to sit back and see what happens to this thread.

Whether it will plummet into the depths of hell or remain, at least for a while, on solid ground.

One of the few instances where Bibel has made sense. Rowell dug her own grave. Too bad she quit. I still miss Dru.

I wonder what is this obscure clause she pulled out.

Edited October 1, 201015 yr by Sylph

Uh oh. In before the thread gets closed

I agree about VR digging her own grave, she's not doing herself or anyone else any favors

Stop it Yall Bibel raises some good points, surely we can have a reasonable discussion about it right

Edited October 1, 201015 yr by shadow

"McCready."

That was a pointless article.

Damn!! This is proof that when to different races hear that she thing and come out with two different versions. You call her names why? Because she was fighting to get diversity in front of and behind the camera. You heard the Kristoff say that he was punished for speaking out about the same thing. Yet somehow VR is still the bad person. You know I use to get a kick out of boards like this, when people would talk about the lack of diverse on the show. Then people would come out and call people like me racist for bringing up the subject. Say the best person got the job. That is the biggest lie of all. When you read the casting call in the soap boards and magazines. They don’t say that are casting for an actor to play a character. They are casting for a white actor or actress. Notice the white part, the best actor was not cast. The best white actor that showed up to audition was cast. And the sad fact, that many of them are not even that good. So spare me your fake outrage at the unfairness of the lack of diversity. Because it is the white people that complain about the casting of black actors, they are bad actors, they don’t have chemistry with that actor. All comes dow to, they don’t want the black actor on the show. The fact that Sara Bibel thinks that V. Rowell speaking up for black people say more about her than it does about V. Rowell. It’s 2010 and yet soap operas have not evolved since they began the soaps on air. And for those who are wondering YES!!! I AM BLACK. And amazingly I am proud to be.

I am reminded it is so much easier to attack the messenger. Ms. Rowell makes it easy.

HOWEVER, I would like to know, if Ms. Bibel and some of those who commented listened to the entire exchange? St. JOhn acknowledged there were “issues” related to race by agreeing he was paid less than his counterparts who had been on the show for a similar amount of time and paid less than some who are fairly new. He also acknowledged that the Union came to the set because of “disparities.” He said that last year when he “complained” he received no storyline for “3 to 4 months”.

He seemed to back up what Ms. Rowell has been saying all along.

I ask, Where is the outrage, the indignation, the overt criticism? It is too easy to target Ms. Rowell’s delivery. But the hard part comes when you have to acknowledge the ugliness and existence of racism. And instead of “only” jumping on the “let’s lambast V. Rowell” bandwagon, why not let Sony and CBS know that as a member of the human race, and a fan of Y&R you expect more from them in their use of and treatment of African American actors.

As someone else mentioned, Kristoff St. John was back burnered for 4 months for speaking out on behalf of Victoria Rowell. Why did you skip this important part? Last year Kristoff St. John appeared on Buzzworthy Radio and discussed Y&R’s poor diversity and he was promptly punished.

Also, you’re wrong about soap actors not making the transition to writers and producers. Over the years, many people have made that transition:

1) Susan Flannery

2) Meg Bennett

3) Christopher Goutman

4) Ellen Wheeler

5) Don Hastings

And, there are others.

There’s no reason why Rowell couldn’t have been given the chance to direct an episode. Every one knows that in primetime actors direct episodes all the time.

You’re also glossing over the fact that Eric Braeden ripped Sony/Y&R apart in multiple interviews last year. But Braeden and later Peter Bergman received no punishment for their negative comments.

Moreover, you skipped over Rowell’s complaints that Michelle Stafford spat on her and that Melody Thomas Scott mocked her by running around the set in an afro wig. Many of Rowell’s issues are the same kind of issues that affect many people of color in terms of second class treatment.

Furthermore, Rowell has been very specific that not every one was racist to her. She has repeatedly stated that Jeanne Cooper, Jess Walton, Sharon Case, Joshua Morrow, Eileen Davidson, and others were respectful to her.

Again, you glossed over Kristoff St. John’s admitting that he is paid less than his white peers and feels forced to keep quiet because he has to feed 3 children.

Right?

I’m disappointed in your shoddy journalism here. The recordings from the interview were astonishingly revealing.

I agree with Joss. Maybe Ms. Bibel can reply to what you are saying. Because everything you say Joss is correct. I couldn’t turn around in a grocery store without seeing Braeden on a soap cover ranting in yet another “exclusive” about YR letting him go, etc. And it was all over the place online. And yet here he is, back on the show, front burner as always. And thats just wrong if a show is gonna backburner you for speaking up, AND not pay you like other actors are getting paid, even if you been on the show way longer than alot of them. Something fishy is definitely going on at YR.