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Ex-‘Guiding Light’ star Saundra Santiago to replace Patricia Maucieri as Carlotta on ‘One Life.’
Score another for Daytime Confidential! On Saturday night, Daytime Confidential reported the firing of Patricia Maucieri (Carlotta, One Life to Live) for refusing to play a scene in which her character Carlotta thought her son Cristian (David Fumero) was gay. One Life to Live opted to replace the actress rather than rewriting the scene. ‘Guiding Light’ star Saundra Santiago will Maucieri, who has portrayed Carlotta Vega since 1995. Santiago will be appearing for a ‘handful’ of episodes, according to Soaps In Depth’s website.
Saundra is probably best known for her portrayal of Detective Gina Calabrese on the hit 80s television show Miami Vice. Later, she spent three years on CBS’ Guiding Light as Carmen Santos from 1999-2002. During her time spent on GL, she also appeared on HBO’s hit series The Sopranos as Tony Soprano’s next door neighbor, Jeannie Cusamano. In 2004, she briefly appeared on One Life to Live as Isabella Santi, the biological mother of Antonio Vega (Kamar de los Reyes) during the show’s god awful storyline in which they attempted to emulate the “success” of General Hospital by injecting the mob into the series…..epic fail.
In between her stints on daytime, Saundra put in guest appearances on primetime series such as Law & Order, Damages, and The Unusuals.
ABC had no comment on reasons for the recast, however, sources at the show are saying Patricia Maucieri refused to play the scenes as written because it conflicted with her personal beliefs and the show refused to rewrite them. Expect to learn more on this story in an upcoming edition of ABC Soaps In Depth.
This makes the second time in recent months that a soap had to replace one of their because of storyline concerns. Last month, Chris Engen unexpectedly quit The Young and the Restless allegedly due to an upcoming storyline in which his character Adam would kiss another male, and begin a sexual relationship. He was subquentely replaced with Veronica Mars alum Michael Muhney.
Engen denied such reports, stating on his Myspace profile that, “I want to apologize to any of my fellow actors who I may have disappointed. “I would also like to apologize to those of you who feel slighted by this choice, as I have been branded a ‘homophobe’ by several members of the press. This is, of course, absurd and many of my dearest friends are homosexuals who would be more than happy to speak on my behalf. My decision had nothing to do with religion, or anything I learned at Bishop Montgomery High School.”
This begs the question: Should actors who feel strongly opposed to storylines because of their personal beliefs be fired for refusing to participate? Are they in the right for speaking out against what makes them uncomfortable? TVSource Magazine plans to examine this in an upcoming article.
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