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Everybody seems to be talking about the feud between America Ferrera and Lindsay Lohan on the set of Ugly Betty. I joined the chorus yesterday. The NY Post’s Page Six gave both sides of the story, mostly claiming that Lohan was the set disruptor. US Weekly shoots back with Lohan’s story that Ferrera was the diva. This morning, I see that Vanessa Williams is defending Lohan.
How big is this story? Yesterday morning, I heard about it on sports talk radio. I kid you not. The story fits all of our preexisting prejudices about Lohan, so it seemed entirely believable.
Yet, it occurred to me halfway through the live blog of episode 3.05 (Granny Pants) last night that we’d been had. The ironic coincidences between what was in the press and what was happening onscreen were just a little too cute.
I swear, I’m working on a recap/review of last night’s episode, but this whole thing has been swimming around in my head since last night, so I thought I’d throw it out to you guys.
Join me in putting on a little tinfoil…
- The Post says most of the trouble was boiled down to: Lohan was an unruly, demanding mess who was mean to Ferrera – or Ferrera was “mean” to LiLo. Funny, both occurred in last night’s episode.
- There was a dispute over Lohan pulling down Ferrera’s skirt, then Ferrera unexpectedly pulling down Lohan’s. That was a key plot-point between Betty and Kimmie last night.
- Lohan apparently left her dressing room trashed, and early in 3.05, she made huge messes everywhere.
- Here’s the one that convinced me, though. Near the end of last night’s episode, Daniel praises Kimmie because her clubbing the previous night had “gotten Mode on Page Six”. Where in the Post was the story about the Lohan/Ferrera feud? You guessed it, Page Six.
More after the jump!
My theory isn’t perfect, because part of the story was a dispute over Lohan smoking everywhere, and that didn’t enter into the plot last night. However, it’s incredibly ironic how these “unnamed sources” for the show and for Lohan put a story out there that almost perfectly mirrored the plot of 3.05 (and most likely, 3.06).
Is ABC, or Revielle, or whoever might have done such a thing that smart? It would have been genius – media manipulation of this caliber is usually reserved for politics.
However, I remember the Meade/Slater wedding announcement – another brilliant publicity stunt. This one would have required more discipline (and the cooperation of the Lohan camp), but I find it entirely possible.
If so, I tip my hat to the publicists behind this, even though I was a unwitting dupe.
What do you think? Were the stories part of a planned publicity stunt, or are the simularities between what they say happened on the set and what happened on screen in 3.05 just a coincidence?
Image: Newscom
679 days ago
I’m still confused. Was it or wasn’t it? I was kinda glad she got cut to 4 episodes…. haha. Not to be mean, I just don’t really like her character on the show.
And why is next weeks show based around the same thing again?
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679 days ago
I’ve suspected all along that it might be a publicity stunt. But, then again, I’m suspicious about everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t true, but considering Lohan’s past behavior, it wouldn’t surprise me if it is true and that it’s just a coincidence that real life was imitating art.
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679 days ago
Tom, your ‘tinfoil’ points are all valid. I think the Page Six part of the gig-chopping story was PR to drum up buzz for the show.
I wasn’t so much concerned yesterday with the bit about America and Lindsay. But there are some parts that rang true. And that’s because in the humble opinion of this Lindsay fan, I already felt that she was not bringing it to the show.
Now a part of the story had originally come out a week ago, on cinemablend.com. That part I think is perhaps true. That Lindsay was smoking all over the place, and had a big entourage. Paps pics bear that out.
In addition, cinemablend.com reported that Lindsday’s part had been reduced, whereas originally the show had thought about expanding Kimmie’s arc.
According to E!’s Watch with Kristin yesterday, “the main driving force for this decision is that Lindsay was not gelling creatively with the series. ‘She was not so interested in creating a character,’ another reliable insider close to Betty tells me. ‘She was more interested in just playing herself, and that doesn’t work on a show like this with such heightened reality.’
“According to sources who work on the show, Lindsay was originally written into an upcoming script of Betty, but she was taken out of that script and the scenes with her character were rewritten.”
And to me, there can only be one conclusion: she was not a hit on the show, or with the show, onscreen and perhaps even off.
I don’t think Lindsay’s lines were that great, but they were serviceable. But she did not put enough zing into them. Lindsay’s character Kimmie quoted Lindsday herself in the movie “Mean Girl,” twice using the famous line, “I know, right.”
Well, if Lindsay’s going to quote from her own best movie, she better throw a little something extra into those lines. I thought they fell flat. It was embarrassing, and a sad tribute to MG, to Lindsay’s MG character, Cady, to Lindsay herself.
I am am partly chalking up to rustiness. Lindsay has not made a good movie in a while. She has been through hell in her personal life the last few years. In between, her acting took a step back, not forward. I hope she’ll eventually get her groove back and step up.
But I have to say as an Ugly Betty fan, since Lindsay first appeared on the show, her scenes have been the worst, the only bad ones on the show. Time to cut the crap and move on.
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679 days ago
PS BTW, I have no problem with Kimmie being mean to Betty. What’s so different about that? But Kimmie meanness wasn’t at all juicy enough. “Plastic” Cady from MG would have brought the haughty hammer down with fab fun and tha bomb aplomb.
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679 days ago
I’m not sure Lindsay would jeopardize her career with more bad press, though it does seem a little too similar!
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679 days ago
[...] b5 writer Tom also asks – was this all a publicity stunt? Did the episode last night seem too much like what’s going on in the [...]
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678 days ago
[...] b5 writer Tom also asks – was this all a publicity stunt? Did the episode last night seem too much like what’s going on in the [...]
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