“They decided she must have caused Trouble and they
want no part of a
Troublemaker.”
8-F SUNDAY,
AUGUST 22, 1982,
Longview Morning Journal
Entertainment
Cagney and Lacey situation
Story behind Meg's ouster
By DICK KLEINER
HOLLYWOOD
CBS renewed "Cagney & Lacey" for this coming season but with a new Cagney. Meg Foster was dropped from the cast, and, after a search, Sharon Gless hired to replace her. Tyne Daly remains fixed as Lacey. It isn't a pretty story, no matter who you talk to. Meg was so hurt and distraught that she still isn't talking.
But she told friends that she felt as though she had been hit by a truck.
She also has said that she believes she's better off to keep quiet about it now, and let her actions talk for her.
Those same friends, however, tell of how she didn't work for a while after the news got around Hollywood that she was out. Until that news spread, she was an inndemand actress. But there was no official announcement of why she was fired, so some people jumped to some pretty wild conclusions.
They decided she must have caused Trouble and they want no part of a Troublemaker. Later, an Official Story came out (The Network said they wanted a change to give the show a better balance) and from then on Meg's offers picked up again. She's working steadily now. And she just wrapped a TV movie, "Desperate Intruder," with Nick Mancuso and Claude Akins.
THERE ARE A LOT of different stories going around about the truth behind the cast change.
"We were faced with cancellation," says Tyne Daly. "The network said its research showed that Meg came across as too tough. They said they'd renew us if we made a change. It was hard on me, because Meg and I had become very good friends."
"They wanted more of a contrast between the two players," Sharon Gless told Variety's columnist, Dave Kaufman. "They (both) had a gentleness, but where was the strength?"
"It's one of those unromantic smoke-filled room stories," says the show's producer, Barney Rosenzweig.
"When we tried to get it renewed, the network was doubtful. They said, maybe, if we recast. They said one of the negative aspects of the show is that the two girls are too similar." Rosenzweig says he suggested dying Meg's hair a different color, to dispell the similarity. But, he says, the CBS brass said that, if he wanted the show to stay on, he would have to do something more dramatic than dying Meg Foster's hair. 'They said if the only way to save the show is to recast it," he says, "then I would recast it.
I said I would do anything to save the show. And so Meg Foster was the scapegoat." He says it was that or nothing. He says he could have stood up to CBS, but he thinks if he had tried it, he would have lost. But Perry King, who was Meg Foster's co-star in the movie, "A Different Story," says that he believes Rosenzweig "caved in" as he had "caved in" earlier: Curiously, King was involved with Rosenzweig in that previous incident. That was when Rosenzweig produced the TV movie "East of Eden," and King was originally to co-star in it with Timothy Bottoms.
According to King, Bottoms said he wouldn't work with King, although the two had never met. "So Barney caved in," King says, "and replaced me with Bruce Boxleitner. He didn't stand up for me then, and he didn't stand up for Meg this time."
United States
Texas
Longview
Longview News-Journal
1982
Aug
22
Evil-Lyn features in the 1987 live-action feature film Masters of the Universe. Played by Meg Foster, she is shown as Skeletor's Right-Hand Woman as in the cartoon, although the film adds an extra dimension to her relationship with Skeletor by indicating some amount of romance between the two.
In one scene, Skeletor reveals that he depends upon Evil-Lyn to portray the image of him as a ruler to the people of Eternia as he strokes her face and shoulder. While sharing the desire for power between them, Evil-Lyn's calm and seductive approach is shown to soothe Skeletor's wrath and mania in his moments of hysteria. In that same scene, they were about to kiss when Beast Man and the other warriors walked in and interrupted them.
Any attempt Evil-Lyn makes to stand closer or equal to Skeletor is quickly deflected by him in the film. After Skeletor kills Saurod for failing to capture He-Man and the Cosmic Key, Evil-Lyn tries to convince Skeletor that their talents could still be useful. This stance prompts Skeletor to force her into control of his troops on their second mission to Earth to track down the heroes. She succeeds in capturing the Cosmic Key, but Skeletor once again disregards her when she reports that she has failed to deal with He-Man.
In the final stages of the film, she deserts Skeletor after he absorbs the power of the universe without sharing it with her. This remains consistent with the various portrayals of the character as scheming and willing to turn on Skeletor from the mini-comics, Filmation series, and 2002 series. Evil-Lyn is not depicted as a powerful magic-wielder in the film (although it is not explicitly stated that she does not have such powers either) and does not carry her distinctive orb-staff.
In the film, she rarely uses magic, although in one scene she casts an illusion to make herself appear to be the dead mother of Julie and also uses her powers to keep the door of the music store closed while Julie brings her the Cosmic Key.
Describing her character, Foster said that Evil-Lyn is not villainous, "she is just doing her job and she knows how to get results, even if it means being harsh."
Langella agreed, calling Evil-Lyn a female more dedicated to Skeletor's cause than any man; she is obsessive around Skeletor because she is slightly lovelorn.
The filmmakers considered having Foster wear eye-lenses to mask her naturally pale-blue eyes, but decided that her natural eyes fit the character better. However, they did augment Foster's chest, fitting cleavage into the character's costume. Foster wanted the character to have a large hairstyle, rather than the short style featured in the film.
