"Alias" Mom Gets Lost--Again

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This info I just came across on Yahoo ...

from Entertainment - E! Online

"Alias" Mom Gets Lost--Again

Fri Nov 14, 6:40 PM ET Add Entertainment - E! Online to My Yahoo!

By Joal Ryan

It looks like Alias' Sydney has lost more than two years' worth of memories.

Lena Olin, who played Jennifer Garner's KGB agent mom last season on the ABC spy show, has opted to not return as the mysterious maternal unit.

"After doing everything we possibly could including meeting the agents' requests, Lena ultimately decided it wasn't the right time for her to return to the show," creator/executive producer J.J. Abrams said in a statement released by ABC Friday.

A call seeking comment from Olin's publicist was not immediately returned.

E! Online TV columnist Kristin Veitch reported last month that Alias producers "tried desperately" to book Olin for "multiple episodes," but that attempts reportedly had been thwarted by money issues.

According to the new TV Guide, Olin asked for "Sharon Stone (news)-type" dollars, a reference to the reputed $100,000-an-episode rate Stone quoted for her three-episode arc last month on ABC's The Practice. But per the magazine, not even Olin's salary requests scared off Alias's top agents.

Despite Olin's reluctance to return, Abrams said the show is "hopeful that it will work out in the future."

Also not giving up: The Alias fans behind BringBackLena.com. As its name plainly states, the Website, launched last month, wants Olin back on the show--stat. According to the site, fans aim to take their appeal to the Hollywood Reporter next month in the form of an ad. As of Friday, 66 people had pledged $2438.75 of the $3,300 needed for the ad.

Alias was the 47-year-old Swedish-born star's first TV series work. Forays into Hollywood Homicide aside, Olin is best known for grown-up dramas such as Enemies: A Love Story and Night Falls on Manhattan.

On Alias, she showed off her bungee-cord-jumping style as "The Man," aka Irina Derevko, long-lost mother of Garner's Sydney Bristow.

Olin bowed on Alias' second-season opener in September 2002. Although she greeted her daughter with a hail of hot lead, Irina and Sydney actually went on to bond. Mother was last seen in May's season finale, bounding off a building top, with bungee cord in hand.

That episode was a turning point for the show. Garner's agent Sydney woke up in Hong Kong, two years older, but none the wiser (she and viewers were left in the dark about the missing months); and, Bradley Cooper (news)'s journalist Will Tippin got stabbed. While Tippin survived, Cooper wasn't brought back as a regular. He will, however, appear on the December 7 episode, ABC said. Also guesting in that installment: Merrin Dungey, now on recurring status after two solid years of playing Syd's best friend Francie and Francie's genetic double Allison.

Amid the cast turnover, and despite Garner's tabloid-tracked romance with costar Michael Vartan (news), Alias is averaging 9.3 million viewers for the season to date, slightly below ABC's network average of 9.6 million.
 
My parents won't let me donate, so I appeal to you all, please donate money. WE NEED LENA OLIN BACK! How can they continue the season with just mysterious convorsations with "Irina"? Please, everyone, DONATE!!
 
I don't think it has anything to do with money. I think she's just decided she doesn't want to do it. She won't take "yes" for an answer: read the article. The inside word is that the producers bent over backwards to make her happy. My impression is that her movie friends probably just convinced her that she was "lowering herself" by agreeing to do a "mere TV role" and she didn't want to be associated with it.

I tend to believe that the producers probably did do everything they possibly could because look at the storyline--they're writing themselves into a corner where they really need Irina to show up sooner or later! And, frankly, Ms Olin should have given the producers advance notice or a chance for them to write her out before she took her powder. This is simply inconsiderate in the extreme!

Just MHO.
:( :( :(
 
I'm not at all upset with LO for deciding not to return. She is in no way obligated to sign another contract if she doesn't want to. The producers and writers should not have boxed themselves in the way they did; they should have been prepared. After all, it took five months of negotiations to get her onto the show in the first place. I still love her, and hope to see her in other things.

BTW, I certainly don't think she felt she was "lowering herself" in taking this role. Irina Derevko was a much better role for a woman than many movie roles I have seen. It could be, however, that LO didn't like what they were doing with the character. I don't know. But I will miss her. :(
 
I just think that if she doesn't want to do it she should
A. just say no instead of playing negotiating games trying to price herself out of the market
B. should have let them know last season when they had a chance to do something with the character gracefully

But perhaps she just changed her mind over the summer . . . it's still rather unpleasant for her colleagues and fans. Personally, if it were me, I wouldn't do it that way. But, like I said, I still wish her well. I can't see into all of her reasons.
::shrugs::
 
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