CARNAL NATION

The Advocate is reporting that actress Patricia Mauceri, who since 1995 has played the character Carlotta Vega on the long-running ABC soap opera One Life to Live, has been fired for refusing to allow her character to become involved in an upcoming gay-themed plotline. According to AfterElton.com, the minor plotline was to have been comedic in nature with Mauceri's character Carlotta mistakenly believing that her hunky, womanizing son Cristian, played by David Fumero, is really gay thus leading her to become a vocal advocate for gay rights. Daytime Confidential quotes an unnamed source on the soap set, saying "[Mauceri] objected to Carlotta's positive attitude about homosexuality, saying it conflicted with her personal beliefs." One Life to Live has broken new ground in daytime television with an ongoing gay plotline between characters Kyle (Brett Claywell) and Fish (Scott Evans), showing them coming out of the closet and then becoming a sexually active couple. Mauceri has been replaced by actress Saundra Santiago. The cast shake-up follows by a few weeks the well-publicized replacement of actor Chris Engen on the soap The Young and the Restless. Engen reportedly objected to plans for his character Adam to come out as gay. It seems that in both cases the fired cast members have forgotten that, as actors, their job, no matter how young or restless they may be, is to have more than just one life to live.