She's had a positive fan reaction if by positive reaction she means being booed at the ABC Primetime Preview weekend at Disneyland. Not that I thought it was appropriate (before we saw her character), blah blah blah disclaimercakes.

Possibly OT, but I run the anti-thread for her character at SD-1.com. At over 200 members strong (we had 100 the first 8 days), the group is actually mixture of SVR, Sark/Syd and J/I fans, among others. Many of the other two 'ships have stated they initially supported Lauren because she either freed Syd up for Sark, or because neither Syd or Vaughn had any relevence to their ship.

They joined without any bias at all, sorely because of the waste of time Melissa's character is, as well as Melissa's astonishing ability to put her foot in her mouth. (What other ability did you think I would say? Acting? HA!)

It's not just SVR fans that are reviled by the current storyline, no matter what actual-Pro-Lauren fans will say.

I'm not a Sydney/Vaughn shipper at all ( I hate Vaughn and their relationship bores me to tears) and I hate Lauren. It has more to do with the stupidity of the character than anything else. I have no opinion on Melissa other than that she lacks screen presence and charisma.

Perhaps you should check with your beloved Hos before you start accusing me - the interview was originally posted on my site, and not by the "Hos" - there are 2 corrections I made to it which give this away, so they evidently took it from my site in one form or another.

I'm not going to bother arguing any other points with you though Jinnie, as you have made it clear in the past that you don't like Melissa, so I'd be wasting my breath.

How was I accusing you? I merely cited a comment you made and expressed my opinion, as those on message boards tend to do with posts. It's part of the fun of a public forum; being able to see views from all walks of life. My background as a journalist and PR Specialist gives me knowledge in which I can judge things like potential libel pretty easily. Part of my job. I would have made such an observation on anyone that posted. Don't take it personally. We're not discussing you, we're discussing inane MG comments.

I also send the Hos pages and pages of articles, and I know for a fact that article appears in LexisNexis. It could very well have come from me.


Again, hardly see my comments as an attack, which it seems you do. I simply gave a qualified observation, possibly snarky, but that's business as usual on TWOP. Peace.

Enough. You guys want to argue about where the article came from and who originally posted it? Fine. Take it to email. But stop attacking each other.

Jinnie, your original post does have an accusatory tone and Henry, your tone is defensive and personally directed at Jinnie. You both need to knock it off.

Henry, sorry to say, but you're most likely just going to get frustrated in here trying to defend anything about Melissa George; I would say 95% of the posters simply don't like her and there's really nothing that can be done about that. Personally, I don't really give a shit, but I'm the mod, so I just have to suck it up and deal and make sure things don't get out of hand around here.

If I see one more post directly pointed from or to another poster, I'm crackin' skulls.

Fair do's, point taken, sorry about that - I'm not very good at letting things slide, I think I need to work on it for 2004... :)

Long live Lauren Reed and Melissa George. May 2004 be a happy and prosperous year. On the downside, it doesn't get any worse than this. On the upside, unlimited as one never knows what JJ has in store for them.

Heh. Oh, baby, couldn't we all use a little work on that? No doubt, my friends. No doubt.

I'm not in the slightest bit bothered about this by the way, my rose coloured glasses got lost years ago. I'm all in favour of "freedom of speech" where this is concerned, I am however also in favour of making sure people don't get misquoted or slammed for something they didn't actually say. But I can appreciate that I am probably the proverbial Salmon swimming upstream here, so I shalln't sweat over it :)

I might agree with this if MG were making comments about her love life or something else like that, but I wouldn't agree that what you claim to be are that great at fact checking when it comes to TV plotlines. You can't sue for libel for that sort of mistake, anyway. We've all read a heaps of articles about our favourite TV shows only to groan when it's clear the reporter has no idea about the show and has never seen it before.

I'm not saying that MG is the best at thinking about the consequences of every little thing that she says, but personally the fact that people are still going on and on about a throwaway reference she made about some part of the US months ago (I'm scared to mention middle america again), as though she gravely insulted their mothers, suggests to me that a lot of people listen to her and read her interviews only with a view to finding a mistake and making her pay for it. I wonder how many of the 95% here really hated MG before she was on the show? (those of you who were aware of her then, of course). Could it not be that people are much harder on her because they hate the very idea of Lauren?? I wonder how people might have reacted if David Anders had made the same comment about middle America? Seriously, I don't think anybody would have blinked an eye. Yes, blahblahbutshesaidthisotherthingaboutSydVaughnthatoffends fishcakes, but I feel that the fact that she is saying positive things about the fans' reaction to her character suggests that maybe she realises there are always going to be people who will hate Lauren and therefore be harsh on her and she has just decided to ignore it and be positive about working on a great show like Alias.

And as for the "unbaised" anti-Lauren thread at SD-1, about which Jinnie admits that

I think that this would hardly qualify as either an accurate sample group of the Alias audience (the majority of which just watch the show and don't dicuss it on the 'net), let alone a group that Even Jinnie has contracticed herself by admitting that they have their own agendas for the characters. So I don't think their supposed take on Lauren or Melissa is worth much as an example of somebody who had no opinion initially and now hates her because MG is apparently an evil ogre. There's a reason why TWoP has a rule about not generalising about posters or any fan group, because basically we all only know our views and maybe those our close friends accurately, therefore any 'generalisation' about the motivations, opinions or views of any group is going to be a load of crap.

AndyCake, it is very possible you are right. However it is equally possible fans read Ms George's interviews actually looking for a reason to like her and her character. Consider for a moment the very strong negative reaction Bradley Cooper encountered from Alias fans in the first season. There were cries to "Kill Will" similar to those we hear now for Lauren Reed. But Mr. Cooper, while admittedly confused about the reaction to his character, didn't insist fans had to like Will. He didn't dismiss fans enthusiasm for the show with careless remarks. He didn't sound defensive or try to spin the situation as being peachy. Instead, he gained many supporters because of his work ... his talent, his chemistry with the cast, and because he was very vocal about how much he loved the show and being a part of the ensemble. Now there are fans clamoring to get Will back on the show fulltime. Just something to think about.

Hi AndyCake. Actually, Jinnie started that "group" and is probably the only person qualified to speak for those members involved. However, I look at her description of the anti-thread at SD-1, as an indicator that it isn't a specific type of Alias viewer who is solely spouting hate nonsense based on ship or loyalty. None of the information on the web would qualify as an accurate sampling to the Alias viewership as a whole, but out of the web posters participating at SD-1, over 200 people were obviously unhappy with the character of Lauren Reed. No matter what reason they dislike the character (ship preference, character agenda, etc.) it just stands to reason that at the moment, IMO, there seem to be a lot of unhappy people who would rather see the back of Lauren Reed.

Personally, I hope that MG and LR can prove me wrong about my dislike. That would be just fine with me if it happens. But at her current rate, I for one am not impressed with the wife or the actress's current public relations misteps.

Could we keep the discussion to Melissa George and her character please? All this talk of other boards and viewership and who hates who and why and man, is she a bad interview and whatever is making my size nines itch.

How comfortable is the role on Alias for Melissa George? I have been wondering about this - her debut on ABC in one of the main roles for Thieves was the same season that Alias debuted. She and Jennifer Garner were being touted as the new action heroines of ABC. Then her show flops and Alias is a hit. Now she has a second chance to do well, this time in a prominent role on ABC once again. Isn't that going to cause a lot of stress? I have gotten the feeling that MG was uncomfortable in some of the scenes - the oft mentioned bad chemistry for example. Yet she seems to have done well in other roles. Is this role both a blessing, a second chance so to speak, and a curse, as she realizes perhaps her saleability to other television shows might be affected by her performance this time?

I would think she'd have to look at it, at the end of the day, as just another role. Sure it could lead to greater things, but really, any role could. She's had plenty of other roles between Thieves and Alias and as you mentioned, seemed to do well in them. She'll no doubt have more whenever her Alias run finishes.

However she's perceived in the industry as doing in this role, I don't think it'll necessarily have a long-lasting effect on her career either way, at least not based on S3 to date. She's but one part of an ensemble in a critically beloved but low-rated cult show. Honestly, I don't think the role is high profile enough to really matter that much more than other things she may have done.

Obviously all the talk henceforth will be about how EEEEEEEEEVVVVIL she is. Like we didn't know? :-)

Predictable or no, this character has finally become interesting for me. Bring on the discussion, I'm ready for some eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil fun.

You know, I thought I might like her evil... now I'm not so sure. It's just been such an obvious, predictable turn of events for so long. As I said in the 3.11 thread, my 'interest level' in Lauren was -100 to begin with, and making her evil only brings it up a couple of notches. By far and large, still not enough to make me like her or to justify her existance in the first place. Maybe if it had been with a different actress and some better character direction, but not as it stands.

Everyone seems to switch sides for a little while. And while, I figured, I'm ready for it. I just hope that they don't think "evil" = "depth".

I can handle evil if it puts her on the express track to dead.

How about divorced? I mean if an Irina-Jack type split is really called "divorced" in these Spy-Nited-States of America, that is.

I'm sorry, but I burst out laughing at that one. I couldn't handle Lauren at the beginning, I detested her when she was with Vaughn nine bloody months after Syd died, and I'm sure as heck not going to like her now that she's pulled a switcheroo. Nope. I'm leaving the rest up to SpyDaddy. He'll take care of it for us.

I believe my exact words after the episode were, "YAY! Now someone can kill her!!!" Yeah, I like what Houdini said better.

earenwe, I'm thinking the VartanHos should have first crack at her, then Vaughn, then Syd, then Dixon, then SpyDad...aw hell, I don't care, as long as she's D.E.A.D.

I have to agree with most of you - I LOATHE this character. It's not the writing or her lack of acting talent, I just hate the character and no story line is going to change that for me. I'm glad she's bad, then she'll hopefully be gone sooner. The only problem is it gives her precious screen time that should go to the "regulars." Is she gone yet?

The only tiny amount of credit I can muster for this new twist is that I am curious to see just one scene of Lauren around the unsuspecting characters when we all know she's eeeeevil. I wonder how JJ&co. are going to handle it, showing her evilness, seen as her acting completely innocent when we know seems weird, yet her evilness is already on the path to 'beat-you-over-the-head' anviliciousness... Lauren acting Sloanish would seem rather stupid to me, you know, with the post-exchange evil facial expressions... she doesn't seem to be the type.

Also, her evilness does cast a new light on some of Sloane's weird comments towards her and Vaughn...

I honestly wonder if JJ intended her to be evil all along or if this developed after the season began when he realized that (1) he wasn't gonna be able to use SpyMommy, and (2) everyone hates Lauren. No matter, I totally agree with Houdini. Bring on Dead!Lauren.

If the season ends with Vaughn, Sydney, and Jack all simultaneously shooting bullets into Lauren, I will be one happy girl.

Hell, that can happen anytime now. Why wait until the end of the season?

I just can't enjoy anything when she's onscreen, and I dont' think making her evil will solve that problem. The way she talks...the marbles in the mouth...God it grates.

What about Lauren as the surrogate? She is working for Sark and when Lazerey dying words were about the "package", one can imagine that he could be referring to the completed egg fertilization. The eggs did split on the screen prior to Sydney's "do your thing" from Dixon.

If Lauren is the surrogate, I will stop watching Alias. That is just wrong on so many levels.

Ok, I must've missed the origin, and I've been watching for months now hoping someone else would ask, but I haven't seen it.

What in blazes does COW stand for?

I wouldn't put it past them...I expected for her to be lying on a table in that room when the CIA busted in and have dashed out fertilization complete. If she's pregnant now or next week, then if Alias actually includes 4 months of hiatus in their timeline, then the baby will be born just in time for the 4th Season Premiere.

Anyway, I'm still left thinking, what would be the point of the baby in the grand scheme of things. Another Rambaldi-esque Macguffin to chase after. But Syd really has no time to be a parent even if she were to get the child back.

But it is a way for Lauren to last a little longer even after it's discovered she's not who she appears to be.

I won't stop watching, but I agree, it's utterly wrong. The entire idea of a SydSpawn is horrible in and of itself (unless it's with Vaughn, somewhere way, way down the road), but to add to it by making Lauren the host mommy is just plain evil.

Rorgg, COW stands for "Contrived, Odious Wife". Souris came up with it waaay back in August before the season started.

Just a correction, he said 'the passenger', not package. Although it still makes sense. If sense is sick and fucked up (which apparently it is...) =P

Rorgg, if you look in the Creative Efforts forum, you will find a thread called "The SWUD, the COW, and the UGLI: TWoP Lingo Decoded" (it's currently on the second page). In it you'll find the more popular Alias forum lingo explained, and you can also pose questions for terms that aren't.

Thanks for the help. I don't usually hit the Creative forums. I am thus abashed.

Seriously, the COW being evil was way too obvious! I was watching the episode with my mom, and I was guessing about who was going to be evil, and who was going to be the shooter, etc., and I totally did not say Lauren. My mom was like, you definetly didnt guess right, and I was all like, cuz this is just way to obvious! I dont know what the writers were thinking, because that was just a total cop-out, and very obvious. Only thing I'm glad about is the fact that maybe, finally, someone will kill her. Cuz, we dont need her to hang around...even as an evil nemesis....She really just needs to be gone.

I agree... Lauren, evil or not, is bland. Not an interesting character either way. And making her evil, predictable much? As soon as I saw the shooter I knew it was her. Blah. The only way to make this turn interesting is if she decided to go eeevil out of jealousy. Having her being evil all along doesn't make much sense.

Give her a break guys: it's hard to margle-bargle-zauss with all those marbles in her mouth...

But seriously, I have to disagree with you guys: Lauren could have been an interesting character with a couple of adjustments. For example, the cute/evil girl at Will's NA meeting last season didn't get much material to work with but she played the little role well. I think that MG plays the role really wooden, and not in the cute Keanu Reeves way. It's like she just memorizes the lines and does her thing. Among dramatic actors like Victor, Ron and even Jen, it just doesn't fit in. She should have read a little more into the role. And it would help if she and Vaughn didn't ignore each other onscreen.

I decided today that there is one thing that Lauren could do that would actually make me like her, rather than wanting to spit in revulsion every time I see her.

If she stepped out of the shadows to save Syd and Vaughn's lives in a kick-ass, absolutely last-second way and, as they gaped at her in shock (thinking her a baddie), took off her prosthetic teeth, and spoke in a completely Omniaccent-free Russian voice. She would explain that she only married Vaughn because she was a raven agent, but that she knew all along that he was marrying her only to find information about Sydney's death. Then, she would tell them that she couldn't stand to see the two of them apart anymore, and that she was sorry for having to seem to be so rude to Sydney, whom she actually has nothing but the utmost respect for. And then she walks away, never to appear again.

Oh, and says that she and Vaughn never had sex. Ever.

I would actually cheer when she left, and not out of resentful, sadistic glee, like I will when she inevitably dies a brutal, gory death at the hands of SpyDaddy as I'm sure JJ has actually planned.

Regarding MG's acting ability, it seems like when she's given decent material to work with, she's fine. In the episode where Vaughn had been stabbed by Syd, I bought the emotions she was conveying. I truly felt sorry for her--and this is from a rabid S/V shipper--up until she demanded that Sydney leave L.A.

But I think we can all agree that the character of Lauren Reed is truly horrible. In the words of Matt Roush, she was "a failure from the get-go." To be fair, there really wasn't much for MG to salvage from the character. Add the awful OmniAccent and you've got a character that most fans love to...well, actually we just hate her, period.

I've been wanting Lauren to be evil since....well, ever, but especially since we've had to deal with her character. Were we ever really supposed to like her? I know that when she auditioned for the role, it was originally just supposed to be for a few eps, but then JJ started getting all these ideas for the character, so maybe it was his intention all along. Or maybe he was just trying to fix what was broken.

As predictable as it was for her to be evil, it opens up the door for so many interesting possibilites. I can't say I've been impressed with MG's acting abilities so far, but I think she can pull off evil. When Dream Syd fought her in "Conscious", I thought MG did a pretty good job, not only with being bad but also with fighting.



Nope. NEVER. With their complete lack of chemistry, if they ever tried, they'd probably die or something.

HAHA! too true

Henry emailed me and informed me that a new interview with Melissa is up on his site. Check it out if yer interested.

Bring your hip waders and a bucket, kids.

While nothing was revealed, the comment about "the passenger" really freaked me out. No surrogates. Not a good idea. Not now. Not ever.

Well, right on! MG looks like she might have heard the comments floating around around good PR. Aside from the Woman's Day interview comment, she sounded not at all full of herself, and without really offensive comments toward anyone. She mentioned being a fan of other actors and of being in the U.S. in general. I enjoyed reading that one. Thanks, Henry.

Re: the Woman's Day issue, I haven't read the article (but I am going to try and track it down), so I can't really comment on whether it is full of "lies and distasteful quotes" (which it may very well be). And calling her "the most hated woman on television" may be a bit over the top, but saying the woman who wrote the article "is probably a very unhappy woman" just because she gave MG a poor review is overlooking the fact that this author is most likely a professional and had sources to back her up. And that there is a group of people out there (no matter how insignificant MG deems them) that do not like Lauren Reed. However, when the magazine is going to portray you badly, without giving you advance notice of that, I am totally behind MG's decision to never give them another interview.

An interesting note:

Neither Sloane nor Sark refer to Lauren as "Mrs. Vaughn".
Both reference her consistently as "Ms. Reed".

Either both are in denial that Lauren is in fact "Mrs. Vaughn", or someone knows something they are not telling. Due to the nature of both beasts, it would be safe to say it could be the latter.

The article wasn't a review, it simply was a rehash of forum posters' comments. If the writer had sources to back her up, she neglected to mention them in her work. As for the journo being professional, that's highly debatable as she seemed unable to distinguish the difference between the actress and the character.


That Lauren kept her maiden name may dictate the convention of how people address her. I have some friends who didn't change their surname when they got married, so they become "Ms. Maiden-Name" as opposed to "Mrs. Husband's-Name". Socially, they are addressed "Mrs. Husband's-Name" from time to time, but not always. It's not like it's appropriate to call her Mrs. Reed as that's not her husband's name.

Bwah. Love MG's sense of humor about the eyebrown thing.

You know, I had a suspicion that the whole, "Oh you're going to love Lauren, she's so great!", PR push of the pre-season was just a giant red-herring and now MG has pretty much confirmed it. The whole thing was just sooo over the top, it had to be a put on.

Good interview Henry, well done.

Or, they could just kill her off and then no one has to worry about what to call her. ;)

Do you really think Lauren is going to be a surrogate to Little Rambaldi or was Henry's comment just to put us on?

Sheesh. Is she dead yet? Her storyline is about ten episodes too long already.