Guiding Light Discussion Group

Topic: Kim Zimmer Disses Ellen Wheeler...

Found this on one of the soap sites.  It's basically,.... Kim telling an exerpt from her book.  I have to give it Zimmer, she sold those last two years of GL.  It never showed through how angry she was.  The format change eventually grew on me.  I think.... just as they were getting their footing...the plug was pulled.

Kim Zimmer on Ellen Wheeler:

"Somebody told Me She was working On a Farm Somewhere in Utah..."

In the latest issue of Soap Opera Weekly, the daytime drama queen keeps giving good quote!

La Zimmer talked with the magazine about her new book, "Im Just Saying", which among other things, delves into a DUI arrest and the anger issues she had to deal with because of last few years on Guiding Light.  We feel you girl; we were angry too!  When asked if GL's final showrunner, Ellen Wheeler had read the book, here's what One Life to Lives's Echo Di Savoy responded:

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What KZ has said is that EW did the best w/what she had to work with. EW & CG (ATWT's final EP) were in a no win situation. P&G wanted out & for many yrs they used the EPs of their shows as whipping posts for the fans, when it was Corp. making all the decisions & making good folks look bad--whether it was writers, directors or producers. Even actors, who were proven winners w/the audience, came off as not knowing their craft because of crappy decisions and P&G's micro-management. ABC soaps have suffered the same fate, only because ABC's Suits followed the lead of P&G. eom

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Posted by: Star
Date posted: Sat Jul 16 17:14:30 2011
Message:
lolz! I freaking love her and I always will!

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Posted by: cleary233
Date posted: Fri Jul 15 12:30:25 2011
Message:

La Zimmer is clearly a vain, self absorbed soap diva, but she  is not one of the people I blame for the MZ debacle.  Sure the actors could have rallied around MZ, but they were probably scared and a bit shallow to do anything, and who knows if they liked the guy. Anyway, I blame the producers, P&G, the chick who played Holly, and I give much love to OLTL who swooped in and helped MZ out.

I flove the story that he demanded that eh be paid  paid one dollar more than La Zimmer.I am betting that its a long list of people who can't stand La Zimmer, starting with the chick who played Vanessa.

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Blaming Maureen Garrett (Holly)? Why? She wasn't to blame for what happened to MZ. She did step up & defend him. It wasn't about being vain or self-centered that many actors didn't step up & make public declarations of support for MZ. It was simple self-preservation. If P&G was going to do/say what they did about a very popular, vet performer when there wasn't yet a definitive diagnosis, then why should they have felt secure in their own jobs? That isn't selfish, it is practical. P&G was the petty, self-centered, egotistical entity that presumed a lot about the audience, MZ & everyone involved w/the show. That they thought that their public statements about the audience being unable to 'handle' seeing someone w/a disability either IRL or onscreen was insulting to MZ & everyone w/a disability. Whoever thought that was a socially acceptable arguement, or that it wasn't going to offend anyone needs to get out of the p.r. business. They did a ton of damage, possibly orchestrated, the kind that isn't quickly dismissed, forgotten or brushed off w/an 'I'm sorry' long after the offensive act has been done. Most of the actors also knew that stepping up & saying anything wasn't going to change things. At the time there were people suggesting that the cast walk out in protest, which would have put them in breach of contract & put them in the position of possibly being sued. That would have put everyone in a no-win position as well. P&G also made a big mistake in recasting the role of Roger. I felt for the actor who stepped into the role, who was unaware when he signed on that MZ was being replaced. He has said that he thought it was temporary. Experienced at doing soaps didn't prepare him for stepping into a role that was one of those rare soap roles that would never be accepted by the audience w/a recast. eom

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Posted by: LyndaL
Date posted: Mon Jul 11 10:40:23 2011
Message:
I've read only one or two excerpts from her book, and while I admire her frankness and willingness to 'tell it like it is', I still partially resent her for refusing to take a salary reduction in her last contract negotiation with TPTB at GL.  Sure, Kim and the rest of the cast that stuck with the show till the end, endured hardships,  but I can't get KZ's refusal to take a pay cut out of my mind.  For goodness sakes, Eric Braeden(Victor, Y & R) and Susan Lucci(Erica Kane, AMC) took well reported salary cuts.  Why not Kim? How many people were fired because of her refusal?

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Kim Zimmer DID take a paycut once her contract was up the following year. All she was refusing to do was take a paycut mid-contract, which she was completely, legally right to do so. Once her contract was up and she re-negotiated another deal, she then took a paycut.

LyndaL: P&G tried to do something never before done, renegotiate a contract in mid-stream. The contract wasn't up, one of the cycles was & that was when P&G tried forcing KZ's hand. Thank goodness she is a strong woman who refused to get bullied into doing something that was wrong from the start. Actors were being 'asked' to take paycuts & givebacks in their contracts since the early 90's. That wasn't the first time a paycut was 'asked' for. Owners are still doing that, even though actors' pay is a drop in the bucket when it comes to looking at the overall budget of any show. If KZ had rolled over & taken that re-negotiated pay cut in mid-stream if would have set a precidence (sp) that would have been damaging to every other actor on soaps. eom

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Posted by: Rosebud1
Date posted: Sat Jul 9 18:33:30 2011
Message:
There is nothing in this quote/excerpt that 'disses' anyone, specifically EW. KZ is accurate, EW had a job to do & she wasn't going to be making any fans in doing it, be it viewers of the show or the actors. I've always said that whoever the EP was at GL (or ATWT), they weren't hired to follow their own vision. They WERE hired to do as they were told. However they got those goals accomplished wasn't going to be popular & it was always going to end up making them look bad in the eyes of the fans.

ICAM w/KZ. I don't like HOW it was done, but more importantly, I don't like that anyone, at any level, thought that this 'needed to be done' at all!

I've also never believed that producers like EW & CG were as horrible as P&G made them look. A lot of people seem to think that both of them just stepped off the train & started producing, which isn't the case at all. CG had a very successful career in front of the camera first, then directing for yrs. EW did pretty much the same. She came back towards the end of AW's run, but in her time away from soaps she was a director & was artistic director w/a west coast theater company--the name escapes me at the moment.

I don't see the reference to a farm in Utah as a diss either. I can believe that after the last several yrs experience w/P&G she would need (want) a break. She wouldn't be the first, or the last, to do something totally different for awhile.

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With Kim's personality, I believe it was a diss at EW. She says, I don't totally destroy her in the book, I do come around to say that she had a job to do and she did it very well, though I didn't agree with the way she did it. To me, her saying she didn't totally destroy her in the book, is a diss. When she further goes on and says she had a job to do and she did it well, that is a sarcastic diss, in my opinion. (Pittman)

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Posted by: Andor
Date posted: Sat Jul 9 11:27:11 2011
Message:

KZ’s reputation for being 'outspoken' – interesting. I don't recall her ever speaking out about the shameful way that MZ was treated by TPTB, or about the lame storylines that other actors/actresses were subjected to – she only opened her gigantic trap to complain about her storylines, of which there seemed to be a never-ending supply. Even then, KZ only complained when it became obvious that her storylines were tanking. It was one mindless, cartoonish storyline after another for Reva – and KZ lapped it up like a bunch of swine at a table-scrap convention. And her book will probably be one self-serving story after another – no thanks.

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There were a lot of actors who didn't like the way that MZ was treated at the time, but they didn't speak out. He died in 1998, before KZ came back to soaps. She wasn't someone the soap mags were focusing on at the time. eom

Andor: You make an articulate and interesting point. (Pittman)

This is incorrect. Zimmer came back to Guiding Light in 1995...three years before Zaslow died. The two were continuous castmates for the three years before he died.

MZ didn't die as soon as he left GL. He died in 1998 (hard to believe it was that long ago already) & he was fired quite awhile before that, before he was even definitively diagnosed w/ALS. He also went back to OLTL after being fired by P&G. eom

The point is, Rosebud, that Zaslow and Zimmer were on contract together, at GL, for a period of time before Zaslow's decline AND during his decline. She was very much in the public eye.

I never said that KZ & MZ weren't on contract to GL at the same time. She was on the show for many yrs, before taking a break & after coming back. But there were a lot of other castmates, also in the public eye, who didn't comment on the MZ situation for various reasons. Much of what KZ was outspoken about had to do w/her role, how P&G was treating her & about past working relationships w/people like Pamela Long. Some of those castmates who DID comment on the MZ situation waited, they didn't all discuss it immediately after the firing or the subsequent comments & recast. KZ wasn't just in the public eye during her time on GL. She was in the public eye since her days on The Doctors & OLTL, before GL. She was also in the public eye during her time away from soaps. eom

Also let's not forget that Kim and Alec Baldwin did a play (I think it was Love Letters, but I could be mistaken) to benefit MZ's foundation and many, many GL and OLTL stars (and others) supported MZ in that manner. Did you ever consider that maybe they were not that close? I have heard that MZ had written in one of his contracts that he must be paid $1 more than KZ.

She has spoken of the way MZ was treated and, as stated above, did a play to benefit his foundation. It also mentions in TV Guide's excerpt of her book that she discusses the loss of Beverlee McKinsey and Michael Zaslow.

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