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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Toni" data-source="post: 242884" data-attributes="member: 82">Again, I love that question [USER=17]@Jock Og[/USER]!Yes, I absolutely loved that storyline. Aside from the return of Ana-Alicia as Melissa´s double, it was the only good thing of that season, sorry to say. Assumpta Serna was (and still is) a very well-known Catalan actress with a rising career in my country. She had starred in a movie of our enfant terrible Pedro Almodóvar, "Matador". It was not only his first truly "serious" movie, but also a very bold story with a lot of nude scenes. Antonio Banderas and another great actor, late Nacho Martínez, co-starred in it. Assumpta was a lawyer with a double life as a... well, the film title means "killer", in bullfighting jergon. She was amazing and wore extreme clothes designed by prestigious Spanish designers. In one sentence, her character was Angelica Nero gone (even more) crazy.For a few years, I had the suspicion that Almodóvar had watched the Dream Season of "Dallas" because, well, the murderer of "Matador" uses garments in her dresses to kill!! But the dates of production of both things are too close in time (1986). Besides, I don´t think Almodóvar could watch "Dallas" in Spain (the show wasnt´t reprised in Castillian Spanish until 1989), unless he watched it in English, which I doubt. And for some reason, I can imagine him watching "telenovelas" from Latin countries (for the laughs and OTT performances mainly), though not something as American as "Dallas".Back to topic, at the time, Assumpta appeared in every Spanish magazine for her role in "Falcon Crest". I myself felt that that was as if moi would get into the show through a backdoor. As if moi would guest star in it too! I know it´s nonsense, but that´s part of fandom. She was interviewed often about it, and explained that she was in L.A. to star in a play, and while she was waiting for the union acting card (don´t now how it´s called), she learnt that the show was looking for someone who was very much her type of actress and woman. She was going to be in it for only a couple of episodes and, as usual, a Spanish woman was going to play an Italian woman, as if all Mediterraneans were the same (which we are as a community, of course, but culturally and even physically, we are different). From 2 episodes, it was expanded to 2 more and then to a total of 8, I seem to remember.As you who have seen this season recently may remember, it seems as if the storyline of Anna Cellini gets re-focused every two or three episodes (is she good? is she bad? is she a Mafiosa? is she an addict? will Ben and Nick be shot by her mob father?) I found that very creative though mega-cliched. But she looked amazing in those high couture outfits, and her character came across as likeable, sweet and well-meant. If we take into account that Maggie had become a very whining woman by then, it´s a remarkable fact that Anna was a nice addition to the show, and to this date, I haven´t read anything bad against her character or Assumpta´s acting.I must add two things: all the Spanish fans that I know (in person or not) feel the same way about her appearance on FC (pride!). Also, I always found odd (but fascinating) that her FC role was the first time I saw her play a good-natured woman and smile often. In Spain, she had played career women, tough historical characters, and then she went to Hollywood and voilà, she was being all nice! Irony of ironies! Oh and today, she is being interviewed for promotion of other jobs, but she is pleased to re-tell by umpteenth time her FC adventure. Especially her encounters with Jane Wyman. She said that, when she was introduced to her, Jane told her: "They say you are a very good actress. Let´s see if it´s true!" And, when filming got stalled, Jane used to say out load: "Come on, let´s go back to work, we are not making "Gone with the Wind"... It´s so FUN.[MEDIA=youtube]iugVU7DXH_E[/MEDIA] I couldn´t find an interview in English, sorry! Just to close this topic, I´ll add that Assumpta is running an acting school in Madrid, and has been reprising her career as an actress too, wrote several books for beginner actors, and is still specialized in historical roles in series like (Italy´s) "Borgia", "Henry VIII" or the movie "The Network of Freedom".About the continuity of the Cellini family, well, Anna died in "mysterious circumstances". The early days showrunners would have used that to introduce a corrupt Italian family, but I know that back then, Italian community in USA was fighting against the stereotypes, and what stereotype is bigger than a Mafia family?</blockquote>

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