E! Online
November 14, 2003
"Alias" Mom Gets Lost--Again
By Joal Ryan
SPOILERS!
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-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'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, Alias is averaging 9.3 million viewers for the season to date, slightly below ABC's network average of 9.6 million.
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