Mindy Cohn was ‘devastated’ after an unidentified ‘greedy b****’ in The Facts Of Life cast halted its reboot: ‘It was an ouch’
The Facts of Life alum Mindy, 58, revealed one of her famous co-stars was responsible for ruining a potential reboot of their hit NBC sitcom, which aired for nine seasons spanning 1979-1988.
It all went down in 2021 after the success of the late great Norman Lear’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience special for The Facts of Life, which recreated one episode starring celebs such as Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Gabrielle Union, and Jon Stewart.
‘[Norman] called all of us and said, “I knew you guys were still popular, but holy hell. The response from the live [special]!”‘ the former child star – who played Natalie Green – recalled on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live on Wednesday.
Mindy Cohn, shown with TV co-stars, was ‘devastated’ after an unidentified ‘greedy b****’ in The Facts Of Life cast halted the reboot
‘We got into talks and we hired a writer. The four of us got together on a Zoom — this was during COVID — and we had meetings with Norman about it.’
Mindy continued: ‘One of the girls went behind our backs to try to make a separate deal for a spin-off deal just for herself and devastated the rest of us. I’m just saying, for a 40-year friendship and sisterhood, there was a tidal wave of emotion around it.’
When fellow guest Michael Hitchcock quipped that ‘there’s always a greedy b****,’ Cohn concurred:
‘I’ll say it, she’s a greedy b****.’
‘We were united for 40 years over not talking about each other, not doing dirty [and] all-for-one, one-for-all. This kind of wrecked that, which is sad,’ the Palm Royale star shrugged.
Considering Mindy posted a picture of herself with castmates Kim Fields and Nancy McKeon, one can logically assume that the ‘greedy b****’ was Lisa Whelchel, who famously played the spoiled rich girl Blair Warner on the Diff’rent Strokes spin-off.
‘What it is is really sad…Some people are so desperate for either money or fame that it causes them to do things that to me, I guess, I’m still not that jaded. It shocks me,’ Cohn marveled.
‘It always just kind of shocks me. You’re gonna do that over money or that over becoming famous? It always just kind of freaks me out that people will do that [and] throw deep true friendships, under the bus for a dollar.’
The live reboot featured Mindy, Lisa Whelchel and Kim Fields
Friends star Jennifer Aniston, 55, revived Lisa’s role as Blair in the 2021 production.
Lisa, who hails from Texas, told Extra at the time that she thought Jennifer did an ‘amazing job.’
‘Are you kidding? Jen Aniston would not have had to say one word and I would have been honored that she played the part, but she just killed it — she was amazing,’ said the mother of two.
The episode that was re-created saw Blair getting caught up in a prank that hurt the feelings of a ‘brace face’ nerd (played by Jon) who had a crush on her.
Apple Studios last month officially renewed Abe Sylvia’s 1969-set high society dramedy Palm Royale for a second season, so Daytime Emmy nominee Mindy will get to reprise her role as The Shiny Sheet society editor Ann Holiday.
The dismally-reviewed satirical soap also stars Kristen Wiig, Ricky Martin, Leslie Bibb, Amber Chardae Robinson, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Kaia Gerber, and Carol Burnett.
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