More than a month ago, former 'The Young and the Restless' actress Victoria Rowell, who used to portray Drucilla Winters, filed a lawsuit against CBS and Sony for not being re-cast in her role in the highly successful soap opera. According to a report made by Daytime Confidential (via an article by Inquisitr), Victoria accused CBS, Sony and several other defendants of not getting her back as a form of retaliation to the comments she gave about how there were so few African-American characters in soaps, both on and off-camera.
Rowell portrayed Drucilla Winters in 'The Young and the Restless' for a couple of years before she was finally let go in 2007. During that time, Rowell claimed that she left (albeit reluctantly) because of the off-camera politics that prevented her from getting any Daytime Emmy nominations, although no detailed statements were made by the producers regarding her release. And in spite of the prevalence of the Winters family in the soap, it has been clear that Rowell's character would not be coming back.
According to an article that was released a few days ago by Enstars, the attorneys for CBS and Sony filed a memorandum to dismiss Rowell's lawsuit, calling it "a blatant attempt by Plaintiff to force her way back onto a daytime television soap opera, after she volutarily resigned from her role in 2007."
The memorandum also declared:
"Plaintiff boldly asks this District Court to order Defendants to put her back on television, and she complains about why she believes Defendants have not already done so. Her allegations, however, fail to state a cognizable claim against both Sony Pictures and CBS and are barred as a matter of law. Thus, Plaintiff's claims fail in their entirety and should be dismissed."
The attorneys also stated that Rowell's claims are against the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and thus her demands to get back on the show when her character was already written off is invalid.
'The Young and the Restless' airs weekdays on CBS.
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