According to The Facts of Life star Mindy Cohn, a “greedy bitch” on the original cast sabotaged a potential reboot of the beloved ’80s sitcom.
The veteran actress, who is enjoying a bit of a moment thanks to a role on the Emmy-nominated series Palm Royale, dished on the alleged betrayal during an appearance on SiriusXM‘s Jeff Lewis Live this week. The anecdote began as Cohn reminded hosts Lewis, Michael Hitchco*ck and Shane Douglas that the show was recently resuscitated as one of the specials for the Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel series Live in Front of a Studio Audience.
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“They did one of Diff’rent Strokes and Facts of Life and after that, Norman Lear, who is no longer with us, when he was still alive, he called all of us and said, ‘I knew you guys were still popular, but holy hell. The response from the live.’ And basically there was this roundtable with Octavia Spencer and Amy Poehler and Jennifer Aniston where they all said, ‘Yeah, our parents grew up with All in the Family, but we grew up with Facts of Life. That’s the Norman Lear sitcom that we love,'” Cohn recounted of the special that aired on Dec. 7, 2021. “And I think Norman didn’t really clock that. So when he did, he said, ‘Are you guys interested?’ And we had all never really talked about it, but we all started to consider it a little bit.”
Those talks, which went down during the COVID-19 pandemic, saw the original castmembers connecting on Zoom, hiring a writer and having meetings with Lear, per Cohn. The Facts of Life, created by Dick Clair, Howard Leeds and Jerry Mayer, ran from 1979-1988. It followed Charlotte Rae’s Mrs. Edna Garrett, housemother at the Eastland School, as she teaches a group of teenage girls, played by Cohn, Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields and Nancy McKeon, among others, how to solve problems and navigate life.
Then Lewis asked, what happened? “What happened was not cute,” Cohn said, opening the door to tell the tale. “There was drama.”
Cohn then claimed that one of her fellow castmates “went behind our backs” and tried to make a separate deal for a spinoff “just for herself.” The betrayal devastated the rest of the team, she said. “I’m just saying, it was for a 40-year friendship and sisterhood, there was tidal wave of emotion around it,” she noted, to which Hitchco*ck quipped, “There’s always a greedy bitch.”
The jab was then confirmed by Cohn: “You know what, Michael Hitchco*ck? Greedy bitch. I’ll say it.”
Having the potential reboot of the series thwarted by one of the actresses caused a falling out, but Cohn confirmed that the ice has thawed a bit. “We didn’t [speak] for a while and now we do-ish, but there’s definitely … it was an ouch.”
The ouch, however, seems to have caused some permanent injuries that can’t be healed. Cohn said the potential reboot is “very dead” and there’s little desire for them to work together as a Facts of Life contingent. “A couple of people can’t move past it, don’t want to move past it. We are not as united. Let me put it that way. We were united for 40 years over not talking about each other, not doing dirty, not, you know, all for one, one for all. And this kind of wrecked that, which is sad. Really sad.”
Cohn declined to reveal the identity of the castmember in question. But she did suggest that the mystery could be solved by checking her Instagram, as Douglas suggested to find out “who she hangs with and who she doesn’t.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to reps for Fields, McKeon and Whelchel and will update should any of the actresses elect to respond to the claims.
“I will not deny or confirm,” Cohn concluded. “What it is, is really sad. But what we were talking about before, you know, during coffee, is that 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. 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. Throw friendships, deep true friendships, under the bus for a dollar.”
