Comparing stories with Jessica Alba? Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth addressed former costar Vanessa Marcil’s claims about her time on Beverly Hills, 90210 as a series regular during the final two seasons of the ‘90s drama.
“I was so hurt when I was working there that I felt like I was sideswiped by the cattiness and not being liked. I wasn’t expecting it,” Marcil, 52, said via Instagram Live last month. “[Jennie Garth] said, ‘Maybe it would help if you didn’t walk around like somebody who isn’t liked?’… So I realized maybe I had taken it so personally … that now I was walking around like someone who isn’t liked.”
The General Hospital alum added: “It’s just a reflection of how they feel about themselves. It doesn’t even mean that they’re bad people. They just don’t have room for you in that moment. … I took it too personally to the point that I quit.”
Marcil played Gina Kincaid, the cousin (and half-sister) of Spelling’s Donna Martin. She joined the cast during season 9 in 1998 and left the series halfway through season 10 in 2000. Spelling, 47, and Garth, 48, were skeptical of Marcil’s claims after their “9021OMG” podcast cohost Sisanie Reategui read her quotes on the Monday, March 15, episode.
“What the f—k does that mean?” the True Tori alum said. “I’m going to go on record that you didn’t say that. No matter how she phrases it, it has a negative connotation to it. … You and Vanessa weren’t that close. She played my cousin; I worked a lot with her. I don’t remember you guys having that many interactions. I don’t believe that you would take it upon yourself to be like, ‘Here’s why you’re acting like someone who’s not liked, so that’s why you’re not liked.’”
Garth, for her part, said she had no recollection of any drama with Marcil.
“There’s always been this energy of a competitive environment [in the business] amongst, especially, women,” the What I Like About You alum said. “And that has shifted now in a beautiful way and now the messaging is different. … It sounds like something I would say now rather than as a young person because, I mean, it’s a good message.”
Spelling added, “From my perception, Vanessa was a kick-ass girl. She came in confident, beautiful, good actress, a professional, always showed up. I don’t remember her having a bad time, but I don’t know what was going on inside.”
In addition to briefly discussing Marcil’s romance with Brian Austin Green (according to Spelling, she didn’t give the actor the time of day until after she left the show), the sTORI Telling author had her doubts about Marcil’s exit from Beverly Hills, 90210. During the Instagram Live, the soap star claimed that she quit the series even though the late Luke Perry, who played Dylan McKay, begged her not to.
“Right before I left, Luke left a note in my dressing room … In the message, he wrote, ‘Don’t go,’” she recalled.
On “9021OMG,” Spelling replied, “Did she leave the show? … I didn’t know she ‘left’ the show. I’m aware that she stopped being on the show, I was not aware that she ‘left’ the show. I just don’t remember that character going on. Maybe I remember wrong, [but] rarely.”
Beverly Hills, 90210 aired its final episode in May 2000. Green and Marcil went on to welcome son Kassius in March 2002 but split shortly after his arrival.
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