Ashlee Simpson Moves Out of ‘Melrose’

In an interview with EW”s Michael Ausiello, Melrose executive producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer confirmed that both Ashlee Simpson and Colin Egglesfield were let go from the show.

Slavkin said,

Well, we always knew that this murder mystery would end in episode 12. And we always knew that [Ashlee's] character of Violet would be instrumental in that as a suspect, and [Colin's character of] Augie as well. And once that murder mystery was solved, she would go on her way. That was the original plan going into the development of the show.

He also said that it was always the plan for Ashlee to leave.

Yes. Because we felt that once the murder mystery was resolved, the tone of the show was going to shift into a much more fun, romantic, sexy upbeat kind of show, and [her] character would move on.

So how did the actors take the news?

They’re total professionals and they took it like professionals. When you go into a show you never know what’s going to evolve and what the possibilities are. But because they knew ahead of time [that leaving was a possibility], it wasn’t a complete shock.

Posted: October 22nd, 2009 under News, Television.
Tags: Ashlee Simpson, Colin Egglesfield

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