Actor Ed O'Neill said his disagreement with… Married with children Co-star Amanda Pierce was caused by a dispute over A TV guide cover.
On his previous podcast Modern family Co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson and O'Neal to explain That his long feud with Bearse began because he did not stand up for her when the show was picked up for TV guide The cover, but Bearse wasn't asked to be on it.
“She and David Garrison were neighbors, and they were told they couldn't be on the cover. Because they had a rule: Only a very few could be on the cover,” O'Neill said.
(LR) David Faustino, Katey Sagal, Amanda Pierce and Christina Applegate attend a ceremony honoring Christina Applegate with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 14, 2022.
Emma McIntyre
O'Neill said he declined to ask if she and other cast members could be included, for fear of missing out on the cover opportunity.
Ferguson asked O'Neill if he would like to go back in time and defend his friend. “Yes, I would have. And that’s my regret,” O’Neill said.
In an interview with the Archive of American Television in 2013, O'Neill seemed unsure why he had fallen out with Pearce.
“We all get along great,” O'Neill said of it. Married with children He slanders. “The only person I don't agree with – and I don't think I'm the only one – is Amanda. I'm not sure what happened there, because it was great for three years. She was great. I don't know whose fault it was. We grew apart a bit… Maybe I reminded her of someone she didn't like, Her uncle or something like that.
He said he felt that Pearce, who was one of the first openly gay actors in Hollywood, “changed” as she became “more masculine.”
“I have to say that when she started out she was a lesbian — she had been a lesbian for a long time — and she was more or less the female in the couple,” O'Neill said. “She was very feminine and gentle… The change happened where she became more masculine between the two of them… And as she became more masculine, she became a little spunkier. She could grow teeth, as we used to say.”
O'Neill says that when Pierce married his wife, he and David Faustino were left off the guest list, at which point he asked her why.
“[She said] “This has been a very difficult call, but I feel like you will find it amusing that Becky and I come in tuxedos to church and walk down the aisle, and you and David will laugh and find it funny.” I said, “Amanda, what's so funny about two women in tuxedos walking to church?” She started laughing and said, “Look!” So I said: Well, do you know why? Because it's very funny and I won't be the only one who doesn't think so. But it was funny. She was wearing a little white jumpsuit, which was funny to me. But in other words, maybe she wasn't wrong in excluding me.”
O'Neill admits that he got into a huge fight with Pierce in which he accused her of being unintelligent.
“I said, ‘You’re not very smart, that’s your problem.’ And she was smart, but somehow she wasn’t because I said look… She said, ‘I’m not smart?’ And I could see her getting ready and saying, ‘I’m smarter than you.’ And I said, No, because I'll tell you why. I have a button I can press. This button says “Get rid of Amanda Pierce.” You don't have a button that says Get rid of her, Ed O'Neill. Yours doesn't work. Mine does. Now, that was a mean thing to say: I would never have pressed that button, but it was true. I could go to them and say, ‘I can't work with her.' I go or she goes. Who goes? So that was kind of bad.
Bearse seems to still be close to her other friend Married with children Stars participated and showed up to honor Christina Applegate when she receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022.
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