Twilight Fans Outraged Over Dumping Of Rachelle Lefevre
Jul. 30 2009, Published 12:05 p.m. ET
Twilight fans are taking to the internet with their outrage over Summit Entertainment's public fight with recently replaced Rachelle Lefevre in the third installment of the vampire series. The studio unceremoniously dumped the golden haired actress citing scheduling conflicts, and when she fired back that she was heart broken, stunned and fully committed to the Twilight Saga but for a few days of scheduling conflicts the fledgling studio sent out a harsh response. Controversy sparked as Summit stated that they were not informed until July 20th of Lefevre's committment to the indie drama "Barney's Vision," but The Hollywood Reporter reported her attachment to the film on July 10, 2009. The studio announced on July 28 that Bryce Dallas Howard would be filling the role of Victoria in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
Twi-hards expressed their outrage to RadarOnline.com over the lack of respect they precieve Summit to be showing.
Cullenboysanonymous.com said "YES WE ARE SO OUTRAGED!!!! There I got that out of my system. I run a TW fansite but I am a Twilight fan first & foremost. I am not concerned about being politically correct where Summit is concerned. Yes I am mad at them & once again feel like the Twilight movie franchise is run by Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dumb. I think it's totally unfair! That new movie she is doing is not a major film & from what she said it was a 10 day overlap. Don't tell me they couldn't have worked with her on a 10 day overlap. Why does Summit pull this kind of BS? Seriously! Who in their right mind would do something like this? Eclipse was to be the biggest of the 3 films Rachelle would have appeared in & it would have been her last. Filming is scheduled to begin in a couple of weeks! Total fail move by them. Not only is Rachelle so cool & fan friendly, she is a perfect Victoria."
While the top fan sites admit that they will still go to the theaters to watch their beloved Edward and Bella, many of them were blunt in their criticism of the back and forth between the actress and the studio and the comments numbered in the thousands as fans showed their support for Lefevre.
After Rachelle released her statement TwiCrackAddict.blogspot.com first told us "The overwhelming majority of our blog readers over at Confessions of a TwiCrack Addict are crushed by this news and very vocal in their outrage. They are seeking ways of letting Summit know how upset they are by starting online petitions, letter writing campaigns, and using Twitter to support Rachelle." However, Summit's response to Rachelle sparked a very different response from the top fan site "So, now that I've had time to digest this diatribe, I am deeply disappointed by Summit's response. Alright, alrigh, so there was some kind of timing & communications SNAFU, and Rachelle burned some bridges by putting her heart on her sleeve by expressing her disappointment publicly.
So things didn't work out. Fine. But coming back with a strong-armed bullying response? A little contrition and senstivity would've gone a lon way to mitigating fan fervor. Instead, your leter just may hav achieved the opposite. Why knock her when she's already down? We Twilight fans are still gonna pay to see your damn movie. Geesh."
Other sites chose to not get involved in the frey - TwilightLexicon told RadarOnline.com "Casting and recasting is always something we have stayed neutral on whether is was Taylor Lautner and Solomon Trimble being recast, or Catherine Hardwicke being rehired. It's not that we don't have feelings for Rachelle. We certainly enjoyed her performance. She's a classy lady who gives back to fans and is generous to charity. However since we don't know what was in contracts, what was said at meetings, what verbal understandings were or were not reached, etc. we feel most comfortable staying out of it, reporting the facts as given to us from both sides, and letting the fans judge for themselves."
ATwilightKiss.com was diplomatic after reading both statements, but expressed their thoughts that the matter be handled differently. "However, I must express my wish that this matter had been handled more amicably and discreetly, so that both parties were able to make informed decisions. Now, I'm wondering, was Rachelle Lefevre informed that her schedule cannot be accommodated? And, if yes, would she have chosen The Twilight Saga instead of Barney's Version?"
The one thing that all the sites agree upon is that they're going to give Bryce Dallas Howard a chance. BellaandEdward.com told us "I, personally, am not mad at Summit Entertainment for replacing Rachelle Lefevre. Things like this happen in the movie industry and we, being fans, just have to go with the flow! :) I'm not saying it's not going to be weird seeing a different Victoria on screen for Eclipse, Rachelle was the first and original Victoria! Obviously Rachelle was a great and she will be missed! However, I am very excited to see Bryce Dallas Howard's portrayal of Victoria. I think she can bring something new to the table, another side of the "movie Victoria" we saw in the Twilight movie. I'm definitely willing to give her a chance!"
Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and the rest of the cast will begin shooting Eclipse on August 17 in Vancouver.