Still, according to today's Hollywood Reporter, Felicity star Keri Russell wanted a raise and was willing to play "hardball" with show producers until she got it.
Russell, who reportedly earns somewhere between $20,000-$30,000 per episode as the program's namesake character, balked when producers asked her to fly to New York for some establishing shots (the show's setting, of course, is a big university in the Big Apple).
But the would-be contract dispute is apparently short-lived. Why there's been no official word on Russell's paycheck status, representatives of the show Monday quickly dispelled notions of a long holdout that could have shut down the drama. "The situation has been resolved, and Ms. Russell will be at work," said a spokesperson for Touchstone, which produces Felicity for the WB.
Actual shooting on Felicity's sophomore season starts August 2.
To her credit, Russell, an unknown before being cast as Felicity, did earn a Golden Globe last January. And other, lesser rankingFelicity cast members, according to the trade paper, earn just about as much as she does.
Still, Russell's show hasn't produced the kind of breakout success that sister WB drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer has enjoyed--and the star of that program, Sarah Michelle Gellar, waited until her third season to ask for a raise, the Reporter says.
Meanwhile, despite praise and plenty of hype last fall, Felicity wasn't even the biggest new WB show this season. The Shannen Doherty-starrer Charmed produced a bigger following with much less fanfare.