Now Moye's actress wife is suing the makers of her new comedy series, complaining the show offends her moral sensibilities. Her beef: They want her to (ugh!) make nice, maybe even kiss, another man on camera.
Rose Jackson, a regular on Fox's short-lived comedy The Crew in 1995, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court last week against MTM Enterprises. The complaint essentially alleges that MTM pulled a bait-and-switch regarding to the upcoming UPN series, Good News--casting her to play a "bouncy, innocent" church secretary in the pilot, and later, redirecting the show, giving her a love interest and demanding she get cuddly with another character.
Jackson, who married Moye last year, says, in the lawsuit, that public displays of affection ("e.g., kisses, clinches, fondling, etc.") with an individual not her husband would violate her religious beliefs, not to mention her wedding vows.
When the actress told producers of her concerns, the document says, the powers-that-be were unsympathetic. "One of them called [her] marriage vows 'barbaric'," the lawsuit says.
MTM later accused Jackson of breach of contract and threatened to bring a lawsuit of its own, seeking "millions of dollars in damages" from her and her husband, the complaint reads.
Jackson's lawsuit accuses MTM, named along with Good News Productions, of religious discrimination and inflicting emotional distress, among other complaints. It seeks unspecified damages. (No comments all around today from Jackson, MTM and UPN.)
The lawsuit was filed, it says, in the hope that it can "bring MTM to its senses" and encourage the company to work with Jackson rather than "bludgeon [her] into submission."
Good News, about a young pastor who assumes leadership of a community church, is set to air Mondays at 9 p.m. on UPN. Jackson's character was to become romantically linked with the pastor character, played by David P. Ramsey. No episodes of the show, excluding the pilot, have yet been taped.