Lisa Whelchel is most known for her role as the preppy Blair Warner on the popular 70’s and 80’s sitcom “The Facts of Life”.
Blair, a teenager on the show, was known to always have another brilliant idea, and the role propelled Whelchel to fame easily.
However, Whelchel’s Christian morals ultimately helped her to make a very important decision when the makers of the show wanted to include a storyline where Blair lost her virginity.
“So, when I heard that was going to be one of the storylines for that year, I did come to the producers and say, ‘I don’t think I can be a part of that.’ Because for one thing, I really felt a big responsibility of knowing that there were young girls watching this show and that you can’t deal with that topic in 20 minutes with a couple of commercials,” Lisa explained.
The writers gave the storyline to another character ultimately, but Whelchel still felt uncomfortable being involved in the episode at all. She requested to be written out of the episode entirely so as not to support something against her beliefs–a decision that ultimately cost her $50,000.
Lisa, now 60, thankfully felt supported and hear by the writers and creators of the show, explaining, “I’m sure there were some parts that I wasn’t offered, but that’s OK. I don’t feel like I had any backlash because of it.”
This was not the only time the actress made a choice between fame and faith. She famously turned down the role of Rachel on “Friends,” feeling it would deal too often with sexual topics…CONTINUE READING