Michael Nader Willing to Return (by Linda Marshall-Smith, SOW 10/16/99)

"Michael Nader (ex-Dimitri Marick, AMC) got a phone call from executive producer Jean Dadario Burke immediately following the Sept. 18 AMC fan-club luncheon. 'After the luncheon, Jeannine called saying she took a lot of heat over the whole situation,' Nader tells Soap Opera Weekly, referring to his firing. 'It was not a fun day for her. She asked if I'd consider coming back and do a few days here, a week there. But after being a major character for so long, that did not make any sense to me. So I declined. But if the network was interested in seriously discussing Dimitri's return on a contract basis, I would love to go back. After eight years on the show, I really miss it.' To date, Nader says he has not heard from the network.

After the luncheon, a well-organized group of Nader supporters- calling themselves the Loyalists- handed Burke a petition of more than 1,500 signatures asking for his return. They also orchestrated a tune-out of AMC set for Nov. 5. 'The powers that be are convinced they can ignore us, displease us, insult the actor we cherish by removing his photo from the opening credits, pushing the Edmund/Alex pairing in our faces, mumble something about an "open door," and we will keep watching,' says Carole Cornett, a campaign organizer. 'No. We will tune them out.'

Loyalists feel Dimitri's two deaths were misleading. 'Trusting, loyal fans kept watching, convinced he'd live,' Cornett said in an e-mail to Nader supporters. 'Their reward? Dimitri died a second death, his horse was shot by Edmund, and there is a forced pairing of his brother and his new wife.'

'I head about the finding of Dimitri's robe by the sea,' Nader says with a laugh, of Dimitri's second death. 'What a way to go.'

Last spring, the "out cluase" in Nader's contract came up for discussion. 'It was my idea to include that clause,' he notes, 'giving myself and/or the network the option to exercise it after two years. Things were going along nicely, and I placed a call to them about eight weeks before the out clause would go into effect, saying that I was happy on the show and hoped to continue playing out the rest of my contract. They said they felt the same. Things were fine for a few weeks, and then I got the call saying they decided to exercise the out clause.'

Nevertheless, Nader loved the how the show handled Dimitri's exit. 'Working with Finola (Hughes; Alex) was great fun. She is wonderful, and we hit it off right away,' he says.'"

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