Бианка Монтгомери: История персонажа мыльной оперы «Все мои дети»

Bianca Montgomery is a fictional character from the American daytime drama All My Children. Until Eden Riegel assumed the role, portraying the character from July 2000 to January 2010, the character was portrayed solely by child actresses: Lacey Chabert, Nathalie Paulding, Gina Gallagher, Caroline Wilde and Jessica Leigh Falborn. When Riegel decided to permanently exit the role, plans to recast were confirmed; in June 2010, Christina Bennett Lind replaced Riegel, and remained on the series through the original television finale episode, which aired September 23, 2011. In February 2013, it was announced that Riegel would be reprising her role as Bianca in a guest arc on Prospect Park's continuation of All My Children. The character of Bianca is the daughter of Erica Kane and the late Travis Montgomery, born onscreen on February 8, 1988. Her birthday was revised to February 9, 1984 on January 31, 2002 by the show's producers, and her age was stated as 16 in 2000. The middle name given to the character is Christine, after her paternal aunt, Christine Montgomery, and she is portrayed as sweet natured and well loved in the fictional community of Pine Valley. Shown to suffer from Reye's syndrome in infancy, as well as anorexia nervosa later in life, she overcomes both with the significant aid of her family. Outside of fiction, Bianca has emerged as a gay icon within the LGBT community. Newspapers such as The New York Times cite her as the first lead character on a major daytime drama to be a lesbian, and The Advocate calls her "the
most famous gay soap role of all time." She has been the subject and study of various academic works, said to have inspired soap opera writers to begin with the scripting of sexual identities of tortured teen characters, and is a heroine. Under Riegel's portrayal, her popularity has been cited as groundbreaking. She decided that it was time to major in social and political theory, go to law school, and become a lawyer. Producers did not tell Riegel she would be portraying a lesbian until after she won the role. Nixon explained the feelings she wanted expressed with the character's mother, Erica. She wanted to showcase the thought process and actions "most parents" have upon finding out that their child is gay: "I think the right word for Erica's reaction is denial," said Nixon. "I read Family Outing by Chastity Bono. Cher had loads of friends who were gay, but she wasn't able to deal with [Chastity's being gay]. In this prejudicial society in which we live, the first reaction from a parent usually is, 'What did I do wrong?'" Nixon, well known for her socially relevant storylines, said that the makings for the Bianca story began in 1947; a college housemate "came out" to Nixon when Nixon was the same age Riegel had been in 2000. The writers characterized Bianca's personality as kind hearted but intolerant of nonsense. These traits were given to reflect the personalities of her parents and her late grandmother (Mona). Additionally, other characters in Bianca's family have been written as protective. Megan McTavish, the show's head writer at the time, said she was "most astonished that fans elevated Bianca into one of the serial's 'tent poles' — soap parlance for characters who hold enormous sway with viewers". McTavish explained that if a character is nice to Bianca, the audience tends to like that character, and if he is mean to Bianca, the audience knows he is a bad guy. "It's stunning," she cited. "The lesbian girl became the moral tent pole of our show." However, in 2010, Riegel decided to permanently exit the role, and plans to recast were subsequently confirmed. In a March 30, 2010 interview with Soap Opera Digest, Riegel explained why she decided to move on from the character: <blockquote>I had tried to make it work with All My Children. I don’t have a business head, so I don’t really make business decisions; every decision I make in my life is emotional and it was difficult to feel that the show wasn’t that Bianca was getting lost. That who she was, was getting lost. I went back several times and they were so lovely to let me come back and play a character I love with the people I love so many times. But I felt that the people making the show didn’t really understand what Bianca was about anymore It troubled me. I got letters from people to whom Bianca meant a great deal essentially saying, "Please don’t come back. We can't take it anymore." Bianca ruins Kendall's bridesmaid's dress and Kendall manipulates Bianca, ignoring her sister's cries when she later hears them from the Wildwind crypt after Bianca accidentally locks herself inside. In 1994, when Bianca looks for Kendall at a motel, Richard Fields finds her and attempts to molest her. However, Kendall stops him and saves Bianca from Fields before any assault occurs. In August 1994, Bianca comes to Pine Valley again following the death of Mona Kane Tyler, so overwhelmed by her loss and furious that she did not get to spend much time with her grandmother. Later, Bianca is kidnapped by Dr. Jonathan Kinder and held her for ransom. Kinder is Erica's doctor and has her hooked on painkillers. In self defense, Bianca pushes Kinder down his stairs. Erica thinks he is dead, and so with help from Janet Green and Skye Chandler, they bury Kinder, but he is very much alive. After Erica is arrested in 1997 for kidnapping Madelyn Grey, the daughter of Edmund Grey and Maria Santos, Bianca runs away from Travis and Barbara to be with her mother. Travis and Barbara then arrive to take Bianca home, but after Travis tells them that Erica would never see Bianca again, Bianca faints and is rushed to the hospital. Bianca is diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and by 1998 ends up hospitalized with a feeding tube. She then goes to a New England rehabilitation center to recover. Sixteen year old Bianca (her birth date 1984 now revised by the series) returns home in 2000, stunning her mother, Erica, by confessing that she is in a lesbian relationship with a girl named Sarah. Erica is unable to accept this, but Bianca does find support from Leo du Pres, who often counsels her on life matters. This earns her some jealousy from Greenlee Smythe, who tauntingly calls her LesBianca, but she and Bianca later become friends. This stemmed from Greenlee taking Bianca to see her daughter's supposed memorial, and she gave her a necklace that Leo had given her, and she passed on to her. Sarah's family also disapproves, and to appease them she gets engaged to a man, despite still loving Bianca. Bianca's second girlfriend, Frankie Stone, comes to Pine Valley as part of her aunt Vanessa Cortlandt's ploy to distract Bianca. Frankie develops true feelings for Bianca, but is then murdered by one of Vanessa's henchmen. Soon after, Frankie's identical twin sister, Maggie, arrives and becomes friends with Bianca, often defending her when she is bullied by homophobic classmates. Despite Maggie professing to being heterosexual, she shows a romantic interest in Bianca, which is reciprocated; however, their relationship does not progress past friendship and Bianca begins dating another woman, Polish born Lena Kundera. Bianca works with Lena at Erica's company, Enchantment Cosmetics. They fall in love, and share a chaste kiss in 2003 while at an airport. Though the relationship is tested when Bianca discovers Michael Cambias, owner of a rival cosmetics firm, has employed Lena to spy on Enchantment Cosmetics, they remain together. In July 2003, Bianca is raped by Michael. She internalizes her rage and only tells Maggie, but eventually the entire town of Pine Valley learns the truth, which brings Bianca and her estranged mother closer. Michael is charged with rape but, to the town's outrage, he is acquitted. When Bianca discovers she is pregnant as a result of rape, Kendall, who had so often scorned Bianca in their past, unconditionally supports her sister and does not give an opinion on Bianca's choices. Michael disappears and Kendall announces she has married her sister's rapist, who shortly turns up dead with Kendall having become the primary suspect in his murder. When Bianca tells Kendall she is keeping her baby, also inspired by Kendall being part of her life, Kendall helps her sister and, with Maggie and Lena's help, aids her in hiding her pregnancy from everyone, including Erica. Kendall announces she is pregnant by Michael, which is also used by her lawyers to help avoid a murder charge and Bianca helps Kendall fake the pregnancy. Bianca and Kendall's ruse is aided by Dr. David Hayward, Ryan Lavery, Lena, Maggie, Reggie Montgomery, and Jackson. The truth eventually comes out that Bianca is the killer but blocked it out and that Kendall, with Reggie's help, worked to cover it up in an effort to protect Bianca; Bianca shot Michael in self defense but the trauma of her rape led to her repressing the memory. After hearing Bianca's confession, the judge presiding over the case leans hard on the prosecution not to file any charges against her. While Erica tries to protect her daughters throughout the trial, she lashes out at them for keeping the truth from her. Bianca gives birth to a daughter named Miranda in 2004, at a cabin which Bianca and Babe became stranded at during a thunderstorm. After a difficult birth for Bianca, Babe Carey goes to get help and ends up going into labor herself. Babe gives birth to a son with the help of her former husband Paul Cramer, whom she had called for help. During the commotion, Paul secretly kidnaps Babe's son and gives her Miranda instead, whilst claiming to Bianca that her daughter perished in a helicopter crash, which he had staged. Miranda is renamed Bess. Bianca grieves for her lost child, and even tries to kidnap Bess, not realizing she is her actual daughter. As she mourns, Bianca and Kendall become close with their mother again. When Bianca discovers the truth, she attempts to reclaim her daughter, but falls from a balcony during a scuffle with Miranda's acting father, JR Chandler, and ends up comatose. Miranda is later returned to Bianca, causing her to awake from her coma. Bianca never remembers how she fell, whether or not JR pushed her, but she holds him responsible for her fall. In addition, Bianca cannot forgive Babe, who had previously discovered Miranda/Bess's true maternity, but could not part with the child. Bianca's relationship with Lena ends when Lena returns to Poland, and her relationship with Maggie subsequently becomes an issue again, as Bianca realizes that she is still in love with her. Maggie, however, is romantically involved with Jonathan Lavery. After Bianca helps free Maggie from this abusive relationship, they begin to bond again. Though the nature of Bianca and Maggie's relationship is not specified, they, along with Miranda, relocate to Paris in 2005. While there, Bianca heads up the international division of Cambias Industries, which Enchantment now owns. Bianca and Maggie become lovers and are happy together, but in 2007, Bianca returns to Pine Valley alone. She states Maggie has cheated on her with another woman. Maggie follows her, hoping for reconciliation, but despite loving her, Bianca declines. Family problems resurface due to Bianca's sexuality, but this time from her conservative former stepmother Barbara, who denounces her lifestyle, but eventually sees the error of her ways. Bianca rebuilds her friendship with Babe upon finding out that Babe, who was pronounced dead as a result of a serial killer's killing spree, is alive. She then reciprocates the romantic feelings Zarf (later known as Zoe), a transgender lesbian rock star, has for her. Zoe later tells her that at this point in her transition process, a romantic relationship between them would not be best; Zoe is not ready for it, and instead moves to London. Bianca decides to move to Paris to be closer to Zoe, but returns on December 26, 2007 for a brief visit, cheering her family up following their recent traumas. Bianca reveals that she and Zoe drifted apart, but she is determined to provide a stable family unit for Miranda. After bidding farewell, she departs again on December 28, 2007. On October 17, 2008, Zach Slater is in the process of looking for wife Kendall buried under rubble due to a tornado having just struck Pine Valley. He finds Bianca instead, and is surprised to see that she is pregnant. He later finds an unconscious Kendall. As an ambulance arrives for her, it is stated that there is not enough room for Bianca and Zach to ride along to the hospital. There is, however, enough room for Zach and Kendall's children to ride in the front seat of the ambulance. Zach and Bianca stay behind and discuss Kendall's fate. They also discuss Bianca's secret that she is pregnant with Zach's child via sperm donation, and Bianca's new lover named Reese. Zach had agreed to father Bianca's child for the couple, but did not know that she had gone through with the procedure of artificial insemination, until now. The two wonder how Kendall, who is unaware of this pregnancy, will react to the news when they tell her. As Zach and Bianca continue to talk, Bianca goes into labor. Zach helps deliver the new child into the world. Sometime later at the hospital, she is horrified to discover that Babe has perished in the disaster's aftermath. Reese Williams comes to Pine Valley, not long after the tornado with Miranda. She proposes marriage to Bianca and she accepts. Reese and Bianca have their share of obstacles to overcome as a couple, mainly Bianca's suspicions of Reese's sexuality and friendship with Zach, but they exchange wedding vows on February 13, 2009. Reese and Bianca's marriage does not last long when Bianca discovers that Reese engaged in a passionate kiss with Zach the day before their wedding. She later sends Reese annulment papers, and returns to Paris with Miranda and Gabrielle. However, she comes back to Pine Valley on April 24, 2009 after having discussed with Zach the reasons she left. After later talking over her and Reese's relationship problems with Zach and Kendall, the couple reconcile and hope that they can work their relationship out. They return to Paris together with their children, and later remarry. Bianca returns to Pine Valley to help search for Erica in June 2010, and eventually decides to stay. After Erica is found by Jackson Montgomery, Jack has Miranda and Gabrielle flown to Pine Valley. Currently, Miranda, Gabrielle, and Bianca are living at Wildwind with Caleb Cooney. After Reese decides that she is not coming back to Pine Valley, Bianca reluctantly decides to get a divorce, hiring Marissa Tasker for this end. Marissa warns Bianca that Reese may fight to gain custody of her kids and things may get ugly, but Bianca dismisses her concerns, convinced that she and Reese can end things civilly and that Marissa is merely letting her experience with JR get in the way. However, when Reese sends her lawyer and nanny to Pine Valley in her place with tickets for Miranda and Gabrielle to come back for spring break, Bianca realizes that Marissa's fears may not be completely unfounded. However, Marissa manages to get Jack and Erica to come to Bianca's aid, where Jack forces them to back off and leave. Bianca thanks Marissa and apologizes for doubting her. Bianca is subjected to even further turmoil when she discovers that Reese is indeed trying to obtain full custody of both Miranda and Gabby. On May 26, Bianca discovers that Ricky Torres, a seemingly friendly reverend, is in fact a criminal and the murderer of Zach. Realizing that she is on to him, Ricky assaults her. In the midst of the assault, Bianca remembers getting raped by Michael Cambias and suffers a panic attack. When Marissa comes along and sees Ricky carrying an unconscious Bianca, Ricky knocks her out, ties them up, and locks them in the closet. Upon regaining consciousness, Bianca reveals Ricky's true nature to Marissa, and they manage to escape. Bianca subsequently realizes that she is developing romantic feelings for Marissa. Because of these romantic feelings, Bianca helps JR win Marissa back by suggesting romantic dates and gifts that he can give to Marissa. Bianca does all this because she realizes that Marissa may never reciprocate the same feelings for her. One of the gifts that Bianca gives to JR for Marissa is a music box. This music box plays a song that Marissa's adoptive father used to sing to her when she was a little girl. JR gives the music box to Marissa while at the park with the kids. While Marissa is listening to the music box, Bianca watches from afar how much Marissa enjoys the gift and walks away. On June 24, while on a trip with the kids, Bianca finally confesses her feelings to Marissa. Marissa, surprised, says that she is flattered and loves Bianca, just not in that way. Marissa apologizes and says she is straight. Bianca feels relieved that she got her feelings out in the open and she can now move on. Marissa, now feeling uncomfortable, leaves the trip early for JR's birthday. Marissa, after she slept with JR, thinks about Bianca. When Marissa finds out about Bianca helping JR with trying to win her back, she asks Bianca about. Bianca tells Marissa she did it because Bianca could not do all those things for Marissa herself. Another reason was because it looked like Marissa was falling in love with JR again and because it seemed like JR had changed. Marissa accuses Bianca of manipulating her and the situation. Bianca suggests that they should not see each other for a while and Marissa agrees. On July 12, Marissa finally admits her feelings for Bianca and they kiss. Bianca then pulls away during the kiss, saying that she can't do this and that this is a mistake. Bianca then explains that all her relationships have been a dead end – that, in the end, she ends up losing her lover and best friend. However, later on, Bianca walks in as Marissa tells JR that she wants Bianca. Marissa then confesses to both Bianca and JR that she is in love with Bianca. In the following weeks, Bianca and Marissa start dating, much to JR's fury, and discuss moving in together. On September 23, Marissa and Bianca received a text message that they believed was from Scott who invited them to a party at the Chandler mansion to celebrate the resurrection of Stuart Chandler who had been presumed dead for two years until he was revealed to be alive as a part of Project Orpheus. They attended the party and enjoyed celebrating life in Pine Valley when JR, in a drunken rage, shot into the crowd. It is revealed on May 2, 2013 that Marissa died and that she was the one who JR shot. Marissa's father, David, tried to stop JR from pulling the trigger, but the gun misfired. David then threw JR to the floor and shot him and as a result, JR lapsed into a five year long coma. David was arrested and jailed for the incident but later returned to Pine Valley after being paroled. Bianca is seen visiting Marissa's grave and updating Marissa on her son AJ and Miranda, whom they had planned to raise together. Bianca tells Marissa that they were supposed to be together and that she will never stop missing her. After JR awakens from his coma, Bianca becomes upset when she sees him, going into a fit of grief and attacking him for killing Marissa. Bianca leaves Pine Valley telling everyone she is going away for work, but she is shown visiting her sister Kendall, who appears to be ill.

Bianca has been popular with critics and fans. The following year, in 2004, Riegel appeared on the cover of Girlfriends, North America’s only lesbian monthly magazine; the content within the piece discussed Riegel's titled breakthrough lesbian role. Riegel's portrayal of the character incited mania, admiration, and viewers displaying overprotectiveness for the character. AfterElton. com, a website that focuses on the portrayal of gay men in the media, addressed Bianca's impact on viewers. They noted All My Children creator Agnes Nixon having told The Advocate in 2000 that out lesbian Chaz Bono's memoir was the inspiration for the Bianca storyline, and that she hoped that outing an already established character as gay would make for a more integrated storyline. Jeffrey Epstein, at the time a staff writer for Soap Opera News, was criticized by AfterElton. com for his statement in 1998, where he discouraged the idea that there would be more gay or lesbian representation to come on daytime television due to soap operas being mostly viewed by women and that gay or lesbian romances do not truly enrich most heterosexual women's fantasies. and the following year as one of Soaps' Hottest Teens by the same magazine. Riegel modestly accepted, "What does that mean, 'hot?' Does that mean I'm hot, like sexy? I feel pretty damn hot. I wish I knew what it meant. No, that's very flattering." In 2003, Bianca was the winner of the first GLAAD Media Award as Favorite OUT Image. With her win, GLAAD released a statement:The winner of the first people's choice award in GLAAD Media Awards history, the Favorite OUT Image of 2003 Award, was also announced Monday. With the help of founding sponsor [[Absolut Vodka

Lesbianation. com, self proclaimed as the leading online community for lesbians, voted Riegel #7 on their top ten list of Women We Love: The Ladies of June '06, stating, "We were swamped with requests to add All My Children hottie Eden Riegel to our list this month — and here she is!" Bianca's popularity extended to her romances, as well as to other perceived possibilities; this was evident through the character's relationships with Maggie Stone, Lena Kundera, and Babe Carey. The relationship with Carey was not romantic, as Babe (now deceased within the series) was characterized as heterosexual; however, fans speculated that Bianca was secretly in love with Babe. This speculation was mainly due to Bianca's nonchalant and forgiving attitude regarding most of Babe's misdeeds. AfterEllen. com took notice and acknowledged that there were viewers hoping for a Bianca and Babe romance.

blockquote|text= As Americans were choosing sides over gay marriage and arguing about campaign references to Vice President Dick Cheney's openly gay daughter, there was one concern quietly uniting people across the ideological spectrum: Bianca Montgomery deserved to get her baby back.|author=Patrick D. Healy of The New York Times The culmination of this storyline combined with everything Bianca faces up to this point "transform[s] Bianca into a courageous soap heroine who ha[s] fans rooting for her." When she decided to leave the show that same year to pursue other acting ventures, it was suggested that the gay community would be losing a viable voice.

Scripting legendary character Erica as having a gay daughter initially upset a significant portion of the audience. "Viewers were deeply attached to the character as the 16 year old daughter of [the leading soap opera diva]. ABC held a series of focus groups to gauge audience reaction." Female viewers in Boston and some in Atlanta found the storyline "refreshing and reflective" of what they called the "real world and its diversity." The Atlanta group, however, had a good portion who were concerned about morality and did not want a major character "saddled with a lifelong problem." and as unnecessary; others felt that it realistically captured what gay women sometimes face from men who want to force themselves on lesbians. When GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) was asked by Metro Weekly why GLAAD sent out an action alert voicing their concern over the rape of Bianca, but two days later sent out another release which seemed to support how the storyline was told, Joan M. Garry, executive director of the organization, responded that they had "some concerns" about [the storyline] and "that the broader context of the [daytime television] genre kind of needs to be taken into account." Metro Weekly felt that this did not answer their question. She found it to be "very work intensive," emotionally haunting, and voiced that she had trouble sleeping. She elaborated that "these" type of scenes really stay with a person. and fans in general. They asserted that, as a lesbian, it is illogical for Bianca to be intensely romantically attracted to a transgender woman who is still of the male form, and that even more stressing was that the show conveyed the story as soul love (the belief that sexual orientation can be negated if you simply love that person's soul).

In October 2008, with Bianca's return to the series during a series of tornadoes striking fictional town Pine Valley, Bianca was reported to be pregnant with her second child. Fans immediately began speculating on who the sperm donor was, which caught the attention of soap opera press, LGBT press, and other media outlets. TV Guide reported that "nobody knows [Bianca's] in town until her brother in law finds her under the rubble." SOAPnet. com stated, "The physical affects [sic] of the tornado are miniscule [sic] compared to the ripples Bianca’s presence creates." and Bianca's reasons for asking Zach to be the donor and doing so without informing her sister and Zach's wife, Kendall Hart Slater, infuriated viewers. They reasoned that neither Bianca nor Zach would do this to Kendall. The child was soon named Gabrielle Montgomery, and the choice for Zach as the father made Miranda and the new child not only half sisters, but cousins as well, which some viewers found "icky."