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Miffed star puts boot into Seven

IN SHOWBIZ circles it has been a poorly-kept secret that all was not well between AFI award winner Kerry Armstrong and Marshall Law, the Seven Network drama in which she once was slated to play a lead role.

The former star of SeaChange shed more light on the saga this week, using Ten's Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton to launch a blistering attack on Seven.

When Moonface asked her what exactly transpired, Armstrong ? who recorded the pilot, playing Lisa McCune's older sister ? was particularly blunt.

"Three days after I won the AFI award [for best actress in Lantana ], I was rung by my agent who said, ‘Channel 7 have decided to go ahead with Marshall Law, but they're dropping you'," she explained. "Lisa was very, very upset and she rang me and said, ‘I feel terrible'.

"There are rumours that I was too old to play Lisa's older sister," Armstrong said.

The sister role now is being played by former Good Guys, Bad Guys star, the much younger Alison Whyte.

A Seven spokesman told Confidential : "Pilots are the first drafts used to see what works and what doesn't in hopefully getting a successful series on air.

"Kerry Armstrong is a wonderful actress ? a fact which made it an even tougher decision not to cast her in this series."

Not that Armstrong is out of work. She's now starring with Jason Donovan in MDA , a medical-legal drama which premieres on the ABC on July 23.

July 13, 2002
Daily Telegraph