Everyone, soap stars included, have had to face the consequences of their actions But who would ever guess that simply playing a part in a commercial would result in a court case?
Which Soap Star Was It?
All of these actresses are either an alum of a long-ago classic – like All My Children or As the World Turns – or they currently star in, or are alums of, one of the four remaining daytime dramas – The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless.
But only one of them can claim that she was sued by the McDonald’s franchise – and forced to forgo their products – because she had dared to sing the praises of Burger King, one of their biggest rivals.
But who can that actress be? Was it Sarah Michelle Gellar (ex-Kendall Hart, AMC), Meg Ryan (ex-Betsy Stewart Andropoulos, ATWT), Arianne Zucker (Nicole Walker Brady, DAYS), or Cady McClain (ex-Kelly Andrews, YR)?
Meg Ryan
Ryan was still a young girl, merely 21, when she began asking the starving masses if they were, “Hungry for a Whopper” – and excited about the possibility of winning $1 million during the franchise’s 1982 sweepstakes. Post-commercial, Ryan was still allowed to dine at McDonald’s and she wasn’t issued a subpoena.
Arianne Zucker
Following a successful modeling career that saw her jetting off to such far-flung places as Japan and Paris, France, Zucker decided to try her hand at acting, and she began her journey with a series of commercials.
Mazda and McDonald’s were among her first, but Zucker soon won the role “Mrs. Burger King,” and mother to the heir apparent – Burger King Jr. – who turned out to be a nasty little piece of work! But that wasn’t enough to get Zucker banned from Mickey D’s or sued by the company.
Cady McClain
McClain has been a working actress since the age of 9, and she got her start in a commercial for Band-Aid bandages. In the ensuing years, she would extol the uses and the benefits of products like Amtrak, Shout Detergent, Texaco, and Prell. McClain also appeared in several food and beverage commercials, including one for Burger King – but that didn’t hinder her from eating at the Golden Arches whenever she pleased.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
In 1981, Gellar appeared in a commercial for Burger King in which her character criticized the food served at McDonald’s and insisted that she only ate at the far superior Burger King. The advert led to a lawsuit filed by McDonald’s against BK. Gellar was named in the injunction and forced to testify in open court as to the legitimacy of the commercial’s content.
Years later, though she claimed, “banned [was] a strong word,” Gellar remembered that, “I wasn’t allowed to eat there. It was tough because, when you’re a little kid, McDonald’s is where all your friends have their birthday parties, so I missed out on a lot of apple pies.”
So, if you guessed that the soap star in question was Sarah Michelle Gellar, then you were absolutely correct!
