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After six seasons playing Emily Prentiss – with time out for when the producers decided to fire two of the women on the show—Brewster has opted out of the Behavioral Analysis Unit and Criminal Minds.
Admittedly there’s nothing particularly lesbian about the news that Paget Brewster is leaving CBS’s Criminal Minds, except that she looks terrific packing a pistol and sporting a bulletproof vest that reads FBI.
After six seasons playing Emily Prentiss – with time out for when the producers decided to fire two of the women on the show—Brewster has opted out of the Behavioral Analysis Unit and Criminal Minds, according to Deadline.
“After six wonderful years playing Emily Prentiss, I have decided it’s time for me to move on,” Brewster said in a statement to Deadline. “As much as I will miss my Criminal Minds family, I am excited about the future and other opportunities.”
A TV veteran at age 42 Brewster first landed on viewers’ radars early on in Friends run when she played Kathy, who dated both Joey and Chandler. She also starred in Showtime’s short-lived series Huff and the also short-lived The Trouble with Normal.
Deadline reports that Brewster has been looking to move on from Criminal Minds for a while, having shot a pilot for NBC that did not get picked up.
“I hear that Brewster, whose contract is up in May, wanted to do a half-hour pilot again this year but didn’t get the blessing of CBS and ABC Studios who tried to keep her on the show with an offer for a new deal,” Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reported.
Criminal Minds severely cut Brewster’s and costar A.J. Cook’s roles on the show in 2010, with the intent of fazing them out. That left out actress Kirsten Vangsness’ Penelope Garcia as the sole female regular on the show until they hired an A.J. Cook look-a-like. But due to fan outrage and a petition that Vangsness spearheaded, producers rehired both Brewster and Cook for full seasons.
Once upon a time Criminal Minds' Executive Producer Ed Bernero teased lesbian fans by telling TV Guide, “We don’t even know if Prentiss is straight.” Unless there’s a big reveal ala Law and Order’s ADA Serena Southerlyn over the next few months it looks like fans will never know.
Image via Getty.
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Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
