Maria Gianni

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Maria Gianni is a fictional character, and also one of the lead characters in the new English language telenovela (Soap Opera) Fashion House. She is played by Bo Derek.

[edit] Unbelievably evil fashionista

Maria ran the House of Gianni, a prestigious fashion house in Los Angeles. She was the widow of Antonio Gianni, who helped her build up the fashion empire that she ruled. Her assistant was the Harvard-educated Lexi Walker. She was also the mother of Luke Gianni. She was known for her extreme ruthlessness and unbelievable conniving towards people she worked with and supposedly cared about.

Years ago, (before the show began) Maria had met Charles Blakely, a struggling artist and a former lover, and had an extramarital affair with him, (he was married to Maria's arch-rival, Sophia Blakely at the time), and it was discovered that Maria was pregnant by him.

That child turned out to become Luke, who, like his deceased father, was an artist. While pregnant, she married Antonio Gianni; and caused Charles Blakely to kill himself and made Sophia and her family utterly penniless.

Maria had a tendency to rip off designs from other designers and pass them off as her own, a tactic that has made her less than liked to a lot of people; and her rotten attitude toward fabric salespeople made her an absolute liability to work with.

She hired a recently separated woman named Michelle Randall Miller, as an assistant to her two designers Harold and Hans. Michelle lived with Gianni model Nikki Clark, who was her best friend.

This hire gave Maria fresh designs that she could steal. She was caught red-handed by designer Harold, and confronted her on it. Mainly his aim was to protect Michelle, whom he and Hans defended vigorously like a mother hen.

She didn't care if she was caught, and she defiantly defended her crime. Her ridiculous excuse and explanation for this was that because she owned the House of Gianni, thereby everything in it also belonged to her. Harold had no liking of Maria's crimes, but, even though he clearly didn't believe Maria's excuse, still stayed out of loyalty.

However, Michelle had finally realized this unattractive trait in her boss, (although she had suspected it from the start) when she appropriated a wedding dress design that she was proud of, and the conniving Maria passed it off as her own.

Unfortunately, House of Gianni was in terrible debt, to one William Chandler, who proposed marriage to Maria to wipe out her debt, but he had no plans to follow through on it, because on their wedding day, he refused her at the altar, while his mother, Sophia, bedecked in a red dress and a huge brimmed hat, sat and laughed. At her.

He gained the wary trust of Luke, who was later discovered to be William's half-brother. Confronted on this lie by Luke, Maria reluctantly admitted that her son was in fact Charles's son. However, her problems with Luke had just begun.

Luke then confronted her when he discovered that she had been using his trust fund like it was her own personal piggy bank. Once more, she defended the indefensible, by saying he had given her the right to do so.

She had really gone quite far, alienating both friends and family alike. She tried to break up Luke and Michelle, by spiking his drink with rohypnol, commonly known as the date-rape drug, during a dinner; passing over Hans and Harold by promoting John Cotter as a senior designer (she was blackmailed into this by John); hurting and alienating Lexi, after arrogant and self-destructive model, Tania Ford, called her a skank (obviously her favorite word) and slapped her in full view of everyone. Maria had also been told by her ex-fiance that she has a very small amount of time to pay her debt off, or else loses her company to him and his mother.

During a charity fashion show, she worked overtime to humiliate Michelle, who was given full charge of the show, only to have her be relegated to the background, and favoring John and Tania.

However, William had finally gotten around to tell Luke that Maria has been stealing money from his trust fund, which finally allowed him to see what a monster his mother really had become.

Even though, Nikki won the Face of Gianni competition, Maria decided that she can and would change the rules arbitrarily, and handed the title, "Face of Gianni", to Tania.

Never satisfied until she has added insult to injury, she also fired Nikki for a so-called "breach of morals clause". The real reason was because she wanted to get even with William and anyone allied with him.

Michelle, meanwhile, had had enough of Maria's stealing of her designs, and her lies about it and the cavalier way she treated people, no matter who they were.

Michelle, bravely, decided to call her bluff during a news conference, quit her job on the spot, and began to start her own design business.

Maria saw her as a true threat, especially with William and Sophia behind Michelle, helping her with business contacts, and it could have spelled the end of House of Gianni for good.

Maria, undaunted, hired Michelle's estranged husband, Lance Miller as her new accountant, which staved off William Chandler's attempt to take her company, and also allows him to try to get Michelle back.

She's also connected with sleazy Eddie Zarouvian, who intended to pay off her whole debt to William, and to allow Maria to keep the House of Gianni, despite him being majority shareholder.

She also confronted Michelle, as usual, twisted things around so that she (Maria) was the victim, and not the other way around (another one of her unattractive traits), but this time, Luke, finally wise to his mother's manipulations, stood up for Michelle and told her to get out of his relationship with her and to stay away from her.

No stranger to resorting to gutter tactics, she manipulated a reporter friend of hers, named Guiliana, to interview Michelle and to skewer the story to make her look foolish and not at all ready. This brought Michelle's wrath on her of course, yet it didn't seem to faze Maria.

To the shock of William and Sophia, the calculating Maria wrote them a check for the entire debt that she owed, finally settling that score. A truly livid William and Sophia have worked hard to make sure that rival Michelle Miller Designs became a success story to wipe out House of Gianni for good.

Maria fired long-time assistant, Lexi, after discovering that she had stolen files for Michelle. The furious and conniving Maria forcibly escorted her out to security, and then threw Lexi's laptop to the ground in fury.

She was also tapped to be the new Face of Gianni. Lexi, however, rebounded and became partners with Michelle. A situation which didn't last too long, unfortunately.

Although she still looked for an assistant, Maria still rebounded, however, an offending painting depicting her and Michelle liars, had given both cause to be angry with Luke.

Nonetheless, Michelle and Maria are still bitter enemies. She had even gone so far as to fake a heart attack to ensure that Luke and Michelle were broken up for good.

She had a connection with a mysterious person named Carlos, who seems to have some dirt on William Chandler, and hopes to hurt him. However, this connection seemed to have no effect, as she was trumped by William who had her arrested for fraud and forgery, because she had forged Luke's name to checks that she took from his trust fund to use as her own personal piggy bank.

Ever resilient, however, Maria received info about William's supposed tax-evasion, and that may well trump him over her. She alienated Luke once again when he caught her and Michael Bauer, his best friend in a compromising situation. While alienating Luke, she continued to make enemies across the board. She alienated Harold and Hans which made them begin to consider their next move.

She connived with Lexi to steal 70% of Michelle Miller Designs, placing Lexi as CEO; and making Maria owner. This theft earned her and Lexi Michelle's wrath and the two fought viciously in a fountain. It took Luke to pull Michelle out to calm her down.

She was discovered to have been the one that shoved Nikki Clark down the stairs in her apartment; a fall that made her lose her child, by Michael. This brazen assault has solidified Nikki and Michael as an enemy, not that it mattered to Maria. She also had been discovered to have blacklisted Tania as a model and John as a designer.

Maria gave new meaning to the word evil, having hurt, stolen, humiliated, attacked, assaulted and insulted everyone she worked with, or claims to have cared about, including her own son. Her despicable actions had basically left her one of the most hated women in the fashion industry.

Maria Gianni certainly found out that she couldn't control people the way she had, or the consequences would be dire enough to end Maria's reign of terror for good. As it turned out, it did happen.

She was shot to death at the end of her last fashion show. Her last words were for Luke: "I'm sorry. I love you. Don't forget I love you."

Now, one question remained: Who killed Maria Gianni?

It was Tania, who was driven to it and helped by William Chandler...

But as it turned out Maria Gianni actually faked her own death. Living under an assumed name, she and her arch enemy, Sophia, ended up on the same island.