Fey Sommers

Infobox character | colour = #BBDCFF
name = Fey Sommers


caption =
portrayer = Becki Newton
creator = Silvio Horta
gender = Female
first = Pilot (aka I Am Not Going To Sell Herbalux)
last =
cause for death = Murdered by Claire Meade due to mental illness
age = Around 60
occupation = Editor-In-Chief at "MODE"
title = Editor-In-Chief
relationship = Bradford Meade (lover)
children = Amanda Tanen (daughter; gave up for adoption)
relatives =
footnotes =

Fey Sommers (November 15, 1945 - August 28, 2006) is the name of a deceased fictitious fashion editor in the American dramedy series "Ugly Betty". She is played in some TV clips by Christine Jones and in others by another actress, who also appeared as Fey in still photographs, like the one in Fey's crypt. In the second season, series regular Becki Newton, who plays Fey's daughter Amanda Tanen, also plays Fey in flashback scenes. On her tomb, there is a French sentence "La Mode ne meurt jamais" which could be translated as "Mode never dies". The sentence is also a play on the word "mode" which means fashion in French.

Background

Fey Sommers was the previous and much-revered editor-in-chief of "MODE" magazine. In the series she died in a bizarre accident, in which her car was burned in a mysterious hit-and-run.

However, her death raises more questions than answers: When Bradford Meade went to her funeral, he said that the casket was closed; meanwhile, suspicions were cast over Wilhelmina Slater, whose visits to a clinic to see "The Masked Woman," who was swathed in bandages, fueled speculation that Sommers had survived the crash and was plotting to resume control of "MODE" Magazine.

When Bradford visited Fey's gravesite, a person who fit Fey's description showed up. Bradford chased after her, but hours later his private detective, Steve, advised him that the camera caught no footage of Fey Sommers and hinted that Bradford might be losing his mind.

But Bradford's theory about Fey not being in the casket would be proved right -- not only was the casket empty, but Steve was indeed working with the Mysterious Bandaged Woman to confuse Bradford and make him believe he may be going crazy and would pay for it with his life. Bradford believed that Fey survived the crash and brought in an associate named Mr. Green to find her at any cost. Mr. Green provided Bradford with a file that allegedly proved Fey had died after all and that a relative had identified the remains, leading to more questions about the mystery woman's true involvement and intentions.

In the episode "I'm Coming Out" Bradford would be arrested for Fey's murder, after he was set up by the mysterious woman under all of those bandages, Bradford's own post-op transsexual daughter Alexis Meade, formerly Alex Meade, who used Fey's murder to get back at her father for disowning her after she told Bradford about wanting to become a woman. But in the episode "Brothers", Claire Meade, the family matriarch, confessed to Betty that she was Fey's actual murderer. Because Claire was drunk when she made the admission, even though she claimed that she was sober when it happened, just as many doubts as to who really killed Fey still remain.

In the episode Icing On the Cake, Claire described Fey as "a conniving and manipulative bitch who got what she deserved." Grace Chin (played by Lucy Liu) who was formerly the lawyer to defend the Meades, said that she could convince the jury and judge that Claire believed that Fey would have killed her, had Claire not killed her first.

Later, in Punch Out, it was revealed that Fey kept her affair with Bradford alive, via daily pedicures, Dead Sea salts and paraffin treatments, which was discovered by trash author Quincy Combs, who possessed "Fey Sommers' Diaries", which had information on her affair with Bradford, his treatment of Alex(is) and her theories of thinking that Claire was a bitch. In her diaries, it was discovered that she called Bradford "B", and had a secret hideaway at MODE called "The Love Dungeon", located in Christina McKinney's workspace, "The Closet," where she and Bradford carried out their romance. Marc St. James and Amanda Tanen would later stumble upon the hideaway, where they discover among goodies Fey left behind, sex toys and fetish gear.

When Amanda and Christina (Ashley Jensen)get locked inside the Love Dungeon (after Christina spots Amanda there and proceeds to argue at each other), they find Fey's safe. Inside the safe is Fey's missing diaries and photos of Amanda as a child as well as Amanda's birth certificate saying that Fey is Amanda's real mother. This revealation will prompt Amanda to start learning more about her connection to Fey, which also involves the Meade family, and especially Wilhelmina, who might hold the key to who Amanda's father really is.

During the early eighties, Wilhelmina, whose real name is Wanda Slater, served as her assistant. During a party at Studio 54, Fey got drunk and had sex with a mysterious guy who had a tattoo of Tweety Bird on his lower back. When she found out, Wanda promised to keep it a secret so long as Fey would pay for her transformation into supermodel, Wilhelmina Slater.

A tradition of hers included attending Mode's Black and White Ball in a stunning red gown, remarking, "Black and White Ball? I guess I didn't get the memo!".

In the episode "Odor in the Court", as Claire goes to trial for Fey's murder, some new evidence surfaces in the Love Dungeon, along with a bottle of perfume Claire gave to Betty for safekeeping during the trial. Fey's diary reveals that in an attempt to kill Claire, Fey had sent a bottle of poisoned perfume to Bradford to give to Claire as a 'souvenir' that would drive her to madness and kill her. By a stroke of fate, Claire's insanity resulted in Fey's own death instead. However, Amanda chose to withhold this evidence as she blames Claire for killing her mother. After Betty nearly kills herself with the perfume, and after Amanda is convinced to hand over the evidence, Claire is found not guilty and freed. Therefore, MODE is now back in Claire's control. This revelation confirmed Fey's true feelings about Claire as mentioned earlier in "Punch Out", rather than the other way around, as it appears that by having Claire dead, Fey would've been the one who have Bradford all to herself.

The mystery about Fey's death continues to leave a lot of unanswered questions. In a press release, Executive Producer Silvio Horta announced that although Wilhelmina and Alexis were trying to convince Bradford he was going insane, this sub-plot failed. Horta stated, in response to an inquiry made as to whether Fey was truly dead, "Um, no?" This seems to support the theory that Fey survived.

Behind the scenes

The actress who plays the mysterious woman and Fey are two different people. The mysterious woman (played by Elizabeth Penn Payne) mentioned that it was time that Fey (played in TV clips by Jones) came out of seclusion. However, on the February 1, 2007 episode it was revealed that the mysterious bandaged woman was Alexis Meade, formerly Alex Meade, Daniel's brother who was presumed dead in a skiing accident but who has instead undergone sex reassignment surgery. Alexis is played by Rebecca Romijn.

In the second season, Newton has started playing Sommers during her earlier years.

Puns

Fey Sommers' appearance in TV clips closely resembled that of real life "Vogue" editor Anna Wintour. Wintour's last name is a loose homonym with 'Winter', while Sommers' is a loose homonym with 'Summer'.Fey Sommers shares many similarities with Eisenhower's biographer, Kay Summersby.