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Amanda Tanen
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Amanda Tanen (née Sommers, Tanen-Sommers and referred to as Simmons and once as Tanen-Sommers-Simmons) is a fictional character in the American dramedy series Ugly Betty. She is played by Becki Newton. Amanda's character is a combination of Patricia Fernandez and Marcela Valencia, but her appearance is similar to Marcia Villarroel.
da Sommers is the attractive receptionist at MODE magazine and is allied with both Wilhelmina Slater and Wilhelmina's assistant Marc when it comes to taking down the two major thorns in Wilhelmina's side: Betty Suarez and Betty's boss Daniel Meade (to whom Amanda is attracted).
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Encyclopedia
Amanda Tanen (née Sommers, Tanen-Sommers and referred to as Simmons and once as Tanen-Sommers-Simmons) is a fictional character in the American dramedy series Ugly Betty. She is played by Becki Newton. Amanda's character is a combination of Patricia Fernandez and Marcela Valencia, but her appearance is similar to Marcia Villarroel.
Background
Amanda Sommers is the attractive receptionist at MODE magazine and is allied with both Wilhelmina Slater and Wilhelmina's assistant Marc when it comes to taking down the two major thorns in Wilhelmina's side: Betty Suarez and Betty's boss Daniel Meade (to whom Amanda is attracted). Amanda was raised in the Hamptons on Long Island, although her parents now live in Scarsdale. She believed she was the daughter of an investment banker who, she hinted in an earlier episode, is an embezzler, but learned in the second season that she is actually the daughter of Fey Sommers. Her uncle is the "thin one" out of the Three Tenors. Amanda aspires to marry royalty, preferably a duke, as a prince "would be too much pressure." Curious about her past, Amanda decides to seek out the identity of her father. Amanda presumed her father to be KISS bassist and lead singer Gene Simmons.
Amanda has a tendency to go on eating binges whenever she feels threatened, as a way to control her fears and insecurities. This issue is expected to be addressed in future episodes, where it is learned that her past involves uncontrollable eating habits and attempts to be the "perfect" woman. Despite her somewhat conceited and ditzy exterior she is quite bright, but has a tendency to butcher the Spanish language, using mangled pronunciations like "hoe-la" (ho'lä) for hola and "bareo" (bâr'e-o) for barrio. And like Betty, she too found herself becoming the victim of a prank herself when a rival employee sent her a hobble dress that Amanda thought came from a designer. She even had a romantic fling with a closeted straight designer named Tavares, but would end it after he took advantage of her generosity.
Prior to working at MODE, Amanda was an actress, and appeared as a hostess in a commercial for a Medieval themed restaurant. This is an inside joke, referencing an Olive Garden commercial in which Becki Newton, who plays Amanda, appeared as one of the restaurant chain's cheery hostesses.
In the first season finale, she was trapped in Fey Sommers' secret room ("love dungeon") with Christina McKinney after which they consequently got drunk and began confessing secrets to each other. Though most of Amanda's revelations initially revolved around her sexcapades (to which Christina responds in one scene, "Your special place was ruined years ago"). Another scene hints that she might have bisexual tendencies when she asked Christina if she wanted to kiss (earlier in the season she appeared very pleased when the chance of a threesome with Daniel and a female model arose, though this may have been due to her feelings for Daniel). She later revealed to Christina that the late Sommers was a friend of her family and that her father had appealed to Fey for help in getting Amanda a job at MODE after her career as an actress didn't pan out. As Christina marvelled at this whilst stumbling around drunk, she uncovered a red safe hidden under a scarf and the pair managed to get it open (using Sommers' genuine measurements as the combination). Instead of money inside, a bunch of photos of Amanda as a child are uncovered, as well as a diary and a genuine birth certificate, naming Sommers as Amanda's biological mother.
At the start of the second season it is shown that she had temporarily gained weight in an attempt to supplement her worry and frustration with candy, which was brought on after learning of her parentage. She also became the caretaker of her late mother's pet dog, Halston, as most of Fey's possessions were given away at auction for charity. Also at the wedding of Wilhelmina and Bradford she sang the song "Milkshake" by Kelis and had the whole reception clapping with her. She also became involved with rival employee Nick Pepper, whose "dislike" between each other is a turn-on.
She also discovered the truth about what Fey did to Claire Meade that resulted in Fey's murder by Claire. After discovering several diary pages that was kept hidden in the back of a portrait of Fey in the Love Dungeon, Amanda learned that Fey was responsible for poisoning a perfume that she gave to Bradford so he can give it to Claire as a gift. When Claire began to use it, the perfume would make Claire go crazy, resulting in her killing Fey instead. Amanda wanted to get back at Claire for having killed her mother by forcing Marc to burn the pages and get rid of the perfume that Claire gave to Betty after she spots it on Betty's desk, only to have Marc tell her that it was Fey who killed herself. Realizing this, she turns over the evidence to Betty at Claire's trial, resulting in Claire being set free.
In the third season, Amanda's spending lifestyle would catch up with her. After being evicted from her apartment and accumulating debt, she ends up moving in with Betty at her apartment, where Betty would give her a wake-up call over her financial responsibilities, which resulted in Amanda acquiring a second job at a fast-food restuarant.
Amanda's favourite "fall color" is pale carmine.
Family life
In the wake of discovering the truth about her mother, Amanda tried to find out more about her connection to Fey Sommers as she stands to inherit the late editor's fortune and to find out why her adoptive parents kept the truth from her all these years. The Tanens explained that Fey was focused on her career at the time and didn't think she would be able to devote her efforts in raising Amanda.
With the fact that Fey had carried a long-term affair with Bradford Meade, Amanda worried that Bradford may be her biological father since it would mean she had committed incest by sleeping with Daniel, who would be her half-brother. She expressed this concern to Daniel, right before reading the results of a DNA test that showed they were not related.
The search for her biological father has been Amanda's priority throughout season 2. In "Grin and Bear It", She learned from Wilhelmina (who was Fey's assistant and confidant) that Amanda was conceived at Studio 54 during a celebration honoring Fey's first issue as editor of Mode; Wilhelmina had spotted Fey and a man having sex in a back room, but admitted that she didn't know anything about the man's identity, other than that he had a tattoo of Tweety Bird on his lower back. Wilhelmina then provided Amanda with the Studio 54's guest list on the night she was conceived - a list that contained many famous men such as Ted Kennedy, Warren Beatty, and Ricardo Montalban.
In "Zero Worship", Amanda consulted a psychic to gain some leads on her search, which led to her attempts to contact Kiss frontman Gene Simmons in "A Thousand Words By Friday"; with Marc's help, she wrote and performed the song "Gene Simmons is My Daddy" in hopes to catch the attention of someone in Simmons' camp - but as luck would have it, Simmons himself showed up to watch Amanda's performance.
Connections
- Betty Suarez - Executive Assistant to the Editor in Chief at MODE; Amanda has wanted to get rid of Betty from the beginning, believing that Betty stole a job that should have been hers - assistant to Daniel Meade. She schemed to get rid of Betty by any and all means, so she could get her job and win Daniel's affection and admiration. After Betty agreed to take Sofia Reyes' job offer, Amanda replaced her temporarily as Daniel's assistant. In the episode "In or Out" she realized that the assistant job was better suited to Betty and returned to her receptionist's desk with a pay raise. Despite her frequently taking jabs at Betty, the two seem to like each other and at times look to be friends. Betty is the only person to have seen Amanda crying after she ended her affair with Daniel. Amanda always seems interested in Betty's love life; she was with Betty when she found out Walter wanted Betty to move in with him. She also has fun tormenting Betty about her crush on Henry, calling him her "Nerd Lover."
- Daniel Meade - Editor-In-Chief at MODE; He sees Amanda as another one-night stand--he slept with her but forgot about it the following day--and Amanda has been frustrated by his continual womanizing. After Daniel lost an expensive watch and sent Betty looking for it at the apartments of his past week's conquests, Betty turned up empty handed while Amanda had it with her the entire time. Daniel gave Betty a list of names, addresses and the day of the week he was with that girl. He had forgotten to list one night of the week and it was the night that he was with Amanda. She finally came clean that she had the watch and asked Betty to not tell Daniel. Since he never figured out which girl it was, Amanda came forward and she finally relinquished the possibility of a serious relationship with him. Her past feelings for Daniel have caused problems for proving her loyalty to Wilhelmina and Marc. Amanda feared that Daniel may be her half-brother as she suspected Daniel's father Bradford may be her father, but the results came back negative.
- Marc St. James - Executive Assistant to Wilhelmina Slater at MODE and Amanda's frequent co-conspirator in plans to humiliate Betty and sabotage her work. They have a co-dependent relationship; she often pretended to be his girlfriend to help him hide from his mother that he was gay, and he has taken risks to protect her job from Wilhelmina. The two shared a rowdy Thanksgiving in the office together, drinking champagne, playing with couture gowns, and placing a prank phone call to the mysterious bandaged woman, which placed both their jobs in jeopardy. In a scene at Tavares' party, Marc claims that Amanda had a huge crush on him when he first started working at MODE, before she realised he was gay, but she insisted that she kept staring at him only because he had a discoloured tooth at the time.
- Christina McKinney - Seamstress at MODE; Amanda frequently calls her "Braveheart" because of her Scottish heritage. They have an antipathetic relationship; in "Fake Plastic Snow" Christina told "Santa Claus" that she wishes that Amanda had "a brain". She was with Amanda when she discovered that Fey Sommers was her mother.
- Sofia Reyes - Editor in Chief at MYW; In Trust, Lust, and Must she became the catalyst for Amanda's realization that a relationship with Daniel was not possible. After discovering that Sofia was actually using Daniel as a stunt promotion for her new magazine ("Sofia's Choice"), Amanda took revenge on Sofia by beating her with her purse in the elevator where Sofia and Daniel first met ("Trust").
- Nick Pepper - Amanda took an instant dislike to Nick, partly because he wouldn't go out with her. She feels she's better suited for his job as Alexis' PA. So using the same tactics that she used to unsuccessfully try and take Betty's job, Amanda attempts to strong-arm her way into forcing Nick out of his by convincing Alexis that she should pick her over Nick. In the episode Bananas for Betty, after shooting Nick in a paintball game, Amanda and Nick end up making out.
- Fey Sommers - In the 1st season finale, while locked in Fey Sommer's "Love Dungeon", Amanda discovers childhood photos of her and a birth certificate declaring Fey as Amanda's mother.
- Bradford Meade - CEO of Meade Publications; Because of his affair with Fey Sommers, Amanda suspected that he may be her biological father, but it turned out he was not.
- Henry Grubstick - Accountant at Meade Publications; Along with Marc, Amanda likes to torture him, especially when it involves Betty or when they demand their paychecks...as long as they don't endure his wrath (as they did in "Betty's Wait Problem").
- Gene Simmons - pretended to be Amanda's father to fuel a father-daughter-inspired reality TV show.
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