The villainous Dana Hartman
Dana Hartman (Melina Kanakaredes) is a hidden recurring villainess from Notorious. She was the mother of Maya Hartman and a former anchorwoman for "Louise Herrick Live". She was fired after fabricating an interview for a story she was doing, which was later revealed to have been done by Dana to cover up the fact that she had been impregnated after a forced tryst with her boss. The ensuing fallout left Dana feeling deeply disgraced, causing a rift in her relationship with her daughter. Julia George, producer for LHL and an old friend of Dana's, helped her with Maya during that time.
Dana made her first (brief) appearance at the end of episode 1.07, "Chase", calling Julia to ask for her help. The following episode, "The Burn Book" revealed why: one of Maya's roommates (and secret boyfriend), Johnny Weston, had been found shot dead at the house Maya rented from her, and she was considered a suspect. After gunshot residue was found on Maya's hands and Dana revealed how Maya had written in her diary that she wanted to kill Johnny, Julia and her friend Jake Gregorian agreed to help prove Maya's innocence. But despite this, things remained tense between Dana and Julia, the latter still harboring anger at Dana for her unethical decision.
Later on, a secret of Dana's was revealed: she and Johnny had been sexually involved at one point, with the tryst being secretly recorded by her security installer. When confronted with the footage, Dana revealed that it had been a one-time event and that she had had no knowledge of Johnny's relationship with Maya. When Jake revealed that Julia was planning to air the footage on her show, Dana accused Julia of doing it out of spite towards her. Julia eventually agreed not to roll the footage in exchange for an interview from Dana, but her boss forced her to allow the video be played anyways, upsetting Maya and angering Dana.
Dana's villainous reveal came in episode 1.09, "Choice", when Dana interviewed Maya's roommates Preston Mann and Willow Ferrera, who had accused Maya of killing Johnny to get immunity from their robbery spree, replacing Louise Herrick as she and Julia travelled to Mexico to interview notorious drug kingpin Carlos Mora. During the interview, Preston proved himself innocent of killing Johnny by showing how he had been casing out the house of Gwen Stefani at the time of his death. When he began going into a tirade about how Maya was to be the killer, Dana broke down and confessed that she had killed Johnny, stating that she had been infuriated to learn that he was sleeping with both her and Maya at the same time and revealing how she had kept the gun she had used to kill him hidden in her safety deposit box.
Later on, Jake confronted Dana about her confession, believing she had falsely done so to help her daughter. But Dana contested to her guilt and begged Jake to get Maya out of jail so she could finally do right by her daughter, breaking down into tears in his arms as she did. Dana was later handcuffed and taken into custody by the police.
Trivia[]
- Melina Kanakaredes would later recur on The Resident as the evil Dr. Lane Hunter.
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