Neal McDonough Fired for Refusing to Work Sex Scenes

Neal McDonough, a former star on “Desperate Housewives” has been fired from a staring role that would have paid him $1 million because he refused to participate in sex scenes. McDonough was fired three days into the shooting of a series called “Scoundrel” after he refused to engage in passionate love scenes with co-star Virginia Madsen.

McDonough’s refusal was based his belief that such scenes would clash with his Catholicism and his reputation as a family man. McDonough is married with three young children and is known to have refused to film any sex scenes on “Desperate Housewives.” On that show he played a deranged husband and was killed off the show in 2009. McDonough is known for having stuck to such principles in the past even though it has cost him lucrative acting jobs and promising opportunities.

“Scoundrels” production is already underway and producers are very upset with McDonough as they say that he knew about the potential for such scenes before he joined the show. Apparently McDonough was sent scripts about the lovemaking scenes far in advance of the start of production. McDonough went far beyond refusing hot scenes, however, as he even refused to be filmed kissing the Madsen.

McDonough was replaced by actor David James Ellicot. ABC simply stated that it was a cast change and did not go into the details or reasoning behind the changes. In the preset McDonough may be in some trouble as many connected with “Scoundrels” say that he was “unprofessional” for reading advance scripts that detailed everything about the scenes that he would be in only to then refuse to work in those scenes upon showing up on the set.