Diana Canova | |
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 Canova in 2010 | |
| Born | Diane Canova Rivero June 1, 1953 West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Education | Hollywood High School |
| Alma mater | Los Angeles City College |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1974–present |
| Known for | Soap Throb |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
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Diana Canova (born Diane Canova Rivero; June 1, 1953) is an American actress, director, and professor. She is best known for her role as Corinne Tate on Soap (1977-1980).
Canova was born Diane Canova Rivero in West Palm Beach, Florida, to actress and singer Judy Canova and Cuban musician Filberto Rivero. [1] She was raised in the Greater Los Angeles Area, where she graduated from Hollywood High School. Canova later studied acting at Los Angeles City College. [1]
 | This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(June 2023) |
Canova made her television acting debut in a 1974 episode of Happy Days portraying a considerably taller date of Richie; in reality both she and Ron Howard are the same height at 5'9". She later guest-starred on episodes of Chico and the Man and Starsky & Hutch and appeared in television films. Canova then landed the role of Corinne Tate on Soap in 1977 opposite Katherine Helmond as her mother. She remained with the series until 1980. Canova was known for her singing, exhibited during Perry Como's "Early American Christmas" program in 1978. The show was filmed in Williamsburg, Virginia, featured John Wayne, and had musical numbers interwoven with storytelling. In 1979, she made an appearance on Barney Miller as nude dancer/graduate student Stephanie Wolf.
In 1980, ABC executives offered Canova her own television series starring alongside Danny Thomas in I'm a Big Girl Now . The show lasted just one season. She then co-starred on the short-lived CBS sitcom Foot in the Door in 1983. A few years later, she was cast as Sandy Beatty on Throb , a sitcom which was broadcast in syndication from 1986 to 1988. Between 1984 and 1996 she appeared in three episodes of the long-running TV show Murder, She Wrote , including being featured as Maggie McCauley in 1990's "Murder: According to Maggie." In 1993, Canova co-starred in the ABC sitcom Home Free (which also featured Marian Mercer, her co-star from Foot in the Door). Since the mid-1990s, she has mainly done voice work for cartoons in video shorts. In 1995, she played "Jenny" in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company .
From 2015 to 2023, Canova was an adjunct professor of voice at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, [2] [3] and teaches private lessons. She has been working with the school systems of Easton and Redding, Connecticut, where she directs musicals and short plays as well as a high school improv troupe that performs at local charity events. Under her leadership, Joel Barlow High School's theater program has won several awards from the Connecticut Drama Association and has set the record for winning first place two years in a row in multiple categories. [4]
Canova is married to record producer Elliot Scheiner. The couple have two children. [1] She was married to Geoff Levin from 1976 until their divorce in 1979. Before marrying Scheiner, she and Steve Landesberg dated. [5]
Canova is a former member of the Church of Scientology, [6] an organization she has since criticized. She found the Scientologists straightforward in their desire for money, declaring in 1993 in a Premiere magazine interview, "The first time I walked in those doors, they said, 'Just give us all the money in your bank account'". She also criticized the Church's counseling practice, called auditing, when she said, "They're telling you, 'Don't spend $100 an hour on a shrink's couch, it'll ruin your mind.' Auditing is so much better?" [7]
Soap is an American sitcom television series that originally ran on ABC from September 13, 1977, until April 20, 1981. The show was created as a nighttime parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format, and featured melodramatic plotlines including alien abduction, demonic possession, extramarital affairs, murder, kidnapping, unknown diseases, amnesia, cults, organized crime warfare, a communist revolution, and teacher-student relationships. In 2007, it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME", and in 2010, the Tates and the Campbells ranked at number 17 in TV Guide's list of "TV's Top Families".
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Jeffrey Michael Tambor is an American actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom The Ropers (1979–1980), as Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show (1992–1998), George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development and Maura Pfefferman on Transparent (2014–2017). For his role in the latter, Tambor earned two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series out of three nominations. In 2015, he was also awarded a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Pfefferman.
Jennifer Mary Elfman is an American actress. She is best known for her leading role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg (1997–2002), for which she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1999, and three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. After making her film debut in Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), she has appeared in Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), Dr. Dolittle (1998), EDtv (1999), Keeping the Faith (2000), Town & Country (2001), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Clifford's Really Big Movie (2004), and Big Stone Gap (2014).
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Inga Swenson was an American actress and singer. She appeared in multiple Broadway productions and was nominated twice for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances as Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade and Irene Adler in Baker Street. She also spent seven years portraying Gretchen Kraus in the ABC comedy series Benson.
Daniel Peter Masterson is an American actor. He played Steven Hyde in That '70s Show (1998–2006), Milo Foster in Men at Work (2012–2014), and Jameson "Rooster" Bennett in The Ranch (2016–2018). In May 2023, Masterson was convicted of raping two women in 2003. A third count of rape resulted in a hung jury. In September 2023, he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. Masterson is a Scientologist, as were his victims at the time of the assaults. The Church of Scientology's attempts to silence the victims, and its subsequent interference, resulted in a 20-year delay in bringing the crimes to justice.
Leah Marie Remini is an American actress. She starred as Carrie Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and as Vanessa Celluci in the CBS sitcom Kevin Can Wait (2017–2018), both alongside Kevin James.
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Judy Canova, born Juliette Canova, was an American comedienne, actress, singer and radio personality who appeared on Broadway and in films. She hosted her own self-titled network radio program, a popular series broadcast from 1943 to 1955.
The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a religious movement. The movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and the Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgements as both a dangerous cult and a manipulative profit-making business. In 1979, several executives of the organization were convicted and imprisoned for multiple offenses by a U.S. Federal Court. The Church of Scientology itself was convicted of fraud by a French court in 2009, a decision upheld by the supreme Court of Cassation in 2013. The German government classifies Scientology as an unconstitutional sect. In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult. In some countries, it has attained legal recognition as a religion.
Scientology has been referenced in popular culture in many different forms of media including fiction, film, music, television and theatre. In the 1960s, author William S. Burroughs wrote about Scientology in both fictional short stories and non-fictional essays. The topic was dealt with more directly in his book, Ali's Smile/Naked Scientology. The 2000 film Battlefield Earth was an adaptation of a novel by L. Ron Hubbard.
Recruiting and retaining Scientologist celebrities and getting them to endorse Scientology to the public at large has been important to the Church of Scientology since its early days. The organization has had a written program governing celebrity recruitment since at least 1955, when L. Ron Hubbard created "Project Celebrity", offering rewards to Scientologists who recruited targeted celebrities. Early interested parties included former silent-screen star Gloria Swanson and jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. The Scientology organization has a particular interest in international focus on wealthy businesspeople and influencers to help promote its ideals. A Scientology policy letter of 1976 states that "rehabilitation of celebrities who are just beyond or just approaching their prime" enables the "rapid dissemination" of Scientology.
The Bridge is a 2006 drama film directed by filmmaker Brett Hanover.
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I'm a Big Girl Now is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from October 31, 1980 until May 8, 1981. Soap creator Susan Harris and producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas developed the series as a star vehicle for Diana Canova following her success playing Corinne Tate Flotsky on Soap, although I'm a Big Girl Now is not a Soap spinoff.
The intersection of Scientology and abortion has a controversial history which began with Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's discussion of abortion in his 1950 book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Hubbard wrote in Dianetics that abortion and attempts at abortion could cause trauma to the fetus and to the mother in both spiritual and physical ways. Scientologists came to believe that attempted abortions could cause traumatic experiences felt by the fetus, which would later be remembered as memories referred to in Scientology as "engrams". In the Scientology technique called Auditing, Scientologists are frequently queried regarding their sexual feelings and behaviors. These questions about Scientologists' sexual behavior are often posed to members during "security checks", a specific form of auditing sessions where individuals are required to document their divergence from the organization's ethics. One of the questions asked in these security checks is, "Have you ever been involved in an abortion?".
Michele Diane "Shelly" Miscavige is a member of the Church of Scientology's Sea Org who married Scientology leader David Miscavige. She was last seen in public in August 2007. Since her disappearance, she has been the subject of speculation and inquiries regarding her whereabouts and wellbeing.
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