Rosanna Cabot

Infobox soap character
series = As the World Turns
name = Rosanna Cabot



caption1 = Cady McClain as Rosanna
first = 1992
last = January 8, 2008
birth = 1973
gender = Female
parents = Alexander Cabot (father; "deceased")
Sheila Washburn Cabot (mother; "deceased")
siblings = Carly Tenney (half-sister)
Peter Cabot (half-brother)
Lauren Cabot (half-sister)
spouse = Craig Montgomery (divorced; 1st time)
Jordan Sinclair (annulled)
Paul Ryan (divorced; 1st time)
Craig Montgomery (divorced; 2nd time)
Paul Ryan (divorced; 2nd time)
children = Cabot Sinclair (son, illegally adopted with Craig - given up for adoption)
romances = Hutch Hutchinson
Evan Walsh
Mike Kasnoff
Scott Eldridge
Craig Montgomery
occupation = CEO of Cabot Motors
portrayer = Cady McClain (2002 - 2005; 2007-2008)
Yvonne Perry (1992 - 1996; 1998; 1999)
color = #99CCCC

Rosanna Cabot is a fictional character on the popular American daytime soap opera, "As the World Turns".

The character was originated by Yvonne Perry who portrayed her from 1992 to 1999. In 2002, Daytime Emmy-winner Cady McClain took over the role and was consequently nominated twice for "Outstanding Supporting Actress" in 2003 and 2004, winning the award in the later year.

Character history

Early years in Oakdale

Rosanna is the only child born to the marriage of Alexander Cabot and Sheila Washburn. She arrived in Oakdale in 1992 shortly after her mother's death wanting to eke out a small-town existence like her mother. She lived at the Snyder farm and became very close to Emma Snyder. Though she tried to pass herself off as an average girl, Evan Walsh eventually discovered that she was an heiress and was worth millions. Rosanna dated farm boy Hutch Hutchison, but their relationship was marred due to his fling with Debbie Simon. She then dated Evan Walsh briefly, but nothing came of it. Her father Alexander married Evan's snobbish mother Edwina, and no love was lost between the two ladies.

Mike Kasnoff

Rosanna met mechanic Mike Kasnoff, and for a time they were one of the show's most prominent couples. They clashed due to her wealth and his status as an ex-convict. Her father disapproved of Mike and during an argument, Alexander died of a heart attack. He left Rosanna all of his money. Although Rosanna wanted nothing to do with the money or power her father bestowed upon her, and Mike very much wanted her to rid herself of the money, Rosanna's relationship with Mike collapsed before she could give away her fortune.

ister rivalry

In 1995, Carly Tenney arrived in Oakdale and plotted to worm her way into Rosanna's life, knowing she was also Sheila's daughter. Sheila had abandoned her daughter and marriage to Ray Tenney to run off with Alexander Cabot when Carly was a child and the latter swore she would receive a slice of the good life as well. Carly secretly slept with Mike Kasnoff, Rosanna's fiancé, and became pregnant. She interrupted Mike and Rosanna's wedding with her bombshell. After the truth was revealed, Carly and Rosanna were constantly at each other's throats and though she eventually reconciled with Mike, she became addicted to gambling. When they tried to elope in Atlantic City, Rosanna was so busy playing the slot machines that she barely remembered she was there for a wedding. They did not go through with the ceremony. Tragedy struck during an argument the sisters were having. Rosanna who had had enough, turned to walk away when Carly grabbed her hand to stop her. When Rosanna jerked her hand away, Carly fell and went into premature labor. She later gave birth to a stillborn child, Nora, named after Mike's late mother. When Mike hesitated to assure Rosanna that the baby's death was not her fault, Rosanna knew the relationship was over and left for Europe with a message for Carly: she would receive $50 million if she gave birth to a child in wedlock, provided the man was not Mike Kasnoff. Later, she added a deadline to the deal. Carly had to give birth by December 31, 1998. Surprisingly, Carly made the deadline when she gave birth to her son and Rosanna's nephew, Parker Munson, but she had committed fraud in the process and thus, nullifying her claim to the money. Rosanna took back the $50 million from her sister but set up a trust fund for her nephew, not wanting him to suffer in lieu of his mother's greed.

When Rosanna returned from Europe in 2002, she was given temporary custody of Parker. This made her the town pariah who believed that she had obtained the child simply to hurt Carly, who was incapable of caring for her son at the time. She also struck a friendship with Craig Montgomery who was infatuated with her sister. This later turned into romance and the duo married in a low-key ceremony. Carly and Rosanna also finally put aside their differences when her sister gave birth to her niece, Sage Snyder.

Motherhood

Sage's birth led Rosanna to want a child of her own but having undergone a hysterectomy, she chose to adopt. Craig, having lost his son, Bryant, didn't want another child but appeased Rosanna by agreeing. Later, she found out her husband had been sabotaging their adoption process and was prepared to leave him before Craig showed up with a child at their home. Rosanna fell deeply in love with her new son whom they named Cabot, and reveled in motherhood and a newfound friendship with Paul Ryan in the next few months. Her happiness proved to be short-lived when she learnt Cabot had been illegally adopted which devastated Rosanna completely when she had to relinquish her rights to her son and give him up to his Canadian birth mother. She left Oakdale to pull herself back together and when she returned a few weeks later, Rosanna served Craig with divorce papers. Though he attempted to fight her, she reminded him that she could take everything from him and was letting him off easy by letting him keep his money and Metro Court. She also consequently ended her friendship with Paul, who had turned Craig into the police, causing them to lose Cabot. In secret, however, Rosanna was concocting a plan with Carly to marry new BRO employee, Jordan Sinclair and wormed her way into his life. When Jordan learnt of her true intentions, he was enraged which prompted Rosanna to confess that Cabot's birth mother had promised her that if she married Jordan, her son would be returned to her. Not knowing why he was singled out and not appreciating having been used, Jordan refused to enter a marriage of convenience but changed his mind when Rosanna consequently had a breakdown upon his departure.

Loss of Cabot

After marrying Jordan, they learnt that he was Cabot's biological father. The latter demanded a role in his son's life which unsettled Rosanna but she agreed. They also learnt that James Stenbeck had been instrumental in bringing them together and it was revealed that Stenbeck was Jordan's biological father. Realizing that this was his way of insinuating himself into their lives, Rosanna ran away with Cabot but was brought back by Jordan. Later, Stenbeck became increasingly diabolical when he demanded that Rosanna and Jordan consummate their marriage, which the latter refused to since he was in love with Jennifer Munson and Rosanna with Paul Ryan. His father retaliated by kidnapping both his wife and son and trapped them in a burning building. Though Paul managed to save Rosanna, Cabot seemingly died in the fire. Inconsolable with grief, Rosanna broke all ties with him and found comfort in Jordan's arms which effectively killed his relationship with Jennifer. Jordan soon left town after annulling their marriage. Rosanna then temporarily moved in with Emma Snyder to deal with her pain. She eventually forgave Paul and they later married.

Rosanna was haunted by visions of her son, however, and this went beyond the metaphysical when she kept finding Cabot's playthings out of storage. When the perpetrator was revealed to be Emily Stewart, an investigation was launched and it was later determined that Barbara Ryan, Rosanna's mother-in-law, had been drugging Emily to get back at Rosanna for marrying Paul, killing two birds with one stone by using a long-standing enmity with Emily to destroy her daughter-in-law emotionally. Barbara was also revealed to be in cahoots with her ex-husband, James Stenbeck, who had saved Cabot from the fire. He later revealed this to Rosanna, and demanded that she falsely implicate herself in Emily's drugging in order to spare Barbara from prosecution and additionally, end her marriage to Paul and leave town with him. Rosanna accomplished the former task before informing a heartbroken Paul that she hated him. Months later, she resurfaced in Bangkok, Thailand only to bump into her ex-husband, Craig. Though he assured her he would help her escape, she came to the realization that she would never be free under Stenbeck's thumb and made the decision to give Cabot up for adoption in order to ensure his safety.

Coma

Upon her return to Oakdale, Rosanna attempted to reconcile with Paul after telling him her ordeal. Hurt that she chose to turn to Craig for help instead of him, he wrote her off. At the same time, Craig was determined to obtain custody of his unborn child with Jennifer Munson and begged Rosanna to re-marry him. This proved to be her downfall. Weeks earlier, Rosanna had met a pregnant teenager, Gwen Norbeck. Feeling sorry for her plight and wanting a family, she arranged for the adoption of Gwen's child when it was born. Craig was vehemently against the adoption but Rosanna defied his wishes and went ahead with the process. In a strange turn of events, Jennifer and Gwen both went into premature labor at the same time. Jennifer's baby seemingly died in the hospital and when Craig didn't show any signs of grief, Rosanna began to become suspicious taking into account his tireless efforts to gain custody of his son before his death. She became even more confused when Craig immediately took to their adopted child. When she realized that Craig must have switched the babies, Rosanna confronted him. He confessed to his crime and Rosanna, horrified, rushed out to tell the police. Craig, who was tailing her, continually hit the side of her car trying to get her to pull over but this caused his wife to crash as she was on the phone with Paul Ryan begging for help. Before she lost consciousness, she found the energy to tell him, "Wrong foot" before slipping into a coma. Craig was subsequently sent to jail for attempted murder and the baby was placed in Carly's custody. Rosanna has been comatose since 2005 when Carly and Jack sent her to a private clinic in Switzerland.

Return to Oakdale

In July 2007, Paul Ryan was in a coma after he fell from cliff during a fight with Craig Montgomery. Paul was brought to the same clinic as Rosanna. In his coma, he met Rosanna at the place between life and death. Paul woke up, asking for Rosanna. He went to her bed, pleading he to wake up. After he left her room, she woke up, smiling and saying his name. Paul promised her they would punish Craig for what he had done to her. A few weeks later, Craig received a call from the clinic, with the news that Rosanna has woken up and left the clinic. Craig became frightened, but it was too late. As he turned himself, he saw Paul Ryan, wheeling Rosanna into the room.

From that moment on, Craig has been trying to get into the good graces of Rosanna, but she wasn't interested. All she wanted was to be with Paul and get back at Craig for what he had done to her. Rosanna soon learned about the on and off relationship between Paul and Meg. She saw Meg as a threat, but when Paul married her on Halloween 2007, Rosanna was relieved and believed nothing could come between her and Paul anymore. However, Rosanna noticed Paul was still in love with Meg, so she met with Craig and demanded him to get Meg pregnant as soon as he could. A few weeks later, Meg was indeed pregnant. Both Craig and Rosanna were happy about this, until Rosanna learned that Megs baby wasn't Craig's, but Paul's. Rosanna switched the result of the tests that were done to find out who the father was. Meg and Craig heard that Craig was the father and once again, Rosanna feeled safe now that Meg was bonded to Craig. Unfortunately for Rosanna, Craig found out the truth and discovered that Meg had cheated on him and the baby was Paul's. Craig fell back into his old habits and is currently looking for medication that will cause a miscarriage with Meg. On January 29, Rosanna slipped back into her coma.

Controversy

Actress Cady McClain was upset with the direction Rosanna's character went during her return. When asked how her exit was in an interview with "Soap Opera Weekly", she said, "Let’s put it this way: As the person who plays this character, it was an emotional hysterectomy. Rosanna’s womb, adopted child, and business exited stage left. Apparently, there was nothing left to take but her dignity." She later added, "I don’t know. I cannot understand why in a medium that caters to women, intelligent female characters have to be set up to be stupid and emotionally impulsive… 'punished' for actions they would never have taken without a gun to their head… and left begging and pathetic. As an actress, it was not romantic. It was embarrassing. Almost as bad as the pancakes, and that’s saying something. I have to wonder what the hell is going on these days. Are strong, smart women so threatening that they have to be vilified? I think they should be celebrated, but what do I know? Maybe I need a boob job." [http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd196/Leeanne_99/sow080115.jpg]

External links

* [http://www.soapcentral.com/atwt/whoswho/rosanna.php Rosanna Cabot] at [http://www.soapcentral.com soapcentral.com]
* [http://www.soap-news.com/atwt/c/rosannacabot.htm As the World Turns CAST - Rosanna Cabot]
* [http://www.sonypictures.com/atwt/cast/char_r_cabot.jhtml As The World Turns's Rosanna Cabot profile] at [http://www.sonypictures.com sonypictures.com]