Lily has been a character for maybe 20 years. She always been mixed-race and although she usually ends up in relationships with white guys, my take is that the Y&R writers long ago decided not to portray racial tensions with any character. Neil was just one of the town’s business/personal friends and associates, as have been Devon, Nate and Elena. But in giving Lily mixed-race children when she was married to Cane, and same with Devon’s child Dominic, the producers are not erasing race—they’re accepting, and not making it divisive.
I thought the Audra actress was Iraeli at first—her accent is strange—didn’t register with me as Latina until I looked her up. The character had been in London, so I guess they made her a corporation exec/world citizen instead of an ethnicity-clinger like the Rosales clan from Miami. But it is possibly “whitewashing” that they gave her a European last name, unless it’s part of some yet-to-be revealed back story. I’m not fond of “user” characters, so she hasn’t yet won me over as an actress, as Mishael Morgan eventually did. Morgan was one of the most talented actresses on Y&R from the past decade.
ATWT produced big screen stars Meg Ryan, Marisa Tomei and Julianne Moore, and a bunch of Hollywood B-listers and TV stars—Jordana Brewster, Billy Magnussen, Steven Weber, Ming-Na, Jason Biggs, Danny Pintauro, Tamara Tunie, plus lots of other soap players; and they used to have frequent cameos from established stars. As for Y&R and B&B — Braeden had a bit part in Titanic; can’t recall anyone else breaking out. But it does look like budgets have been severely cut.
Iraeli = Israeli