Eva Longoria Vs. Victor Newman From ‘The Young And The Restless’ Is The Celeb Blood-Feud You Didn’t Know You Needed

We don’t talk too much about straight-up soap operas by that label here. Yet to be very honest, a lot of recent prime-time shows have made their mark while tossing out soap-operatic flourishes like it ain’t no thing (and also sliding those flourishes under the “Shakespearean” label). Don’t tell me that the power plays of Succession (including that d*ck pic) are anything less than soap operatic while couching it as being of The Bard‘s influence. The same goes for Sons of Anarchy and a wealth of other prime-time dramas. Heck, 1883 star Sam Elliott even compared Yellowstone to a 1990s soap opera, although those may have been fighting words.

Speaking of fighting words, a patriarch of a long-running soap, The Young & The Restless, is currently displeased with Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria for what she said about her time on the show. Eric Braeden has been portraying Victor Newman since 1990, and he’s very protective of his show, it seems. Eva recently sat down with Chris Wallace (for CNN), and he had dug a clip of her 2001-03 Y&R time, which included high drama with Paul going off on Eva’s character (Isabella) over her claim that Cricket was dead.

Wallace and Longoria then discussed how she moonlit as a headhunter during her Y&R time to make ends meet. She also explained why she hid her involvement with Y&R. Here’s her full quote; we’ll circle back below:

“When I got Young & the Restless, it didn’t pay enough for me to live off being an actor. So I continued being a headhunter and Young and the Restless. And I would hide the fact that I was on Young and the Restless to my clients because they didn’t want like a dumb actress handling their accounts. And one time one of my clients was like, you look like a girl that I’ve seen on a soap opera [and I denied knowing anything] … I was like the opposite of a publicist’s dream because I was like, ‘Don’t tell anyone I’m on that show.” Because I was, you know, still making more money on my day job.”

It appears that the “dumb actress” part has set off Victor Newman, I mean, Eric Braeden. He was so incensed about this, in fact, that he took to Twitter and put her on blast:

“EVA LONGORIA: you just made derogatory remarks about daytime actors! You simply weren’t good enough to survive the pressures of this medium! You were very lucky to get on that “housewife” show! You did one show in 8-12 days, with mediocre but salacious dialogue! Our actresses … Would run rings around you!! And they did then!! From Robert di Nero to whoever they all are, many of them started in the medium you denigrate! It shows a complete lack of class!!”

You can totally hear the palpable disappointment in Victor Newman’s voice, yes? The man knows how to put people in their places, alright. Here’s what happened when one user tried to tell Eric Braeden that he had “misunderstood” Eva’s words: “I didn’t misunderstand a damn thing!!!”

https://twitter.com/DarlaKay15/status/1637602972611018753

And a feud is born. Cue the vintage Y&R clips because people can’t get enough of angry Victor, no matter the decade.