BN4 Real

HELEN MAYER
Indominable. Loving. Firm. Generous. Protective. Mother of the Year.
Helen idolizes Josephine Baker, and has spent most of her adult life trying to be like Josephine. She is a former actress whose biggest claim to fame was being one of the whores in the whorehouse scenes in SWEET SWEETBACK'S BADASSSSS SONG. She met Claudette's dad, Elliot at the SWEET SWEETBACK premiere party in 1971. They got married in 1972. They got divorced in 2008. Helen takes motherhood very seriously. She makes a point of being very involved in the lives of all her children. Sometimes a little too involved. Even though some of her children aren't always receptive to her input, she is confident that in the long run, they will appreciate her pro-activeness. She tends to be an enabler for Penny. She is very close with Penny, Claudette, Tom, Joanne, and Bebe. Her other five kids are estranged and live in Los Angeles. Helen has a secret plan to reel them back to the fold. She has an open door policy that applies to all her children, possible additional children, stray dogs, and her ex-husband, Elliot. Even though they are divorced, she loves Elliot and would do anything to make him happy - except for let him know she still loves him.

ELLIOT MAYER
Man with the twinkling blue-eyes. Womanizer. Fun-loving. Family man.
He's a former commercial real estate owner who had once been a multi-millionaire. He invested heavily in Blaxploitation films in the seventies. He made a few bad investments in the '90's and has just enough income from commercial rentals to live a quiet old age. Elliot fell in love with Helen the moment he made love to her in 1971. The thing is, Elliot has a breast appreciation that leans toward an addiction. Even though he has had his share of affairs, he treasures Helen as "the woman with the world's sweetest pH." Elliot mostly lives with Helen in their Brooklyn brownstone. Their standing agreement is that when either of them meets someone new, that person never "to conduct their trysts" in the family home. Elliot and Helen maintain a united front when their children are in trouble - even if they do fight 90 per cent of the time. Their motto is - the family comes first.

PENNY MAYER
Outspoken. Hot-tempered. Dramatic. A Momma's Girl. Prankster. Loyal.
Penny is eldest child in Mayer family. She is Helen's daughter from a previous marriage to a saxophonist who divorced her and became a Buddhist monk. Penny's a party promoter/event planner who has a list of friends and acquaintances that include the famous and the infamous. Penny has an unspoken rivalry with Claudette to be "Momma's favorite daughter" and she will go to any length to win the title. While Penny gets a kick from teasing and tricking her siblings, she would be the first person to defend her family against anything and anyone.

CLAUDETTE MAYER-LEWIS
Practical. The Good Girl. Wife. Mother. Pediatrician.
A woman with a secret desire to break away from her self-imposed "do right" status. The second child, she is the only biological daughter of her father Elliot and her mother Helen. Penny is her mother's child from a previous marriage. Her other siblings were adopted from the other continents - Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa. While, Claudette shares her parents' commitment to her family, she is closest to Joanne and Tom. Claudette is happily married to an ordinary man named Ron for five years. He's very predictable and reliable. They have a six month old baby boy, Eli. Claudette hates unpredictable, erratic behavior. She likes to feel in control of her environment. She will go to any length to keep or regain control. ANY.

BEBE MAYER
Sensitive. Funny. Emotional. Artistic. Genuine. Quirky. . Thoughtful.
Bebe is a mixture of neurotic and free spirit. The youngest of the Mayer family. Bebe is an aspiring actress who needs a push to actually pursue her intended career. Well, she aspires to a lot of things...she just needs a little push...and Penny is usually the first to offer one. Her passion for chocolate is legendary. She is very close to her father, Elliot. He's the one guy who gets her. He tends to show-up in the most unexpected places when she most needs a shoulder to lean on.

TOM MAYER
Dreamer. Adventurer. Protector of his eight sisters. Apple of his mother's eye. Appreciator of the female anatomy. Peace keeper. Aspiring world traveler.
Tom - bike messenger by day-dreamer by day and night. Some men are men's men - Tom is a woman's man. He's one of two boys in a family of strong minded women, so he can handle any female crisis that comes his way. He loves women in general, but he has a particular weakness for women who play hard-to-get. Tom two biggest dreams are to be a reknown bra specialist, and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. In the meantime, he races his mountain bike around New York City, works a variety of no-low pressure gigs, and works on diffusing explosive situations.

JOANNE MAYER-JORDAN
A life coach and yoga teacher. Indecisive. Cheesecake lover. Passionate. Neat freak. Germaphobe. The first to be adopted into the Mayer clan.
Her husband, Paul, died five years earlier, but Joanne wasn't willing to end their bond. So, with the help of a voodoo priestess, she cast a spell to keep his spirit bound to her in their apartment. Her greatest secret is that for 5 years since his death, Joanne has enjoyed the company of her husband's spirit in their home. Joanne's is the only person who can release his spirit from earth. Once a year, an hour before midnight on their anniversary, a portal to the spirit world is opened. If Joanne chooses to destroy the remnants of their wedding day, Paul's spirit will be set free. A part of her knows she should let him go, but she's not sure she is ready. She is on the brink of a major life change and it freaks her out.