During the first two seasons of Mark Frost and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, one of the most enigmatic characters is never seen on screen. Special Agent Dale Cooper sends micro-cassettes to the mysterious Diane back at the F.B.I. Headquarters. Magically, she delivers ear plugs overnight when the Icelanders invade The Great Northern Hotel and offers unseen support to the Special Agent navigating the wonderful and strange small town. It would take 25 years before we see Diane Evans (Laura Dern) in the show’s third season, Twin Peaks: The Return. But there was a persistent rumor first published on August 30, 1990 that Carol Lynley was going to play Diane in the show’s second season. While this rumor was eventually addressed by series co-creator Mark Frost in 2014, let’s look back at how 1990s analog technology kept this rumor afloat for nearly two months.
GOSSIP COLUMNIST LIZ SMITH’S RUMOR ABOUT CAROL LYNLEY IN TWIN PEAKS ON AUGUST 30, 1990
Liz Smith (February 2, 1923 – November 12, 2017) was an American gossip columnist. Between 1976 and 2009, the “Grand Dame of Dish” wrote a self-titled gossip column for newspapers including New York Newsday, the New York Daily News and the New York Post that was syndicated in 60 to 70 other newspapers.
On August 30, 1990, she published a story in The Los Angeles Times about Carol Lynley was rumored to play Diane in the groundbreaking ABC Television show, Twin Peaks.
Carol Lynley Latest to Scale a ‘Twin Peaks’ Comeback
REMEMBER the beautiful blonde Carol Lynley, star of such classics as “Blue Denim,” “Bunny Lake Is Missing.” “The Pleasure Seekers,”
“The Poseidon Adventure” and one of the two movies about Jean Harlow that appeared in 1965?
We have not seen Carol much lately, not even on television, where she has worked for the past decade. But now the baby-faced perennial is expected to materialize on TV’s hot “Twin Peaks.” She’ll play Diane, the unseen presence to whom FBI man Dale Cooper (played by Kyle Maclachlan) dictates his observations about mur-der, Laura Palmer and cherry pie.
When Lynley achieves her place in the “Twin Peaks” cast, she will be joining Piper Laurie, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn and Peggy Lipton-all once-and-forever movie and TV performers of yesterday who are making a big return to public consciousness.
(Between “Twin Peaks” and “Murder, She Wrote,” every actor over 40 on the Screen Actors Guild lists will get a chance to be seen.)
It didn’t take long for Smith’s rumor to spread like wildfire. Since her gossip column was syndicated, newspapers across the United States also ran the story. The Palm Beach Post column shown above was published on August 31, 1990. It’s an exact copy of the article that ran the day before in The Los Angeles Times. The only difference is the Florida paper used a photo of Lynley from 1978.
THE RUMOR ABOUT CAROL LYNLEY SPREADS TO MORE PAPERS
Unlike modern social media and digital technology of today, newspapers in 1990 relied on wire reports and syndicated stories to help fill space. Sometimes, syndicated articles were copied word for word. Other times, as in the case of the “Making Waves” column from The Florida Times Union on September 3, 1990, the editor used staff and news services to generate a story. They included yet another different photo of Carol Lynley beside the report.
Hello, Diane …
At last, a face to connect with the name.
In addition to wondering who killed Laura Palmer on Twin Peaks, haven’t you also been interested in Diane?
Provided that you are, there at least will be a face to connect with the name this season, according to columnist Liz Smith. Diane, the person that FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle Maclachlan) speaks to via tape recorder on the ABC show, will be played by actress Carol Lynley.
Perhaps the heretofore unseen Diane Will have some insights of her own on who murdered Laura Palmer thanks to the countless taped observations of Cooper. She’ll certainly know where to go for cherry pie and coffee when – and if – she visits Twin Peaks.
Despite no official confirmation from ABC Television or Lynch/Frost Productions, papers continued to reprint the rumor late into September. This article in The Herald Times on September 22, 1990 announced the show’s return on September 30 and mentions Lynley would “play Diane.”
‘Twin Peaks’ returns Sept. 30
Fellow “Twin Peaks” freaks, do not adjust your set.
The mysterious and offbeat nighttime soap opera is not being broadcast Saturday, Sept. 22, as previously announced by the net-work. In fact, it’s not on this weekend at all. So take a break and get ready for the new season.
The two-hour season opener will be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 30, as the ABC Sunday Night Movie (8 p.m. on Ch. 1, 11, 38 and 9 p.m. on Ch. 6). Then it will resume to its normal Saturday night timeslot on Oct. 6 (9 p.m. on Ch. 7, 11, 38 and 10 p.m. on Ch. 6).
This season, viewers will learn who killed Laura Palmer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the crime will be solved. A lot of people were in the hospital or headed for one in last season’s conclusion, setting up a lot of new mysteries for this sea-son. Carol Lynley is going to play Diane, the mysterious person to whom FBI special agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) has been dictating messages.
Jay Bobbin from Tribune Media Service also mentioned Carol Lynley in a September 30, 1990 article titled, “‘Twin Peaks’ keeps mystery going”
As for new elements that Peaks addicts can anticipate this season, Frost and Lynch traditionally are keeping most details heavily under wraps, to the degree that the circulation of scripts reportedly has been limited only to the cast and crew members directly involved in each individual scene. However, one new factor will be the addition of Diane – the previously unseen FBI contact to whom Cooper is forever dictating tape-recorded messages – as a physical presence, to be played by veteran actress Carol (The Poseidon Adventure, Return to Peyton Place) Lynley.
Co-producer Frost adds that many subplots will be played out fully in shorter time spans, “so that people can come in (as first-time viewers and not feel quite so lost).
Most likely Bobbin took Liz Smith’s rumor as something of fact and weaved it into his article.
ROBIN ADAMS SLOAN’S GOSSIP COLUMN REPEATS THE CAROL LYNLEY RUMOR
Two days before the second season premiere, the rumor continued being published in newspapers. This time it appeared in Robin Adams Sloan’s Gossip Column.
The most interesting part about this columnist is that she is not an actual person. Sloan was a pseudonym and the column was written by various ghostwriters. So the paper most likely took Liz Smith’s original rumor from August 30, 1990 to answer this question from a reader.
Q: Actress Peggy Lipton made comeback in “Twin Peaks.” Will we be seeing any other actresses coming out of what seemed to be “early” retirement? – G.K.
A: Look for Carol Lynley to also join the cast of “Twin Peaks,” where she will play FBI special agent Dale Cooper’s secretary…
After October 21, 1990, the rumor about Carol Lynley disappeared from papers. The show had been on television for a few weeks and Diane had yet to appear. Perhaps newspapers just gave up.
MARK FROST ADDRESSES THE RUMOR IN A 2014 TWEET FROM WELCOME TO TWIN PEAKS
Decades later, Welcome to Twin Peaks (@ThatsOurWaldo) asked Mark Frost via a Tweet about the Carol Lynley rumor from the 1990s.
Frost was direct in his reply: “Never happened, never discussed it. Press agentry bs. Gee, that almost NEVER happens.”
On November 1, 1990, Carol Lynley in Fred Olen Rey’s Spirits. According to IMDB.com, Lynley played Sister Jillian in a film described as: “A priest, trying to regain his standing in the church after ‘falling’ and sleeping with a woman, teams with a group of ESP experts to investigate a haunted house. It doesn’t help that one of the experts is a beautiful young woman.”
That year, she also appeared on one episode of Monsters as Dr. Elizabeth Porter. In 1991, she would star in Howling IV: The Freaks.
Seeing the success of stars like Peggy Lipton, Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beymer, I wonder if her press agent at the time was trying to drum up interest by starting the rumor. Sadly, Carol Lynley passed on September 3, 2019 at the age of 77. She died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles, California.
We may never know how the rumor was started but it’s good knowing it was just that – a rumor of something never planned or discussed.
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