Philomena Balducci (nee Montefiori) is a comic relief character on the series, Harpers Falls: New Beginnings.
She was originated by veteran actress-singer-comedienne Kaye Ballard, who is perhaps best known for her role of loud-mouthed matriarch Kaye Buell on The Mothers-in-Law and as equally loud-mouthed restaurant owner Angie Pallucci on The Doris Day Show; but when her contract ended and she decided to retire, veteran actress Renee Taylor, best known for her role of Sylvia Fine, Fran Drescher's on-screen "Ma" on the series, The Nanny, was cast. However, when she decided it was time to move on and retire, veteran actress and comedienne Mitzi McCall, best known for her role of Fran Lipschitz on the Police procedural series, Silk Stalkings, took over the role. When Mitzi herself retired, she recommended comedienne Ruth Buzzi, best known for her long association with the series, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In to take over the role.
"I never thought I would be back in demand acting again," Ruth smiles her famous toothy smile, "I was so pleased to hear that this role would be right up the ol' comedy alley. I know Albert had been wanting to work with me for so long, as he has always loved my work. He tells me that me and Jo Anne (Worley, Wanda Madison) are two women that can really make start him laughing hysterically! Because he likes our special brand of screw-ball humor, and also the three of us are really quite screwball to begin with!"
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The lovable loud-mouth![]
Born in the highly Italian populated North Boston area, Philomena Montefiori knew what it was she wanted. And what she got, certainly wasn't what she was looking for. The passionate, very outspoken and extremely loudmouthed Philomena wanted to marry Tony DiBello, a handsome and very wealthy young man whom she attended school with, but what she wound up with was a dull and weak-willed man called Annunzio Balducci, a cod fisherman from Gloucester!
Annunzio was a character she couldn't deal with and also couldn't stand at times, although she clearly did love him and tried to make the marriage work. They married in 1942, while he was on leave from the Navy, and they would have two children, Rocco and Angelina. Rocco was a lot like his mother. He was outspoken and very loud and bonded with his mama, while Angelina was a shy violet like her weak-willed father was.
In 1979, Philomena had had enough of his weakness and she divorced him. Annunzio passed away in 1988. Rocko was clearly on his mother's side; while Angelina was on her father's side. Rocco, her oldest, lives in Philadelphia, and was married to a woman named Eileen O'Reilly, and has three children of his own. Philomena loves her grandchildren, Maureen, Antonio and Sean very much, but she has a huge problem with her Irish Catholic daughter in-law, Eileen.
Oftentimes as not, the two very outspoken women argue over Rocco's life and also how she raises her three children. Maureen is a very beautiful debutante, but has a lot of animosity towards the Church and especially her overbearing mother, and in a way takes after her grandma and her dad by her outspoken demeanor and her passion, although she embraces her Irish side of her heritage. She is also an outspoken liberal, and proud of it, the sign of that being her blue hair; Antonio is very macho, embracing his Italian side of his heritage and thinking himself to be a real lothario; while Sean, the youngest, is quiet, introspective and, while equally passionate, is also gay.
While both his dad and Grandma understand him and his sexuality and have openly embraced it, Eileen didn't, and was very outspoken about it. She has often sent him to conversion therapy, which angers Rocco and Philomena (and has put a strain in her marriage), as well as his protective older brother, Antonio, who despite his constant womanizing and chauvinistic ways towards women, is very protective of his brother. (Antonio, in fact, has tried to have some of his gay friends go out with Sean.)
Antonio considers his brother to be off limits to insults by anyone, even his own mother and woe betide anyone who messes with him. Maureen also tends to understand Sean more than anyone else, and has argued and fought with her mother over Sean and his welfare as well.
On the other hand, the shy violet Angelina threw herself into the Catholic Church, and became a nun, to her mom's dismay. However, Philomena came to terms with it, because she knew that Angelina was happier as a nun than anywhere else. She goes by the name Sister Angela Mary Claire and is in a convent in Portland, Maine, where she had lived ever since she was a postulant.
After her divorce from Annunzio, she moved into a huge townhouse on Pinckney Street in Beacon Hill. She had lived there for nearly 30 years when the Harper family and their friends moved into the Louisburg Square area.
As she had become lonely, she reveled in the new neighbors and her tendency to meddle and nose her way into everyone's business became well known. She also is known for being loud and complaining about her no-good ex-husband, Annunzio.
Philomena has become a good friend to the family. She often has Patricia Wheeler and her sister, Joyce come over on occasion for tea. She sometimes will go over to Dylan Harper's townhouse and will cook a huge Italian meal for the residents of that townhouse. She's become such a huge part of the Harper family, that everyone has taken to calling her Aunt Philo.
Philomena tends to have a clash of wills with Richard Harper's former sister in-law India Harper, because both of them are over the top and off the wall. However, India and Philomena are good friends as well.
To her shock and surprise, her grandson, Sean, has come to Boston from Philadelphia for an extended visit. While Sean is still very much gay, he also has become involved with a group called Dignity, an LGBT Catholic organization. It was the suggestions of his grandmother and his father, as well as the support of his beloved brother, Antonio and his supportive sister, Maureen, that brought Sean to Dignity. Much later, Antonio and Maureen would themselves move to Boston themselves.
According to Sean, Rocco had finally had enough of Eileen's anger and harsh treatment of Sean specifically, and he finally went through the Church to have the marriage ended.
Happily, Philomena is pleased that Sean has already become involved in a circle of friends. She is doubly pleased that Sean has become friends with Dylan, his boyfriend, Adam Mathison; his best friends, Barry VanAnderman and Libby Atchison; Ryan Granville; Dylan's cousin, Roger Lambert and his boyfriend, Matt Ackerman. They have provided him a circle of friends and a group he can spend time with.
When the role was taken over by Renee Taylor (a real life Jew), the character was revealed to have become a converted Jew. After Annunzio's divorce, and his later death, she began to question being a Catholic, which she had been most of her life. At her advanced age, she began going to a Jewish temple in Boston, later converting to Judaism.
Philomena is a very progressive woman, and a marvelous addition to the Temple that she attends. While Rocco is most supportive of his mother becoming a Jew, his sister, the nun, wasn't pleased. She protested, but she would later come around and accept her mother's new religion.
However, despite her being Jewish, and having to watch the kosher rating of her food, she still cooks Italian for her friends. Although she knows they aren't Jewish, but that makes no difference to her. For in her mind, she counts the entire Harper family as a part of her extended family.
When her temple was disbanded, Philomena went on to a very liberal Unitarian Universalist Church located near the church's headquarters. Philo finds her niche beautifully, and she does her job well. She is a very beloved part of Beacon Hill society.