Moira must be a great actress.  My first viewing of FWWM was marred by the thought of "toe pick" for the first five minutes that she was on the screen, but eventually that passed and I came to accept her as Donna.  LFB was the real Donna, but I'm not sure anyone else could play imitation-Donna as well as Moira.

Easy, make Jean Renault shoot first so Coop doesn't have a choice and has to kill him... I mean, obviously Coop wouldn't shoot first, he'd first try to arrest him, right?

I'm just kidding, man, it's just that your Donna changes are IMO far better done than Han Solo moving and Greedo shooting first...

Did you know that Lara Flynn Boyle desperately wanted the role of Audrey from the start, and the reason she was able to be vampy with the cigs and shades was because she was jealous of Fenn'ss media image and Lynch showed pity by writing her to be a little sexier? (It probably didn't come free... ;) )

Funny how everyone mentions that The Cutting Edge detracted a little from accepting MK as Donna, but no one mentions Wayne's stalker ex in the neckbrace from Wayner's World talking about LFB!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcntsWDtyEM

I don't think Boyle wanted the role of Audrey. She got the lead part, and with the romance.  Certainly front and center.  Audrey and Shelly (and others) weren't as thought out initially, and certainly on paper, Donna is the prime character a young actress wants, hoping the show gets picked up as a series.

And probably while filming the first season, she was perfectly happy -the character is active on paper.  But while it aired and it was gaining a lot of popularity, and the public was responding to Audrey, it probably set off angling.

Again, I wasn't guessing. This bit of trivia is direct from my sources.

LFB preferred here.   Moira in the topless scene though!

MK was great but she served an entirely different purpose to the Donna's developing character in her role in FWWM than LFB did in the series. Moira's Donna spent all her screen time trying to draw Laura and herself closer and I saw nothing of the deepening link between her and James. Lara had the opportunity to stretch her character from the best friend to lover to understanding woman waiting for her man to return.Two acting instruments playing for different effects to advance the plots.

If Moira had played Donna in the scene where Mr. Smith threatened Donna with violence, then as an audience member I would have expected her to deck him with extreme measures that might have led him to a career singing in the local  boy's choir. Different actresses palying different aspects of a developing character.