Exclusive: General Hospital’s Chloe Lanier on Why ’90s Tabloids Got Mary Jo Buttafuoco’s Story Wrong: ‘She’s Not the Punchline, She’s the Hero’
Friday, January 16th, 2026
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The Amy Fisher–Joey Buttafuoco scandal, which defined 1992, exploded in the tabloids the same year General Hospital alum Chloe Lanier was born. Now, she’s helping Mary Jo Buttafuoco reclaim her story in a new Lifetime movie, I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco — and it’s from a perspective TV audiences have never seen before.
The movie, which premieres on Saturday, January 17, alternates between Mary Jo’s first-person narrative and Lanier’s portrayal of the often misunderstood wife of Joey. She was shot in the face by 17-year-old Fisher, who was having an affair with Mary Jo’s then-husband. With the bullet still lodged in her neck, the traumatizing event left her face partially paralyzed and her left ear deafened.
Lanier admitted to Soaps.com in an email interview that she “had actually not heard of this story before,” but her boyfriend, General Hospital actor Josh Kelly, had. She added, “He ordered these original People magazine copies from that era. As I soon discovered, this story was everywhere!” Still, that era of tabloid journalism painted a caricature of Mary Jo and her painful journey; it was up to Lainer to paint her in a new light.
“I tried to pick up on her cadence or particular mannerisms from various stages of her life. Then, I dove into her book [Getting It Through My Thick Skull], which is absolutely incredible,” Lanier wrote while revealing that Mary Jo’s “life was not all sunshine and roses before the infamous Amy Fisher encounter that forever changed her life.”
Lanier didn’t meet Mary Jo until the end of the Lifetime production, but she described her as “one of the loveliest, kindest souls” who “seems so at peace now” after her ripped-from-the-headlines past. That’s the person whom she wanted to capture, so viewers could understand why Mary Jo chose to stand by Joey after “something so unimaginable happened to her without her consent.”
“There’s a moment in the movie where Mary Jo grabs Joey’s hand in the aftermath of the shooting, where all these reporters have gathered outside their home when she’s released from the hospital,” Lanier recalled. “At that point in time, she was so committed to him, still under his spell, and in too much pain, physically and emotionally, to see through his lies. She found strength in that moment, standing by her husband. For better or worse, they were in it together.”
here are new details revealed in the film, including Mary Jo’s pill addiction battle and how she dealt with the fact that “her husband betrayed her on the world stage.” But Lanier is here to help Mary Jo change that public narrative with I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
“My heart breaks for what she endured, but I’m also so proud that she’s on the other side of it, free from the shackles of the past and is in such a great place today,” Lanier shared. “She’s not the punchline; she’s the hero.”
I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco premieres on Saturday, January 17, on Lifetime, or stream it the next day.
