Resignation Can Hardly Compete With News of Soap Idol’s Slaying

Brazilian politics has been compared to a soap opera. But the resignation of impeached President Fernando Collor de Mello could hardly compete Wednesday with the news that a ravishing soap idol was slain by the co-star who played her jealous lover.

The death of 22-year-old Daniela Perez, stabbed 18 times with a pair of scissors, perhaps was on more lips than the news of Collor’s sudden resignation Tuesday during his Senate trial for misconduct in office.

Perez’s body was found in a roadside thicket late Monday. Hours later, police arrested Guilherme de Padua, who plays her violently jealous boyfriend in the hit serial “Body and Soul,” Brazil’s No. 1-rated show.

De Padua, 23, had earlier gone to the murder scene to console Perez’s husband, actor Raul Gazzola, and Gloria Perez, the slain woman’s mother and a principal writer for the series.

On Tuesday, De Padua confessed, saying he killed Daniela Perez in his car after a heated argument. He claims she had insistently courted him and threatened to kill him if he refused her advances.

In another strange twist, De Padua’s wife, Paula de Almeida Thomaz, admitted she was in the car at the time of the killing. She said her husband took her to see Perez to prove the two were not having an affair.