Ashlee Simpson evicted from Melrose Place

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Flash Forward

"Singer-turned-actress Ashlee Simpson-Wentz has been booted from the cast of the Melrose Place revamp less than two months after the raunchy drama's US debut.

The 25-year-old played Violet Foster, "a seemingly naive young woman who hides a dark side". According to Entertainment Weekly , her departure comes as part of a major shake-up of the series, which has struggled in the ratings since its premiere.

Simpson-Wentz's co-star Colin Egglesfield has also been let go from the series. Their characters will last be seen in episodes set to air in the States in January, shortly before the reintroduction of Heather Locklear's infamous Melrose character, Amanda Woodward.

Co-executive producer Todd Slavkin told EW that Melrose 's writers always planned to write Simpson-Wentz and Egglesfield out of the series as part of an ongoing murder-mystery plot.

"We always knew that this murder-mystery would end in episode 12. And we always knew that Violet would be instrumental in that as a suspect, and [Egglesfield's character] Auggie as well. And once that murder mystery was solved, [they] would go on [their] way," he said. "That was the original plan going into the development of the show."

Slavkin added that future episodes will see the new Melrose shift into "a much more fun, romantic, sexy upbeat kind of show"."