Dora the Explorer has long been creepily forgiving of the cruel, crass world around her; no matter what Swiper does, she never loses her temper! It was inevitable that she'd lash out eventually, and so it has come to pass that the former voice of Dora is suing her parent company for exploitation. She's not only suing—she's allegedly holding them for ransom, with a deadline and all. "It's an attempted shakedown," a Nickelodeon source told the Post.
The parents of Caitlin Sanchez, the voice of Dora from 2007 till this year, claims that Nickelodeon pressured them into signing a nefarious contract that withheld millions from the child actress. "I've never seen as convoluted and inscrutable contract as I've seen here," Caitlin's lawyer, John Balestriere told the News, saying she was cheated out of "millions, perhaps tens of millions," and fired after trying to negotiate a better deal. The company shot back that the Fairview, NJ resident was paid fairly, more than $300,000 plus royalties from merchandising still to come. And she was fired because of hormones and maturity—her voice had changed.
However, according to Nickelodeon, there's nothing cartoonish in how her family has now stepped up pressure, vowing to "humiliate" the company if it doesn't give in to their demands and offer a settlement amount by 1pm tomorrow. If Nickeloden doesn't comply, the family threatens to begin "ramping up their prosecution of this matter," including filing a new complaint with more allegations against the network, and give Sanchez and her family the green light to do on-air interviews with the "literally dozens of television and radio programs." Already, Sanchez's lawyer released an audiotape from this summer of a Nickelodeon Vice President insisting the network wanted to continue using Sanchez to voice Dora until 2012.
