“Ugly Betty” Producers Distance Themselves From Michael Brea

Producers behind axed TV dramedy Ugly Betty are trying to distance themselves from an actor who hacked his mother to death with a sword in the family’s Brooklyn apartment last month.

Despite reports that Michael L. Brea was a part of the show before ABC ended its four season year last April, Betty producers insists the murder suspect was simply one of many background extras used throughout filming.

Brea was arrested on Nov. 23 and charged with murder after his mother Yannick Brea was found beheaded and stabbed to death at her New York apartment. He was mentioned in headlines as the “Ugly Betty actor” as details of the brutal scene unfolded. But the show’s second assistant director Jim Nickas is adamant the actor has been too closely tied to Ugly Betty -– revealing he worked only as a background extra in one episode of the series in 2009.

“He worked two days on the first episode we filmed (for) Season Four,” Nickas told The New York Post Tuesday. “We have 90 background actors the first day and 70 the second day. Some (posing as) restaurant staff, but mostly patrons. So it is pretty lame that the headlines have read: ‘Ugly Betty actor Michael Brea.’”

Nickas admits he had “never heard” of Brea before consulting the show’s casting records, adding, “He has also been reported as being on ‘Step Up 3D,’ which is kind of funny because my wife worked on that movie, and she didn’t remember him, either.”

Brea, who was arraigned on second-degree murder charges on Friday, has confessed to slaying his mother in a religious sacrifice, insisting he was “doing the work of God.” Brea had been dabbling in Black magic in the weeks leading up to his mother’s death. The day of the attack, he says, a man approached and tried to put a curse on him, and then strangers began speaking to him about his mother as he rode a subway to the apartment he shared with her.

Relatives issued a statement after Yanick Brea’s death expressing their support for her son, whom they called “a compassionate, gentle, intelligent, spiritual and loving man” in need of help.

“His family and friends know, without question, that Michael was not well in the moments leading to (his mother’s) death,” the family said.

Michael Brea is being held without bail and is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Manhattan Bellevue Hospital. His next court appearance was set for Dec. 18.