A lei do amor

**"A Lei do Amor"** is a Brazilian telenovela written by Maria Adelaide Amaral and Vincent Villari for Rede Globo. It's an original story and it aired from October 4, 2016 to March 31, 2017. It concluded with 155 episodes. The main stars are Cláudia Abreu and Reynaldo Gianecchini.

## Synopsis

In the 1990's, Pedro and Helô are a young couple in love that come from different worlds. Pedro is the son of the rich and ambitious entrepreneur Fausto Leitão and Helô comes from a poor family; her mother Cândida suffers from terminal illness and her father Jorge is an unemployed alcoholic.

Jorge was unjustly fired from Fausto's firm and in a desperate attempt he tries to rob his boss. He gets arrested and shortly after dies in prison. Although she nurtures great love for Pedro, Helô can't forgive his father and vows to avenge him. Before she succeeds, Fausto's wife and Pedro's step-mother Magnólia breaks up the young couple thanks to her husband's secretary Suzana who seduces Pedro. After the relationship ends, Pedro leaves Brazil.

20 years later, Pedro returns to his native town and his father wants to come clean and admit that he and Magnólia separated Pedro from Helô. Helô is now married to the ambitious Tião and they have two children, Leticia and Eduardo.

On the other hand, Fausto is now feeling sorry for succeeding in his enormous business thanks to corruption and dirty political schemes. He and Suzana, who has been his lover for over 20 years, suffer a car accident which leaves Suzana dead and Fausto in a coma. The accident was ordered by an unknown man who wants to bury Fausto's business and political career.

Helô and Pedro meet again and promptly start to renew their love.

## Trivia

* Working titles were *Sagrada familia* and *Lobo do amor*.
* Telenovela was scheduled to premiere in March 2016. Due to the fact that one of the main themes of the show was politics, the director of Globo's television department Silvio de Abreu decided to postpone 'A lei do amor' for October of the same year when Brazilian elections came to an end.
* Giulia Gam was considered for the guest role of Suzana, however the producers decided to cast Regina Duarte and Gabriela Duarte (who in real life are mother and daughter) in two different phases of the telenovela.
* Carol Macedo, Daniel Rocha and Caio Paduan were considered for the roles of young Yara, young Augusto and young Ciro, but were later replaced with Bruna Moleiro, Hugo Bonemer and Mauricio Destri. Rocha was later cast in a different role.
* Gabriel Braga Nunes, Dan Stulbach and Paulo Vilhena were considered for the role of the villain Ciro, but Thiago Lacerda ultimately got the role.
* Domingos Montagner was considered for the role of Tião, but was instead cast in 'A lei do amor's predecessor 'Velho Chico'.
* The telenovela marks Denise Fraga's return to the genre after nearly 16 years. The last telenovela she appeared was 'Uga Uga' in 2000.
* First telenovela for Isabella Santoni, Amanda Mirasci, Arianne Botelho, Bruna Moleiro, Carolina Lopez, Danilo Grangheia, Érico Brás, Gustavo Merighi, João Campos, Marjorie Bernardes, Matheus Fagundes, Paulo Lessa and Rafael Lozano.
* Renato Góes was announced, appeared in promotion material and got to record a scene in which his face was not shown as a motorcycle guy Gustavo. The actor eventually was relocated to another production (telenovela 'Os dias eram assim') and was replaced by Daniel Rocha.
* Due to low ratings and some critiques that the show had to many characters, the authors wrote out a few characters off the show. Mauricio Machado (Nacib), Arianne Botelho (Aline), Rafael Primot (Pascoal) and Otávio Augusto (Venturini) left the telenovela at the end of 2016. Armando Babaioff (Bruno), Mônica Torres (Lia), Rafael Lozano (David) and Paulo Lessa (Marcão) were written off in January 2017. Botelho's, Augusto's and Babaioff's character ultimately returned during the telenovela's final episodes.
* Actress Bruna Hamú (Camila) discovered she was pregnant when the telenovela started airing. Due to her pregnancy, her character was scheduled to leave the show before the end of telenovela. She left in January 2017, however she also returned during the telenovela's final episodes.
* 'A lei do amor' ended up embittering the second worst rating in the history of Globo's primetime soaps, with a final average of 27% in São Paulo, losing only to 2015's telenovela Babilônia (25%). 'A lei do amor' was presented as a "traditional one". However, the most it managed to get closer to it was through the various references to old productions of the same author, which sounded more like a nostalgia tool for viewers than as a homage.
* The names of the characters of Titina Medeiros (Ruty Raquel), Otávio Augusto (Senator Venturini) and Rafael Primot (Paschoal Ferreto) are allusions to famous telenovela characters: the twins Ruth and Raquel from 'Mulheres de areia', Lázaro Venturini from 'Meu bem meu mal' and the Ferreto family from 'A proxima vitima'.