LONDON: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz has been dropped from U.S. TV series Melrose Place.

The singer/actress landed the role of Violet Foster, a small-town girl new to Los Angeles, in the remake of the 1990s soap opera.

But Simpson-Wentz's part has now been cut from the show, along with co-star Colin Egglesfield's character Auggie Kirkpatrick.

Executive producer Todd Slavkin says, "We felt that once the murder mystery (involving their characters) was resolved, the tone of the show was going to shift … and (Simpson-Wentz's) character would move on.”

Simpson-Wentz and Egglesfield took the news "like professionals" because they were warned they could be dropped from the programme.

Slavkin says, "They knew ahead of time (that leaving was a possibility); it wasn’t a complete shock.”