Gina Russo

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Gina Russo
First appearance	Kurt Dempsey (episode 1.05)
Last appearance	Willy Ward (episode 4.14)
Information
Gender	Female
Age	38
Occupation	Real estate saleswoman, former owner of De La Mer
Children	Wilbur
Portrayed by	Jessalyn Gilsig
Created by	Ryan Murphy

Gina Russo is a fictional character in the American television series Nip/Tuck. She is portrayed by Jessalyn Gilsig.

[edit] Character history

She is a bitter, troubled sex addict, and is often the foil to Christian Troy. She and Christian met at a Sexaholics Anonymous meeting, where they began a love/hate sexual relationship initiated by Christian when he breaks Gina's months-long vow of celibacy for a one-night stand, incurring Gina's wrath against him for months.

Gina has Borderline Personality Disorder. She alternates between adoring Christian and calling him names. She also suffers bulimia, sexual addiction, self-hatred, fear of abandonment, self-destructiveness, sarcasm, rage, bitterness and a tendency to profanity at minor setbacks. As a spiteful wedding gift to Christian's fiancee Kimber Henry she wraps up the diaphram she used with Christian. She arrives uninvited to the wedding dressed in a low cut white dress to upstage the bride. She is also dissociative to the point of forgetting she had sex with the real father of her child. Her Sexaholics Anonymous group calls this "Blackout Sex." A major plot twist occurs when Wilbur, whom Christian believes is his son, is obviously not his son at birth because Wilbur is African American.

Gina believed she was carrying Christian's child, conceived from their one-night stand. This seemed to spark a tremendous change in Christian who decided he wanted to be the best father he could to the child. The pair only found out in the delivery room that the child was not his because baby Wilbur was half-black. Christian still vowed to raise him as his own, but when he tried to take sole custody from irresponsible Gina, she tracked down Wilbur's biological father, James Sutherland, an older married man from Arizona. James initially took Christian's side and agreed to give up custody rights to the baby so Christian to raise the child, but he later recanted and won custody of Wilbur, taking away the one thing that brought Christian and Gina together.

Gina later tries to have a second child by inviting a group of men over for a "Conception Party," in which they have group sex — the idea being that a large volume of semen from multiple partners ensures conception.

Months later Gina revealed to Christian she was HIV-positive, which forced Christian to rethink his life as he called up every girl he has had sex with since his relationship with Gina began to warn them, and then tracked down James and Wilbur (who had since been renamed Gabriel) so they could be tested - all three were HIV-negative. James convinces Christian to see the good in Gina, and he eventually forgives her. Christian ends up paying for Gina's HIV medication (upon finding out that she was without any health care and was not on any HIV medication), and the rent on her apartment.

The two had since developed a friendship, though that quickly changed when Christian's money troubles forced him to stop supporting Gina. She soon found a way to support herself by embarking on an ambitious business venture with Julia McNamara, a surgical recovery spa called "De La Mer."

Gina finds a creative way to keep down costs on "De La Mer". Gina's self-destructiveness takes shape when she begins to offer oral sex to contractors and construction workers (male and female) in exchange for reduced fees. Julia is horrified and, for perhaps the first time, offers her validation and tells her she is too good to be doing such things to herself.

In the Season 3 Finale, Gina was attacked at Troy/McNamara surgery by the Carver, a masked serial killer who has taken a special interest in the partnership's clients. Later when asked by Sean and Christian, she explained that she was there to ask Christian to be her date. Christian refused, saying that he did not want to ruin their friendship.

At the beginning of Season 4, Julia explains that she sold out her share to Gina, leaving Gina as the sole owner of Spa De La Mer. Later in the season, Christian is given legal guardianship of her son, Wilbur (the child never did respond to the name Gabriel), after James Sutherland and his wife die in a car accident. Gina returned to fight for her own rights to her child, in episode 4.14 (Willy Ward), despite the fact that James' adult son explained that his father's will explicitly stated that Gina is to have nothing to do with the boy. Gina believes that since she has returned to success with real estate, and has sold Spa De La Mer for a large profit, she can also raise Wilbur. When Christian questions her HIV, and she says that "HIV is the new diabetes."

During dinner with Christian, Michelle, and Wilbur; Gina returns and tries to visit her son. Once she discovers Michelle is to be the new adopted mother, she becomes enraged and swears that she will have Wilbur. Later in the episode, Wilbur is kidnapped from the park by Gina. Gina later returns Wilbur, and she tells him she doesn't want to raise the boy as it would require to much effort to make him a proper young man. She complains that he has "potty mouth" to which Christian explains it must be genetic. Gina realizes that it isn't Wilbur that is missing from her life. She leaves him with Christian after giving him a toy firetruck.