To be honest, until this story surfaced today, I had absolutely no recollection of Cathy Simms from The Office. I have listened to The Office podcast episodes, and I have read the Andy Greene book on The Office, but so far -- to my recollection -- Cathy Simms is never mentioned, despite the fact she was on for 12 episodes in the 8th season. She was the character who replaced Pam during Pam's maternity leave, and during the course of her arc, Cathy tried to seduce Jim, despite knowing he was married. When Pam returned from maternity leave, however, Cathy disappeared from the show and was never mentioned again.

No offense to Lindsey Broad, who played Cathy, but the character left absolutely no impression upon me, so much so that I'm not fully convinced she's not a product of the Mandela Effect. What's even more interesting is that, despite leaving very little impression on me, she apparently inspired a lot of passionate hate from other viewers. The enthusiasm people continue to have for The Office apparently cuts both ways, and again -- as they have so many times before -- people fail to separate character from actor.

To wit: In a brutal Instagram post (trigger warnings galore), Broad detailed how her dog was recently murdered by another dog in fairly explicit detail, as a sort of warning to others in the neighborhood to avoid that particular dog and its owner. The replies she received from fans of The Office, however, were not particularly sympathetic:

If anyone is wondering what it was like to be on The Office, the best comedy of this century: I just posted something on Instagram about how my dog was murdered and a bunch of people were like "Fuck you, Cathy, she deserved it!" So. There ya go!

— Lindsey Broad (@LindseyBroad) August 7, 2020

OK, but like: WTF? Lindsey Broad did not try and wreck Jim and Pam's marriage. That was a character. Her name was Cathy. If Cathy's dog were murdered by another dog, it still wouldn't be OK to tell her she deserved it, but the fact that this was an actual person and not a fictional character makes this so much worse.

Also, Cathy was on during Robert California's season, which may explain why I don't remember her: Robert California was so much worse that all of the other horrors of that season have been blocked out.

Source: KURP!