In Brazilian soap opera, a shot heard round the city

The company got the go ahead to film only after Rio's mayor stepped in saying that to refuse was tantamount to censorship.

The disputed scene aired Saturday. But Machado will die next week, after hovering between life and death for several suspense-filled days.

The urbane and genial Mr. Carlos, who is famous in the competitive world of soaps for his intrepid broaching of the hot issues of the day, was delighted by the controversy over Machado's death.

A well-known face at Leblon's newsstands, coffee shops, and supermarkets, Carlos understands middle-class Cariocas - as residents of Rio are called - and knows they fear being hit by a stray bullet.

Although neither Carlos nor Mr. Fernandes can recall anyone ever being killed by a stray bullet in Leblon, a report from the Instituto DataBrasil earlier this year showed that being struck by a stray bullet is the second greatest fear among Cariocas, after being assaulted or robbed.

Carlos said he came up with the idea to kill Machado by wayward bullet after reading the tragic story of a 19-year old nursing student who was hit in the jaw while standing at the entrance to her university. The bullet, believed to have been fired from a nearby favela, lodged in the girl's head, rendering her paraplegic.

That incident, coming hot on the heels of several others in which cars were peppered by stray bullets as they drove a main highway that skirts Rio's favelas, was enough to prove the problem was worth including in his drama, Carlos says, despite protests from authorities.

"This is so real," says Carlos. "It's in the papers every day."

"It's hypocrisy to think that a stray bullet is going to harm the image of the city. What has caused controversy is that this is taking place in Leblon, a neighborhood considered a paradise. When this happens on the North Side, the rich don't care - it's [as relevant to them as] a war in Bosnia.... I simply want to show that people are wrong if they think that this is happening only far from them."

Many of the hundreds of people who turned out to watch the controversial scenes being filmed agree.

Dismissive of authorities who tried to ban the offending scenes and angry at the government's inability to make the city a safer place, they say officials need to pay more attention to the realities of life in "the Marvelous City."

One woman says they could start by watching "Women in Love."

"The soap opera is portraying the reality," says Marcela Faria, who took her daughter to see the scenes being filmed.

"Perhaps showing this on television will force the authorities into producing some results. Unfortunately, stray bullets are part of our reality. What they're doing now is not nearly enough."

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