If you do this:

msg(mary.alias)
game.pov = mary
msg(mary.alias)

You will find that Mary's alias is changed to "me". I can see why that happens, and it gets changed back when the POV changes again, which is all well and good, but I want to stop it happening. I guess somewhere something is watching for game.pov to change, but I do not know where. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I haven't tried this (and I can't til I get home), but have you set for Mary under Features that the object can become a player, and then under the Player tab set the alias?

I gave it a try, and it seems to work. Let me know if you have any trouble.

Ah, that was it. Thanks.