General Hospital News & Gossip

News for the week of 23-Jun-2003
by Carol Banks Weber

Three special scenes June 27, 30 and July 16 will feature three real-life breast cancer survivors relaying their unscripted stories in a group therapy set-up with Natalia Livingston’s character Emily. When Nikolas convinces her to add group therapy to her recovery, Emily finds herself incredibly touched to be among other young women who’ve had to struggle with the unbelievable diagnosis of the disease which is often extremely aggressive in women ages 20-39, as well as the leading cause of deaths as a result of cancer. Janine McMillion, Mary Petersen and Shannon Cole were all in their 20s or 30s when they discovered lumps, fielded doubts from doctors, discovered malignancies and sought treatment. GH’s PTB have conferred heavily with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in order to provide accurate, poignant and hopeful information to viewers through Emily’s fictional storyline. The seriousness affecting this overlooked youth demo prompted the Komen Foundation to begin its Young Women’s Initiative, kicked off last year, with resources, programs and outreach. For more information, call the Helpline at 1-800-I'M AWARE® (1-800-462-9273).

Soap opera executives tread dangerous territory when using controversial real-life issues as plot devices designed either to titillate bored, jaded audiences, or do major damage control to a growingly unpopular character. No other issue has suffered more, or been used as egregiously, as rape. It’s common practice for daytime’s band of idiots to redeem a fallen angel by violating her sexually (take the ultimate AMC failure, Kit Fisher, as prime example) or—in GH’s infamous case—present a dramatically instant opportunity for a bad girl, Elizabeth, to win a good boy’s, Lucky’s, heart.

Where TPTB fail, miserably, is in the follow-through and the recovery—far from neat, pat or quick. If they do touch on these essentials, they do so sparingly with only a short-sighted eye towards supercouple potential, not a chance for an entire community to band together and bond supportively, in meaningful interactions with veterans, newcomers and in-betweens, sharing past experiences and survival tips.

Insiders, actresses and pundits agree that this tendency exists, and can do a great disservice to the millions of viewers out there who either remain ignorant of rape’s traumatic life-long effects, or desperately require healing from a rape.

TV Guide’s Michael Logan thinks it’s a shame that in order to capitalize on a charismatic actor, (such as Tony Geary/Luke), the integrity and realism of an important social storyline must suffer. Glorifying the reformed rapist, skimming over the ramifications within months, ignoring the consequences, forgiving and forgetting way too quickly for the romance quotient of two beautiful-looking people...all these serve to worsen matters, the popular soap columnist explained. “It’s very, very hard to stay tightly woven into characters who have that soap-opera amnesia. It’s a slow toxicity that comes in and has you caring a little bit less and involved a little bit less, and the first thing you know, you’re missing Wednesday’s episode...”

Some actresses infuse the integrity and the reality way, way afterwards, regardless of the script, like ATWT’s Tamara Tunie (Jessica), through inflections, expressions, in how they react to the approach of men.

Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis), whose Santa Barbara character Julia also experienced rape, believes firmly in adhering to realism, but doesn’t necessarily see that as an exaggeration for melodramatic effect. “Keep [the rape story] believable and factual. You don’t have to milk the drama out of them. There’s plenty of drama there. Just tell it like it is. It’s bad enough.”

Truly dangerous, is this rationalization by many in the industry that it’s okay to fantasize everything, in pink, rosy terms, even rape. But as victims and their loved ones know all too well... that is NOT okay. It’s a veritable abdication of an intrinsic, inherent responsibility of those involved, from daytime president and executive producer, to the writers and the actresses. And near criminal in and of itself.

–Soap Opera Digest, “The Sounds of [Near] Silence,” June 24, 2003

Adoption, scuba diving and feeling the rejection before the welcome were just some topics Cynthia Preston (Faith) touched on as a celebrity guest during the second-half of the June 17^th airing of SoapTalk on cable channel SoapNet. Raised in Canada, Preston revealed that she was adopted, loved and appreciated her parents, but suffered from painful shyness as a small child, partly because of issues related to the first 10 months of her life under changing primary caretakers. She would cling to and follow her teacher around and try to ignore the other children making fun of her sitting behind her easel and sucking her thumb. Her mother encouraged Preston to be more outgoing with a self-improvement class that also gave modeling and poise tips, which then opened up a whole new world of opportunity, which then eventually led her into films and GH. Trying out for soaps turned into a testing ground for that childhood shyness, since, unlike mainstream projects, explained Preston, the daytime genre required auditioners to sign a contract and be updated on salary perks, making the lure that much more real, and getting her more invested than if she’d just gone in, done her thing and left without a backward glance. After failing to land a B&B role, then a GH role (as Summer), she went home very dejected, until a phone call the next day proved rewarding. TPTB loved her work so much they decided to create Faith Roscoe from scratch, patterned after her. When she’s not turning in consistently bravura performances on GH, she loves to scuba dive with her husband, who’s in the business behind the scenes, making animated characters come alive through puppet creations and puppeteering.

Seems everyone everywhere nowadays sports tattoos and piercings. Actors are no exception. As much of a pain in the ass as it is for the makeup department to cover up (if TPTB don’t want a character showing the actor’s body art), it’s as intrinsic to appearances and well-being as a good pair of shoes or a complementary hair style. Greg Vaughan’s (Lucky) honors his Choctaw Indian heritage, with a black bird symbol signifying protection and freedom on the high end of his back, which he acquired in his mid-20s in a two-plus hour ordeal. “I wanted to pretty much shoot the guy afterward [laughs].” He adjusted the original design, leaving several connectors out, giving enough of a hint of the bird without having to sit through two-and-a-half more hours of hell. And no, he advised, doing this under the influence won’t help. “It’s like picking a scab and then it’s like multiple bee stings at one time. You’d be bleeding from one side and then he’d go over to the other side and get that started.” His suffering didn’t always provide the desired effect; many fans assume his tattoo is just washable paint. [CBW: Humans!] –Soap Opera Digest, June 24, 2003

To Steve Burton (Jason), there’s a striking resemblance between Sean Kanan (ex-A.J.; Deacon, B&B) and Rick Hearst (Ric; ex-Whip, B&B). To Hearst, who gets ribbed constantly as The Dark-Haired Kanan, it’s probably personality-related. They’re both high-energy actors who command any room they enter, Hearst mused.

Professional celebrity journalists who interview for a living come across quite the dilemma, in daytime particularly: How to cover overly charted territory by asking questions these actors have never fielded before. It’s hard to avoid sometimes, as the inevitable queries on spoilers, favorites, How does it feel moments tend to pop up again and again. Several soap stars revealed their choices of questions they could do without, including Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis), who cited the “superlative” stuff: “‘Remember out of your whole life, what was the one thing?...’ Those always kind of throw me because I feel pressure. There are too many experiences to pick one.” And, she could certainly do without the tried-and-true of many a public event-related Q&A, i.e., “If you could play any character aside from your own, which would it be?” At least she’s not Eva La Rue (Maria, AMC), who had to deal with the ever-present “When’s Maria getting her memory back?” and “When are you coming back as Maria?” Perhaps soap writers should study Stuttering John’s wacky methods as a creative-refresher course on a different approach. –Soap Opera Digest, June 24, 2003

Gossip for the week of 23-Jun-2003
by Carol Banks Weber

Executive producer Jill Farren Phelps remains a sore point (or the victim of mean-spirited gossip) in the latest round of speculative upcoming hirings, firings and rearrangings in the illusory world of ABC Daytime. According to online scoopsters, certain veteran actors and actresses may stay, go or return, depending on JFP’s EP status, a particular actor issuing a particular ultimatum to speed up the Go on and get out! process. If she can be foisted off onto another soap or another network’s soap, maybe Kristina Wagner (ex-Felicia) and Genie Francis (ex-Laura) could be convinced to come back by September’s time, maybe Stephen Nichols (Stefan) could be convinced to sign on longer term. But that leaves co-head writers Charles Pratt and Bob Guza, still in charge, in some executive capacity, either as is or in promotions. Keep in mind, this comes from rumors already out there online, not from the monkeys flying out of my butt.

If Skye is no longer a Quartermaine, what does that make her now? A ... Cassadine? Or soon to be backburnered?

Canadian actress Cynthia Preston (Faith) addressed, politely and charmingly, online rumors of her mid-July ouster over – as Eye on Soaps’ columnist Sage put it, “some on-set drama.” In a recent ABC Soaps in Depth, she merely accentuated the positive of enjoying her GH co-stars’ company in whatever they’re doing related to the show. And, in Soap Opera Digest’s June 24^th issue, page 5, she addressed the contents of the rumor point by point. “Well, I’ve been replaced because of bad behavior on-set and a severe falling out with the executive producer. The latest I’ve heard is that I’m going to be gone at the end of July. You’ve just gotta laugh.” She did more than laugh at first, she actually started falling for it, especially when the rumor coincided with another that proved true: Summer’s Brittney Powell was let go. But after a fan reassured her with an e-mail account of Maurice Benard’s (Sonny) latest event where he talks her up and promises a huge story about her, Preston felt more job secure. The co-head writers have backed her up, insisting that she’s loved and she’s safe. For the record, the original rumor reported on by Sage never specified blame, at Preston or anyone else for that matter, or even mentioned JFP. There’s more to this story than meets the eye, and I’ve heard quite an earful on these specifics, but from I’m staying out of it, for my sanity.

Just a mere observation but: Didn’t Janine look slightly...um, younger? And isn’t Lydia so...um, amazingly well-endowed for such a skinny frame?

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