General Hospital News & Gossip

News for the week of 11-Sep-2006

by Carol Banks Weber

Tristan Rogers (Robert) called TPTB on so many lapses in storytelling, while calling attention to his own dismal re-entry in the latest ABC Soaps in Depth interview. Echoing the criticisms of many long-time fans and soap columnists, Rogers detailed the problem as a crisis in management, creativity and respect for the genre and the formerly #1-rated soap. Bringing back a few of the ‘80s icons – Anna, Holly, himself, Noah – and reaping the rewards of ratings’ spikes…it’s all meaningless if TPTB aren’t committed to using these familiar characters in stories with the other pre-existing characters, he said. Treating the glorious, nostalgic returns as merely isolated events (stunt casting) apart from the ongoing stories does nothing but insult the audience and waste the actors’ time. Rogers elaborated: “Finola came back, it was an event. Genie Francis comes back, it's an event. What's in between? This is very frustrating for somebody like me who knows what the show was and knows what it can be…. If you can't have a storyline, why bring them back? If you can't build anything on a long-term basis, you're just titillating the audience, and I think this audience is titillated out.” Furthermore, this isolation just makes him feel like TPTB would rather ignore their situation until they’ve done their part, they’re gone, and then get back down to business as usual.

Rogers doubts that even the much-heralded Genie Francis (Laura) return for November Sweeps will change the status quo of veteran neglect. He added that he wouldn’t be surprised if TPTB paired his and her character in a titillating bedroom situation, just for ratings, ‘cause, that’s what they do in soaps nowadays.

In the meantime, TPTB have two lead, veteran actors of GH who are quite capable of pulling off both dramatic and comedic roles equally well, in himself and Tony Geary (Luke). That they’ve ignored the serious stuff these vets can do in favor of eliciting laughs, Rogers said, is a damned shame. “We come along as this comedy relief. We should be there to enhance the story and not divert the story.”

Rogers weighed in on the returns and the lack of impact therein with Holly, Anna and relationships between Robert and Luke, and Robert and Robin, with the same accurate, scathing honesty. In his opinion, they totally misused and misunderstood Emma Samms’ Holly as a “gold-digging bimbo,” instead of the romantic, complex heroine she used to be, simply because they lacked the wherewithal to fully utilize her in character. Finola Hughes’ Anna has helped cement the Scorpio family cohesion, but with the actress on for just a little while, he doesn’t know what good that will do in the long run. His own character has suffered immeasurably at the writers’ hands, mischaracterized as this deadbeat dad to long-suffering Robin—a fact that bothers Rogers immensely. At least Robert’s trying to make up for the lapse, the actor said, but certainly doesn’t have a pot to piss in when reading Luke the riot act as the same deadbeat dad (at least Luke’s been there, off and on).

SoapNet released an interview with ABC Daytime president Brian Frons early last week about the Fall Previews that had the online hordes gabbing, rolling their eyes and burning proverbial effigies. Frons gave previews for each one of the ABC soaps, but held a special place for GH’s Luke and Laura fans with the announcement of their appearances at the annual November Super Soap Weekend in Florida’s Disney World. Genie Francis and Tony Geary are scheduled to show up for an event in their honor. In the rest of the interview, Frons gave L&L props but didn’t appear willing to give these and other GH vets their frontburner, storyline due. At least, that was the consensus of the SZ board posters who managed to click the interview link open (I couldn’t, and I tried five times).

Throughout the decades she’s been on GH as Monica Quartermaine, Leslie Charleson has had to deal with a lot of hair issues. Once, she forgot about continuity halfway through a haircut with her stylist. And then she had to rationalize the change to her producer boss by bringing up the four different Dawns (Monica’s daughter) the show’s gone through in the span of a short time, barely getting away with it. Another time, she had to match her stunt double’s larger head and small hairdo, so the hair department chopped three inches of her blonde locks, which made Charleson feel like crap. She had to hold that crappy feeling in until after the shot involving a fall. In the infamous marriage counseling sessions, Alan and Monica were instructed to beat each other up with soft bats as a way to expend their pent-up emotions. Both Charleson and Stuart Damon were allowed to really go at it in the scene, much to their delight. “It was one of the best therapy sessions I've ever had as far as getting aggressions out. We were in a room that was almost a padded cell.” –SoapOperaDigest.com, Features

For Carly, rejection is an everyday occurrence, met with a matter-of-fact acceptance and sense of doom. For Carly’s latest portrayer, a much healthier Laura Wright, rejection is uncommon and unheard of. This conflict between character and actress made playing the flashback scenes – in which previous actresses inhabited the role – in Sonny’s therapy sessions all the more difficult. At first, Maurice Benard (Sonny) laughingly couldn’t understand Wright’s inability to incorporate Carly’s resignation. Wright had to explain to him that she personally had a big problem with acting as the rejectee, because she could not conceive of anybody rejecting her wonderful self. So she really had to dig deep into Carly’s divergent psyche to bring that vulnerability out. Self-love “is not something I have a problem with,” Wright said, with a smile. –ABC Soaps in Depth

To most teenagers like Lindze Letherman (Georgie), hooking up means connecting with a cute boy and maybe kissing. That’s what Julie Marie Berman (Lulu) has heard too. But she and Scott Clifton (Dillon) did run into a bit of confusion over the latest meaning, because the term’s also been applied to making love. So when Clifton later heard Letherman talking of “hooking up” with a guy, he went a little berserk, assuming she referred to the making-love interpretation. They spent an hour on the subject, him dancing around it before Letherman had to reassure Clifton that she just meant kissing. If Clifton ever hears about “riding the wild horse,” or “moving furniture,” then maybe he should panic… j/k.

Kent Masters King’s (Lainey) psychiatrist father had always envisioned his daughter following in his footsteps. After all, she had what he saw as natural ability in the field, and what even she had to admit she (and her teachers) saw in herself as high school classmate after high school classmate would naturally lean on her with their troubles. Taking a psychiatrist’s turn on GH, as an actress, is the next best thing to being one, as far as King’s concerned. Her father’s pleased with the progress, coaching her when prompted along the way. King—who has been known to socialize off-camera with Kimberly McCullough (Robin) and Minae Noji (Kelly)—envisioned for her character even more sessions with the delectable Maurice Benard (Sonny), Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) and—dare she hope?—Tony Geary (Luke), Genie Francis (Laura). Since most everybody in Port Charles is running around with a screw loose…it’s not that out of the realm of possibility.

Laura Wright (Carly) plugs CARGO lip-gloss every chance she gets. She did at the July GH Fan Club Weekend, and in a recent Soap Opera Digest. It’s her makeup essential.

Her haircare essential includes the inexpensive Neutrogena conditioners. Whether it’s the Triple Moisture Deep Recovery Hair Mask or the Triple Moisture, Wright swears by the products; they keep her overblown, overstyled, overstraightened, overly dry in this California air hair in line.

Eddie Matos (ex-Ricky, PC) takes on the new role of Peter Marquez, a professor who could soon make eyes at Lulu. He starts on September 26.

Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) took over the spot as SZ GH Board’s “Most Reviled Celeb” with her recent comments to the press about her job satisfaction. She’s happy her bosses want her to remain on the show for the longer term. She then spoke glowingly in their favor by bringing up unappreciative soap actors (unlike her) who bitch about their jobs and forget how good they have it with the steady pay and benefits for those with families. Her detractors then bitched at her on the boards for coming off as snotty (presumably to the unappreciative soap actors) and hypocritical (since she herself has been known in the past to bitch about her job when she’s backburnered).

Robin Christopher (Skye) makes tracks back to PC, around the middle of October. Lorenzo makes Skye make tracks back, then hovers as their baby comes into this world. Can we say, custody fight? Luke and Robert will figure heavily in this huge story.

SoapNet presents a 25th anniversary special honoring Luke and Laura’s November wedding. Besides a special, the cable network will air a marathon of the couple’s past shows.

Billy Warlock (ex-A.J.; Frankie, DOOL) broke my heart by running off with Julie Pinson (Billie, DOOL; ex-Eve, PC) and getting hitched at Las Vegas’s Paris Hotel. (The nuptials were covered by mainstream press, PEOPLE.) They didn’t even invite me, only close friends – Ron Hale (Mike), John Ingle (Edward), best man Kin Shriner (ex-Scotty), Jon Lindstrom (ex-Kevin) – and family. Alas, theirs is a textbook fairy tale come true. They were supposed to marry in 1999, but backed out, years passed and their paths crossed again when both wound up at DOOL. Pinson even wore the same Vera Wang she’d planned to wear for their 1999 nuptials; she would’ve gotten rid of it back then, and tried through eBay, but there were no takers and Fate probably stepped in to keep the gown on hold for this special day. More details can be found by the smitten Daniel R. Coleridge, TVGuide.com senior editor, in his August 24th “Daniel’s Dish” entry. Like, their planned trip to Waikiki to do a SoapTalk together, and making it a kind of honeymoon.

Gossip for the week of 11-Sep-2006

by Carol Banks Weber

Jonathan Jackson won’t take back the role of Lucky Spencer, not now, not in the near future and certainly not in time for any Luke and Laura 25th wedding anniversary special. There isn’t enough money in the bank for this dream to come true.

Kelly Monaco (Sam) scored a gig on Jerry Lewis’s annual Muscular Dystrophy Labor Day telethon, whatever. She also might’ve scored a coup in the contract renegotiations, with her rumored request for time off to do other gigs.

While I cheered Tristan Rogers’ (Robert) forthright comments criticizing the direction of and overall writing of the stories in a recent ABC Soaps in Depth exclusive, I also had to question why he and every other ex-patriot agree to come back in the first place, knowing this could happen. Some of the ex-patriots are clueless about the backstage goings-on, as actors tend not to pay much attention to anything not right in front of their noses (or about them and their wonderfulness). But Rogers doesn’t strike me as that narcissistic type; he’s produced, written, been in charge of productions, he knows the score. Besides doing it for the fans and the money, I cannot fathom why any actor would subject himself to ABC Daytime’s BS machine.

More than a few fans are not-so-quietly lobbying for Matt Ashford (ex-Tom) and Billy Warlock (ex-A.J.) to return to GH, since they’ve been removed from the DOOL picture as Jack and Frankie, respectively. IMO, this would be asking for trouble, especially where Warlock is concerned. TIIC treated his character like crap. Why go back for more?

General Hospital News & Gossip, Copyright © 2006 Carol Banks Weber. Published by SoapZone.com / Jeff Jungblut. No part of this page may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed on this page are those of the author and may not be representative of SoapZone.com or its advertisers. Don't steal scoops.