General Hospital News & Gossip
News for the week of 01-Feb-2010
Maurice Benard (Sonny) is stoked about what he views is some of the best material yet. More powerful stuff is coming down the pike since last Friday’s pivotal confrontation between the mobster and his long-lost undercover cop son, and the Emmy-award-winning, intense actor said he is playing it like Sonny’s undoubtedly headed to the slammer this time. He’ll imbue Sonny with a last-ditch desperation to connect with his children before he goes off in cuffs. This story will play out with a trial and everything.
Benard counted himself blessed, because he gets to work with some young, brilliant heavyhitters who play his sons, like Drew Garrett (Michael) and Dominic Zamprogna (Dominic/Dante). Both actors/sons hit it off with Benard immediately, enjoying an easygoing rapport that feeds off their stories and benefits the invested audience. Zamprogna—receiving tons of free press last week in anticipation of the undercover cop versus mobster fallout—stood out as Dante from the audition process. “When I auditioned with him, we had this confrontation scene and he was the only one of the Dantes who I felt was really gonna punch me out,” Benard reviewed. “There was this animal thing there. Damn he was great.” –TV Guide Magazine, “General Hospital: Is Sonny Heading For the Slammer?” by Michael Logan, January 28, 2010
Despite the initial confusion about Dominic or Dante, Dominic Zamprogna quickly grew into the dual role of his newcomer character, a man who has no idea where he comes from (as Sonny’s and Olivia’s son) but who knows how to do his undercover cop job almost too well (taking Sonny, the mobster, down). It helps to have veteran soap legend Maurice Benard (Sonny) on your side, that’s for sure. “Maurice was in my corner from day one…,” Zamprogna admitted, with awe. “We had a good audition experience together. Working with him is awesome! Maurice really gets into it, and he is an amazing actor.” Describing the intimidating Benard as always supportive, always helpful, always ready to raise the acting stakes, Zamprogna said they prepared for Friday’s confrontation, knowing they were headed toward something critical and momentous. Benard readied Zamprogna before their scene in Benard fashion. “He came up to me before we taped these pivotal scenes, and he said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s kill it.’ And we did, and the scenes were written so well. And Maurice is the kind of guy that if you stay with him throughout the scene it will be a roller coaster, and that is what it’s supposed to be.”
The confrontation scene itself required Zamprogna to fake a bravado he and his character weren’t feeling. This is Sonny Corinthos, the big fearsome, ferocious, and unpredictable kingpin Dominic was going up again. Zamprogna said he did the best he could, despite shaking in his shoes. He’s still amazed by how their work turned out. –Michael Fairman interview, January 29, 2010
One of the most endearing scenes between Dominic Zamprogna (Dominic/Dante) and Julie Marie Berman (Lulu) happened last Thursday, when the characters joked about her having blown his cover to Carly, Jason’s on his way to accomplish his hit, so they better get naked and get down to business quick. You could really see the deep regard and playful banter these two actors share on- and off-camera. None of that is faked, Zamprogna said. They really are good friends and they really do kid around with each other a lot. “It's easy to work with someone when you get along with them and can give each other crap and make fun of each other,” Zamprogna said. At first, with the pressure of having to make their pairing work, he wasn’t sure if he could produce. Then, he just left it up to fate. Fate smiled on him and Berman, as this pairing is super-hot and super-deep. –"Dominic Zamprogna's Big Reveal on 'General Hospital' | Breaking into daytime and the Corinthos clan" by Deanna Barnert, special to MSN TV
Almost everybody who’s seen last Monday’s confrontation between Lucky and Elizabeth/Nikolas fell apart at the seams from how superlative Jonathan Jackson’s acting was. He wasn’t simply acting a part. He was inhabiting a part, as all actors should. Even Maurice Benard (Sonny) made a point to stop and watch it unfold, and he came away impressed and proud. If you didn’t feel the JJ love and felt the uncontrollable, infantile need to mock him as a demon possessed with spliced video clips and hate-blather on message boards, my advice to you is to get your collective heads examined and perhaps engage in your own stagnant lives for a change of pace. Just sayin’…
When Carolyn Hennesy (Diane) first strolled onto the GH set as Sonny’s freshly hired legal mouthpiece, she had the audacity to get in her mobster boss’s face and raise her voice to him. Gasp! TPTB on high miked down to her to quit it and remember who she is. But after a few months, they had to take it all back and give her the leeway she deserved. “I’ve always equated Diane as speaking for the audience,” Hennesy told SoapTown USA’s Dawn in an interview posted last week. “Diane is saying the things that people are screaming at their televisions.”
Hennesy has ideas about her character’s next storyline direction and shared them with Dawn. A popular notion amongst fans is that Spinelli is Diane’s long-lost son, perhaps given up for adoption at birth. It’s a notion Hennesy readily embraces. She also embraces the idea of Diane and Alexis, or Diane and anybody going off on a dangerous adventure with subterfuge and disguises. “I would love to see more action, I would love to see Diane and Alexis, or Diane and anybody, really put on their cat suits and trying to save the day, being very stealthy, going undercover and getting into some serious danger. I’d like to see Diane and Alexis open their own law firm!”
In a January 29th Voice America interview, Tyler Christopher (Nikolas) remarked on last Monday’s powerful confrontation scene that he knew better than to pipe up with some smart-aleck remark. That was Lucky’s scene, Christopher basically said, and he as a character had no right and no business saying anything in any kind of pathetic defense. So Christopher had to just stand there and take it, which he did. Christopher also mentioned his newborn son as being way easy to take care of. The baby sleeps through the night and doesn’t fuss much.
Last week, around Wednesday, Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) happened to mention a website doing something creative and unusual for Haiti relief. Donate My Wedding Dress is a special project where the organizers receive people’s donated wedding dresses, maybe fix them up a little, then sell them. The money raised from the sale of the donated wedding dresses will go straight to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief. Married women are encouraged to donate their gently used wedding gowns (I have) and engaged women are encouraged to consider buying gently used wedding gowns from this project, save some pennies, while helping out a worthy cause. An even better idea for ABC Daytime’s soaps is to contact the Wedding Dress Project directly to make their own wedding gown donations from their characters’ past wedding wardrobes. Imagine how much Maxie’s non-wedding gown would go on the market, or Carly’s.
Lots of the Twittering GH cast pumped up the show’s new, official Facebook page. In it, fans can expect to read daily updates, behind-the-scenes perks and videos.
Check out ABC.com’s full episode player for added commentary from the selected cast. The new feature began January 29th with last Friday’s Dante/Sonny shooting and commentary provided by Dante’s Dominic Zamprogna and Olivia’s Lisa LoCicero.
Dahlia Salem (CastleTory Westchester) – a name made for soap operas – joins GH February 24 to play an FBI prosecutor, Claire Walsh. John Burke (Gossip Girl Bart Bass) will also play Everrett Dawson, and Dakin Matthews (Desperate HousewivesReverend Sikes), Judge Carroll.
Jennifer Lyons (Jennifer Biles), March 3, and Donald Agnelli (Jake’s biker), March 5. Agnelli was previously on GH as a biker and is married to Carolyn Hennesy (Diane).
Matthew Johnson portrays a friend of a much-younger Dante in a dream sequence February 2.
Adam Wylie shows up on February 3 as Officer Church to wrangle with Sam as she displays her wares for him in order to slip in back and steal Sonny’s gun, being held as evidence. Wylie is famous as a child actor.
Gossip for the week of 01-Feb-2010
John Burke (Everrett Dawson) may turn out to be Alexis’s old flame and dear ole dad to Sam.
Three cast members won’t see as much screen time as before, two of them have been demoted to recurring and a third opted out before a new contract was proffered.
If you assume the third is Tyler Christopher (Nikolas), you’d assume wrong, according to some sources.
Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) – who may or may not have gotten into a bit of a political debate with co-star Carolyn Hennesy (Diane), I don’t know for sure – wrote on her Twitter page January 26th that she isn’t allowed to discuss GH any longer.
Brandon Barash (Johnny) should receive a medal of honor for putting the hammer down on blogger Paul Shirley, who probably got more attention than he’d bargained for when he posted a January 26th, “If You Rebuild It, They Will Come.” The post basically raises questions about everybody blindly giving to Haiti relief without question: “My wariness has much to do with the fact that the sympathy deployed to Haiti has been done so unconditionally. Very few have said, written, or even intimated the slightest admonishment of Haiti, the country, for putting itself into a position where so many would be killed by an earthquake.” Shirley neglected to address the innocent Haiti citizens who’ve done nothing wrong, like its children, and how any of them are at fault for finding themselves in impossible situations beyond their control.
Here were some of Barash’s retorts:
>> @paulthenshirley All you did is secure yourself a seat in hell alongside Rush Limbaugh.
You said you wanted to make people think? about 2 hours ago from web
If you can't leave your footprint in the NBA, sure, why not piss on the rest of the world for your sort comings.
Still bitter that your NBA (career) broke the sound barrier as it flew by?
What a pathetic and abhorrent excuse for a human being you are. >>
Elizabeth resorts to suicide attempts (two of them, total) to solve her problems. Lucky catches her in the middle of her first attempt, but she covers. By the second, she’s shuttled off to Shadybrook for treatment, where she also learns she’s carrying Nikolas’s or Lucky’s child. When Luke (Tony Geary) heads back out of town to coincide with the actor’s semi-regular vacations, Lucky may tag along.
Despite fans demanding Laura come tend to her disintegrating family, TIIC refuse to listen. She’ll stay gone for at least three more months. And then?
Sam will serve as more than Jason’s ego boost in the coming weeks. She will star in her own story, apart from the mob, as well as show off her intelligence in saving Sonny’s bacon in the nick of time. But for now, the writers have to throw all their eggs into Dante’s and Lucky/Liz/Nik’s baskets. Around Valentine’s Day, Sam and Jason will enjoy some lust in the afternoon. As will Dante and Lulu.
Look for another long-lost, non-Ward Q.
General Hospital News & Gossip, Copyright © 2010 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.
