General Hospital News & Gossip
News for the week of 11-Jan-2010
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) nominated GH Director William Ludel in the daytime drama category. His episode, “Macho Men,” earned the nomination for him and his team. Ludel has enjoyed six DGA nominations in the past and two wins, in 1995 and 2001. The winners will enjoy their moment in the spotlight in a special ceremony dinner on January 30th in L.A.’s Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel.
James Franco (Franco) will reappear in a GH sequel in the spring, but as actor and co-director. In an art imitates life dream within a dream sort of deal, Franco will include his GH work filmed so far and a real New York art gallery in which all of this takes place. Head writer Bob Guza Jr. said he was so inspired by Franco’s talent and enthusiasm, that more stars of such regard may make guest appearances.
GH fans have taken Lexi Ainsworth (Kristina) under their wing. Especially considering her character’s abusive circumstances. Ever since Keifer (portrayed by polar opposite, actor Christian Alexander) slammed into Kristina’s world, these fans have grown alarmed and extremely protective, Ainsworth explained. They’ve written, warning her to drop-kick the abusive boyfriend and have come up with many inventive ways to rid her of him. Ainsworth tries to get inside Kristina’s head to make sense of why such a smart, capable, level-headed girl would stick with a violent guy like Keifer. The responsibility to tell the story right and not condone in any way violent behavior is paramount for the young actress. In describing the hot-topic situation, Ainsworth has to defend Keifer somewhat, in that he’s not some monster out to just hurt Kristina, but a guy who does feel love. Throw in a mobster like Sonny who uses violence for a living, and no wonder Kristina is mixed up. “When she saw her dad at the MC, acting toward Claudia that way, she stepped back and thought, ‘Maybe this relationship that Keifer and I have is normal.’” In order to portray Kristina to the best of her ability, Ainsworth has plenty of help from her more experienced co-stars, mentors really, great people like Maurice Benard (Sonny), Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis), and even Alexander. –ABC Soaps in Depth
Jason Thompson (Patrick) re-signed with GH because he feels there’s more to show with his character. He’s excited to just “dig in and blow it out of the water for the next year or so.” Nothing new on the girlfriend front, other than he and Kimberly McCullough (Robin) remain close friends, to the point where they don’t even have to discuss their scenes together, they come together organically. “We’re at the point where if there’s no kiss written but it just happens, we’re okay with that.” They also good-naturedly elbow each other to get to the cute baby that plays their on-screen baby. –Soap Opera Digest, January 19, 2010
Matt Borlenghi (ex-Brian Bodine, AMC), aka Matteo Andrea, added to his clan by two. Twins Pearson Woods and Daltan Roberto were born on January 5, 2010, brothers to four-year-old sister Garland. Why do we care? Because Borlenghi was revealed to be Valentin Cassadine which Helena spoke of weeks before Franco and the original Lucky took over the TV screen. Valentin’s day will come. Just wait till the Franco ordeal is over. Borlenghi told Suds Report’s Nelson Branco (January 8th update) that he can identify with Valentin’s bad side, from his earlier bad boy days. But since the reformation, the devoted father must really stretch: “Playing a spiritually bankrupt man like Valentin, I'll have to draw from the complete opposite end of the emotional spectrum I’m experiencing right now with these boys, and their amazing sister...”
Kirsten Storms (Maxie) discovered Freshorganic beauty products for her lips and skin. She highly recommends everybody try them. Will putting on Fresh’s lip balm turn me into Storms? Girl’s got a rockin’ bod.
Mark Pinter (Agent Rayner) makes his way back, January 26. I’m thinkin’ this has to do with the FBI’s bigger picture and Dominic’s undercover role in it.
Gossip for the week of 11-Jan-2010
Hang around Twitter(i.e. follow celebrities big and small) long enough, and you’ll really get to know their personalities – for better or worse. You’ll see who RTs (retweets) way too much (Megan Ward/Kate), who isn’t very good at tweeting important/interesting stuff (Laura Wright/Carly; Steve Burton/Jason), and who can be borderline annoying diva-esque (Carolyn Hennesy/Diane) when crossed.
Ward tweets so much, often in replies or reaction, with cutesy code teen-speak to other people’s tweets that I get too confused to follow along, and after 500 of ‘em in a row, I don’t really care anymore what’s on her mind.
Wright posts oh-so-riveting, monumental tweets like, “Goodmorning !! Heading to work !!!” and “Gotta run – heading out to the store. Buy all!!!!” [FYI: Exclamation points are not your friend]… when she’s not over-promoting her husband’s wines.
Burton’s even more boring, if that’s possible to imagine, posting masterpieces into his soul, like “Good day to all. Go bucks!!!!!! By bye ducks !!!!” and “Good evening.” His replies to some 16,966-and-growing fans are even more banal: “not yet.” “thx.” “love it” “coool. pugz” “hey” “she’s fine.” “good.” “hi” “nighty night.” “nice.” Absolutely riveting, isn’t it? Hey, wake up!
A follower got on Hennesy’s bad side (who knew?) by warning her that if she keeps RTing, they’re out. Instead of kindness, patience, an innate awareness that she’s a celebrity with an image to maintain, and perhaps considering that maybe she is using the RT excessively (it happens), Hennesy ripped out this dazzling display of humanity: “Wow…so sad. Consider yourself gone.” Maybe she needs a few cues from the more tactful Brandon Barash (Johnny), who knows how to correct and defend with diplomacy. I’ve blocked and removed a follower for complaining about my one retweet, without having to be mean about it. I don’t know guys, she just rubbed me the wrong way. You’re a soap actress. Not God. We don’t live to serve your every $$ need and constantly be some mindless sychophant.
OMG, how dare I! Me, some lowly nothing sounding off about the hallowed and holy!
Don’t get me wrong. I still love these guys. And, for the most part, it’s great what they’re doing by interacting with the fans and each other in this cutting-edge social network. Most of the time, they’re twittering along with the rest of us and it’s cool.
It’s just now and then, even they – yes, they – get on my last nerve, like everybody else, they’re not special. I also understand that not everybody is gifted with the ability to spell or communicate with substance, value or even enlightening humor. But take a little tip from me, and try to make an extra effort to tweet more than just whatever, just to be tweeting. A lot of your followers genuinely want to get to know you as a person, not just have you say “hey” to them and sell them crap. As the first lesson in being Twitter-worthy, everybody go over and start following singer Sara Bareilles. Now that woman knows how to use this medium.
And finally, if you keep pissing me off, I will unfollow you. I don’t care how loved by the masses you are, how great of an actress you are, or whether it’s my unofficial job to keep monitorial tabs on all of you. There’s just so much flatlining I can take before I’m done.
Don’t be surprised if you see a familiar, popular face in town by May Sweeps. Think Sonny’s first true love, way before Carly, Kate and Olivia. Jax’s true love, too.
Edward’s two great-granddaughters, one of ‘em named Zoe, – with Mary Mae Ward – will try to capture the attention of Michael, Lucky and other guys in that age range. If this rumor comes to pass, they’ll kick off next week.
Kristina does the wrong thing this week, she lets Keifer have his way with her to forget her dad’s mob troubles. When Keifer tries again, Kristina isn’t in the mood and suffers several blows for saying no. In the ER, a battered Kristina lies and says Ethan did this to her. Sonny and Luke immediately get into it as protective dads, as Ethan goes to jail on wrongful charges. Kristina comes to her senses and frees Ethan with the truth, leaving Keifer to suffer, and suffer dearly. But Keifer, like a cockroach, keeps popping back up to do more harm. While everybody’s full of forgiveness for the misunderstanding, Sonny and Luke remain at an impasse. Luke and Lucky patch up their father/son relationship, but this causes Ethan some pangs of jealousy.
Elizabeth goes crazy. Yeah, that’s her excuse after dragging the Nik/Lucky affair way past its due date. Nik, like the love-sick idiot he is, tries to save her from herself.
When the town learns about Dominic’s true identity, including his family tie to Sonny and which Australian doofus kept this secret, Carly cuts Jax out of her and her family’s life. Morgan gives Jax a piece of his mind, too. The FBI isn’t so shocked, much to the shock of Dominic.
Lisa turns out to be a real bastard to Robin. She jeopardizes Robin’s health by tampering with her rival’s prescription drugs. But Matt will smarten up to Lisa’s subterfuge.
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.
