General Hospital News & Gossip
News for the week of 14-Apr-2008
Leslie Charleson (Monica) has found it hard to believe 45 years have passed for GH, or that she’s been on it for much of that time. When she thinks about the next five years, Charleson isn’t so sure there’ll be a soap left to celebrate. “There's definitely going to be a change. Shows will go off the air. I don't know what our longevity is. I would love to say we'll have a 50th, but, in five years, a lot can happen.” As for her character, an admitted pioneer of the complicated bitch-heroine, it’s always nice to round out a great ride with a juicy affair story. That’s Charleson’s preference. –Knoxville News Sentinel, “Morrow: Soap's heartbeat lies in feisty Monica” by Terry Morrow, April 8, 2008
On the one hand, head writer Bob Guza Jr. wanted to show the consequences of the violent mob in the accidental shooting coma of 12-year-old Michael, son of mobster Sonny and his ex-moll Carly. (Especially since the kid got away with an accidental hit of his own with nary a lecture.) On the other hand, Guza has no plans of showing the rest of the consequences in shutting down the mob. Consider the recent tragic turn of events simply a call to arms, a realistic reflection of what will and should happen when irresponsibility meets up in a fictional town rife with crime. Insisting that putting a boy in a coma isn’t a matter of “glorifying violence,” but coming to terms with actions having consequences, Guza explained his desire to go all the way in an industry that usually shies away from harming innocent children. “We do deal with mobsters. We can't just have them importing illegal tchatchkes from the Far East and getting a slap on the wrist. You've got to deal with the fact that they kill people and people are killed all around them.” This hit, additionally, will last in terms of inter-relationship grievances, connections and reconnections; it’s not gonna just be a blip on the radar only to be forgotten, he added. Guza’s talking years in some cases. Yet, while what happened to Michael will cause ripple effects of emotional and mental anguish in many of the major, beloved characters, Guza holds steadfast to continuing on with the mob cash cow. Nobody’s gonna reform, clean up and make amends, just because a kid got clipped in the noggin’. “We're not going to make them all go in the garment business. That is not what this story is about. The show is about romance during wartime, for lack of a better term. We have the highest stakes possible because people can be killed. We're not going to ignore that. We're not going to go away from that. But we're going to make them very, very aware of the consequences and make them try to deal in nonviolent ways.” –EW.com, SOAP WATCH, “GH Writer Addresses Michael Shooting” by Abby West
Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) and Carolyn Hennesy (Diane) recognized the popularity of their characters’ friendship, celebrating it as a good thing in soaps. Hennesy thought it “the best storyline on GH,” because of its uniqueness in genre. Two former, middle-aged enemies coming together as colleagues, fellow career women, independent thinkers, friends. That’s good, rare stuff, Grahn agreed. “It seems to be something that slips past the daytime norm. Women survive on their female friendships. They’re the most fun. That’s where you get the best gossip, the best conversation, the best everything. It’s fabulous that the show came up with this idea.” –Soap Opera Weekly
Soap Opera Weekly’s Joe Diliberto interviewed Ingo Rademacher about his character Jax’s motivations, actions and feelings during the Michael crisis, as well as his own as a father-to-be. Say what?! Rademacher and his fiancée are planning to welcome a bundle of joy. That alone heightened the realism of his story with Laura Wright’s (Carly) when the miscarriage happened, Rademacher said. Uncomfortably so. But Michael’s coma? Not so personal. “This stuff is not that affecting at all. I play what’s on the page; I play the character. I don’t draw from personal experiences. I separate the two.”
Finola Hughes (Anna) first heard about Kimberly McCullough’s (Robin) pregnant story while perusing Fashion Week. Stylist Phillip Bloch congratulated Hughes across the runway, then Hughes gave McCullough a ring to find out what’s up. A couple e-mails with TPTB later, and Hughes is glad to be back as on-screen grandma for five or six episodes. While she could totally envision Anna and Robert comically babysitting for Robin, she has no idea whether Tristan Rogers will also return, or even Noah’s Rick Springfield for that matter.
Hughes and her photographer husband Russell Young expanded their brood of two children (seven-year-old Dylan and three-and-a-half-year-old Cash) with Sadie Beatrice, a four-month-old. They gave their adopted baby daughter the middle name of Beatrice to honor both sides of their family.
Because Laura Wright (Carly) is a diehard Luke and Laura fan from way back, like many of us, she made sure to get her script from their re-wedding the previous, previous November autographed by Tony Geary. That’s a script she’ll not likely give up any time soon.
Had October 4th-born Brandon Barash (Johnny) been an automaton, he might’ve come out of university a doctor and an actor. Alas, Barash is merely human, and had to at one point in his university toilings settle on one or another. Acting obviously won out… but did you know he also originally set his sights on playing college basketball? He hurt his knee though and there went that idea, which hurt him. It was at that time in high school, hurting over losing that basketball dream, when he had to stand in for a teammate in the play, Big River. Now he’s found himself in GH heaven, with some acting greats. “I still wake up every day and, as cheesy as it sounds, I want to pinch myself. Bruce Weitz [Anthony]? Working with that guy is such a treat. Stephen Macht [Trevor]? Come on. And when they told me Sarah Brown [Claudia] was coming along, too? Pinch me, Sarah Brown is a rock star! It doesn’t get any better than this,” said the St. Louis, MO-born actor. –Soap Opera Digest, April 15, 2008
Seamus Dever’s Dr. Ian Devlin can’t quite be boxed in as merely a villain. You want to, especially after he didn’t hesitate to target Sonny in a hit even with his child not two feet away. But you can’t, because this indie actor won’t let you. Dever’s approach has never been to play the role off the pages as is. He goes for layers, playing good against evil, always within the context of relatable human conflict. Otherwise, it’s boring 1930s film caricatures. For Dever, “[I]t's never completely bad, it's never completely good, and there are shades in between. I think people are kind of like that. I think playing the hero all the time must be incredibly boring, because it's just do the right thing, do the right thing, and what's more interesting is finding the hero that's conflicted, or finding the bad guy who wants to do good.” He’s intentionally infusing Ian with both good and evil, human, if you will. “One of the things that I've always been playing from the beginning is that there's a good side to him no matter what. No matter the weird stuff he's doing and all those things, there's always a good side. I like to hang on to that little secret that's inside.”
It’s a role Dever enjoys because of the character freedom to create worlds within a good and evil mystery. And, it’s a role that took a few years to come by. He admitted to narrowly missing out on another character during a screen-test about four years ago, and finding the casting director Mark Teschner remembering him recently for Ian. Teschner handed Ian to Dever on a silver platter no audition necessary. –BuddyTV, “Exclusive Interview: Seamus Dever of ‘General Hospital’” by Gina Scarpa, April 07, 2008
As much of Ian Devlin he’s relishing, actor Dever is also at a loss as to how the character got that way, much less dared to go after Sonny. He has been puzzling over the dichotomy of a caring surgeon with a killer kingpin, as well, and would only allude that the near-killing of a child might resonate deeply because of another child closer to Devlin.
Yeniffer Behrens (ex-Marianna) fell in love with Ric, Ric and Marianna and their story for real, not just in character. She spoke with Soaps.com in an April 8th interview about how carried away she was with the Ric-and-Marianna romance and how surprised she was that it ended as quickly as it did. When the reporter suggested Marianna could hold a key to Lorenzo and Diego (since they all grew up in Venezuela), and that could mean a return, Behrens jumped at the hope. In the meantime, she appreciated the kindness of GH co-stars Rick Hearst (Ric), whom she thought the world of, Stephen Macht (Trevor), who was nothing like his mean character, Sebastian Roche (Jerry) and Maurice Benard (Sonny)… while wishing she’d have had the chance to pull off a cat fight with Sarah Brown’s Claudia. As much as she missed GH, Behrens is already back on other projects, including a Seven Pounds flick starring Will Smith and two Mexican indies.
Gossip for the week of 14-Apr-2008
May Sweeps promises the untimely death of a major character. Could he be Rick Hearst’s Ric Lansing? And if so, is it also true that DOOL executives have eyed him as a recast Mike Horton? He used to be on the NBC soap as Scotty Banning.
GH sent its feelers out to Vanessa Marcil to do Brenda yet again. If she agrees, it’ll be another short-term run, probably to escort Maurice Benard (Sonny) out. Benard may prefer a shorter-term himself in his renewed contract, as the man is getting tired.
Seamus Dever (Ian) indicated shock that his character would be so bold as to try and take out Sonny. But maybe Dever’s mistaken and the writers plan to whip out Trevor as the real, hidden gunman.
There could be a reason behind the demonization of Sonny. Remember, the Sonny we used to see on GH would always be top dog. Nobody got the better of him, much less tried to lay a hand on him the way Johnny was allowed to. During the writers’ strike, Sonny began to be portrayed as a total jackass—unheard of under the Guza regime—suffering real consequences of his mob actions. A theory bandied about on the SoapDish site is that Guza & Co. are gonna roll with what the replacement writers started and take “full credit for it” in reaction to downed ratings and criticism about mob glorification.
If Guza can’t resuscitate the glory years of Sonny & Co., he may as well revisit the old tired triangle of Sonny, Carly and Jason. I’ve been reading spumors all over the place pointing to Sonny and Carly yelling at each other one minute and tongue-driving the next, as well as Elizabeth feeling a little jealous when she keeps running into Jason comforting Carly as if she were the only woman in his life. Elizabeth tries to reel Lucky back in, but his heart’s taken by Sam, if only Sam believed it.
LuSam (Lucky loves Sam) fans mailed GH’s PTB 150-plus balloons encouraging them to spotlight the couple in a major love story. This gesture touched Greg Vaughan (Lucky) so deeply, he almost wept with gratitude. Lucky and Sam will have their love story, but it’ll be tortured, with Ian as the third wheel.
There’s a new game in SoapDish town, some cat who calls himself Chow and seems to be a GH writer. Chow promised that the May Sweeps’ theme will center on misunderstanding and seduction with couples. Chow, in an April 10th post, seemed to think the major character that croaks soon is gonna be someone everybody loved dearly. Doesn’t that rule out Ric?
Over at Wubs.net, a rumor sends Logan out the door. Elsewhere, he’s just changing his personality—due to the bump on the head—into a scoundrel who dabbles back with Maxie.
I don’t think I’ve come across anybody who likes Lulu very much anymore. You’d think after Carly gave such a stony look deep into the chasm that used to be that young woman’s soul, that Lulu would STFU about Johnny’s innocence and Johnny’s alibi. But she kept at it three more times. Even Kate wondered if she were as self-absorbed as Lulu at one point. Self-absorbed teen is one thing, but this is Lulu, who didn’t exactly grow up in a mansion with everything handed to her. Let’s see proof she’s the spawn of Luke and Laura, for God’s sakes—or you might as well kill her off next. She’s making a mockery of head writer Bob Guza’s claim (in a recent EW piece) that justice must have its day even in mob land. And personally, I haven’t been impressed with the one-note interpretation of the acting, either.
General Hospital News & Gossip, Copyright © 2008 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.
