General Hospital News & Gossip
News for the week of 26-Oct-2009
Jonathan Jackson (Lucky) told Terry Morrow, of Tele-Buddy’s Tinseltown Tales, October 19th that he required a few days to mull over the GH offer. While it’s known that Jackson would return to GH for a six-month stay, any time over that is an unknown. Jackson also alluded to trying to maintain character integrity as he last remembered, 10 years ago, more than trying to reinvent the wheel. More of the interview will come out this week.
As one Lucky comes back, another has to leave. And with the leaving, comes the parting shots, delivered in a loving, fond, but regretful manner as is typical of soap opera comings and goings. Michael Fairman took longer than other media outlets to pick Greg Vaughan’s (Lucky III) brain about what happened and how it felt to suddenly, after almost seven years, lose his place in GH history as the son of Luke and Laura. Vaughan was understandably shaken by the firing and trying to sort through his feelings, past experiences and next plan of attack, while considering a wife, a son and another baby on the way. It’s a recession now too, so that’s weighed heavily. “It is terrible timing. I love what I do, and I do it with nothing but respect, and this period of time we are at in the world is a terrible time, not just for me but for so many people in worse positions that I am. I have a roof over my head and a family I love so much. And I will come out of it on top, no matter what.” He leaves knowing that he did good work with the material he was given, notably in the drug addiction story. Despite the Emmy people dismissing that body of work, it was indeed a critically and fan acclaimed performance that balances the downer of losing such a potentially great character. The well wishes and prayers from co-workers and fans have also eased his transition out. Tony Geary (Luke), Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) and her husband Michael Saucedo (ex-Juan), among others, have let Vaughan know how valued he was to the show that, ultimately, let him down.
At the beginning of 2009, Genie Francis’s (ex-Laura) second cousin, Sister Margaret Slowick, reached out and asked for the actress to help raise awareness and funds for a mission to help impoverished children living in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It was perfect timing, as Francis said she never really attached her name to any big charity work in her acting career and was looking for a way to give back, a legacy to leave behind. Francis got to talking with some family members, including her two brothers Ivor and Kenneth, and eventually put together a Christmas CD titled, “It’s Christmas Time Again.” The CD contains original and covers of Christmas tunes, with Francis providing vocals—lead and backup—and two instrumentals. Proceeds from sales of the Christmas CD, released November 1 at Amazon.com, will go to the mission. Francis isn’t known for her singing, and she acknowledged this in an exclusive October 19th interview. She said she took lessons as a little girl but then got into acting at age 14, the acting took off, and the singing never really came up again. “I have a pretty good-trained voice,” she said, but her brothers made her really sound good. They’ve booked a live performance at their church, but no other venues as yet. Sounds like they’re playing it by ear. Besides Amazon.com, fans can soon download the CD tunes on iTunes. But the actress recommended fans try to buy the hard copy of the CD, since there is a bonus inside, pictures of the family during the holidays and such.
Scott Reeves (ex-Ryan, Y&R) returns to daytime in a big way by taking on the role of Elizabeth’s brother, Steven Webber, as a recurring recast. Reeves makes his first appearance in December when GH appoints Steven as the new chief of staff. Reeves – who is best buddies with a stoked Steve Burton (Jason) – has been busy with his country music and putting the finishing touches to his and his wife Melissa’s (ex-Jennifer, DOOL) syndicated radio program.
We Love Soaps Radio episode #16 features Jackie Zeman (Bobbie) and her thoughts about having been faded into the background on GH, as well as other jobs she’s found in the interim, including a Sex Drive radio show co-hosting spot. Interviewer Damon L. Jacobs had the pleasure of interviewing Zeman for Part II.
Rick Springfield (ex-Noah) is so busy touring, doing several guest-starring bits in the hit primetime show, Californication, on Showtime, and penning his own autobiography that he doesn’t have time to revisit GH – even if TPTB asked him, which they haven’t. Melissa Parker interviewed Springfield in between gigs in her town for OurPrattville.com. If you’re hot for Springfield, definitely check out his Californication character, who is so opposite him as to be wicked. It’s for four eppys and it’s cable, so there’s plenty of skin.
Sebastian Roche (ex-Jerry) has been chosen as a recast for Thomas Kretschmann’s villainous super-spy character on Fox’s sci-fi series, Fringe.
Lynn Herring (ex-Lucy) will soon leave ATWT as Audrey, now that her tenure’s winding down. She wished she could go back to GH, but tries to understand that currently, the mob’s no place for this lady or any of the other characters she used to interact with back in the good old days. Luckily, she was able to interact with Jon Lindstrom (ex-Kevin) and Stuart Damon (ex-Alan) when they appeared on ATWT with her. It’s been a treat for all of them, but a sore spot keeps popping up, namely, how old everybody’s getting. Herring commented about the industry expecting man-made solutions to staying young and therefore attracting more acting jobs. She wished it weren’t like that. “I got a lot of emails saying, ‘Did you have a face lift?’ Yeah, sure! (Laughs) No one up here in cattle town would allow me to be so self-involved to my getting a face-lift. So I said, ‘No.’ But they think that you should if you are in the entertainment business! So to not allow Stuart to age is silly to me. It happens to the best of us. I think upkeep is good to staying healthy, and you would hope that a lot of women who are looking amazing in their 40s and 50s can have that without the Botox and silicone lips.” –Michael Fairman interview, last week
All Steve Burton (Jason) had to do last week was twitter about Laura Wright’s husband’s Standing Sun Wines vineyard for thousands upon thousands to converge on the company’s Facebook page. Husband John and his company produce small lot vintages in Santa Barbara county. A website is coming soon.
Mainstream actor James Franco (who reminds me a lot of Jonathan Jackson) said he began watching GH since he asked to appear on the ABC soap. And now, he’s hooked like the rest of us. Apparently Franco’s now learning how many of his kind are soap addicts. We Love Soaps mentioned Franco on October 23rd when he was at the New Yorker Festival last Saturday.
Gossip for the week of 26-Oct-2009
Jason and Sam will have to marry as husband and wife, initially for a case they’re on. But they’ll enjoy the fringe benefits.
Spinelli better enjoy himself romantically with Maxie as much as he can now, because it seems he may soon be on the outs with her and she turns her affections elsewhere.
Matt will find Lisa intoxicating. Lisa? She’s the new girl in town and quite the hot commodity. Patrick and Robin will try to emulate their young, exciting romps—with disastrous results. By next year, Scrubs implodes into the history books.
With the imminent, explosive exit of Claudia and surely the retribution to come against Anthony, that leaves Johnny. In GH-speak, this means Johnny’s sure to follow. Sorry, Olivia. You have Sonny at least.
James Franco will portray an avenging childhood friend of Dante’s. This friend seeks to wipe out Jason and the mob for them wiping out his detective dad, the same detective Dante looked up to.
Some vocal fans on SZ’s GH board told Genie Francis (ex-Laura) to STFU after reading about a recent interview where the actress claimed that Jonathan Jackson owned the role of Lucky, no offense to his recasts. Aw, isn’t it nice that fans such as these can feel comfortable enough in their own thick hides that they aren’t afraid to talk back to soap legends they barely know and aren’t qualified to even lick their bootstraps.
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.
