General Hospital News & Gossip
News for the week of 28-Apr-2008
Nazanin Boniadi is aware of the hatred surrounding her third-wheel character Leyla. Many Scrubs(Patrick and Robin) fans have not taken Leyla’s presence well, to say the least; they view her as a public nuisance. Without delving into specifics, Boniadi tried to make light of the entire thing as an understandable reaction. “She stepped on the toes of another woman to get to a man and I wouldn't want that done to me. But I don't think the fans have anything to worry about. Leyla may still be in love with Patrick, but Patrick is still very much in love with Robin,” Boniadi said.
She is very proud of breaking ground in soaps as a Middle Eastern actress/character without the terrorist typecasting. Initially set to become a doctor herself, and enrolled in medical school for that purpose, the Iran-born beauty changed her mind to act, figuring she could still be of service some other way. That’s why she’s also proud of her membership in Artists for Human Rights. “[A]s an Iranian who has a voice in the U.S., who is fortunate to be living in a democratic country where I have so many rights, it's important to use those rights to help people who are less privileged. In Iran, it's considered a crime to be homosexual. The rights of women are far less than men. I have many issues with human-rights situations in Iran.”
People have referred to Boniadi as “The Persian Audrey Hepburn,” which to her is the supreme compliment, as she plastered photos of the real Hepburn on her dressing room walls. She’ll soon appear in the long-awaited movie, Ironman, starring Robert Downey Jr. –Soap Opera Digest, May 6, 2008
Steve Burton (Jason) and John Ingle (Edward) were asked who among them should win an Emmy. Burton pointed to his co-star Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) for all of the crazy, high and low dialogue the young actor has had to make his own. Anderson’s versatility is awesome, “[f]irst of all, his is not your typical soap opera character. He makes that character believable, funny, vulnerable, charming. … He can do drama. He can do comedy. He can do it all. I'm not that good an actor.” Ingle found Tyler Christopher’s (Nikolas) noticeable improvement as an actor in the current, emotionally versatile storyline worthy of an Emmy. –Soap Opera Digest, May 6, 2008
Laura Wright (Carly) cleared up a fuzzy timeline between the night Michael was shot and the three days of lying in a coma at General Hospital. Probably because it seems like Carly’s being unreasonable hanging on to hope when doctors have told her Michael won’t recover. And Carly hanging on feels like weeks rather than three entire days. Steve Burton (Jason) saw a need to impress on the audience Carly’s side. In a pivotal scene shared with Ingo Rademacher (Jax), it is made clear that Carly’s not been unreasonable, and a lot of people may be unfairly all too willing to let Michael go off in a coma forever without fighting for him. Upcoming scenes also seek to show Carly’s vulnerability, when she tries to make amends with Jax and show how much she needs his support.
Jason Cook (ex-Shawn, DOOL) was just added to the GH cast, as a doctor who interacts with Kirsten Storms’ (ex-Belle, DOOL) Maxie. Cook and Storms used to burn up the TV screens on NBC as an on-screen romantic item.
A bonus to the annual summer GH Fan Club Weekend this coming June: Derk Cheetwood (Max) and Carolyn Hennesy (Diane) plan to co-host their own event, featuring appetizers, dancing and a few other cast members. Their joint event is on June 21, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at the Studio City, CA Sportsmen’s Lodge. Costs $80 to attend. Info: Debby O’Connor, Your Number One Fan.
Say good-bye to Natalia Livingston (Emily) May 7 and Seamus Dever (Ian) May 5.
Say hello to Tamlyn Tomita as Giselle, Kate’s fashion nemesis, as of May 16. Giselle heads up the other magazine competing with Crimson. Don’t think this one’s long-term.
Gossip for the week of 28-Apr-2008
Ingo Rademacher (Jax)—rumored to leave GH once his contract’s done in the not-too-distant future—has supposedly been so preoccupied with his fiancée and their baby on the way that he hasn’t been into his story on GH. According to SoapDish(4/23), “This leaves LW [Laura Wright/Carly] concerned and a little ticked. She's been trumping up TPTB for more Jason/Carly with the fallout from Michael coming.” Also from this same SD source: Greg Vaughan’s (Lucky) pushing for LuSam (Lucky and Sam), “He doesn’t want to go back to BH [Becky Herbst/Liz]. KeMo is busy with her nephew who's staying with her. She’s enjoying the downtime.” Then there is some drama reportedly rumored between Herbst and Sarah Brown (Claudia). “BH is peeved that Sarah is pimping Jason and Claudia. She doesn’t think she should post clips on her MySpace. BH is fighting hard to keep Liason [Liz and Jason] alive. SBu [Steve Burton/Jason] isn’t taking sides. He likes the action. He likes Sarah. He’s happy.”
Apparently, there’s some major drama brewing on The Canvas, a Liason message board that used to be owned and operated by Casey and Koko (circa 2001-2008). From what I understand in reading a few posts here and there, and viewing two YouTube clips (here and here) on the matter, Casey and Koko left the running of the board this year to two other people as moderators. Those moderators then took over, banning Casey and Koko from their own message board, and have enforced harsh, unfair rules of posting, banning or scolding posters who spoke out on behalf of the two originators, and banning posters who have made even mild criticisms of the character of Jason or continued to discuss spoilers that may not be true. What’s really bizarre is, the members helped financially pay for a revamped, improved board under Casey and Koko’s leadership, and now it seems that these moderators just decided to do a Mutiny on the Bounty.
More drama at Sarah Brown’s (Claudia; ex-Carly) Facebook page. The page was set up for her GH character Claudia. An anonymous non-fan began sending e-mails disparaging the character and a video of “Claudiwhore.” Brown reportedly got wind of this, confronted the anonymous fan with “get a life,” and prompted friends from her friends list to give her the names of everybody who can’t stand Claudia for the purpose of getting rid of them from her Facebook page. According to the latest Soap Opera Weekly, which reported on this, “The anonymous e-mail cracks that Sarah Brown must be feeling bad because Claudia is a flop and she can't handle jokes about the character on a Facebook page made for the character. Others say good for SBr for being accessible via the page.”
Claudia’s sometimes-mentioned mom, Domenica, may show up once casting casts her.
Overheard at a Chicago(?) public appearance by Kelly Monaco (Sam): Monica wasn’t originally the hit ’n’ run driver. Elizabeth had been cast in that role; that is, until head writer Guza returned from his writers’ strike… Monaco harbored a little crush on Tyler Christopher (Nikolas), which got out thanks to her real boyfriend Mike and her on-screen mom Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis)… Monaco didn’t appreciate Michael Easton (John, OLTL; ex-Caleb, PC) slipping her the tongue in their first few love scenes on PC; he did this to her twice and she hated it. They’ve since become friends… Monaco believed the Daytime Emmy prenom process is all about who’s popular. Grahn wanted to bow out of the prenom running, seeing as she didn’t feel she had enough of a reel to submit. Then, she wanted to have Monaco bow in, but TPTB wouldn’t allow the switch.
Monaco may have a point about the Daytime Emmys turning into a popularity contest. The constantly revised voting procedure has left a few of the assigned judges unhappy. There are simply too many pre-nominated actors’ tapes, about 24, to review for the final nominations. A few of those judges may take the easy way out, forego reviewing the tapes and just go by familiarity alone.
Elizabeth reunites with Lucky, when the two of them learn Jake isn’t really Jason’s.
Brian Presley (ex-Jack, PC) to join GH as Elizabeth’s brother Stephen Lars Webber.
Ingo Rademacher (Jax) prefers to focus on his expanding family, wife to be and child to be, and live in Hawaii. That leaves no room for GH come contract time soon.
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.
