General Hospital News & Gossip
News for the week of 29-Sep-2008
Megan Ward (Kate) broke down what it’s like for new soap actors to tackle pages of dialogue, directors and producers barking out shorthand, a dress rehearsal for camera position and very little else, and having to do it all in one take. Of all the soap actors in the world in the history of soaps, I don’t think anybody’s broken it down as painstakingly and thoroughly as Ward in a September 22nd SoapTown USA interview by GH columnist Dawn.
It’s a lengthy interview, as Ward loves to talk, and talk a lot about what drives her character and herself as an actress recently introduced to the loyal community of soap fans (she refers to them as her kids and she’s equally as devoted to them as they are of her).
Her first day on the job as Kate on GH was both intimidating and triumphant. “It was the hardest acting day of my life and it lasted about forty-five minutes! It could not have been more different than anything I have ever known as an actor,” she described. “… You really have to go to work knowing what you want out of the scene and being completely prepared for it to turn out differently and then walk away from the scene when it’s over – you’ve only done it once and you hope it was good! I had a dozen scenes; I feel like I had two shows and they made me speak French!... And then they said, 'Okay we’re moving on,' and I stood there for several minutes thinking, 'Where am I? What’s happening?' And through the course of it, Maurice [Benard/Sonny] was great and he was really attentive to me… Diane was in the scene and Carolyn (Hennesy) kept whispering to me what the shorthand meant called by the stage manager.”
Not only did Ward have to speak French with her English her first day, but she took on a character – as Kate Howard, fashion magazine editor-in-chief – with a challenging approach to communication. Kate uses more words per sentence than the average Connie Falconeri. “So there were all those technical things about learning way too many words to tell one thought! Colorful language and words with multiple syllables and getting them out of your mouth…. It’s challenging but this whole experience has definitely made me a better actor…. But they’d give me a couple of references that I had to look up on the internet! How do you say this word and what does this adjective mean? I had no points of reference for some of the stuff that they were bringing up!”
It’s clear from the effusive and talkative manner of actress Ward that she’s got a clear handle on what makes Kate and Sonny tick, what they get out of each other. They are each other’s safe haven, she said. When they’re together, just them, they can be themselves, their true, authentic, vulnerable selves instead of the tough, no-nonsense, professional facades they’ve had to practice for their choice in career. It’s a togetherness through thick and thin that Ward wished to continue and found immensely rewarding to play out.She also found Kate’s workplace immensely rewarding, and believed fans want to see more characters in the workplace interacting. Seeing Maxie and Lulu there as Kate’s assistants glimpses the characters’ different sides, out of the bedroom. But it lends a glimpse into Kate’s childless situation and a transference of the maternal onto protégé Maxie, Ward thought.
Then, there is the subject of girl friends, a subject Ward warmed to. She wished for GH to focus more on the friendships amongst the career women. Friendships can be just as fulfilling to watch as the romantic affairs. “As a soap viewer, I want to see women that I relate to and I want to see circumstances that I have with my friends.” Throw in Jane Elliot (Tracy) as a possible Crimson financial backer in a dream storyline of Ward’s, and you’ve got the makings of a perfect soap.
Megan Ward had a lot more to say, about stories, characters and the devoted soap fans, so check out the interview in its entirety at SoapTown USA.
The annual Desi Geestman Foundation’s 2008 Evening With The Stars – set for October 11th, 7 p.m., in the Sheraton Universal Hotel in California’s Universal City – will feature the crème de la crème in daytime and allow fans to mingle, gawk and help raise money for a worthy cause, helping children and their families deal with cancer. All of daytime’s finest will attend along with fans to enjoy dinner, dancing, a silent auction, photo opportunities, gossip and more. Ted King’s (ex-Luis/Lorenzo) fans have already bought their table sponsorship and continue to accept donations, in hopes of reaching $15,000 in the actor’s name for the foundation. The benefit event will cost $125. Info: (818) 980-1202.
Btw, King married Maya Rodwell, September 14, in Malibu’s Calamigos Ranch. Some of their guests included former and current GH cast members Rick Hearst (Ric), Tamara Braun (ex-Carly; Reese, AMC), Cynthia Preston (ex-Faith), and Greg Vaughan (Lucky).
Competitors in a new Food Network docu-reality series must prepare and serve food at a catered party for GH’s cast and crew, to celebrate the soap’s (past) Daytime Emmy nominations. The Chef Jeff Project premieres October 12, 10 p.m., ET/PT, and stars Café Bellagio’s Vegas executive chef, Jeff Henderson. Henderson was a convict in prison for 20 years. His crime: drug peddling. He got out, got clean and made a name for himself with the Vegas restaurant and his latest venture, his own L.A. catering company called Posh Urban Cuisine. In the docu-reality series that will air from October 5-November 9, Henderson will put six young, at-risk people through their culinary paces.
Both Maurice Benard (Sonny) and Megan Ward (Kate) talked up the arrival of Lisa LoCicero (ex-Sonia, OLTL) as Olivia. They both enjoy working with her and believe her presence lends something special to their ongoing story and to their individual characters. At first, Ward wasn’t sure what the deal was with LoCicero’s Olivia and so felt a little nervous for her own character. “Then I got the whole story and then I worked with her,” Ward said. “We have a great chemistry. … She plays levels and you really believe that we’re family, yet different.” –Soap Opera Digest, September 30, 2008
Kirsten Storms (Maxie) is not one to let life lessons pass her by unnoticed. She learned a big life lesson not too long ago when the cops nabbed her for driving recklessly and a DUI. The April 8th-born, Orlando, FL beauty said that ever since that incident, she’s made sure to have a sober driver close at hand, even calling a cab. She’s so stringent about it, that she’s drumming the same life lesson into the heads of those closest to her. “I’ve become a crazy mother about that and people get irritated by it but I don’t care.”
Another, less publicized incident happened and is happening online to Storms in the form of a doppelganger or doppelgangers, people posing as her on Facebook pages and in IMs. Sarah Joy Brown (Claudia), whose character does have a Facebook page, notified Storms about the perpetrator. “It’s scary. I used to love being on the Internet and doing stuff, but now it’s not really worth it.”
Then, there’s the hurtful matter of some fans calling Storms – who recently took up vegetarianism – anorexic, simply because she’s really pencil-thin. It’s not anorexia, Storms insisted, it’s simply the result of a busy, stressful schedule and “not eating properly. I was traveling every four days to visit [boyfriend] Elias [Reidy, of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus band] on the road. It was such a crazy time [in her early 20s].” Hearing about the anorexia rumors made Storms tearfully sad. She said she’d talk to her mom on the phone a lot, crying. Eventually, she bucked up and moved on, but it still stings.
Losing out on a Daytime Emmy nomination really stung too—at first. But something happened to Storms the night before the nomination announcements on TV. She somehow sensed she wouldn’t be in the running, and made her peace with it. That’s not to say the omission was desired, far from it. Coming in from DOOL, where she popularized Belle, into GH as a Maxie recast, Storms knew she had a better chance of scoring an Emmy nod. She told executive producer Jill Farren Phelps and head writer Bob Guza Jr. that she was ready for one. “I don’t even have to win it, I just want the nomination [laughs],” she recalled having said at that early meeting. “I’ve wanted it since I was 14.”
Despite an Emmy undeservedly passing her by, Storms has always made the best of any situation, and benefited from such an upbeat outlook. She’s the darling of the press and of her GH bosses, who are reportedly so in love with her take as Maxie that they’re willing to commit her to the best of the stories and insert her with the best of the actors. She’s sitting on top of a powder keg of supercouple bliss in not one but two potentially brilliant, compelling pairings… with the anti-soap stud Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) and a former DOOL co-star, Jason Cook (Matt).
The thing between Spinelli and Maxie took TPTB and Storms by surprise. She had no idea how the pairing would come off on-screen, and unlike with Cook, she and Anderson had to take some time to get used to each other’s groove and find a special place together. The sewer scenes several months ago propelled Spinelli and Maxie from uneasy friendship to something more, something probably very unique to daytime. “…I think we were high on the paint fumes or something [laughs], but we really just clicked and started finding these funny moments. The [crew] guys were laughing and someone came over the P.A. and said, ‘You guys should do that,’ so we just took it and ran with it.”
Storms finds Anderson’s atypical soap persona “refreshing” to say the least. While a lot of guys will beef up and make a big deal out of beefing up for scheduled love scenes, Anderson’s like, chomping on a bagel before one, she said. –Soap Opera Digest, “Modern Maturity” by Tom Stacy, September 30, 2008
24 and Boston Legal just happen to be Brandon Barash’s (Johnny) two favorite TV shows of the entire upcoming season. He’ll have to wait until January for some new 24eppys, though.
Camille St. Cyr used to do casting for GH/PC. Now she’s doing it for Y&R.
Opening credits for GH:NS’s October 14th show will borrow from GH’s 1980s version. Why? Because of the influx of the 1980s hits, Tiffany and Sean—either in Robert’s dream or for real.
Mainstream actor Chad Allen (Eric, GH:NS), 34, changed his tune about soap operas once he started GH’s primetime, SOAPnet offshoot. Before the job fell in his lap, Allen—like so many others before him—held negative preconceptions about soaps. Now, however, he’s singing a different, favorable tune. “I’m blown away myself at how much I love working on Night Shift, and I sort of slap myself on the wrist for judging the medium so much,” he told interviewer Nelson Branco in a recent Out.com article (“Allen’s Anatomy”). “I had heard all the stories about how fast soaps move, [that] they don’t care about the characters or performance. But it’s been the opposite. They really care about creating great moments, and nurturing the artistic process. That surprised me — much to my shame.” He’s such a fan of soaps now that he wouldn’t mind crossing over to GH, an actual soap opera airing during the daytime—if asked. It’s thanks to his positive experience filming at NS and TPTB’s promised commitment to showing gay men really in love and loving, not as some afterschool special.
Allen was given another soap offer around the same time GH:NS happened for him. But that other soap offer would’ve required him to embody the role of a straight guy. On the merits of head writer Sri Rao’s story pitch – about two gay men falling in love like any other couple – and the flattery of Rao’s having pictured Allen specifically for the role of Eric, a schoolteacher afflicted with a liver disease, the mainstream actor stuck with GH:NS. “I also thought it’d be a good opportunity to check out the soap thing and see if I liked it or even if I could do it,” Allen told a Soap Opera Digest reporter [September 30, 2008].
Now that he’s in daytime, sort of, Allen’s hoping he can run into a former co-star who used to work on the 1980s drama, Our House, with him. DOOL’s Deidre Hall (Marlena) and he developed a close, mentoring bond during the Our House years. It was so close, Allen disclosed, that Hall gave her firstborn baby the name of his Our House character, David.
Gossip for the week of 29-Sep-2008
If Lisa LoCicero (Olivia) wins the fans over, she may stay longer than short-term. But Sarah Joy Brown (Claudia) plans on sticking to her initial short-term agreement come what may. Sorry Ric. Steve Burton (Jason) could re-sign for another round, provided he receive plenty of breaks.
a) Alexis isn’t the fool Jerry presumes her to be. Once he finds out that Alexis was onto him all along, he’ll think twice about dumping her for Sam and redouble his efforts to wooing and protecting the savvy lady lawyer from evil mob influences. Or, b) Jerry and Alexis were supposed to continue on in a deeper, more committed adult relationship until ABC Daytime president Brian Frons allegedly interfered and insisted on Jerry trifling with and falling for Alexis’s sexpot of a daughter Sam. So far, whether it’s a) or b) winning out, Jerry and Sam will fall short of hanky panky. While this may or may not have perturbed Alexis’s Nancy Lee Grahn, she’s said to enjoy her time off campaigning in politics nevertheless. –SoapDish
This week, Robin takes to the hospital P.A. system to ask Patrick to marry her. Before he can answer, an emergency calls him away. He later meets up with her to accept. They do the wedded bliss thing in December. An HIV health scare will touch on their baby’s birth, but then they’ll work it out, happily ever after. After butting heads for awhile, Patrick and Matt form a brotherly bond, which is further cemented when they must work together to help bring the baby into this world. Jason Thompson (Patrick) is said to be digging this recent turn of events, as it broadens his character’s scope, while Jason Cook (Matt) is just glad he’s finally in a major story. But by the spring of next year, Patrick and Robin will face another hurdle to their family. –SoapDish
Tony Geary (Luke) may decide to bail, retiring permanently in Europe where he’s happiest. Should this happen, the writers prefer to pen his exit arm-in-arm with Laura. Should this not happen, Luke chooses Tracy, and Laura goes away somewhere. Head writer Bob Guza Jr. is purportedly pro-Geary and pro-Jane Elliot (Tracy), not so pro-Genie Francis (Laura). –SoapDish
Nikolas opens mouth, inserts foot, when he favorably compares Nadine to Emily. He only means well, but Nadine takes it as an insult, as a sign that he’ll never love her for her. Claudia’s right there to sex Nikolas up, which complicates his pure relationship with Nadine somewhat. But will Nadine have Johnny in her arms, to help her forget the Nikolas agony? Maybe Johnny’s trying to give up Lulu for her own mental health.
Johnny will give Lulu up, for her own good. Lulu will give up on pursuing love with anybody else, signaling the arrival of Dante, Sonny and Olivia’s bastard son. Then, watch a repeat of the Lulu-and-Johnny meet, with Lulu and Dante… sigh. This is why soaps suck.
Sam and Lucky fans have good and bad news, if this spumor makes it as a spoiler. The good news is, the couple will welcome a baby of their own. It’s a miracle! The bad news is, first Sam has to placate Alexis after mommy dearest finds sexpot daughter about to do psychopath Jerry. Alexis dumps the both of them, and Jerry’s breathing the fires of loathing at Sam.
Maurice Benard (Sonny) has allegedly made it known that he prefers his character with Megan Ward’s (Kate), and nobody else. He also favors the idea of Sonny gaining another grown son, as long as it’s not Bradford Anderson’s Spinelli. I like the rumor that Bradford Anderson will soon play Dante, the bastard love child between Sonny and Olivia/Kate. Dante would be a definite departure from the goofy, nerdy Spinelli. So who cares what Mo wants, suck it up big boy. (Apparently Tom Pelphrey/Jonathan, GL didn’t need GH – to play Dante – as his next step up.)
Here’s what I don’t get. Why in the world would Sonny think it okay to lure Connie’s cousin Olivia out of Bensonhurst for the wedding when her very presence would signal the disclosure of Kate’s true identity? Even Megan Ward (Kate) wondered that. Also, how is it that an entire, extended Italian-American family such as the Falconeris, agrees to keep mum about Kate Howard being a fraud all these years?
Sonny never married Kate. But he could marry Claudia, purely a mob-business move.
For my faithful reader Max: I don’t like it that the military, the police and the black community in large part have been mistreated consistently on this show. Almost every promising new character from any of these three groups is either killed off or made to look like psychotics before being killed off. The only black characters given any airtime are reduced to the background, serving the white folks: Lainey and Epiphany come to mind. Lainey had a hot, torrid affair coming to her c/o Cody on GH:NS, and then, nothing, not even a denouement. Epiphany gets more attention on GH:NS, for sure, but let’s face it, she’s still a day player – nothing close to the likes of Robin and Patrick. Why? Out of sight, out of mind? That’s some BS.
Kristina Wagner (Felicia)…in lieu of Vanessa Marcil (ex-Brenda)? Maybe.
There’s a YouTubevideo about Monavie going around, filmed on the GH/ABC set (without TPTB’s knowledge or permission?), starring Steve Burton (Jason) and Derk Cheetwood (Max). They go around the studio joking and riffing about the health drink and possibly getting fired for filming on the sly. It’s for some Monavie Diamond University thing. Anyway, Burton supposedly got wind of Ingo Rademacher’s (Jax) disapproving e-mail and took umbrage, did a face-off of sorts. Then, Rademacher went back to Hawaii on another break. Burton, Cheetwood, Bradford Anderson (Spinelli), and Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) are just some of the GHers promoting and benefiting from the use and sale of Monavie’s acai berry juice. According to Anderson, remarkable improvements in health were noted after trying Monavie, including the improvement of arthritis for a relative of Cheetwood’s. But, Rademacher isn’t the only detractor; Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) wasn’t into it either, according to some fans who overheard her talking about her thoughts on Monavie selling at the July GH Fan Club Weekend. A main point of contention seems to be the exploitation of fans in the selling of this juice. In Nelson Branco’s September 26th Suds Report, an unnamed co-star said, “He’s exploiting his fan base, who probably can’t even afford to pay their rent. In exchange, Burton [interfaces] with his fans for their patronage.”
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.
