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News for the week of 30-May-2011

by Carol Banks Weber

Surprise, surprise. Ingo Rademacher (Jax) refused to speak ill of the departing head writer—even though it was under Bob Guza Jr.’s watch that Rademacher’s long-time character suffered to the point where there was little to play since last summer. And this was by the actor’s own admission. "A lot of fans are saying it's because of Bob, but Bob wrote for me for a good 14, 15 years. I should be grateful for that. I can't be overly upset because he didn't write for me towards the end. That was his call. He, obviously, didn't feel that the character needed to be written as much anymore. That's his call. I can't go up there [to the executive offices] and complain." Despite sensing that end months ago, Rademacher told ABC Soaps in Depth [May 24, 2011] he was still taken aback by his firing recently. The new head writer, scab man Garin Wolf, wants Rademacher back for better closure to his character… sometime later in July.

On the evening of May 26th, Vanessa Marcil's (Brenda) authenticated Twitter revealed her last days coming up. Several fans didn’t believe it was the real Marcil, in part because she couldn’t spell (lots of actors can’t). But it was. “my final days are near will miss maurice and cast with every cell of my being. should i keep Brenda’s thigh high stilletos??” Marcil is working on her charities and a children’s project, too, “an animated childrens show that i wrote with my sister and my son. GAGOO AND THE LAND OF CHOICES :)”

The nearly two-year band of Port Chuck (Scott Reeves/Steven, Steve Burton/Jason, Brandon Barash/Johnny, Bradford Anderson/Spinelli) recently released a debut, self-titled CD that has hit the charts on CD Baby. It’s full of covers – by Foreigner, Bob Dylan, and Bon Jovi, to Poison, Charlie Daniels, and Linkin Park, for example – the guys enjoy singing, and have sung on tour, with some covers rearranged a little differently. The CD’s producer, Reeves, described, “They’re songs that all match who we are. We took about two or three each, and a couple of them we all sing, but it was a blast to do. We got to take songs that we grew up with and do our own thing with them. There’s also a bonus track that I think everyone is going to get a kick out of, and I’m not going to tell you what that is!” The CD’s Volume One opens up the band for future issues and diversification, into originals. Reeves and Burton have already put pen to paper and created an original song for GH, which fans might have already heard. At some point soon, Reeves said, they’d like to do more originals and pull the other band members in for the songwriting process. In the meantime, Port Chuck has also enjoyed much success with their live concerts here and there. They’ll hit Nashville’s annual “Let Freedom Sing,” River Front Park’s 4th of July celebration in a July 3rd kick-off, GH’s annual Fan Club Weekend July 22nd in Studio City, CA as the opening act, and the Northeast in an August tour. –Taste of Country, May 25, 2011, Alanna Conaway interview

Kimberlin Brown (ex-Dr. Rachel Locke, PC; ex-Sheila, Y&R/B&B) stars in a short, multi-award-winning narrative film, The Necklace, which will premiere internationally June 23rd, 8 p.m., at the ReelHeART International Film Festival in Toronto’s Southern Accent Restaurant, 595 Markham St. Brown portrays a middle-aged woman who does for everyone but herself. In the short narrative film directed/produced by Boulder, CO’s MaryLee Herrmann, Brown’s character Margaret seeks an outlet by consulting with her more free-spirited younger sister Christie. “We often see women as they appear from the outside, but more often than not, there are many layers of truth of what is actually going on,” Herrmann explained. “I wanted to create a story that would challenge perceptions. And I wanted to portray women of a certain age, a very underrepresented demographic in films.” Meet the director at this premiere. It’s $10 for advanced tickets. Organizations receive a special rate of $7 for tickets.

Gossip for the week of 30-May-2011

by Carol Banks Weber

A few GH actors still believe their soap has a shot at surviving the cancellation process by ABC Daytime. But everybody else who isn’t overly sheltered and only into their own ego trip knows better. RavenBeauty once again reiterated that GH willend—mark her original, April 15, 2011 words. The same insider sources who passed onto her that AMC and OLTL were ending are the same ones who passed on the same fate to GH. It doesn’t matter what the fans campaign or who’s the new head writer, GH is done for. At the heart of the cancellation mission is ABC’s goal of turning everything over to reality-TV. “The problem is that ABC wants out of scripted television. They could care less if the Pope came down and blessed each show at this juncture. They are dead set on destroying something that is still incredibly relevant, which has been a treasured tradition in this country for generations. The writing could be the best this world has ever seen, and they would still proceed on with their mission of destruction. As I said in April, they have a year tops. If you are feeling Déjà Vu this week, you are not alone. It's the same exact script, only the players have changed. It goes to show that history can repeat itself only 2 months later and nobody is the wiser (nobody learned a thing). Once again, a new head writer is coming to a show that is set to be canceled, and once again, the actors are tweeting that everything is fine (it's actually heartbreaking).”

Not only that, but the new head writer isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And… “One major leading lady may be cut to bring back an old favorite and one very front burner male may be cut back entirely!” Could the leading lady be Laura Wright (Carly) and the front burner male Maurice Benard (Sonny)?

Another spumor RavenBeauty posted about last January is coming true: Brenda’s gone soon. Whether it’s with Jax or on her own, it’ll be with her son Alec and without Sonny.

RavenBeauty all but confirmed that Julie Marie Berman (Lulu) is the young blonde actress wanting to “spread her wings,” by adding in this recent update that Dante will be left out.

–RavenBeauty May 23, 2011 update

Tristan Rogers (ex-Robert Scorpio) added his voice to the choir insisting GH will be canceled soon. He wrote recently (over at his message forum) that TPTB would’ve done everything they could—starting with big regime shifts—six years ago, if GH was safe. “There would have been a new VP of Daytime first then a very serious assessment of all its soaps to see what was working and what wasn’t. In the case of GH almost all the writing department along with Guza and Phelps would have gone and a plan implemented that centered around a serious effort to bring up the ratings. This would have had the actors doing lots of personal appearances and a PR effort launched on a grand scale.” Rogers also refused to lay full blame on outgoing head writer Bob Guza Jr., crediting him with lots of great stories, as well as stories with much humor:

>> The fact is that Guza was just one of those involved. I mean, come on, does anyone think for one second that Guza could have single-handedly changed the direction of the show without the permission and cooperation of other significant people? As to who the others are I remain “mum”, but think of the endless hours you’ll all have exchanging views on who else could be involved! “Since 08’ I have been of the opinion that GH was controlled by people way above Frons. Who they are I have no idea but in comparing ABC Daytime of the present and that of the 80’s there’s little comparison. Jackie Smith, VP of Daytime back in the early 80’s was someone clearly in charge. There was never any question of that. In today’s world ‘who’s on first’ is hard to discern. As for who is in charge at GH. My recollection was Gloria Monty, and anybody who questioned that didn’t have a job by days end. Certainly the string of Head Writers we had never had the last word on story or anything else for that matter. >>

Billy Warlock (ex-A.J.) is slowly immersing himself in the Twitter-verse. On May 27th, he let loose with a few tweets on how difficult it was for him to play the victimized on GH, how he’ll never allow it again, and the importance of keeping it core: “There would be no more meathooks for AJ…. It was tough being the whipping boy, believe me. So the opposite if who I am… They all made the fatal mistake of abandoning core characters. Although, CBS didn't do that and the 2 shows they have are still strong.”

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