DRW50

What a shock. Another media darling reminds us he's a stooge.

I think if a character was around long enough to be in stories then they generally deserve some sort of exit, even just a few lines. Otherwise it makes the show feel more hollow to me. I would agree about Brooke, but I felt like they gave her a re-entrance partly to show viewers that they knew it had been wrong to just dump Julia Barr the way they did.

Nothing very mysterious about this, sadly, but on GL around 2000 and 2001 there was a token triangle between Vicky Spaulding, David Grant, and Ruth, a woman Reva had helped turn around after dire financial straits for herself and her son had led her to hold someone hostage (this also started Reva's TV talk show career). If memory serves, they all just vanished. On AMC, Vicky Platt (Victoria) had the same problem in 1996. She, along with some dubious material about voodoo, was introduced during the splashy Jamaica remote for Noah/Julia/Hayley/Mateo. She returned with them to Pine Valley. I think they teased a relationship with Jack, who was still in a 3-4 year backburner period at this point. Nothing happened. I can't even remember if she got an exit. That became an extremely irritating constant at AMC over the next 5 years, as any number of characters (Kevin Sheffield, Becca, Tina) simply disappeared, never to be mentioned again. Soapcentral archivists would add "After the stresses of ______/end of relationship with _____, _____ quietly left town," over and over again.

After dangerously enabling one of Biden's disturbed accusers, Chris Hayes has found another mentally ill woman to hang onto. I can't say I'm surprised to see a big Bernie booster having no problem with transphobia or anti-Semitism, given how much some in his campaign, like Brie Brie, tried and tried to hitch his campaign to that wagon.

I was thinking more about how this has been swirling for a month, apparently, with Psaki and others, but I guess the media already has their goal anyway, no matter what Biden or his people do. I just wish said people wouldn't make it so easy.

This is going to be the big Beltway story for a while. I'm not surprised most political and press operatives are scum but this is the worst time to employ people who make themselves the story. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/02/i-will-destroy-you-biden-aide-threatened-a-politico-reporter-pursuing-a-story-on-his-relationship

In terms of the Senate, Manchin was the Democratic Party not that long ago - things have really changed in the last ten years. That's also why I don't believe he will switch parties, as he probably had his best chance to do so during the Trump years anyway. Sinema I am less sure of. She used to be a Green and has slowly refashioned herself for political gain. If she switches I won't be bowled over. Right now she likely won't because of how her state is trending and because she would lose a primary, 100%. This type of head-patting for "independence" angers me because this is the worst possible time for the party to have to be beholden to this type of prima donna. If voting reforms are not passed immediately, we are likely locked into a decade or more of fascism and carnage. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/02/democrats-need-hr-1-and-new-vra-protect-party/617987/

Oh I agree with you there. I just thought the story made Haley look thin-skinned and extremely insincere. I'll admit that I can't stand her so I may be biased.

I don't know if Alberta intended to make her look good or not but it really doesn't.

This is a very long piece on Nikki Haley. Tim Alberta is, as always, a bit too deferential to the pretend angst of the establishment Republican, but he does repeatedly call out her two-faced nature and how her painfully insincere and confused public persona will likely doom her. https://www.politico.com/interactives/2021/magazine-nikki-haleys-choice/

Continuing on the Y&R track, around the same time as the Patty phone call (which was when Bill Bell's writing really started coming unspooled, likely due to his memory issues), focus was put on Nina/Ryan/Victoria/Cole all being invited to a dinner at the Colonnade Room. At this time Victoria was pining for Ryan while married to Cole, and Nina was paranoid about Victoria winning Ryan back, so viewers could believe that one of them might have set up the dinner, but it was made clear neither of them had. Whatever this was meant to lead up to never happened (possibly because Heather Tom decided to leave).

Yes. Walt Willey said in an interview a few years later that around this time he decided to get into shape and lost a lot of weight. As a result, they dropped the storyline.

I know it's the New York Post, but it still disgusts me. I wish so many people had not rushed to make Cuomo a god last year. https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/cuomo-aide-admits-they-hid-nursing-home-data-from-feds

I don't really think anyone would hold her responsible for all of AW's problems - many of them were clearly from NBC and P&G. The problem with JFP tends to be that in these years, she got so much breathless hype and ass-kissing from the soap press, leading to expectations for what turned to be a whole lot of garbage.

@vetsoapfan @jam6242 @JAS0N47 @Paul Raven

Love Little Edie... Rare interview footage of Sharon Tate.

Is he going to bring back the character he played when Natalia Livingston left?

I think until recent years many still clung to the idea that these 'journalists' were above us, instead of being phony muckrakers. The same happened with Diane Sawyer's infamous Whitney Houston interview, where, yes, Whitney was all over the place, but people remembered the Whitney quotes to laugh at rather than remembering how Sawyer baited her and goaded her from the start. That breathy vapidity was perfect. I miss Jan so much.

Amber and Charisma were two of my favorites on those shows. I'm glad they are in solidarity. Charisma has talked about this here and there for years now but has never felt fully comfortable (for good reason). Something really turned sour on Buffy after a few years - from season 4 on (starting in season 3), everything changes and it is very evident onscreen. Whedon's personality cult and playing favorites take a huge toll. Any producer who focuses more on selling himself to the public ends up hollowing out their work and the people who work for them. Whedon's chumminess and charm with the press helped mask so many of these issues and gave him a free pass that the quality of his writing had long stopped earning. It's sad, but not surprising, that only after Whedon seemingly ran into some real tangles at the big studios did the mask finally start to get pulled off.

They will push this and push this until it becomes a dominant narrative. Generally conservative sympathetic sites like Hotline are also starting to push the talking point that Biden has already failed on schools, vaccines, etc. I hope the public won't fall for it and I hope Democrats don't get spooked, but I can't really assume otherwise.

Ron is a hack through and through, an egomaniac who got drunk off the undeserved praise he got for approximately one year of his headwriting career. Even if the original actress is not in the role, the lack of respect shown to a near-original character is just shameful, all while a serial killer played one of the deadest actors in the show's history is given the keys to the kingdom. Ron Carlivati is why so many people hate soaps and why so many people who used to love them quit and never looked back. And I hope all his old boosters at Daytime Confidential are happy with what they helped create.

I was mostly thinking of the stuff you mentioned (and is still going it seems) where various NYT bigwigs were trying to make a scandal of Biden not commenting on the impeachment.

This all feels like another sideshow. Trump has idiots go out there to present the whole trial as a joke, the media nods along, Trump is acquitted, and time Democrats need for so much else is gone.