DRW50

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.

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.

Teresa Blake nearly left the show around this time. I suppose the story they gave her for staying was her pairing with Tad (which never worked for me, as most of his pairings didn't).

Mary was the core of The Supremes, and I sometimes wonder what might have been if Barry Gordy had appreciated her gifts near as much as he appreciated Diana's. Still even with that burden she shone, and I love so much of their style and music...I especially love those few years with Mary, Cindy Birdsong, and Jean Terrell.

I know some fans in those years used to joke about why was Gloria constantly talking about eclairs.

Adam had himself kidnapped to test Gloria's love for him after her fling with Alec. The stress caused Gloria to lose the baby.

David is such a national treasure, overused as that is. I was glad that people didn't get mad when his big announcement was that he was continuing his weather report.