DramatistDreamer

While I do agree that Dokic's narrative was covered poorly in the media, many journalists seemed to mostly cover how defensive the family appeared to be, the father's statement that he believed they were being discriminated against because of their Serbian identity made any stories accusing him of being an ogre (which he was), practically radioactive as it would be viewed through the lens of xenophobia (which sadly, the British media had a habit of engaging in xenophobic comments). Another problem with stopping abuse in tennis is the fact that players act as independent contractors as there is no players' union. In fact, there appear to be more protections for tournaments than there are for players. It was even worse 20 years ago. You had Damir Dokic and Jim Pierce who were obvious terrors to their daughters, but you also had parents who were seen as aggressive but not abusive, like Peter Graf, Steffi's father. I remember watching a biography of Steffi and one childhood friend, who went pro around the same time as Steffi, recalled Peter Graf slapping Steffi, after Steffi complained that she was tired and didn't want to practice anymore. Then you had Pete Fisher, a dentist and tennis tutor who taught the likes of Pete Sampras and Alexandra Stevenson, who is now a registered sex offender after having served three years in prison for child molestation. By the time I learned about him, it seemed as if it were an open secret. You also had the svengalis who set very bizarre regimens for their pupils (e.g. Patty Schnyder) akin to cult-like mind control, isolation and weird dietary restrictions. Sadly, tennis is rife with abuse of all kinds (racial, psychological, physical, sexual) and part of the problem is a glaring lack of even minimal oversight and protections. One basic step that could have been taken and should have been taken a long time ago is to form a players' union that instituted some protections and protocols for player well-being. If it isn't obvious that this sport needs one, I don't know what it will take.

Yeah, I haven't had cable in about a decade now. Unfortunately, I still know who Van Jones is from the time he bounced out of the Obama administration. I understand that some people just clash but in the years since then he's only become more problematic.

Now that I think about it, those spa scenes with Lily, Emily and Carly isolated and trapped in on space with basically only themselves and one occasional dayplayer probably looks a lot like what might happen in soaps during this pandemic. All the things that we've complained about over the years, about characters never interacting and being in their own bubbles seems like something the remaining daytime soaps might dig in further now.

When I started to read this sentence starting with "The Czech women..." I thought you were going to talk about their history of leading very messy personal lives. I thought Vaidisova was messy but Petra Kvitova beats Nicole by a country mile!

I took it as, they're actresses who wanted to work and they likely had formed a camaraderie on set because they had only each other to work with during that time and probably actually got along. Sometimes that's all it takes to paper over the rest of the dreck. It was really interesting to hear Colleen Zenk talk about those ridiculous Barbara storylines with fondness for years but in her most recent livestream, she discussed why she often talked about it in such glowing terms and it was because she had been going through a lot of upheaval in her personal life and work had become a lifeline, of sorts. She also enjoyed working with Trent Dawson who proved to be highly supportive during a very vulnerable time for her. Listening to her recount all of the traumatic things that had been going on in her life made it very clear, for the first time, why she felt the way she did. Sometimes it's not even about the quality of the work but the fact that the work was there when it was needed the most.

Rallying the troops? Girding for a battle? Or perhaps taking one of their infamous oaths?

Same. I know that it was popular with quite a number of fans that were still watching the show but I really wonder whether it would be as popular if the show had not been, in general, so dreadful by then.

I think ATWT should have written Michael Louden's character "Duke" as having passed away on the show. By the end, the show desperately needed a dose of reality and other than Hal's passing (which was disappointing by writing standards), it really lacked for it, which went against the "grounded" more realistic nature of the show. ATWT was never really a show that had characters running around trying to save the world from a polar freeze or having one character being demonically possessed for like, a year.

We all pretty much know that there is a slim chance that those warrants are enforceable, so it is more likely an act that the Iranian government is carrying out according to their principles. Having said that, there is some sort of psychic release seeing the words arrest and Trump in the same sentence.

How do folks not know about Van Jones?? There is a reason why Obama tossed him out of his administration. FWIW, more follow up on this scandal.

Every now and then I stream some classic TV shows on IMDB TV and happened to see an episode of 21Jump Street that is oddly and sadly prescient to today's politics (which I guess never really changed from yesterday's politics). Brian Bloom guest starred in this particular episode titled "Next Victim". Seems as if quite a few future and ex-soap stars made appearances on this show.

If the writing never made that crystal clear, one way or the other, then that's just poor writing.

Democrats and the Biden campaign had better be focused and know that they cannot rely on the media to point out what should be glaringly obvious. Case in point.

So, I guess this had become common with soap writers to write older and adult children as having been neglected off-screen by their parents, who the audience knew more about from previous storylines? What a terrible plot device. Alan Locher had expressed interest in getting Anne Sward on his livestream show. I don't suppose he'd ask her how she felt about the character being written as a stage mother to her youngest child but I'm curious to know her thoughts about this.

Didn't Sheffer also do this with Katie's character, making Lyla a neglectful parent? Boy, talk about redundant themes!

It's sad that people will still tune into this show when new episodes start back up again, knowing full well the show marginalized KSJ in his final years on the show, then proceeded to squelch their talented black actors and has (successfully) exploited all of them to score an Emmy, without a second thought to how badly this makes Y&R look. At least there should be no doubt where their intentions are. Viewers can no longer claim ignorance in their complicity.

Yet another Trump White House scandal delivered to the public by Friday evening news dump. These people are nothing if not consistent!

Oh. My.

In all of this daytime soap nostalgia that has come with the lockdown intermingling with the spirit of the BLM movement, I still cannot believe that no one has done a video chat, livestream, or podcast with someone like Nathan Purdee or Phil Morris. Nathan Purdee in particular, seems like he'd be open to talking about his experience in soaps.

9,000 new COVID-19 infections in Florida! Trump has to be the stupidest president in the history of presidents. Not just in the U.S. but he's the stupidest president anywhere ever. DeSantis is deeply dumb too.

And this was during a ten day window in which Ivanisevic tested negative TWICE. Everybody involved in that tour should be in quarantine.

Borna's like "I'm getting something out of all this..."