DramatistDreamer

This makes me feel sad that she tried and probably didn't get much assistance. She could've used the Internet and Kickstarter back then. Is Ms. Phillips still alive?

Also in the category of deleted tweets, apparently Brad Gilbert had to hastily delete one of his about the U.S. Men's Claycourt Championships. Supposedly, he got the twitter handle for the USMCC wrong and accidentally tagged a gay men's porn site in his tweet! Maybe this mishap will cause him to take a look at his misspellings of words too and maybe proofread a little before he tweets.

I think McEnroe felt free to chastize Andy because he was under the illusion that people believe that he left, rather than the reality that they didn't want him to continue in the position and that he was fired. I think the USTA mistakenly allowed him to spin the story that he didn't want to move full time to Florida so they parted ways. Good for Andy for chucking his failure in his face. Patrick should have kept his yapper shut. Could you imagine how his brother John would've reacted had some tennis commentator said to him what Patrick said to Andy after a loss?

Has anyone seen this doozy of an exchange between Andy Murray and Patrick McEnroe? I heard it's since been deleted but if Marat Safin had a chance to read Murray's response to Patrick, surely he would give Andy a slow clap on that comeback https://twitter.com/jwilsontennis/status/585343278423244800

Billy Magnussen (final Casey Hughes, ATWT) is involved in The Sonnet Project, a very cool project that uses actors in various NYC locations to film all of Shakespeare's sonnets, mainly for for educational use for NYC students in understanding iambic pentameter and the meaning of sonnets. Billy Magnussen is involved in Sonnet 108 which will appear on their website on April 22: http://sonnetprojectnyc.com/ There's nothing better than seeing Shakespeare live but this is a very unique project and I can see it having an impact.

Gay or straight, Gregg Marx had incredible chemistry with Hillary Bailey Smith. They could just trade looks and it looked so intense. Scott Holmes was nice and he didn't have bad chemistry with HBS better with Dolan but by the time Marx left the role, I realized that there would be no more passionate chemistry with Tom and Margo-- for me, there just wasn't.

I'm truly surprised that there's been no Kickstarter wanting to do a documentary on Irna Phillips. Loved or reviled, her impact on television is indisputable. People talk about Shonda Rhimes...Irna Phillips was the Shonda of her day!

Very interesting. I read that same thing as well. That's a bit of a backstage mystery, what really happened.

I'm just convinced that IW is just bad for Serena's health. She looked so stressed the entire time, even when she'd won the first set of a match, her face looked twisted in agony at times. Now I see on twitter that she has withdrawn with a knee injury and someone is asking why no announcement has been made and if no lessons were learned from 2001. Supposedly, Serena will come out and speak to the crowd. Uh-oh.

I guess this will leave Odesnik with more than enough time for mustache twirling because it seems as if he was as disliked as any villain onscreen and in real life. From tennis players to former ball kids, the general consensus seems to be that Odesnik had no respect for himself nor others and a complete ass-hole.

I'm surprised that Sugarmama with all her vaunted fashion sense didn't tell her box to refrain from dressing like the 3 Stooges. Just a bizarre look! Pennetta was and has always been a tough player, one you don't want to play, especially if you're not playing tip top tennis. I was watching an online stream and clicking back and forth between the Dimitrov/Robredo match and Shazza/Pennetta and I could swear I saw a moment when Grigor must have looked at the big scoreboard and saw how far Maria was down in the final set seconds after what sounded like an announcement from an adjacent court and I saw a grimace appear on Grigor's face--I'm guessing the announcement was the score from the Pennetta/Sharapova match.

that and Niculescu's crazy ass style of play! I can't remember the last time I saw someone hit the ball with that much spin! I'm not just talking about topspin, I'm talking sidespin, backspin, underspin...Jennifer Capriati would've called Niculescu a ' junkballer'. I don't think Niculescu hit one single flat shot all match long and it drove Serena bonkers because of the lack of pace on Monica's strokes. I almost had to laugh at one time, Niculescu hit what can only be described as a forehand slice dropshot and it pretty much died right after climbing over the net as Serena lunged after it, knowing it was a lost point. When someone feeds you balls with little to no pace, you practically have to grab the ball if you want to hit it back, if you like to play with pace and are use to clean, flat strokes, it drives you nuts to try to create your own pace that way. I'm not posting anymore Serena/I.W. articles but there's a pretty good one on Yahoo!/Eurosport by someone named Tumaini Carayol, who talks about how Serena's return doesn't change anything in as far as the racist abuse exhibited and lack of apology by the tournament in how they failed to handle the situation. Tennis is often know for throwing players under the bus in situations when they fail to do the right thing. I remember watching a documentary about Monica Seles and how when she was recuperating after the stabbing, her representatives had asked the ITF/WTA to hold her ranking in place while she recovered. Instead of doing the right thing, the WTA/ITF claimed they had to put it to a vote and shortly thereafter informed Seles' agent/rep that the then Players' Council voted it down, so Seles' ranking plummeted after losing massive amounts or ranking points for tournaments missed. Years later, the ITF/ATP/WTA would all adopt a Protected Rankings System that would essentially do what Monica had pleaded with them to do for her, only it was implemented years later-- too late to help Seles. WTA/ITF put it all on the players but since Seles was nearly mortally wounded at a WTA sanctioned tournament through no fault of her own, why put this on the players? Many of whom were Seles' competitors at the time? As much as I am a fan of tennis, there are many such times when the organizations governing the sport have shown themselves to be self serving and greedy and taking actions that catered to the tournaments at the expense of the players.

I read on Twitter from someone sitting in the stands that when the announcer asked if people were excited about the return of Serena Williams, there were mostly cheers and applause yet some boos. If those fools boo, I'm cutting IW loose for good on my viewing guide. I won't waste my time watching again. I had stopped watching for years after the Williamses boycott and slowly began to watch a few matches here and there over the past two years. With the time difference, I'm barely hanging in as it is... Update: Serena got a nice ovation, she shed a few tears, her sister Isha had tears...I may have welled up a bit myself.

Okay, this is the last article I will post on the subject of Serena's return to IW, but I think it's worth a read, definitely one of the more insightful articles in a calvalcade of same ole 'think' pieces. http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/mar/12/what-everyone-is-getting-wrong-about-serena-williams-return-to-indian-wells I think I'm going to end up paying today for staying up so late to watch Taylor Townsend's match vs. Betthanie Mattek Sands but it was highly entertaining. Too bad they had to face each other in Round 1 but Taylor unequivically 'got game'. I wish all the fat shaming would stop. Lindsey Davenport was allowed to come to her own fitness decisions years into her professional career and the same respect should be accorded to Taylor.

I have no idea on what's going on with TV One and Unsung these days, mainly because I don't subscribe to cable but even their website seems like clips, particularly those pertaining to Unsung Hollywood have been stripped away from the site. Last couple times I went to the website and went to the video section for UH, some weird automated message kept playing about a domain restriction, I think, in terms of content. Could it have to do with copyright? I have no earthly clue what's up, all I know is that last year, I saw almost all of the UH episodes, this year none. Speaking of Unsung- Did anyone hear/read about the fight Angie Stone supposedly had with her eldest child, Diamond? According to this article, Diamond got three of her teeth knocked out! http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/03/11/angie-stone-assault-knocks-out-daughters-teeth-georgia/70141822/

I am surprised that the party implosions have started so soon since taking over Congress. These folks do everything fast except pass actual meaningful legislation.

Despite the fact that I enjoy DelPo and Pico, this is why I cannot bring myself to ever root for Argentina...in anything. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/delbonis-wins-sends-argentina-davis-cup-quarterfinals-164659590--ten.html

That picture, uh, just wow. And I thought Rog's blond hair look was bad. Actually, nevermind that blond is still the worst look he's ever had. Money really does go a long way to spiffing up people's looks. No offense. I just read this article about Mardi Fish returning to the circuit, although he says he's taking it a few tournaments at a time. I knew about the heart condition he had a couple years ago but I never knew he was dealing with all he's been dealing in the aftermath. Kudos to him about being candid about mental illness. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/sports/tennis/mardy-fish-attempts-comeback-after-18-months-away-from-tennis.html?smid=tw-share

I'm not a fan of Robert Menendez, I've always thought his voice on diplomacy were antiquated, and rang of a Cold War mentality. If he is removed, the downside will be the possibility of someone who is even more inflexible slotting in that position. Chris Christie's regard is sinking lower as we speak. He's been shifting New Jersey's finances more and more in the red since his re-election. The deficits are piling up and he's already broken his promise on how the pensions would be funded. And this deal with Exxon is probably going to lead back to the time when New Jersey became a punchline. I can remember riding in a car with school friends in the 90s when suddenly we'd all have to roll up our windows and my friend from Jersey would say "Ah, that's that New Jersey smell".

I voted for Hills when she ran for NY Senate but man, she is going to have to do a LOT better if she intends on running for President. Who the hell has their own server?? For a public official, it's not a good look as it implies something to hide. Even if she was using it to keep love notes to Bill private, when you're a public official, that is a no-no. The dynamics behind her campaign kind of imploded in the primaries last time around. I read that she will be using some staff from Obama's 2008 & 2012 campaigns but if she doesn't inject some discipline into the dynamics behind her campaign it won't matter. As for Obama's personal life, believe me someone has always tried to find something, even if it makes no sense, like the selfie shot at Mandela's memorial (which by the way, was a celebration of Mandela's life and was not meant to be morbid). People tried to make it as if Michelle was going to move out of the WH the next day or something. The last one was when Malia went to visit some colleges and universities in NYC, one article asked why the president wasn't accompanying her. Are they serious?? On the other side of the aisle, I had to laugh when John Boehner had to beg for a clean bill for DHS and was reduced to relying on Democratic support after many (*coughs* Tea Partiers) turned their backs. Didn't this party used to be disciplined and (somewhat) unified?

I think he's playing Aisha's husband Hector, the son of Greek immigrants, who was played by Anthony LaPaglia in the Australian miniseries. Although I haven't seen the U.S. version from what I read, Sarsgaard is playing Hector. I cannot fathom it.

Honestly, the best thing about the original miniseries was Sophie Okonedo's estimable performance but the rest of the Oz cast was fine. I saw an ad for the U.S. version and nothing about it tempted me to watch. Nothing about Peter Sarsgaard screams son of Greek immigrants to me. From what I'm reading that is about the least of this version's problems.

Have you seen the original Australian mini-series? I thought that was pretty good. I haven't seen the American remake though.

I saw Jonathan Hogan, who played Jason Benedict, Iva Snyder's husband on As The World Turns, on the first few episodes of Season 3 House of Cards. He's playing Supreme Court Chief Justice Jacobs.

It's just my personal opinion and I have no solid proof of this but I honestly believe that since 2000 (after AW's cancellation in '99) P&G and eventually the CBS daytime network knew that neither ATWT nor GL would make it past the decade. The choices that the execs made just convinced me more and more ( a lot of previously unconnected characters, filler/new cast members, alienating many veterans, throwing caution to the wind in regards to storylines, in ways that were good and bad), that they were just letting the show slowly wind down. It was very telling that one show ended in '09 and the other in '10. Neither made it out of the decade.