Vee

Finn Jones talks Loras' fate and the future of GOT.

I think Lemay's book is fascinating and indispensable for any soap opera buff, but you can only go with him so far before you form your own opinion. The first time I ever saw Jacquie Courtney was in that '70s episode of OLTL they used to trot out all the time, the one where Viki gives birth to her son Kevin. Jacquie is there as Pat Ashley and immediately segues into doing a Groucho Marx bit, she's a trip and totally self-assured. I was always impressed by what I saw of her AW work later on, and I think Lemay didn't know how to deal with her because she was her own unique type, without having to be written into one by him. He seemed much more comfortable crafting characters from scratch, and uncomfortable with any performers who had star personas before he came aboard. I did think the original Willis Frame was really interesting from what I've seen of him - young, brash and a little off-kilter or disturbed. You wouldn't see that many guys like that today.

Costume designer Nancy Steiner - replacing longtime TP designer Patricia Norris, who passed away not long ago - talks about the new show.

Oh, that's a shame. He did have a lovely swan song on the show, IIRC.

She's always had that sense of humor.

If I'm the only one who quite liked the Tara episode, I'm good with that.

I think it's a money grab for CBS, yeah. But I don't think it ever was for Bryan Fuller, and that's why he quit the project. Going back to Trek after 15 years was his dream project. CBS originally wanted this show cranked out by next month, and he fought them on that. The characters created, the season-long storyline and I suspect casting thus far (Anthony Rapp, Michelle Yeoh, Doug Jones) are all his, though, as are the first two scripts which he wrote and the creative team he left in place BTS. So I am hopeful about that and as a Trek fan I intend to watch it (I also love the timeframe it's using, the era of "The Cage"), but I am deeply discouraged by how Fuller was treated and I do hope they go back to him. It wouldn't surprise me, given they actively attempted to mislead the press about his continuing involvement for fear of backlash.

At this point I'd be down for Godzilla attacking vs. Trump taking office. Act of God, you name it.

Jeff Zucker has spent a career failing upwards and missing the point.

Finally catching up on this after being very busy with work and moving in the last 2 months - it's incredibly well-done. Great soap, great drama, great television, impeccably produced, edited, written, performed and scored. Top flight all the way.

Speaking of, a Texas elector has resigned, refusing to vote for Trump.

Olivia Nuzzi from the Daily Beast, whose work I usually like, got in a very pissy, nasty fight on social media today with half the Internet (including Joy Reid and Oliver Willis), claiming the media did its job and that the only reason Trump won was because Hillary was "a fatally flawed candidate", that it's all Democrats to blame. The one thing most of the mainstream media are sure of is that they did their job and are totally not at fault - and they viciously circle their wagons to attack any other journalists or media, of which there are many, who are calling them on the carpet. They want to blame everyone else, but the truth is they were fatally unprepared for dealing with a candidate who has no compunction about lying a thousand times a day. They are so hidebound and obsessed with 'balance' and 'both sides' gamesmanship that they had no idea how to factor in Trump. And as Willis and others have said, they had one extreme standard for Hillary while treating Trump with casual derision and much less seriousness, even to the end, because they thought nothing they did (or didn't do) would matter and that he wasn't worth giving the same weight.

Trump continues to call Obama for advice/emotional wellness.

A rarely-seen addition to the Secret Diary hardcover editions:

Good news. Yeoh is tremendous.

There would never have been a Tess story with Erin.

Erin had a quiet, mature grace and steel which contrasted very well with Melissa's fire, especially near the end of her tenure.

Jenna Coleman and Tommy Knight (Luke, Sarah Jane Adventures) are starring on ITV's new historical drama, Victoria. Indira Varma (Suzie Costello, Torchwood) remains busy on GOT and is now also starring on an ITV mystery series of her own, Paranoid - which you can watch on Netflix.

Same. If I thought a recount would work and would go anywhere I would wholeheartedly support it. Jill Stein, OTOH, is an opportunist.

For the love of God.

Oh God, I forgot all about Dinah and Mallet. You're absolutely right, they were vastly superior to him and Harley and perfect together. I don't have the e-book in front of me, but IIRC the story I heard online, and the same one Kim Zimmer heavily alludes to (with no names) in her memoirs, is that (allegedly) Ehlers had bedded her way through many of her costars and time and again had gotten too involved only to be disappointed (as she was with Mark Derwin years ago). The alleged claim seems to imply that Ehlers and Bogue had become involved as well, that they were going to leave their spouses for each other, but she did and then he didn't. Then he became involved with Mandy Bruno (Marina) later on. According to Zimmer's blind no-names story, this left Ehlers even more bitter than before until she finally left the show.

Everything they did with Marina in those final years was disgusting. Alan-Michael, Mallet, you name it. I don't care if she and Bogue had chemistry/were involved IRL, and I believe they were. (I loved Rob Bogue as Mallet, BTW; they should've kept him with Harley but IIRC there were BTS 'issues' there as well.)

I have no idea why A-M was brought back without Rick Hearst. I've mentioned this before but back in 2003, when I thought OLTL was disposing of both of them, I thought Roscoe Born and Catherine Hickland had crackling chemistry and my grand plan was to have them migrate to GL to play Alan Spaulding (I couldn't stand Ron Raines as Alan, though I softened on him years later - I think Born had much more charisma) and Hope Bauer. I wanted the characters reunited as part of a scheme against Alan by Alexandra, and of course the pipe dream was to have Bev McKinsey return to that role. Never would happen.