FrenchBug82

Thank you so much for these wonderful shares. I could never be an interviewer so maybe I shouldn't cast a stone but I really wish these folks would remember they and their stupid jokes are not the ones we are here to listen to. Was super interesting nevertheless.

Why did Days had her murdered? Was it Philece's choice to leave or theirs to write her out - and close the door?

I agree. We have said it a gazillion times but Bell manages to both drag certain things ad nauseam (cut to watching the same scene about Liam over and over again) and yet move them at breakneck speed at the same time. It is bizarre pacing. My favorite thing about this was the years of the Taylor/Brooke wars where Taylor/Ridge fans would throw Brooke's having dated the father and three brothers in the face of Brooke fans... only to have Taylor having done the exact same thing AND the fourth brother (Rick). So technically Taylor was even trashier. That being said, I like Brooke but I don't mind people pointing out her hypocrisy at times - certainly her advice to Hope on respecting marriage changes whether Hope is the married one or Steffy is. But let's not pretend that it disqualifies her from outing other people's secrets when those secrets are worth outing.

I am more of a "naked-pics-in-the-Bible" kind of guy, Sally-style.

No. Their contracts ties them into exclusivity to a show during the duration of the contract but on the other hand a show can terminate the contract at will at the end of a "cycle" which is generally every thirteen weeks. So basically if she lasted two months, she probably was paid her guarantee for something like an extra month but then she is out of luck.

Well B&B certainly has a LONG history of doing U-turns about new hires they celebrated with fanfare but GJ was dating Sean Kanan (and I think even got pregnant by him) so while I dunno the timing of that relationship vs her tenure on the show, maybe this had to do with why she was written out a lot quicker than predicted.

He sort of is. I mean his career nosedived but he was the next best thing for a few years in the 2000s. And I obviously think there is nothing wrong with wanting to be on a soap; but this is so not the way to do it, especially if you show how little you know of them Whether it is randos, formerly famous actors or actors who left a soap and want to return, campaigning to be hired on social media is literally the best way never to be hired.

Ding ding ding Listen, Dorinda crossed the line once or twice and while she is a fave of mine, the edit she got showed her being very off-putting. I get it and I get why they felt she needed a break. I do think fans were too quick to celebrate it because they were mad at her bad behavior. That proved short-sighted. AND "(at least on screen") is super-important. That they never showed or tried to explain Dorinda's behavior is evidence that either they were setting her up for a storyline OR whatever Tinsley did was not showable for reasons. Or they killed two birds with one stone (they couldn't explain what happened on screen for whatever reason and they figured that it would make Dorinda's behavior even more season-defining if unexplained). It is not a conspiracy I am sharing here: One can readily admit Dorinda's aggressiveness was offputting and still recognize that Dorinda is neither crazy nor stupid. Her anger had to come from somewhere deep enough to justify why it escaladed that way and whatever mundane things they "leaked" do not make sense. Blaming alcohol also does not explain why she relentlessly targeted Tinsley of all people. I will go to my grave thinking we were not given a huge piece of the puzzle. In any case, I get why Dorinda was sidelined this season but I think she is missed and when we lose a long-time housewife, we lose more than whatever she did the last season she was on.

In all fairness, 1991 Brooke is not 2021 Brooke. Thirty years is a long time! And I think her relationship with Eric is very different now than it was then.

As pissed as I am about the casting of that role, now that he is here, I am going to keep an open mind. But I need to understand who that man is - not even the underlying plot, just a sense of his personality - before I start pairing him with people or throwing him in front-burner story. They should at least give us time to get to know him and "like him" and I fear they think just casting H is enough for us to be invested in whatever he is doing. No. If we are going to pretend he is a brand new character who doesn't look exactly like Franco and Todd, fine, then let's play by THOSE rules and introduce him like you would a real newbie. Writers can't have it both ways.

I think generally speaking fans welcoming longtime members of a cast leaving - because they are tired of them or because they did something that pissed them off - is almost always short-sighted. And I say that as someone who couldn't take anymore of Nene's behavior. But as I said earlier in this thread, generally speaking, for the shows to work and for the behavior of these women to feel tolerable, there needs to be a connection between them and us and familiarity is definitely a solid way to establish that. When you have followed someone's life for a decade, their low points are still going to be more interesting than a complete stranger's high points.

I too preferred Frankie/Cass - I agree with j swift's take that while both were tough women, Frankie was actually written as more proactive which made that pairing better balanced - but my personal distaste for the way the triangle was written was not so much the miscarriage - that's classic soap - as the sort of unsympathetic writing that was given to Kathleen. I am fine with them nudging the audience in the direction they have chosen but even as I agreed with that direction, I still feel they did Kathleen who was a loveable character a disservice in small subtle ways in the process. What I absolutely adored with that story though - and why I agreed with their chosen endgame - is Cass' realization that he had changed, matured and he wasn't "that guy" seeking adventure anymore. That was nice character writing and there is nothing I like more than when a soap manages to tie a plot with its usual soap twists and turns with some digging into a character's personality and psyche and that was a nicely done story about who Cass was. Definitely screwed Kathleen over in the process and for fans of them from the 80s I would definitely understand why they'd resent it. Does anyone know if her return was always intended to be mid-term or they just decided they had no more use for her after the triangle was resolved?

My interpretation is that Peapack is when Zimmer was pissed off at the show runners, was seeing the writing on the wall and thought the show was garbage at that stage so she gave up. She gave up on trying to give "performances" and gave up too on trying to look a certain way. And ironically it is when she stopped trying that she did some of her best work. Because her natural charm is her real strength and she definitely can act but as soon as she amps it up just a bit she easily becomes obnoxious. So when she is *acting* it very quickly becomes either grating or OTT - because her personality is so borderline and the line is so thin in the first place. But when she did her thing without worrying about being an ACTRESS, she was fun to watch, the scenery-chewing largey went away and by then Reva and KZ's personalities were interchangeable anyway so it worked in story.

Let's remember this is the show that fired a Colleen actress when she gained weight rather than use the history of her show mother exactly struggling with the exact same problem on-screen.

Which actually is not THAT much more of a stretch than Jake going from mechanic to CEO in less than six months. And since Duke is one of the very few non-relative males left that Kate hasn't boinked yet... I see an opening!

Are we getting a Duke the Bear shirtless scene anytime soon is what I wanna know.

LOL I love that woman. As I said, she strikes me as the bread... buttered... when it comes to MB which is why she didn't let last year escalate.

The second point is true enough. NLG who Lord knows doesn't hide when she dislikes someone and would have plenty of reason to resent MB over what happened last year seemed a lot more indulgent towards him than Ingo. But I always say to people: acting nice to other people is a different thing from actually being nice. He can be super friendly and not act diva-ish and at the same time still be an a**h***e. He can laugh with you and still not have your back when it counts. You can be good at smoothing things over when you have won already and still be the one that stabbed you in the back to win. Heck, he can really get along with you since you don't threaten him and do really really bad things to those who do. I know we have had four years of a very prominent counter-example in the news but not all narcissists are sociopaths. Some are perfectly comfortable and good at interacting socially; heck they feed their narcissism on getting along with everyone even when they are perfectly happy DOING things to the same everyone that are not nice. And inversely some of the people around him may be fooled but others may know where their bread is buttered and pretend to be fooled. We don't know. What I do know is how he treats fans of the show and the kind of things he said and does on social media and I tend to think social media - because it is so instinctive and immediate and people don't think twice and just tweet and react - reveals a lot about someone's darkest impulses.

Well, I was fond of his version of Adam too. But I am keeping an open mind that some version of the rumor might be true - maybe a lesser versiona, a smaller incidentl that *added* to his otherwise complicated relationship with his castmates rather than an outright firing offense. My clue that it can't entirely be about his personality is that JM was real buds with him outside of work when he was there and since then silence. Something else must have happened but it doesn't have to be anywhere near the level of gravity of outright sexual harassment to have been the final straw for a guy who already had powerful enemies. In any case I don't think it is fair to blame HK in any of the scenarios and it seems very clear that the entire cast was firmly told NOT to discuss. We know SC is still very friendly with him and yet has never said anything publicly to support him either. And while KsJ's tweet was hard to read - although it didn't read to me as something he would have said if the rumor was true - it was very clear his frustrations were as much with the orders he was under not to discuss it publicly. So whether she was a victim in the first place or simply in a rumor about something that didn't happen, I don't think it was on HK to handle and I can't blame her for staying out of it. Even as a fan of his work, MM did deserve at least some of the blowback he got - she emphatically didn't in any of the potential scenarios. In the end it will stay a huge mystery unless someone at YR with nothing to lose and no axe to grind ends up telling the true story.

I hate mob stuff so I am not mad at Ava being out of it but I agree she feels a bit neutered right now. I guess they don't think they can sell the Nikolas pairing if she is in full B mode. I am holding out hope that once the current stalker mess is over, the Avery custody battle to be nasty.

I don't. Even if MM did what the rumors say he did, and I am not entirely sure everyone's behavior matches the rumor, I don't see what this would have to do with HK's employment ten years later. It manages to smear both MM and HK which is quite the feat. It is clear HK is a favorite of TPTB which is fine by me - a lot more unworthy actors have been propped up by producers in the past. At least she is charismatic and can act so while neither she not Summer are favorites, it is not absurd they'd want to hang onto their main leading lady in that age range even when she is quite clearly hoping to get other jobs. Considering the LONG list of soaps youngsters who left to strike it big and never went anywhere, I am not mad that she is smart enough to keep a foot in in case it doesn't work out. I bet soaps would be winners on balance if they allowed their performers to do that: those who want to leave will leave anyway, especially if they feel they can't pursue other projects, while they might be able to hang on to some for whom "larger" fame does not work out by keeping the door open for them I bet those favorable terms were negotiated when JFP was EP since she was a fave but good on her she managed to keep them. And there is no need for her to be blackmailing anybody.

You know things are bad when he probably misses how grounded his Passions scripts were.

I am not sure what is being implied here

I don't recall them trying to recast Drucilla - or even floating it - but they had clearly brought Kelli Giddish to test the waters on her being a recast Dixie and the reaction of fans who could see them flirting with it led them to drop it. It is unknown how serious the idea was though. Kinda annoyed about that Emmy because I was hoping the way the show is going without him would drive home the point to the producers. But no we are back to him being the "star" of the show. And granted they will probably do good ratings when Sonny's memory come back Again, they are using very classical soap tropes - getting married for some reason as an obstacle to your true love - but using it twice at the same time - Carly/Jason and Willow/Chase - is a bit much. Especially since 90% of soap marriages are unnecessary in the first place and divorce is pretty damn easy these days. It is not 1952.

On the other hand, we started the season with everyone loving Eboni so I am holding off feeling anything until I see a lot of her.