Contessa Donatella

Okay, I give. Surrender. Concede. What the puck is Brookie doing in your new sig pic?

Nyah, I'm gonna say probably right.

Alright but you said it was NOT about leaving but fear of reprisals. Now, yes, thanks for addressing reprisals but you've added leaving back in. I'm just gonna have to insist you make up your mind! 😉🤏🙄🤣🤣🤣🤣

More info? Article title? Byline? I'm looking & there are too many options!!!

@te.Earlier you mentioned being more interested in how this does streaming rather than broadcast. I wonder if they've done enough to make it clear that viewers of Paramount Plus "regular" will have to wait till the next day to see the show & that to see it on the same day you must subscribe to Paramount Plus WITH SHOWTIME? Also, two things from IG. https://www.instagram.com/p/CY7yJsbjqG1/?img_index=3 I did not know that MVJ was involved in writing the end of Mary Mae which I remember being well done. Labine & her, great teamwork. And, this one from the B&B 36 anniversary bash MVJ often shows pix of her with friends. Here she is with KKL.

I'm not at all sure what I think about this. IOW, Kristina, in your scenario, would truly become THE mob princess?! Realistically do you think there's really someone/s who is that kind of threat?

Who were her guys? Frankie, Emilio & Jack, right? I'm sorry I think all 3 were catches, although I don't know where Jack is at this point, as far as his redemption arc is.

And, Isaiah mentioned afib, which is a heart arrhythmia, which is your heart racing instead of the steady beat it needs to be doing. Not a big deal as long as you get tested for it, confirmed that you have it & you take a pill for it, not even a hard to swallow pill, but an easy one & you see that doc 4 times a year. It takes them maybe 15 minutes to do a new EKG. Did you happen to notice the stricken look on Sonny's face? I suspect he is terrified. So, naturally being Sonny he jumps to this huge unwarranted conclusion that Jason has to take over. I am just so over this guy. And, I just know that next week he is gonna try to get Carly to make Jason do what he wants. I was proud of Jason, though. He's right. He's Danny's only parent. And, also I do not think Carly is gonna truck with him over this at all.

When it comes to San Cristoblah, I am confused more than not. If Lucky Gold got us out of there, I never knew that in fact he was a hero! So I certainly never gave him his due. At this late date, I'd like to formally nominate him for some unknown honor. I suggest we make something up. Perhaps something like "The Guard at the Gate Which Lucky Gold Locked Forever". Other suggestions welcome.

I have only recently, here in this thread, become aware of Y&R having clearance problems. Why was that? Possibly someone has said the reason & I just didn't see it.

And so you should be, confused I mean. Here they go with this kind of odd story-telling. I swear that at moments like this I think it is entirely possible that Korte & Chris Van Etten & also Frankie have collectively lost their everloving minds. Isiah even told Sonny to go have an appt specifically with a cardiologist. Then, Jason told him the same thing. He seemed to indicate that in his position as head of the mob he cannot afford to show any weakness. I'm pretty sure that for example Tony Soprano would have definitely seen a cardiologist. IMO other mob bosses wouldn't be stupid and short-sighted. But, I guess we're supposed to think it's okay for Sonny to be different.

So, this appeared in my email this morning. https://www.msn.com/en-in/entertainment/tv/the-gates-the-first-black-led-soap-opera-in-35-years-show-promises-a-fresh-perspective-on-the-daytime-genre Oh, good lord, this purports to be from MSN, then you see it is from ... wait for it ... The Times of India. WHAT?!!! Then, it has these amazing facts in error. Only two but egregiously wrong. The examples: Wrong #1 The series is still under development, so CBS will have to determine whether to pick up The Gates for formal TV placement. Wrong #2 There has been no announcement about The Gates' casting or release date at this time. I'm thoroughly disgusted.

Of course! Thanks. No idea why I said Hernandez. Of course, it's not like I'm not TERRIBLE at names because I am. Also dates. Mental blocks. I can have the sharpest memory of many details & then there's a surname or a date & UGH.

Absolutely brilliant. If she wants it, I predict a long, amazing career for this little giant.

Thank you, Jane. I read these moving words & I think about how much I admired this man & I find myself weeping. Earlier I did not cry. I was focused then on how right it felt for him to be together again with his wife. Now this morning I am just a blubbering mess. Has anyone seen an announcement of whether the soaps will be pre-empted for his funeral on the 9th?

We've talked about Mae the cigarette girl. In this interview Claire doesn't mention her at all. And, she does talk about a whole lot of other things. Maybe what we've heard about Mae wasn't even true. https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/11/soaps-hope-claire-labine-interview-part_07.html We Love Soaps: And GUIDING LIGHT? Claire Labine: I’m not good at network politics. I’m terrible at it. There was a lot going on that I had no idea of. We were just trying to do it the best we could. And having to fight the good fight and then they fired us. Then they couldn’t get anybody to replace us and were they embarrassed! They had announced it. Mickey called me and said, “We are in a real mess. The people that we had lined up aren’t going to work. Would you consider extending?” I said, “Sure, I’m not going to leave you in the lurch, for heaven’s sake.” So we stuck around and they left us absolutely alone for a cycle. And on the last day of our stuff the ratings were the highest they had been in three or four years. By that time we were really invested in it because they left us alone and were having such a great time. We made it work. I loved it. I was really surprised [when we were fired again] because they hadn’t let on that they were looking or training or anything. I should have realized that if they were leaving us alone that they were really pursuing it. And that was the deal. We were only supposed to be holding on until they could find somebody. EDITOR'S NOTE: Press here for Part Six in which Claire Labine reflects on the highs and lows of writing for GUIDING LIGHT, the stories she loved, her experience with Paul Rauch, her feelings about Crystal Chappell, and the battles against focus groups. https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/11/soaps-hope-claire-labine-interview-part_09.html In Part Six, Claire Labine shares more about her struggles with GUIDING LIGHT and Paul Rauch, plus the absurdities of focus groups. We Love Soaps: What were your favorite stories from writing GUIDING LIGHT? Claire Labine: What I totally loved was giving some dimension to the bad prince, who was a wonderful actor [Edmund, played by David Andrew MacDonald]. And getting him connected to the little girl [Susan], the one whose father got crisped saving the baby [Jim], Edmund had totally understood her bouts of teenage rebellion, and totally won her over. She settled down under his influence. Then his wooing of Beth was so much fun. And I adored Harley. We kept trying to do a story between Justin [Deas], Maureen [Garrett], and the actor who played the brother...tall guy with dark hair who had a troubled history with the show. We Love Soaps: Jordan Clarke? Claire Labine: Yes. And they didn’t want to do it. The screen just came alive when we had Jordan and Justin facing off over Maureen. It was terrific! And nobody wanted to touch it. We Love Soaps: Why not? Claire Labine: I don’t know! Because they were nuts! Because it was gangbusters. We couldn’t resist, we would just throw these scenes in to fill because we just wanted to see them all together because the chemistry was marvelous. And we had the profound satisfaction of sitting in on a focus session. I hate focus sessions. I said to Mickey [Dwyer-Dobbin], “Okay - one ear, that’s all.” It had one of those scenes at the tail end of another scene. It was one of those [focus] sessions where the audience has a button at the end of the arm of their seat. And they would press it and we could see whether they were interested. If the little line went up gradually, that meant there was growing interest in what was going on. If it went up dramatically, that meant there was a lot of interest in what was going on. We had pretty good averages for this show. Maureen was in the bar but not the focus. Justin was there. Jordan walked in and Justin gave him a look and this little graph shot straight to the top! It was the highest recognition of interest we had all day. But that “didn’t count.” The tester knew what she was supposed to say. She was smart enough to read where the network’s interests were and she was reinforcing them. It just made me kind of ill. We Love Soaps: So even when they use focus groups, and those focus groups convey that they want to see an actor of a certain age, they’ll spin it... Claire Labine: If the network is against it, forget about it. If the network has something in their head in the other direction, they’re going to do the other direction. I was tired of beating my head against a wall by that time. We Love Soaps: What was it like to work with Justin Deas after so many years [Justin left RYAN'S HOPE in 1978]. Claire Labine: Oh, it was wonderful. I adore him. He’s just one of the best actors in the whole world. You could give him the phone book and he would make it work. If he decided it was going to be funny, it would be funny. And if he decided it was going to be a tragic phone book, then it would be a tragic phone book. We Love Soaps: You were also reunited working with Maureen Garrett, who had been on RYAN'S HOPE [1981-82]. Claire Labine: She’s one of my all time favorites. I think she is a great human being and a wonderful actress. I would love to write for Maureen again. She has a farm in Central America! Somewhere. She’s spent a lot of time down there. I really would love to talk with her about that. We Love Soaps: Your disputes with Paul Rauch were well discussed at that time. Claire Labine: Were they? I didn’t know that. I was trying to be so discrete! We Love Soaps: This was also when the internet community started discussing these things. What were the points of contention between you and Paul Rauch? Claire Labine: Well, they weren’t fights. Paul is enormously charming. It was just disparate points of view. That’s really what it was. It was all about the material. It wasn’t personal at all. We Love Soaps: Do you remember a specific example? Claire Labine: Yes, the two princes, Jeffrey and Edmund. That was a bone of contention. But they had played that story for so long, there were no new beats in it, and I couldn’t figure out where to go with it without staying on that island [San Cristobel] forever. The whole thing baffled me. When there are too many cooks I get addled. If I can stay straight with an idea that has touched me and made sense to me... where I get in trouble is when people start changing it and I lose my direction. We go back to [the point made in Part Three] you have to write for yourself. You have to believe in what you’re writing if it’s going to have any resonance with the audience at all. That’s basically it for the Paul Rauch business. We Love Soaps: You wrote for Crystal Chappell on ONE LIFE TO LIVE and GUIDING LIGHT. Claire Labine: What a peach. What a peach! I think we succeeded in making that character [Olivia] more complex instead of just a bad girl with fangs. I loved her, and I loved the way Crystal played her. What an actress. We Love Soaps: She is. In its last year, GUIDING LIGHT actually told a wonderful story of Olivia falling in love with another woman. Claire Labine: Really? That’s neat. We Love Soaps: And they actually ended up living happily ever after at the end. Claire Labine: That’s lovely! We Love Soaps: How about working with Kim Zimmer? Claire Labine: She was a peach. She was a real trooper. She’s awfully nice, and she played to the hilt everything that came her way. We Love Soaps: As you know GUIDING LIGHT went off the air a little over a month ago. Claire Labine: Yes, that’s very sad. You hate it when a show is canceled. It really is a tremendous loss. I was totally detached from GUIDING LIGHT by that point but I really felt a pang and felt so sorry for them. It’s such a bunch of troopers. It’s sort of tragic. The idea of Irna’s first brilliant beautiful baby coming to an end, that’s tough.

Not Stuart Damon! Damon L. Jacobs.

So, your thought is that it was the actress's choice? I wish we knew for certain. If it's either Janet's or Paula/Jean's choices, either of them, then I'm still mad. But, if the actress wants a break, then, that's totally different.

Emilio!!! The Hernandez family, him & April "Boom Boom" Hernandez & younger brother Julio & their father whose face I can picture in my mind but whose first name now escapes me, altogether they remain my favorite DAYS ethnic family.

That idea seems particularly delicious to me.

I'd love to see many more classic soaps streamed but the fact that so many of them have so many episodes makes it such an expensive proposition. However, that makes the shorter run shows appear to have an advantage. Santa Barbara, for example, which is owned by Disney & last year Jerome Dobson indicated that streaming might be in its future. Then, from another perspective apparently Corday made a statement that they'd begun modern digitizing on the archive approximately 10 years ago, which if true is an amazing investment & it also gives them high quality flashback resources. I wonder if EDGE OF NIGHT wouldn't be the most likely to succeed in terms of rebooting. Absolutely & placing it squarely in the area of a previously underserved group seems to me fairly brilliant. I read recently that some of the people working on BTG have been nursing this project along for 4 years!! That, like many things just amped my excitement up!

https://x.com/Soap_Hub/status/1874863730783088951

So, Paul, I looked for over 2 hours & all I found was Labine in the Stuart Damon/WLS interview which sheds NO Light on the NBC affiliate involvement when SUNSET BEACH was tapped. That doesn't mean I will stop looking but it does mean I'm stopping for the moment. I recalled one other thing & that was that the reason for giving the affiliates involvement in the decision was very specific & that was their hope that they would get much better clearances rates by doing so.

https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/11/soaps-hope-claire-labine-interview-part_11.html#more We Love Soaps: Because of your experiences with ONE LIFE TO LIVE and GUIDING LIGHT? Claire Labine: Yes. I clearly was doing something wrong and I don’t know what it was. You get tired after awhile. If you say, “This is what we want to write and this is why we want to write it, and this is why we think it’s good,” and then there isn’t a positive reception, why beat your head against a wall? That’s basically where I am with the whole thing. We did a couple of developments that I love but nothing has happened so far. There’s one that has some life in it I believe, but we’ll see. We Love Soaps: Can you tell me about that one? Claire Labine: No. I’m sorry. We Love Soaps: Okay. Can you tell me more about the show that you and Matthew were developing at the time you left GENERAL HOSPITAL? Claire Labine: It was about two families in Brooklyn, a white family and a black family. The black family was a family of musicians based loosely on the Marsalis family, all of whom were jazz musicians in one way or another. Then there was a madcap radio talk show host who fell in love with one of the daughters of the entertaining family. It basically was about the common wall between the brownstones, how to preserve it as a symbol of why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along, and how these families came together. They liked each other, they respected each other, but there were real problems. It was fun playing the complexities. We laid out three years of story. It was called UNION PLACE. I still love it. I believe it would speak to the mood of the country right now. I regret that we didn’t get to write it a lot. Every time Matt and I look at it, it’s just alive for us. I doubt anyone will do it. But I love that one.

https://www.welovesoaps.net/2025/01/best-of-daytime-soap-operas-2024.html?m=1