Contessa Donatella

1964

It's my favorite, too!

It is always ProctEr with an E not Or

So yesterday I wandered off on a tangent about Elvis Presley, off the top of my head. Probably no one cares but I want to correct facts. Elvis Presley did have a twin who was stillborn. They named him Jesse Garon Presley & in a level of their emotional life he was very real to Elvis's mama & to a lesser degree to Elvis himself. I will now return you to your regularly scheduled discussing post-Ron prattle.

Well, that is weird. I do not see him but I only have him on Ignore on 2 accounts. Just my good fortune, finally!

If they had snagged Donald May then maybe Carla Borelli would have come along for the ride & you know what that means? She is Reva & Kim is not. Can you possibly imagine it?

Interesting. I love my Roku. No, I don't know. Who? I mean Disney def does. I would think a number of parties have stocks.

Thanks. Why is he called EJ then?

If she is, she's got to be one for a rival organization. Now, see, I know you're kidding but I actually like Mucas!!!

It's at moments like this one where I reach for the word "creature".

Recently we found out that on GH Frank has repurposed the AMC Edmund Grey set. What was it named, Wyldwind? I was fairly amazed. It's been a very very long time since it was used. AMC was cancelled in 2011 & I don't think it was in active use right before the end.

I haven't seen one yet. Marco, Lucas, ... (Edit to add) Someone in the zoom said they've seen people using Luco (pronounced Luke-oh). Then the conversation moved to how much people like them together, already!!! So, we were brainstorming what could happen to move the Gio reveal forward a big lurch.

ONE STORMY NIGHT 1-10-92 Carly, Isabella, NotCarrie, Lawrence, Bo, little boy ShawnD, Caroline & Shawn, All of these people are not in Salem today. Oh, John isn't either. OH Tanner & Molly! Ginger, Brian, Kayla & Shane, UGH.

Heck, we had it twice! Body & Soul 1.0 with Abe, sans memory, a captive of Nurse Whitley. Body & Soul 2.0 with Abe as co-Producer with Kate.

Good point about her doing different kinds of writing quite a lot & often. OLTL had success with a book plot, I think, Marcy wrote it. Possibly it was at a time when Michael Malone was HW there as he was a very successful novelist & also Professor of Lit at a small college. And, of course, AW had Felicia Gallant as a very successful romance author & Mac's business empire was Cory Publishing. I wonder if this won't be more like Katie on ATWT writing Oakdale Confidential, though. Sheer spec as I have zero clue what their plan is.

Some photo collages I've done. This is not mine.

Thanks! I've kept thinking that he carried some negatives. Patrick Mulcahey told a story about a scene being written where a helicopter swooped down upon a group of people & the P&G rep tried to sell them on the idea of it not being a helicopter, but a blue luxury sedan. Yeah, NOT.

I've never thought about this. I'm curious about what made you think to pose it as a question. I am strong on AW & weak on OLTL. Linda Dano & Stephen Schnetzer both acted on OLTL first & then were lifetime characters on AW. Both shows had Agnes Nixon. Irna Phillips had two main proteges: Agnes Nixon & Bill Bell. Irna was part of the creation of 2 soaps that in the 1970s were in grave danger of very early cancellation. Agnes Nixon saved AW & Bill Bell saved DAYS OF OUR LIVES. After being HW at AW Agnes created OLTL, right? Her first ABC tenure, where before she had been a P&G writer, 1st GL & then AW. (Do I have that chronology correct?) Both AW & OLTL had very high points in terms of ratings, awards, success & also very low points where they struggled. At times OLTL was considered "not as good" as AMC. At times AW was considered "not as good" as DAYS OF OUR LIVES. They share anything & everything that relates to being a New York City soap. I think they share that they didn't get the respect they deserved. Both had their female lead be the strongest character on the show & also that they were the unquestioned star of the show. When AW's cancellation was announced, Angela Shapiro went to P&G & tried to buy AW to air on ABC. It is not known how she planned to schedule that but one theory was that she would air AW & OLTL both as half hour soaps, back to back, mid to late afternoon. P&G declined & then she tried to buy the character Felicia Gallant. No, again. Then she did what we all know too well & put Linda Dano as Rae on all the ABC soaps. I have dubbed that 'Shapiro's Folly'. Honestly, I don't think that OLTL suffered from being "Bay City-fied" or AWfication. However, these are some [nitpick] parallels or similarities. Possibly they are of interest. Anyway, I've had fun with it.

This is a photo collage I did for/about Michele Val Jean. Her first writer mentor, middle left is Jeri Taylor [RIP]

Is there anything in print or fan lore or info about Don Stewart & temperament or behavior? Of course my brain could be playing tricks on me.

“On ERICA versus RACHEL, Erica was a very unique character. ... Rachel was a lower-class Erica, her mother was a cleaning woman, and her goals were not nearly stratospheric as Erica’s. Rachel just wanted to marry Russ or somebody with money. What Erica and Rachel have in common is they thought if they could get their dream, they’d be satisfied. But that dream has been very elusive.”– Agnes Nixon, Creator, ONE LIFE TO LIVE, ALL MY CHILDREN, and LOVING So my takeaway from this, plus knowing the characters, is that both Rachel & Erica schemed for acquisition. They wanted to acquire romance, husbands, prosperity, a kind of low-level fame or notoriety. Am I correct in thinking that Carla schemed for safety, camouflage, to keep from getting caught & so for survival? Or did she also scheme for things similar to above?

Rachel/Ada, Mona/Erica, a mother/daughter at LOVING, these are all examples of the Agnes Nixon "troublesome daughter/put upon mother" trope. Are Carla/Sadie by any chance one of the pairs that make up this trope? Another thing that these 2 shows might have in common. OLTL had a very strong thematic approach to socioeconomic differences between groups of people. Class differences. AW at an earlier point had this too but to be clear it was not as much as OLTL. So that is a similarity but marginal. Besides that, I see no other comparable things. Paul Rauch was a very different EP at different shows. Oh, I've thought of one more thing. Using actors from the Broadway stage. But, realistically that was something all of the NY shows had in common. So I don't think it has any uniqueness between AW & OLTL.

When you look at the period between Sweeps, it's as if they tried to maintain a kind of pace where they had a lot of plates spinning in the air & on their fingertips & the whole goal was nothing but to not drop any of those plates. A version of spinning one's wheels. They're not getting anywhere but they give the appearance of a whole lot of activity. I believe it's all about this appearance. At moments they accidentally hit a chord & something resonates but it is a false event.

However, those of us who watch DAYS have been spoiled. On Peacock there are no preemptions. Not for anything & not in or about any show. I read somewhere that we Baby Boomers in a way invented instant gratification but then we realized that it was not fast enough.

GH 4-29-25 At the Savoy with a packed house BODY SHOTS!!! https://www.instagram.com/p/DJGRyEaJBYm/ This one has legs.