Contessa Donatella

Went to another In with Linda Dano podcast. (I've been to 4 now.) This one was Anna Stuart. She is so fun & fine & such a good storyteller. They both spoke of Annie, which is what they call Anne Heche. And the recent anniversary of her death & her relationship with Anna on the show, etc. Anna was scheduled to be on Anne's podcast just 2 weeks after Anne's tragic accident & death. Anna said she always had food & Annie always ate whatever she had, with her fingers, never a fork, as if she was ravenous. She said she'd been gone from the show, trying Hollywood & the day she arrived a strike began so total waste. Someone called her about AH's first day so she watched & saw Vicky in the bathtub like the rest of us saw her first. When she got back, they met right off & their connection was so immediate! Not to be too whoo-whoo but they were everything to each other. They were friends, she was her mother, they were sisters, they were lovers, not that they physically were, just as if they were spiritually. Linda talked about Annie's remarkable talent for her young age. They both talked about how acting for a soap is so different. And, that not all actors can do it. They said many times actors would be hired & be there for one day & not be able to make time because they were having to have so many lines read to them & they simply would not ever be back. They laughed & said maybe you had to have a weird brain to do it well. Anna said her husband (Cromwell) is a real working actor who is always working & isn't right now because of the strike & he is driving her crazy! It was amusing. She talked about the 13 acre compound she has & she & James live in one house on the property & her brother lives in another house on the property & there are all these different gardens her brother created by moving the natural stones from one place to another & how she learned from all these books how to garden. Linda talked about her gardening, too. Anna said from the outset that a half hour wasn't going to be long enough & she was right!

I think he genuinely enjoys hanging with fans. But if he's going to be so thin-skinned that he strongly objects to rather routine fan criticisms, then he probably needs to take a step back. Your advice to him would seem to be on point. As to inciting drama, well, he's probably always going to do that but usually he seems to get a kick out of it. Not so today.

Well, those 3 weeks & a day or two went by & she didn't go in the direction of rehab. Then, TMZ broke the story & that next day she went to a spa-like rehab. I believe she was there for 28 days. I figure she went on advice of counsel. If not, why didn't she go the day after the wreck? Why wait 3 weeks? I just think she should never work at GH again. If she cleans up her act & is held accountable & has paid restitution, sure I think she should have the chance to get hired by someone again, just not GH! Like I said I am trying to find out if there is any truth to the rumor that Lucci was first choice but declined. Then I reflected on KDP being second choice to Lucci, if that is true. That is all. But, I think primetime AMC reboot is dead & will not be brought back to life. I have Gladys in that #1 spot. Portia is a huge disappointment.

As it happens I agree with you & I will go you one further. She lied by omission to Frank, calling & telling him she'd had an "accident" & broken bones & had to be in casts & on crutches, etc. but NOT mentioning the DUI, the arrest, the Blood Alcohol level. Frank & whomever else learned about that part of her evening when the story broke in the news, which was apx. 3 weeks & some days after the (1) hit-and-run and (2) head-on collision. I was told that the divider there is about 2 feet high so she jumped that presumably. I figure that car was going very fast & was wildly out of control. She easily could have killed someone. It makes me ill to think about it. And, NLG has a distinct reputation on Twitter. She is very aggressively critical, so this "different" stance is glaring.

Ohhhhh of course! I think they should name her Kiri but they won't.

I met him at one of the two AW fan gatherings that some of us fans did June 20-ish either 1999 and 2000 or 2000 and 2001. I can never remember this date for some unknown reason. He came & brought his girlfriend to the second of the two, which was Linda Dano Day in CT on Sat. & the dedication of the Central Park Fan Bench on Sun. They were first there, actually they were unfashionably early, but it was okay & I just spent time with them in the hospitality room while other things were being finished up by other people. I really liked them. He had done rehab & remade his life, etc. & he looked the best I'd ever seen him. Slim, no longer baby faced but the character in his face looked good. He was wearing a black t-shirt, tucked into black skinny jeans, black belt, black boots. My always favorite guy Stephen Schnetzer was wearing exact same except with black sneakers. No one knows who was invited. I'm sure the event person invited everyone she could find.

Why Victoria? I vacillated between thinking that Jamey was being petulant & thinking he was just being a bitch. I mean he considered fans wanting Henderson to have been there some sort of final straw! GMAB! In my head Nicole, Henderson, John & Marlena were sitting on the last row just out of sight. That's not even complaining NO BO! But I thought it was a good day. Falls into that either/or category where DAYS cannot have medium rare days. They're either nearly perfect or burnt to a crisp! I am picking only one bone with the show at the moment. They should have immediately done cheek swabs. Not to confirm with DNS is unthinkable! 2 actions & maybe 24 lines of dialogue. Dot the i, cross the t.

I took it from the GH60 mag that SOD put out & they're quoting Kelly Monaco. I just double checked it. "Frank was really convincing and I wanted to work with Frank really bad back in the day but ..." and her reason was choosing West Coast over close to home.

No, travel is difficult for me. I have Parkinsons & vertigo & am constantly on a Rollator which is a sorta nice walker. Plus, my discretionary income is not rich enough. You want to but cannot? I admit I would love to, even though I don't think the list of actors is that great. A guy from my FB soap forum just decided this past week to go & another soap pal is seriously considering it. Several from Kim Wells humongous AW group on FB are going.

Kathleen Gati was hired at GH for 2 days work. She was in 2 scenes with Luke who was pretending to be someone with an accent & she of course was using an accent. They had great fun & that was the gig. Later she was in Vancouver working on ARROW & they called. They wanted her back & were going to give her a daughter. Some daughter! Britt! And as they say the rest is history.

Yes, thanks so much Les Moonves for recommending two people who knew nothing about writing for soaps and where ever they may be now, they still do not! Moonves also offended Tina Sloan, who I do not believe is an easily flappable person. He basically told her she should be grateful he'd given the show a couple of extra years. Given! When CBS had them jumping through hoops daily. What a lovely story about Jilly!! Thanks for sharing it. I have to live with the facts. Jill Farren Phelps got her the job & MADD helped her keep it. Even evil people can do good. Swajeski wrote some really incredible Otalia but Hurst & Wheeler read lines out loud every night to make sure the next day would work. So much effort, attention & devotion went into the writing at the end.

That's just Jamey. Wasn't it Sonja Alarr? Maybe her lack of experience means she can't pivot? They should have re-written the entire scene. In the scheme of things it was just half a page. No, I'm not tired of him. I just wonder if the story today was too pat. And, why aren't they immediately talking about DNA testing?

True. Both are awful choices. NuMolly had an incredible audition & it's all been downhill ever since & Haley doesn't even do the court part of her 2 felony counts & 1 misdemeanor till Oct. but NLG came out strong immediately for compassion & second chance.

Remember the fan event scheduled for next May? Well, it made with enough people signing up by its first deadline so it WILL go forward. Now people can again sign up. Here is its link again. https://www.greenvelope.com/card/.public-8bec7a3308e242949bde2aba8182b89035373031343331

I'm not sure he does it for anyone! Today was a real whirlwind show. In one day we have a new baby girl but something's wrong with Sarah. Vivian's the new widow Kiriakis & I'm sure she'll throw Maggie out into the street any instant now. And they let DH2 express fan feelings about the many retcons of John Black & gave him a new papa in just 2 weeks of DVD.

Yes, they do & use him or her constantly. I recently posed a question elsewhere which I will ask here: Which is worse: Continuing on with a less than satisfactory NuMolly? or Having Haley Pullos back? I am also trying to find out if it's true that they asked Lucci & she said no & KDP was second choice to Lucci. If so, KDP's pop cultural value has just soared! Frankly a real feather in her cap. I love it!

After AW was canceled, I was still an NBC baby with DAYS but I did not watch PSSN. Most AW fans didn't. I don't remember if I watched any of the last 6 months of BEACH. I had tasted it at different times but never made it a daily habit. I liked Ben & Meg and also Lesley & Sam Behrens. But I felt like I had a gaping hole which needed filling where AW had been. I got into AMC, GH, GL, The City, PC, back into ATWT. I'm trying to remember what I really loved in what show. GH I had begun even before AW was canned. Riche/Labine was right up my alley. Robin/Stone/HIV/AIDS/Nurses Ball, Mary Mae, Laura then, Lucky & Liz, Liz's rape & the reivisitation that Michele Val Jean so masterfully wrote to tie Luke raping Laura to Liz's rape to Lucky learning the real history of his parents, etc. And I really loved PC & called it the little soap that could. But the biggest love of all came out of my late coming to GL. I just loved the whole show & couldn't get enough of it. Harley, GUSH, Buzz, Company, Holly, Blake, Ross, Olivia then Otalia, Jami and out of it all, total bonus, Jill Lorie Hurst & I became close personal friends. I tease her that when she gets finished with her book I am the first pass because I am the right person to proofread & copy edit it!

OH! Mark was so wrong for RealConnor. And, wasn't that Stern & Black tenure?! Remember they had the "treehouse of luv" URGH. And, most people do not know but they planned to have Mark show his bare buttocks in a love scene. There was music on a CD for the "butt" scene & someone found out & called Michael Kape because Soap Opera Now was the only mag that hadn't gone to press yet & he put in a Blind Item & when they actually taped the show they did not do the bare buttocks! Thank god. No, of course. You had no way of knowing!! You are blameless! To us that was during the ABC-ification of ATWT! Susan Batten was known for playing Luna on OLTL. Connor was a power business woman a lot like Lucinda, only younger, and they stuck Batten in Connor's office the first day & she dusted the blinds on the windows. ATWT fandom roared half with laughter & half with derision that the actress didn't know how to Act like a powerful businesswoman!! Good luck. It would be great if you saw the real Connor in a different light. And, I still liked some of the oughts!

Near the end of GL when Grant came back. Near the end of AW when Charles came back.

Okay. It's alright. Allyson Rice-Taylor was the original Connor Walsh & she was much beloved by many of us fans. And, her being summarily fired, for what seemed like no good reason, was a sore spot for fans, who equally hated Susan Batten in the role. But, Connor had a whole life before they forced the pairing with Kasnoff.

A fan created a nice slide show for Victor today.

Why isn't it because that was what Alarr wanted?

Hey, I don't post here & I don't watch CORRIE but I got a transcript of what Sarah Lancashire said about it the other night when she won NTA "Special Recognition". So I thought I'd share it with you. It is just a fabulous shout out to how great soaps can be. At the first she's referring to Sir Ian McKellen who is standing right beside her.

And they did not grow up together. Well done. At least there were some flashbacks with Nicole & Bo in them. I couldn't believe Alex & Teresa flirting. I also thought Brady was way too hard on Teresa. So, does it look like Gwen & Dimitri are going to leave town together?

Not surprised at all about hatred of ponytail Mark Kasnoff & the InstaRomance with NuConnor. But, before ponytail did you hate Connor then? I simply must know. My mother watched ATWT, AW & DAYS so that is what I started on. ATWT I just remember Lisa, Bob, Nancy, arguments between Bob & Lisa, ... other memory is just mush. AW I just remember the Matthews family especially Pat & Alice but Russ, too. And, Ada & Rachel. And people sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee & talking. DAYS I have the most vivid memories of Bill-Laura-Mickey from before the rape, through the rape, on into time immemorial. I do not remember Mickey shooting Bill. Also vivid memories of Marty Hanson, Maggie, her farm, crutches, red shoes, all of that. And also vivid memories of Julie, Susan, David & poor dead baby Dickie & that swing set.