Contessa Donatella

@Maxim

Two things. I am not discounting self-referential injokes that are written into soap dialogue. Although I am critical of some of it. (DAYS, Jamey & Ron, mostly) I was NOT critical of this usage. And, I am not a Bell soap fan so Kimberlin Brown's villain is mostly a footnote to me. I am aware of the broad strokes, but I would not begin to say that I really KNOW that character because I simply do not have the experience of it, if you see what I mean.

@MaximWhitney! https://www.instagram.com/p/DHM2FbSxCwr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Just have to agree to disagree here. When I look at that scene, in Africa, in captivity, what I see is a diversionary tactic, period. Also, to me, one kiss does not equal making out. I agree that it meant something, just not something romantic. Also, Romantic Jarly hasn't been tried again so it's impossible for it to have flopped. Romantic Jarly's last attempt was completely derailed by Sonny's return from Nixon Falls, 2021. Neither 2024 nor 2025 has yet to yield anything but friendship, which of course is in itself valuable.

Oh, god yes, a list of the various ways Frank lets actors dictate things, yeah, OY!!! But a chunk of it is down to the current writers, too. I'm in favor of a moratorium on Recurring driving story!!

I'm very glad to see other people saying this. When I said it very early, it seemed to fall into a vacuum. I'm not sure it actually made a sound. I know & appreciate that KaMo has said she's drawing from Erica & Reva & that MVJ has said she had Bette Davis in her head, as actors & writers are wont to say/do. But, I'm just not seeing AMC or GL or Dynasty or OLTL, really. Much more, it seems like a brand new creature to me.

I am one who doesn't think Jason & Anna are being teased at all. Partners? Perhaps. Colleagues? Yep, looks like it. Romance? No way, not in hell, not in heaven, nowhere. Both Finola & Steve have looked at this idea with ... scorn. Some people look at that kiss & seem to lose their minds. Other people see the same scene & see subterfuge, actions taken hoping to escape injury or death. That they talk & work in concert doesn't spell romance, much less sex. I thought we knew that JPS declines when it comes to contract vs recurring. So, I suggest it's not that they won't, it's all on the actor, not the show. At least in this one instance. If this is wrong, I'm sure someone will come along & inform me/us.

Well, even if I say it myself, which apparently I must, I would just mention this. It's where I posted Friday morning offering the Mctavish pdf & began gifting it to people off & on since then.

Have you by any chance read her memoir, Murdering My Youth? As things go, or have gone, for child actors, Cady's life was horrific. That she exists today as a grounded, functioning, literate, working actress & creator & director, is fairly miraculous. I think she would say it's all down to years of therapy. At any rate it is def interesting. Below here, is a blog I wrote, years ago, right after I read this. It's more or less a fan review. Blog 238 Cady McClain memoir MURDERING MY YOUTH: a Memoir by Cady McClain ©April 15, 2014 271 pages For a fan of Cady McClain’s like me this book is hard to read. Cady truly had a terrible childhood. Her family of origin was nightmarish. It was her parents, her older sister and herself. Her mother and father were alcoholics who had no decent boundaries. They were as random as people with undiagnosed mental problems can be. Everything was high drama with them. They paraded around naked and both took showers with the two girls when they were much too old for that. The fought and made up until they finally divorced. I found myself worrying about ‘poor little Cady’ . Even after the divorce her mother Dana was obsessed with everything bad about her father. And, money, well they rarely had enough. Cady was a child actor and began doing commercials, TV shows and plays at a young age and she just never stopped; she’s still a wonderful actress today, playing Jennifer Horton Deveraux on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. She took tap and acting lessons. Her mother was regularly playing the role of the child forcing Cady and Annie to behave as the adults. Cady’s father molested her. People in show business did, too. And, they spent her money on themselves which is against the law! At least Cady knew they were spending it instead of letting it be an investment for her future in a special account for it. People who had their parents do that in secret don’t find out that the money is gone until it’s time for them to tap into to go to college. Well, that is one example of how it could’ve been worse, I guess. When she was 18 she told her agent that she wanted to do a soap. GUIDING LIGHT was an audition that she did not book. [Another child actor, Beth Ehlers got the part of Harley Cooper.] Cady was better and more prepared for the next audition, the part of Dixie on ALL MY CHILDREN. And, she got that one and signed a two year contract and became an Emmy winning actress on the show. She was the breadwinner yet again but this time with a steady gig. Her mother reacted to her new found success by becoming a SHOPPER. Her need for McClain’s money knew no limits. Eventually Cady rented a house in Connecticut for her mother to live in with her visiting instead of living with her mother, while Cady lived in a studio apartment very near the AMC studio in Manhattan. McClain adored Michael E. Knight and loved the romance between her as Dixie and him as Tad the Cad. She had a terrible experience with an extreme haircut taking her from her long wavy tresses to a super short ‘do that made her not recognize herself! Eventually she got into therapy after finding a therapist where she could talk and talk and talk, scream and cry, etc. She tried out multiple 12-step programs which all made her feel like she finally fit in somewhere besides just at work. She was drinking too much and misusing alcohol. She had an eating disorder that involved laxatives and enemas to keep her thin. She was the Adult Child of an Alcoholic including having hyper vigilance where she was constantly uber-aware of what might be about to happen when the [!@#$%^&*] would regularly hit the fan. She decided she was one quarter alcoholic since her mother had started her drinking tequila at 11 or 12; one quarter ACOA; one quarter food abuser; and one quarter drug abuser (with laxatives as her drug of choice.) She also had a totally screwed up sex life and attitude toward love and attraction. In AA she found many people who like her had been brought up around madness. Cady had trouble with self-esteem since the treatment she had received during most of her life pushed her to think that she didn’t deserve any better. And, more than once she thought about suicide. At 24, with a year and a half left on her contract, she thought about leaving the show even though the only places she felt she truly belonged were at work and at her 12-step meetings. At that point she tried to talk to her mother about her burnout. Her mother’s solution was for her to stay with the show and buy her mother a house, Doing that was followed by SHOPPING again and redecorating madly. Of late her mother had been battling cancer. She was hospitalized again and the cancer had progressed throughout most of her body. They took her home. She always had said she was dying and apparently she really was. At the show Cady was working five days a week. The producer she had turned to thought she was doing her a favor providing her livelihood and some place to fit in and be away from the domestic issues. “Finally. Finally she is going to die and the nightmare will stop. Please, God, please let her die soon. Yes, that is what Cady thought at the time. And, then, Dana did die, with her two daughters on each side of her hospital bed that they had gotten to put into her house. Cady was only 25 and totally unprepared to face the grief she had. Dana had so totally dominated her life that he dying left a hole, a void instead of presenting the freedom she had longed for and expected. Annie and Cady saw their father and the woman he was married to after a 14 year total absence. The reunion did not go well. Later, when his new wife threw him out, he contacted Cady, apparently out of the blue, and asked her for money. She refused him and cut him out of her life completely. He has since died, too. The last of her book deals with her trying to define freedom and self-worth. She’s made so much progress and she is apparently deliriously happy and fulfilled with her husband [Jon Lindstrom] and their two dogs. She’s glad that she wrote the book and doing so helped her on her own continuous journey. I can highly recommend this book, complete with happy ending, to any fan of Cady’s and any fan of memoirs, in general.

OH!! Them!! Yeah. 2 sisters, one guy, all of them grown-a** but they're acting like they're in grade school.

I don't get what you mean. Can you explain?

Evil Megan, Evil McT, the anti-Agnes, the woman who created the UnAbortion, take your pick ...Even Friend of Brian Frons, Daytine Destroyer!!!

Sometime a rabble rouser ...

Go girl, Cassie, you tell her!!!

Let's see. A shower metaphor? Bathed in moonbeams, pretty good.

NO LEO! Please I pray not.

We both do!!!

Brennan was either an Aussie or a Kiwi. So, not European.

"Since she's never announced her bad behavior in advance." - Anita, BTG, S1E10 "I will remember that for next time." - Dani, hearing Anita as she enters the room, BTG, S1E10 "I realize that none of this was fair to any of you. I put you all in an impossible situation & still you backed me up. Nicole was clinical. Daddy was kind. Mother was matter of fact. Chelsea was blunt. Naomi was funny. You all said it. And, still I couldn't hear it; I couldn't feel it; until today. My marriage is dead & I am finally ready to bury it. It's really, finally, absolutely over." - Dani, BTG, S1E10

"You are wrong about one thing. You are always a Dupree." - Anita to Dani, BTG, S1E10

To me one of the most notable things about Charles Mesure & Jack Brennan was that the Casting Director, MarkT, mentioned in an interview that he had been watching for FOUR YEARS for the right part for him. That's how important his hiring & his casting & the part of Jack Brennan actually was. And, given how strongly & substantially he developed an immediate fan following, that totally tracks! I love the bad guy part of him. It's all WSB related & GH (and DAYS, too) has this long history with these 3-initial dark organizations.

@Maximhttps://www.instagram.com/reel/DG35jZAtpg1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link @Maxim

Best Mugshot experience EVER!!!

Well, since I offered it to people way earlier today & have been giving it to people off & on all day, this is really weird!!!

@Maximhttps://www.instagram.com/reel/DFfP1geOQjA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link