Here's the article thanks to Daytime Royalty: http://i43.tinypic.com/2iayiyq.jpg

Basically it says that Phillip faked his death because he didn't want to tell his family he's gay. Gag me. I'll repost what I posted there...

I'm very upset that Phillip is going to be gay. That ruins future story potential for Nina and Christine, who both had romantic chemistry with Phillip. Hell, Lauralee Bell even said she'd be willing to return thanks to these two actors being back. It would be fresher than just throwing her back with Michael and Paul, two played out relationships. I also feel like he's only gay because the actor is. I think they're afraid to show an openly gay actor as a straight leading man. It would be different if Joshua Morrow or Eric Braeden (just using them as examples) came out because they've already been established as romantic leads. They probably consider it more risky with an actor who hasn't been on the show in 20 years.

Another reason this doesn't work for me is that it will clearly isolate Phillip and limit his full cast integration. Not to mention how poorly the show has developed Rafe and the latest twist with Adam. On paper it sounds good, but the execution is rushed and very plot driven. Will Phillip become a plot point as well? Why not just make Phillip IV gay and see how Phillip III and co handle it? Also doesn't help that Thom is almost 50 and Yani looks like a school boy next to Michael Muhney. Ugh! So much wrong with this. I can't believe Phillip is back for this.

Question...I do remember Phillip from back in the day but did not see his death scenes. From what I gather, he was in a car accident and banged up but his family got to see him in the hospital. Did they show a funeral for him w/ an open casket? And when his body was exhumed back when Cane came on the scene, I assume the sandbags weren't in there when so whose body was--did they ever say???

Question...I do remember Phillip from back in the day but did not see his death scenes. From what I gather, he was in a car accident and banged up but his family got to see him in the hospital. Did they show a funeral for him w/ an open casket? And when his body was exhumed back when Cane came on the scene, I assume the sandbags weren't in there when so whose body was--did they ever say???

There wasn't an open casket funeral. I think the idea here is that Cane/Philip paid off whomever did the first exhumation, but that's just my guess. But otherwise why move the body, that wouldn't make sense.

Thom is a WONDERFUL actor!!!! It's obvious to me that people who hate this SL are using any excuse to criticize it, and now Thom's acting is next. I expected this. It's possible that he's rusty.... I'm not going to say he's gonna be great today, but we'll see. Let's also keep in mind that Bill Bell is the one who cast him, and kept him around for three years, and when Thom gave his notice and said he wanted to leave, Bill couldn't bear seeing another actor play him, so killed the character off. An actor on par with Marcille? MY ASS.

Edited July 3, 200916 yr by alphanguy74

Phillip is fuc-ed either way, I agree. What he did was cowardly, so I really cannot defend his actions at all.

It's stupid to call him an atrocious actor over two lines. It is only natural to criticize the actor when you don't like the story though. Even I've been guilty of it. Look at Sarah Brown (truthfully I've never been a big fan though).

Edited July 3, 200916 yr by MTSRocks

I personally think the answer is somewhere between the two extremes mentioned here.

He is not ATROCIOUS but he definitely is not WONDERFUL.

He is mediocre to good at best. I would put him in the same class as people like Natalia Livingston, Lauralee Bell and a few others who can put together a good Emmy reel but maintaining a consistently good performance or tunring sh*t into gold no they cannot do it.

Bierdz benefitted from good writing and good direction which often shadowed his mediocre acting. But at given times he could really deliver. If he has not been acting I suspect it will take him a long time to brush back up. Considering how dramatic things are in the beginning he could very well look very bad next to the likes of Cast, Cooper and Walton. Because to me often he looked weak in scenes with Cooper.

Steve, I pretty much agree.

Steve... you have a good point. "Wonderful" is how I feel about him, but is he on the same level of Walton, Cast, and Cooper? I'd say no. But he CAN hold his own in scenes with them, and when the scene is right, he can really excel. Your assessment is pretty accurate. I just saw him today... and he was OK, but I would've liked to see more. I thought his performance in Kay's "intervention dream" was much better. Sometimes it takes an actor a little bit to get his sea legs back, we need to wait, see, and cut they guy some slack. But I know people who hate the SL aren't going to do that, he could give an emmy performance, and they'd still sh!t on him. I remmeber when Jaime Lyn Bauer came back... her performances seemed stilted and strange, she even said in interviews that she was struggling finding the character again. But after a week or so, she hit her stride... and was good again.

Edited July 3, 200916 yr by alphanguy74

I have all the problems with the raising from the dead S/L that have been mentioned. My question is: If Cane knew that Billy was the father, why did he start the custody battle? He said it was because Billy and Chloe were terrible people. Cane wasn't trapped into marriage by Chloe -- he trapped himself! So, who's the worst manipulator Chloe or Cane? This is so completely illogical. I wish they'd made Cane P3's Aussie son or Jack's son -- so that's he's an Abbott.

I just saw his first episode and his acting does not measure up to the other actors he's working with. Tricia just sort of fell back into her role like she never left, but I'm not feeling the same way about Thom at all. He seems really....rusty. It's distracting.

I just saw his first episode and his acting does not measure up to the other actors he's working with. Tricia just sort of fell back into her role like she never left, but I'm not feeling the same way about Thom at all. He seems really....rusty. It's distracting.

As DeeeDee would say, Amen!

Holy Crap, dude has aged!

And he is so stilted in his line delivery.

Who directed this? The way Cane was looking back at Phillip and Jill and everything...it was just so OTT and melodramatic.

Thom hasn't acted in almost 20 years and doesn't want to be an actor, so I can give him a pass. It's the writing which lets me down, unless it plays out differently on the show than in the spoilers.

That is my biggest fear is that it is going to be so dramatic in the beginning of this that he is going to rusty and it is will be so distracting.

As with so much on Y&R these days - they should be doing things differently. Just like we should have got character build up on Rafe before they threw him into bed with Adam. As I have been discussing with some on Facebook and some folks in my real life - right now they have a very bad impression of Rafe as being weak and don't care for him because he was so easily distracted from his mission. As others have pointed out women are written that way all the time, but folks don't say that about them. In most of those cases the woman has been presented in different ways or they know them better - so they don't make that assumption. With Rafe we know nothing about him - so it is easy to perceive him as a weak gay man at this point. I cannot fault anyone from having that impression of him.

And with this we should have been getting little scenes with Phillip and Cane or just Phillip - give him time to get over the rusty feelings. Just like Alphan said with Jaime Lyn Bauer - she had to get the feeling of the character again.

They are throwing Beirdz in at the climax of the Cane reveal - at some of the most dramatic elements of the story and it is going to be distracting waiting for him to get his grips again.

This is bad management and bad pacing and bad execution.

Thom hasn't acted in almost 20 years and doesn't want to be an actor, so I can give him a pass. It's the writing which lets me down, unless it plays out differently on the show than in the spoilers.

This reflects worse on the show. Why re-hire an actor that clearly has no intention of acting? What message are they trying to send out with that move?

All the more reason why this story shouldn't have happened in the first place, IMO.

This is bad management and bad pacing and bad execution.

Agreed.

Why re-hire an actor that clearly has no intention of acting?