GH: Did James Franco hurt or help?

[JaneAusten]

I feel bad for the actors and crew on GH and no one else. I don't feel one bit sorry for any of the execs. Franco outsmarted them plain and simple. They dug their own grave and I could really care less. And the fact that the idiot 3, Frons, Guza, and Phelps maybe have gotten taken out played, serves them right. Phelps and Guza should have been fired long ago. They've stepped all over and trashed so many people over their reign of terror, mostly the audience. And I honestly don't know if Franco was intentionally trying to dish anyone. He just wanted to try something, he picked GH, they agreed THEY promoted it, and it's close to done. He got what he wanted, their ratings dropped. As I said, it's the actors and crew I feel for and no one else. I don't care one iota about Phelps or Guza.

I don't completely understand the film he's making. I don't think it has a thing to do with soap operas, probably more about his experiences on this journey he appears to be taking I would guess.

[quartermainefan]

I hope to check out the exhibit. I live in Manhattan and his gallery is a 10 minute subway ride away. I think it is all pretty cool and not often a soap gets incorporated into some sort of meta statement on art or culture or perception or whatever it is he is trying to say. As a matter of fact soaps have been irrelevant for so long it is nice to see them somehow impacting "art", or anything for that matter.

[Ann_SS]

This reminds me of when MAB had Sabrina and Victor wandering around a modern art gallery chatting about art. It was so WTF. How MAB could think that the Y&R audience would are about modern art was perplexing.

[Cat]

Clearly, the GH actors know that in the Hollywood scheme of things, they are relatively low on the totem pole -- and, horrifically, cretins like Jon&Kate and those asstastic Kardashians are trumping them in terms of name rerecognition.

However, in Daytime, they are big fish in a small pond -- the "crown jewels" of ABC's soap line-up. God, I wish I could have seen Laura, Mo, Steve, Julie Marie and Kristen's face when they read the memo that was pushed under the door! You know the one -- the memo JFP sent out to all GH cast and crew, informing them of how to act around James Franco, how not to "pester him for autographs" or look directly in his general direction.

I wish I could have seen these actors faces when they read all the interviews JFP gave about their special guest star! "He approached us. And we all had the same reaction of ‘Really? Are you kidding?'" Way to sell your industry, Jill!

I think if GH actors had any illusions about their contribution to the soap opera genre (and as much as I rag on GH these days, there is no denying what it has given Daytime), they don't anymore. Their own bosses and mentors told them they had no business being around "real" actors like Franco. Then they practically fell over each other in their haste to roll out the welcome mat. Not blaming JF for this. I think he was just doing his art shtick and this is all a means to a whole other end. But the by-product of his guest-star role has been another reminder to the cast, crews and audience of Daytime that TIIC really do despise them and the industry in which the work.

[MichaelGL]

Guza for James Franco's agent! Since it was Guza who created the character.

[quartermainefan]

I think you read way too much into this. I find it hard to believe this memo is even real. James Franco attends classes at Columbia and NYU surrounded by the riff raff and rabble, but needs memos to protect him from actual working actors and cameramen and gaffers and whatnot?

I think the big fish in the small pond are on more than one show. GH actors are accorded no special respect by their peers (as their lack of emmy noms attest) and the only actor that is given any sort of special status at GH is Tony Geary and perhaps Maurice Benard. GH has not been a crown jewel of anything for many years.

[Cat]

I don't think James Franco asked for any of this either. I doubt he came into GH's studios with a foot-long rider! I'm talking about JFP and Frons jumping the gun and thinking this was an acceptable way of treating their current stable of "stars" -- or of integrating JF with the cast and crew.

And I buy the memo story and trust the source I heard it from.

Sure, by their peers on other soaps. But GH is treated like the favored child by Frons and ABC Daytime -- the GH PR department is in overdrive every week, reminding the soap press that they may just want to consider Mo or Steve or Laura for "Scene of the Week" or whatever those features are called. Many actors over there genuinely buy that hype, too -- that they are "pushing the enevelope," "challenging the audience", etcetera, etcetera.

[Sylph]

That's was a story too. But it had a different origin.

Whereas this is some bullsh!t project of a bored Hollywood star, that was just an expression of Maria Arena's inferiority complex, her pretentiousness, lack of depth & imagination and several other things...

[quartermainefan]

In recent weeks the only one who seems to take themself too seriously is Nancy Lee Grahn. Steve Burton, as I understand it, takes the hype so seriously that when he does fan events his default way of entertaining the crowds is to do comedy routines making fun of the show and the actors. And the GH P.R. dept has a job to do, so of course they will push their actors for whatever free publicity and hype they can get.

I would have to see this memo to believe it. They were told to not look at Franco?? This is stuff usually reserved for egomaniacs like Barbra Streisand.

[Cat]

Uh, yeah... that last part about not looking was me joking. Though it does happen if your name is Vince Vaughan, Jennifer Lopez or Ashley Judd, weirdly.

But the part about not pestering JF and not asking him for autographs? That was what the GH actors were told, allegedly.

Like I said, not blaming James Franco for this. I doubt he specified anything like that when he asked to be part of GH. This is all Jill and Brian who think this is how they need to "protect" their extra-special movie-star guest-star. I mean, heck, does anybody know if Elizabeth Taylor got the same kind of treatment when she asked Gloria Monty to be a part of the show back in 1981?

[bellcurve]

Let's not forget she and Billy also donated buckets of money to that art gallery.

But this thread is about James "Mad World" Franco. Who, apparently, recycled his NYU thesis and turned it into an "op-ed" for the WSJ. Who says this boy knows nothing about daytime?

[EricMontreal22]

LOL I don't know the specific scene but I actually kinda dig scenes like that - it's very Lemay's AW. EVen small touches about character, like Pratt or whoever remembering that Agnes Nixon in the late 90s had David on AMC piddling around at the piano, IMHO strengthen a soap and fleshout the characters--that they actually have interests outside their plot machinations.