Over the weekend the news came out that Jennifer Aniston would guest star on soap staple Days of Our Lives. It wasn’t a bad idea actually, as Jennifer could help boost ratings for the show along with help out her dad, who plays long-running character Victor Kiriakis. Only that story isn’t true, according to her rep who comments on everything except for her major gaffes.
Sorry to say, America’s favorite Friend (or her evil twin) will not be dropping by Salem.
Aniston’s rep denied the rumor to E! News this morning, saying there was no truth to the rumors.
Too bad. Guess Victor Kiriakis is going to have to find another wedding planner.
And America’s housewives will have to make do with just one Aniston on the airwaves. The 78-year-old John has played the Greek conniver on the soap for more than 24 years, appearing in 1,199 episodes to date.
I watched Days off and on the past year or so, but kind of stopped once they replaced a character I really liked with an actress I found annoying. There was also a very ridiculous plotline about an evil twin guy that was created through plastic surgery to fool his wife while the real husband was kidnapped. I guess that’s par for the course when it comes to the dying art that is the soap opera. Spoilers potentially for Days It’s nice to hear that Jenn’s dad might be getting married on the show to Maggie, his maybe on-again girlfriend. They’re a cute couple. I have no idea if they’re engaged or even together at this point. That entire “wedding” angle could have been made up by that random British tabloid that falsely reported that Aniston was going to star.
Aniston should give her dad a call though and ask if he could find a guest role for her on the show. It would be a nice gesture and would earn her a lot of good will. Unlike actors like James Franco, she doesn’t really seem to be clamoring to expand her horizons, acting or otherwise. I know that sounds like an over generalization, but she is a creature of habit. Maybe her new man is helping her out in that department.
This photo is from 1995 of Jenn with her dad. Cute!
A couple of weeks ago we heard that long running ABC daytime soap All My Children was potentially on the chopping block for low ratings. It was sad news, and ABC issued a non-denial denial, simply stating that there had been rumors about the show ending for for some time and that “there is no change for the current ABC daytime schedule.” Now we know that the future ABC schedule will change, though. ABC issued a statement that both All My Children and the soap that follows, One Life to Live, will be canceled. AMC’s lights will go out in September, and One Life To Live will be done in January, 2012. Some “lifestyle” programs will take their place. Both soaps have been on the air over 40 years.
All My Children and One Life To Live — have been canceled, RadarOnline.com is reporting.
ABC made the announcement Thursday. Both shows will be replaced by lifestyle programs The Chew and The Revolution – the popular soaps will end in September 2010 and January 2011 respectively.
All My Children premiered on January 5, 1970 while One Life To Live first aired on July 15, 1968.
Disney ABC Television President Brian Frons said: “We are taking this bold step to expand our business because viewers are looking for different types of programming these days.
“They are telling us there is room for informative, authentic and fun shows that are relatable and offer a wide variety of opinions and focus on `real life’ takeaways.”
This seems so sad to me, but kind of inevitable. Like soaps are a product of an earlier, non-DVR time when we had to watch what was on in the afternoon while we were taking care of babies and waiting for our kids to get home. Now there are so many more options with shows on demand, the Internet and Tivo. There are also so many more channels competing for our time. Plus there’s that whole “reality” phenomenon where the drama seems somewhat “real” even though a lot of it is just as scripted as the soaps.
I asked my mom for a comment on this, because she watched One Life To Live and All My Children for about 20 years, from the time they started in 1968 and 1970 respectively. She hasn’t seen either of those soaps for years, though, and was surprised that they were ending but just said “I guess it’s time.” I’m sure there are plenty of people who still watch those shows and don’t agree with her at all.
There’s news that soap opera All My Children may get canceled by ABC after 41 years. Deadline is reporting that ABC may be the last network to start cutting soaps (NBC has canceled Passions while CBS has canceled Guiding Light and As the World Turns) and that All My Children will be the first to go. This is scary news of course for fans of the long-running series featuring reigning soap queen Susan Lucci. ABC sort-of denies it, though, and just says that “The Deadline.com piece is just the latest story in a long line of stories about this same topic.” That’s a non-denial denial, and makes it sound like they’re annoyed that someone got that scoop and reported it before they’d made a decision. Here’s more, from People Magazine:
Rumors of cancellation are circling around the popular show that finally delivered Susan Lucci her Daytime Emmy. Various reports claim that ABC is considering reducing its afternoon drama lineup from three to two hours to make room for a new talk show, which could send AMC to the chopping block.
But a rep for ABC Daytime shoots down the claims, telling PEOPLE in a statement, “The Deadline.com piece is just the latest story in a long line of stories about this same topic.”
As of now, the rep adds, “There is no change for the current ABC daytime schedule.”
If they can squeeze more ratings out of yet another talk show it make sense to cut the soap I guess. It’s a shame because a lot of people love to watch them. I used to watch All My Children in the late 80s back when I was in high school. Now there are so many more options for daytime viewing in that we have all these cable networks with unique programming to choose from, and of course there are DVRs and shows on demand. I haven’t seen it AMC in years, but they’ve been rather groundbreaking in that they were the first soap to feature any sort of gay plotline, and have had lesbian and gay characters.
Speaking of same sex relationships on soaps, Days of Our Lives is finally going to feature some sort of gay plotline, according to Entertainment Weekly. It’s been on for 45 years and it’s about damn time. There are plenty of hot men on that show who I would love to see get together, but we can expect them to go for the easy lesbian story to start.
Oh and coincidentally, Susan Lucci has a new memoir called All My Life which comes out on March 29. Check out these pictures – she’s 64 years old! (Of course she’s had work done, but she hasn’t gone overboard.)
I have a confession to make – I’ve watched the last two days of “Days of Our Lives.” On Tuesday it was on accidentally on while I was working and there was a lot of sex and hot shirtless guys so I stuck around and taped it the next day. Parts of it were super cheesy (there was a body double guy made by some nefarious characters through plastic surgery that even fooled the original guy’s girlfriend. They should have gone for the twin angle!) but the man candy kept me watching and I started getting interested in the characters. When I was in high school I used to watch “All My Children,” so soap operas aren’t a foreign concept to me, but now I really get the appeal.
Anyway James Franco is coming back to “General Hospital” as the “Franco” sociopath performance artist character he first played in November of 2009 and again last summer. The guy has a bunch of irons in the fire, and I know some call him pretentious – he’s teaching a class about himself for God’s sake – but I still find him awesome. He’s smart, he’s educated, he’s funny and he’s game for just about anything. I’ll be taping this and I’ll probably start watching “General Hospital” now to see what it’s about. Here’s more from People:
James Franco, who’s up for an Academy Award for his work in 127 Hours, is returning to ABC’s daytime drama General Hospital as performance artist Franco.
The actor, who is also hosting the Oscars with Anne Hathaway, will appear the soap on episodes airing Feb. 25 and Feb 28 (at 3 p.m. ET) to “wreak havoc” on the fictional town of Port Charles, according to a release from ABC, and to “make an important phone call to his nemesis Jason Morgan” (played by Steve Burton), who appears in a behind-the-scenes shot with Franco.
Following a two-month stint on General Hospital in 2009, Franco reprised his role as the mysterious and dangerous artist in the summer of 2010.
“Working on General Hospital was a great experience,” he told PEOPLE at the time. “I love the cast, writers, directors and producers. They have become a new family for me.”
The executive producer of General Hospital, Jill Farren Phelps, has sung Franco’s praises during every phase of working with him. When he did his first guest stint on the show, she said he “could not have been nicer or more humble; he was willing to do whatever we asked. He had over 65 pages of material to do in the one day, so it was a very long day, but his demeanor was completely professional.” In December of last year, Phelps told TVGuide that she approached Franco about reprising his role for a third time when she heard that he would be in LA for the Oscars. He’s surely going to be busy during that time, but she said that he was gung-ho about it. “He was happy to do it and requested that we use the appearance to plug his next story. He’s also expressed an interest in directing at GH. He’s been really, really good to us. Whatever James wants, we’d love to make it happen.” She also said something that I think sums up what Franco is all about. “He is fearless about doing what he wants to do.” Wait – strike that. I’d rather quote Gawker’s Maureen O’Connor to sum up this story. “James Franco grabs overexposure by the balls, then teabags it.”
Franco is shirtless for a split second at :47 Lainey Gossip posted this promo of James Franco’s upcoming guest spot on General Hospital, and it’s cheesy but awesome. Franco plays some kind of artist with a secret penchant for killing his subjects. His character is even called “Franco.” I’m having a hard time understanding exactly what’s going on here, but it’s like murderer vs. murderer. TVSquad sums it up nicely below and guesses what this promo hints at for the show. There are potential speculative General Hospital spoilers in the quoted text below. They also note that ABC is really promoting Franco’s guest spot and that they worked around his schedule.
TVSquad guesses that Franco’s appearance on General Hospital is part of a “project he’s doing with a filmmaker named Carter.” I think they may have the wrong idea, because from what I can tell that project is complete. They seem to be basing that assumption on a question that the Wall St. Journal asked of General Hospital executive producer Jill Farren Phelps. The WSJ asked Phelps “Are you aware of his project ‘Erasing [sic] James Franco’ with the artist Carter?” and she said she wasn’t, and indicated that Franco was professional and hardworking and seemed sincere in his desire to work on the soap. He’s doing just three Fridays of filming in a row to start as he goes to school the rest of the week for his MFA in writing at Columbia. He had to cram in sevens episodes worth of material on his first day, and will be on the show for two months.
“Erased James Franco” is an art project film in which Franco re-enacts some of his past roles, and from what I understand it was completed last year and first screened this spring. There are upcoming screenings, but they list the film as the same length, 63 minutes, as it was listed as this spring, with a completion date of 2008. Unless it’s a work in progress I think TVSquad is wrong and Franco won’t be using his General Hospital material at all. Either way, General Hospital seems thrilled with Franco’s guest spot. If he ends up using some lines from GH in an art film it’s not like he’s punking them and isn’t taking it seriously. It’s likely he’s earnestly trying to hone his craft, and he’s also studying filmmaking at school.
The James Franco experiment has begun on General Hospital. Actually, we have now learned that the movie actor, best known for Spider-Man and Milk and The Pineapple Express, has decided to do a two-month guest role on the ABC soap opera as part of a project he’s doing with a filmmaker named Carter.
One thing I do know for certain is that ABC is taking Franco’s appearance on GH very seriously. They’re working around his schedule, giving him a strangely interesting character to play, and promoting it like mad.
From the look of the promo, someone is going to die. Who? Maxie? Maybe. Sonny and Jason. Doubtful. There’ll be a lot of characters in danger, but who’s going to get it? Who do you think?
Franco’s character is even named Franco. He’s an artist and has a showing in a gallery, but there’s something else going on beneath the surface. He has an ulterior motive which may or may not mean that he’s the person stalking Jason.
They’ve been suggesting that’s the case, but it seems too obvious to me. I’m still holding on to the theory that he’s connected to the Cassadines, which makes more sense than a connection to Alcazar. The last serial killer was linked to Luis Alcazar.
Franco has enthused about the sheer amount of material he had to learn for General Hospital and told NY Magazine that it was different working for a soap because there’s just one take and you have to memorize an immense amount of lines. “It was kind of mind-blowing. I’ve worked one day on it. It’s one day of a few. But I think we packed seven episodes of my material in. They gave me a script for the day that was as thick as a film script and that’s what we planned to shoot in a single day. No ad-libbing. If I needed it, they said they had a TelePrompTer, but the regulars didn’t use it so I didn’t want to use it, either.” He hinted that it wasn’t about just appearing on a soap, though, and “I’ve got other ideas for my participation in this soap opera beyond just being in this soap opera.” I wonder what he means exactly. Maybe that kind of vague statement is part of what led TVSquad to assume he has something up his sleeve. He also asked to play an artist.
Franco will also guest star on “30 Rock” this season as Jane Kraskinski’s love interest. You have to hand it to the guy, he definitely keeps us guessing and he seems to genuinely love acting.
Let’s talk about shades of crazy. There’s the time you emailed the person you liked that didn’t like you back and wrote some blathering, stupid crap that you regretted ten seconds later all because your blood sugar was so low you couldn’t think straight. Then there’s the guy at the end of the block who paws through your garbage can. Then there’s the guy at the end of the other block who paws through your garbage can with a real human hand he cut off a drifter. So there are shades of crazy. And only two of them have ever happened to me. “One Life to Live’s” Nathaniel Marston, 32, is somewhere between the last two definitions of crazy. The guy plays Dr.Michael McBain on the show, and has a long history of anger issues. On Saturday night he attacked three people with a metal crate, broke a guy’s leg, and assaulted some of New York’s finest, all apparently without provocation. Well, unless you consider being on (what we suspect is) a lot of cocaine to be provocation. Which I’m guessing Marston probably did.
Salvatore Cabibbo was having a cup of coffee when, he said, Marston hopped out of a taxi and started arguing with the driver. Shouting “I’m going to get you,” Marston inexplicably charged at Cabibbo swinging the metal crate. “He was crazed – I don’t know the guy from a hole in the wall,” said Cabibbo, 46. “I’ve never seen anything like that.” The raging Marston struck a glancing blow to Cabibbo, he said, then kept on running into a gas station nearby, almost getting hit as he dashed into traffic on 10th Ave. A source said Marston has been an emotional wreck in recent days, and last week his behavior led to a blowup on the set of “One Life to Live.”
Police said the 6-foot-3 actor appeared to be under the influence of narcotics, possibly cocaine, when they were called to the scene. Marston, a former amateur boxer, began flailing his arms and kicking at officers as they went to arrest him, officials said. “I don’t want to talk to you, and please don’t ever come to my home,” Marston told the Daily News Sunday after his release from Bellevue Hospital. He answered the door of his midtown apartment bare-chested, sporting a fresh bruise over his left eye.
Marston was charged with two counts each of felony assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon as well as one count of resisting arrest. He was taken to Bellevue, where he was labeled an emotionally disturbed person, police said. He has admitted to anger problems in the past that stem from a childhood learning disability. “I was the kid who’d sit there in class, real quiet, didn’t scream or yell until someone would mess with me. And then I’d explode: boom! It was fierce and violent,” Marston said in a 2003 interview with Soap Opera Weekly. The actor was arrested in October 1999 on criminal mischief charges after he punched and damaged an automated-teller machine in Manhattan, police said.
I love how the Daily News basically said they went to Marston’s house without saying it. “I don’t want to talk to you, and please don’t ever come to my home,” Marston told the Daily News Sunday after his release from Bellevue Hospital. He answered the door of his midtown apartment bare-chested, sporting a fresh bruise over his left eye.” I’m not sure he’s actually the best guy in the world to provoke, [what I’m guessing is a] random little Daily News reporter. If he can beat the crap out of three guys and the NYPD, you best stay off his turf. Marston started working on “One Life to Live” in 2001, but was fired in 2003. Fans led a huge protest and he was rehired. According to Carolyn Hinsey, an editor for “Soap Opera Weekly,” “He is definitely going to lose his job. They’ve given him chance after chance after chance.” I’d recommend they hogtie him first, just to be safe.
Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s some stills from the show and a headshot… they’re not actually Nathaniel Marston in the hospital.
