scripts. On Facebook, Irizarry blasted: “Absolute rubbish. We [Irizarry and head writer Lorraine Broderick] are certainly not the reason PP has put the show on hold.”
• Woohoo! Well, here’s some good AMC news: JR Martinez won this season’s Dancing With The Stars’ Mirror Ball Trophy. And it was well deserved. Martinez was also named one of the sexiest men alive in People magazine. Wow; what a year, huh?
The Bold and the Beautiful, CBS — A Dangerous Method: The Revolving Door Report!
• Christmas just got sassier: Emmy winner Lesli Kay is returning to B&B for the holidays! Why this show can’t find a decent storyline for this talented diva to play out is one of daytime’s biggest mysteries! Also, don’t expect to see Hunter Tylo around for a while. The actress has been telling friends she hasn’t taped in over one month! Oy! This is what happens when your love interest is the underrated — and underused — Winsor Harmon.
• File this under: truth is stranger than fiction! From TMZ.com:
Jack Wagner has a 23-year-old daughter ... and he had NO IDEA — that is, until earlier this month ... when the two came face-to-face for the first time at a concert in Florida. The girl’s name is Carrie, and her mother — who had a fling with Jack back in the ‘80s — gave her up for adoption soon after she was born. Sources tell TMZ, Carrie — who grew up in NYC with her foster parents — hired a private investigator to track down her biological p-units, and the P.I. led her to a concert in Boca Raton, Florida, where Jack was performing with Springfield. Carrie caught Jack right before he went on stage — and according to sources, she gave Jack the full story and the two shared a tearful embrace. Jack was so smitten, he invited Carrie to another show the next day ... and introduced her to the entire audience (above). According to sources, the two have been inseparable ever since — Jack has even invited Carrie to spend Thanksgiving with him and his two sons. Sadly, Heather Locklear will not be present.
For those in the dark, Wagner and Locklear sadly broke up a few weeks ago.
Days of our Lives, NBC — Deidrick’s Pretty Little Body!
• Congrats to Casey Jon Deidrick, who is currently filming a guest-star appearance on Dana Delany’s prime-time series, Body of Proof. And what a body Deidrick has! “I’ve been seeing casting directors for a couple of months, and they’ve been trying to book me a guest star on shows like Pretty Little Liars,” shared Deidrick to Digest. “They kept bringing me back, but it didn’t really work with my scheduling at DAYS. With DAYS dark during Thanksgiving week, there was an open spot and I got this guest star appearance on Body of Proof. I play a runaway kid who was beaten by his dad. It’s a great character and I’m really excited for everyone to see it." The episode will air in early 2012.
• This is just mean, mean, mean! OK, it’s not since Eileen Davidson is currently sizzling opposite Patch Johnson on Y&R, but Soap Opera Digest announced DAYS has recast the role of Susan Banks with One Life vet Brynn Thayer. Hmmm … many are predicting DAYS may play with EJ’s paternity. I hope not.
• Chandler Massey stole the entire show this past week as Will walked in on his mother and former stepdad having grief — tearful — sex. What a performance! And the Emmy goes to …
• Don’t shoot me but I would prefer Austin Peck as Austin. I don’t mind Patrick Muldoon but since Peck is now an actor (Thank you, One Life and World Turns), I’d like to see him set DAYS on fire. Also, since it looks like the soap is pairing Abby and Austin together, Peck would be more age-appropriate!
• More, please: I am loving Kristian Alfonso and Joe Mascolo going head to head. Alfonso’s Hope comes alive opposite Stefano. I pray Gina comes back soon. Hey, Alfonso looks more like a DiMera than a Horton!
General Hospital, ABC — Will Robin die of AIDS? McCullough quits!
• Shut the front door! Not. As spoiler queen Raven Beauty predicted eight years ago (!), and Uncensored has been hinting at for the past few weeks, Emmy winner Kimberly McCullough, who has been increasingly outspoken of late, is quitting the show. And who can blame her?
But the real kicker is: Fans and critics are concerned GH plans on killing off Robin with AIDS. A show spokesperson described Robin’s exit story as “poignant and emotional.” Yep, that’s another nail in the coffin you hear. “Kim’s had enough,” explains a co-star. “First the HIV syringe, Lexi’s firing, and the dismantling of the show as a whole … well, Kim’s smart and sees the Titanic being repeatedly rammed into the iceberg. She’s no dummy. She’s getting into the life boat just like Jonathan [Jackson].” Kim, save me a seat! Meanwhile, most of the cast is ignoring the flooding on deck.
• As aforementioned in Lexi Ainsworth’s first exit interview above, Nathan Parsons hinted to TV Guide Magazine that he may not stick around when his contract expires in the new year. But the Aussie actor is psyched over his new storyline and co-star, saying: “Alyshia Ochse is phenomenal! She’s going to be a lot of fun for the audience to watch. She’s a smart, impulsive actress who really challenges me, even though she hasn’t even said anything yet! It’ll take a while for her to speak. There’s been so much tension building with this story. Ethan’s been chasing this mystery being — they’ve been running circles around each other forever — and she is not what he expected. It’s not going to be a traditional soap romance and I love that. [Laughs] They won’t be courting or going on dates. It’s very Wuthering Heights, the kind of epic, fantastical mystery GH hasn’t done in years. I just love the larger-than-life scope of it.”
Hey, Nathan: We’ll be the judge of that.
• Emmy winner Jonathan Jackson expounded on his decision to leave GH to TV Guide Magazine. He conveyed, “It’s an interesting paradox. The storylines don’t stay with me in the sense that I feel personally tormented by what my character is going through, but it does take its toll on me physically and emotionally. It’s a real energy zapper and there are days when I feel like I have nothing left to give. And in this medium, where you’re dealing with a pretty insane amount of dialogue, day in, day out, the collision of a heavy workload and increasing exhaustion can make you a little crazy. I love to work hard but I’ve been at maximum capacity in terms of mental and emotional output for months on end and it has become too difficult. I am extremely thankful that they wanted to give me all those storylines with so much depth, but there’s just no balance. Usually, you might get one or maybe two really good and intense story arcs per year. There’s usually a cycle to this stuff on soaps. But this has been non-stop. There was just no reprieve. I have a wife and three kids and other things in life I have to think about. I just knew I couldn’t sustain the schedule at GH and that kind of emotion for much longer. It was just too intense.”
Translation: Unimaginative, non-sensical, shitty writing.
• Swimming back to the Titanic: Ingo Rademacher is returning to GH, the Aussie hunk recently tweeted. What? Did you lose a bet, Ingo?
One Life to Live, ABC — Groundhog Day: AMC and One Life cancelled again! Llanview Lullaby: “This is where I long to be … And when the samba plays, the sun sets so high … All the nature … wild and free …”
• Happy Thanksgiving, soapers! This just in (and this just sucks): Prospect Park announced hours ago that it will not proceed with the online production of One Life and AMC. A press release written by Prospect’s Rich Frank and Jeffrey Kwatinetz read:
We believed the timing was right to launch an Online TV Network anchored by these two iconic soap operas, but we always knew it would be an uphill battle to create something historical, and unfortunately we couldn’t ultimately secure the backing and clear all the hurdles in time. We believe we exhausted all reasonable options apparent to us, but despite enormous personal, as well as financial cost to ourselves, we failed to find a solution.
While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program’s inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision. In the end, the constraints of the current marketplace,
including the evolution and impact of new media on our industry simply proved too great a match for even our passion.
In our opinion, new models like this can only work with the cooperation of many people striving to make them happen, and we would like to thank and praise the numerous people who tried to help and showed us incredible support. We are extremely grateful to the fans and media who showed great support to us through this process, to ABC who did everything in their control to help, and we are especially grateful for the support and encouragement from many of the soaps’ cast and crew themselves.
We hope that our efforts are not lost, and that we somehow created a dialogue and movement on the feasibility of first run, network quality content online. Of special note, we would like to thank Frank Valentini (Executive Producer), Ron Carlivati (Head Writer of OLTL), Agnes Nixon, many of the cast of OLTL including Michael Easton, Ted King, Kelley Missal, Melissa Archer and, of course, Erika Slezak, all of whom signed on quickly and did all they could to help, as well as our own Christine Sacani. Cameron Mathison and Lindsay Hartley also get our sincerest thanks for their support. We feel terrible we