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News for the week of 18-Aug-2014

by Carol Banks Weber

GH returns to its former timeslot on ABC Daytime, 3 p.m. EST/2 p.m. PST. The soap had been moved up earlier to 2 p.m. EST/1 p.m. PST two years ago to accommodate Katie Couric’s talk show.

Jason Thompson (Patrick) played his character’s romantic possibilities (Sam? Sabrina? Robin?) close to the vest in an August 12th interview with Michael Fairman. Surprisingly, the actor wasn’t too hot to trot to jump-start with any of these ladies on-screen, and seemed more into character development. He said Patrick has been through an awful lot of hardship and may not be ready for any relationship. He also didn’t seem too keen on Patrick with Sabrina, saying that ship had kind of sailed. “I think there is a way back for him, but I don’t know if there is a way back for her, and as a character and as a strong woman. I don’t know if it would work for Sabrina to come to Patrick,” he said. “I think she should evolve on her own to a certain extent and find somebody, because Patrick kind of played with her quite a bit. And now Patrick has to tell her he is getting divorced again. So now it’s all of that, and what they could have had. Now it’s gone again. I think Patrick and Sabrina have a lot of water under the bridge, and I don’t know if it will ever work again. But, who knows? I am sure if it does, they will find a way to make it work.”

Like countless fans, Marc Anthony Samuel (Felix) thought his character and Parry Shen’s Brad were the end game. Proves that in soap operas, anything can happen, and not to count on initial impressions. “It’s funny, I did! I thought he was going to be the love interest. Now what I have learned from spending more time on this show is … you can’t take any of it for granted. You don’t know which way anything is going to go. But when you are doing what’s on the page, you just gotta go for it and make it happen. So I have no idea where ultimately everything is going to go… and that’s the truth!” What Samuel does know is that he isn’t playing Felix as a victim of some moral fiber, trapped into always being the good, honorable guy, unable to let loose (like that threesome). In the August 16th interview with Michael Fairman, the actor said he sees a similarity in himself and Felix, in that they both require “something special” apart from what the rest of the crowd is doing, and that’s a good aspiration to hold onto. “I don’t feel trapped, and what I do is take the parts of my own personality that can empathize with what Felix is going through, and I kind of dial him up a bit. And at some point in life, you feel different ways about different things. I remember when I was a little bit more reticent in my own personality, and wanting to find something special, and not doing what all of my other friends were doing. So, I believe I have something in common with Felix in that way. Never trapped. It’s always fun to put together these composites and make a human being.”

Zachary Garred (Levi) and executive producer Frank Valentini knew one determining aspect of the new character Maxie got mixed up with in her Eat, Pray, Love tour of enlightenment. Levi had to be a different kind of hippie. “Do not play the cliché hippie angle, because that’s already there,” is what Valentini told the Australian actor. What Garred and the writers ended up doing with the problematic enigma of a character was simply genius. Sure, they turned what wasn’t working into another villain, but what a villain! Garred had to pull off an American accent, as if he were an American pretending to be Australian for Maxie’s benefit. And, he had to carry scenes involving the emotional twist convincingly. He did so with zest and humor, earning him admiration — at least from me. In Michael Fairman’s August 10th interview, Garred good-naturedly expressed appreciation for the opportunity to evoke strong reaction in people, even if a lot of that strong reaction wasn’t positive. “When I started acting I think I was like 15 or 16 years old when I had just my first audition. The response you generally want to get is that you just want people to have an opinion on the character, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad.  If everyone liked the characters … you wouldn’t have some of the greatest movies in history!”

Gossip for the week of 18-Aug-2014

by Carol Banks Weber

Soap columnist RavenBeauty passed away on July 25. Her great love, John, found her collapsed when he came home. He tried to get her help at the hospital, but it was too late. Raven’s doctor had pronounced her cancer — an especially aggressive kind — in remission, a miracle considering all of the chemo, surgeries, and drugs meant to keep her alive. Her informal, public memorial service is on September 6, 6 p.m.-8 p.m., in Sunbury, PA’s Shikellamy State Park-Pavilion 5. SoapTown USA’s posted Raven’s final words to readers, fans, colleagues, and friends. Maybe now her detractors will finally believe she existed and her suffering was real.

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