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It is Henna Day, on a rather chilly day in L.A. This weekend I've been working on the Jo book (yay) and doing my taxes (bleh).

Yesterday I drove to It's a Wrap! in Burbank to see their newly acquired wardrobe items from One Life to Live and All My Children. It was fun to see things like Dorian Lord's glamorous gown and Adam Chandler's silk pajamas, but it was a little sad too. On the way home I stopped at Brand Books and got a used copy of Laurie R. King's A Letter of Mary.

( this week on General Hospital & Days of Our Lives )

In which Prospect Park continues to degenerate from heroes of the soap genre to mustache-twirling villains: yesterday Variety reported that Prospect Park is still shopping One Life To Live and All My Children. The kicker: "one of the options Prospect Park is said to be considering is bringing in an overseas firm to turn the shows into a co-production. That may or may not allow the shows to circumvent the unions, which couldn't come to terms with Prospect Park on compensation for talent on both sides of the camera."

I.e., Prospect Park may be hoping to do some union busting. This would be 1) disgusting and 2) stupid, because none of the actors, writers, crew, etc. for these shows would opt for a non-union deal. For a great, scathing take on these developments, here's a post by Lana Nieves: Occupy Your Conscience.

Meanwhile, as OLTL hurtles towards its final episode (which airs on January 13th), it is engaging in some awesome meta. On Tuesday there was a brilliant and hilarious episode in which the whole town watches Fraternity Row, the soap within the soap which originally appeared on OLTL in the eighties. Various OLTL characters reel at the show's plot twists. Then, at the end of the episode, Roxy (Ilene Kristen) reels to discover the soap has been canceled! On yesterday's show, Roxy begs Clint Buchanan to resurrect the show, but he mouths ABC's party line that the show's time has come (even though he was watching the show with the rest of the town the day before, delivering my favorite line of the episode: "These damn writers are messing with my Brianna!"). Roxy tells him not to be so condescending and storms off to save her beloved show.

I guess I'll start with the bad/the ugly, which, as usual these days, is General Hospital. Recently I ranted about the show's execrable misuse of Robin Scorpio's HIV storyline. Unsurprisingly, Kimberly McCullough, who has played Robin on and off since the mid-1980s, is opting to leave the show. She has a burgeoning directing career, but Jason Thompson, who plays Robin's husband Patrick, revealed recently in an interview that he and McCullough were deeply unhappy about the recent storyline, and that McCullough nearly chose to walk rather than play it--so I'm assuming the crappy writing is a factor in her departure. With Jonathan Jackson leaving too, I have a palpable sense of what was left of GH's soul leaving the building. (Michele Val Jean, the member of GH's writing team who should have been made head writer instead of the floundering Garin Wolf, has also jumped ship, and is now writing for The Bold and the Beautiful.)

Also in the realm of the bad: last week One Life To Live finished taping its shows for ABC. OLTL, which is in excellent creative shape, goes off the air in January. Now there are rumors that Prospect Park, which is supposed to continue the show online, is having budget problems, and that there will be a delay in getting the new OLTL off the ground. I really hope it's only a delay.

The good: Days of Our Lives, which was craptastic until recently, has been improving by leaps and bounds, and now they've kicked the show into high gear by reigniting the love/hate pairing of Sami/EJ. I can only compare them (and their sex scenes yesterday) to season six Buffy/Spike. The scenes also gave a nice nod to show history, in that Sami's son Will (who is about to have a major coming-out story) walks in on his mother cheating with EJ, just as, almost twenty years ago, teenage Sami walked in on her mother cheating on her dad (resulting in years of Sami mayhem).

Also good: I know I have some As the World Turns fans on my FL, so for those of you who may not know about this: there is now an ATWT five-DVD boxed set and a Christmas in Oakdale single DVD for sale. I'm hoping this will be a trend, and that more classic soap stuff (besides Dark Shadows, which is already available in its entirety!) will be released on DVD.

Usually I henna my hair on Sundays, but I was in San Francisco last Sunday. Today I went and got my hair cut, and now I am home with the henna on my head. Also I appear to have hurt my lower back. Ow. It's not horrible, but it's not feeling great either.

Meanwhile, I just learned that SOAPnet will be cutting Ryan's Hope from its schedule next month, after All My Children's last ABC episode airs. Bleh.

So the rumors are true: Katie Couric is getting General Hospital's time slot on ABC starting in September 2012. ABC refuses to admit they're planning to axe GH, however. Even if GH isn't cancelled next year, a change in its time slot will almost certainly finish it off, and then ABC will have what it apparently wants: no scripted daytime dramas, and fewer pesky unionized writers and actors to deal with.

ABC cancels One Life To Live and All My Children

There is something particularly nauseating about ABC killing two of its legacy programs, which began in 1968 (OLTL) and 1970 (AMC), in favor of a cooking show called "The Chew" and a weight-loss program called "The Revolution"(!). As soap writer Tom Casiello wrote today on his Twitter page: "You will save money. You will hold onto demos. You will be fine. But you leave NO LEGACY now, ABC. Congratu-fucking-lations. You're mediocre."

Rumors had brewed for months about these cancellations, but ABC denied them, even as fans wrote and called the network pleading for their shows to be spared. Apparently the casts of the shows found out when the fans did, today.

It's particularly unfair that OLTL should be cancelled, as it is on a creative high and, in my opinion, currently the best soap opera on the air. But I feel sick at the idea of both soaps being gone, and only four remaining. I'm sad, and I'm angry.

Today I went to Theatre 68, a small theater in a rather dicey part of Hollywood (Sunset & Western) to see a production of The Busy World Is Hushed featuring three actors from General Hospital: the fabulous Carolyn Hennesy (who also appears on Cougar Town), Jason Thompson and Nathan Parsons. The show is closing this weekend, and several other GH actors attended. I was right behind Bradford Anderson and Sonya Eddy at the box office, and I told Bradford, "I know I'm in the right place--the coworkers are here!" A bit later Brandon Barash and Lisa LoCicero showed up. I ended up sitting next to Lillian Lehman, who played Dr. Meadows on GH for years, and we had a great chat during intermission.

The play was excellent. At first I thought Jason Thompson (who, unlike Carolyn Hennesy and Nathan Parsons, is a theater newby) would be the weak link, but he ended up giving perhaps the most affecting performance. On a shallowly slashy note, I enjoyed seeing Jason Thompson and Nathan Parsons play lovers. Their (very heterosexual) GH characters Patrick and Ethan don't share much screentime, but now I wish I could see a Patrick/Ethan affair...

This came up on Twitter today, but I must share it here as well--one of the stranger (and more hilarious) soap opera moments of all time. For some reason Santa Barbara decided to recast a character in the middle of a scene! One minute Mason is played by Terry Lester, the next, by Gordon Thomson. The clip is dubbed for Italian TV, but the look on Nancy Lee Grahn's face says it all!

Thanksgiving at my mom's was lovely. We ate turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, pumpkin tart and sweet potato pie. (The tart was better than the pie.) Then we watched An Education, which was even better than I'd expected.

This morning I finished reading Georgette Heyer's The Corinthian: cross-dressing heroine + world-weary fop FTW! I began to tackle the Fridge O'Leftovers by eating stuffing (plus an egg) for brunch, and watched Ryan's Hope and Days of Our Lives (DOOL proving they are more on the ball than the other soaps at the moment, by being the only soap airing a new episode during the holidays). Now I'm tackling the chapter 20 revisions. I think chapter 20 is the only chapter remaining in the Jo book that will require massive research. I hope. I hope!

I am taping The French Connection to watch with dinner--another NYC in the '70s film (and one which I have, somehow, managed never to have seen, aside from the famous car chase scene).

Perhaps I shouldn't have had that second pot of Wintry Blend coffee, but I love it. Speaking of Trader Joe's, soon I will venture forth for a small grocery run...

( today's Ryan's Hope )

Courtesy of an early-morning allergy attack, I watched all of today's Ryan's Hope at 5 a.m.! Wheeee.

( today's Ryan's Hope )


I am seriously excited about Jonathan Jackson returning to the role of Lucky Spencer on General Hospital! Between that and the truly lovely Spinelli/Maxie non-wedding, plus some stellar recent casting (of Dante and the SORAS'd teens and pre-teens) and improved storytelling, I am feeling more positive about GH than I have in ages. (Even though it's still very uneven compared to the brilliant One Life To Live.)