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writing and soaps
Jun. 29th, 2009 03:01 pmI'm still revising chapter 15 of the Jo book. It is very slow going, but today as part of my work on the chapter, I got to look at nifty photos of NYC newsstands. This weekend I finished revising a poem and sent it out. It's the first poem I've finished in ages--novels take up so much brain space!
Also this weekend I filled out my Rhysling ballot. And I watched a ton of Dark Shadows. In the 1970 eps I'm currently viewing, a malevolent head in a bell jar has been introduced. The Head is portrayed by an actor who, so far 1) has his eyes closed or 2) stares evilly at the camera. (Oh, and once he blinked. Accidentally, I think.) I wondered whether the Head actor would get an on-screen credit, and sure enough, he did! The credit roll listed the actor as portraying "THE HEAD." Heeeeee.
***
Trouble in Gaytime:
Around the time I was at Wiscon last month, a story broke in which an actor from The Young and the Restless, Chris Engen, walked off the set because he allegedly took issue with having to play a gay-themed story. He was fired and replaced with Michael Muhney (from Veronica Mars). Sure enough, immediately after Engen's final episode, Adam, the (straight) character he'd portrayed, seduced his gay male lawyer in order to keep said lawyer from investigating his nefarious deeds. This happened VERY off-camera--the characters didn't even kiss on screen. The irony is that, up until this point, Adam had set his father up for murder, injected Botox into his eyeballs (ewww) to fake blindness, and tormented his father's pregnant wife until she miscarried. But apparently Engen had no trouble playing any of this stuff--just off-screen gay sex. Fortunately, Michael Muhney, whose first episodes on Y&R aired last week, has quickly made the character of Adam his own and has surpassed Engen's portrayal.
So this weekend, a story broke that an actor from One Life To Live, Patricia Mauceri, who has been on the show since 1995, was fired for refusing to play a story beat in which her character Carlotta Vega, a Latina mother, expresses gay-friendly sentiment! "She objected to Carlotta's positive attitude about homosexuality, saying it conflicted with her personal beliefs." Needless to say, since this is a soap opera, the character of Carlotta is far from squeaky-clean, but apparently that never conflicted with the actress's personal beliefs.
It boggles my mind that, in this current economic climate, these actors have opted to trash their steady gigs because they can't bring themselves to do their jobs when gay material is concerned...
Also this weekend I filled out my Rhysling ballot. And I watched a ton of Dark Shadows. In the 1970 eps I'm currently viewing, a malevolent head in a bell jar has been introduced. The Head is portrayed by an actor who, so far 1) has his eyes closed or 2) stares evilly at the camera. (Oh, and once he blinked. Accidentally, I think.) I wondered whether the Head actor would get an on-screen credit, and sure enough, he did! The credit roll listed the actor as portraying "THE HEAD." Heeeeee.
***
Trouble in Gaytime:
Around the time I was at Wiscon last month, a story broke in which an actor from The Young and the Restless, Chris Engen, walked off the set because he allegedly took issue with having to play a gay-themed story. He was fired and replaced with Michael Muhney (from Veronica Mars). Sure enough, immediately after Engen's final episode, Adam, the (straight) character he'd portrayed, seduced his gay male lawyer in order to keep said lawyer from investigating his nefarious deeds. This happened VERY off-camera--the characters didn't even kiss on screen. The irony is that, up until this point, Adam had set his father up for murder, injected Botox into his eyeballs (ewww) to fake blindness, and tormented his father's pregnant wife until she miscarried. But apparently Engen had no trouble playing any of this stuff--just off-screen gay sex. Fortunately, Michael Muhney, whose first episodes on Y&R aired last week, has quickly made the character of Adam his own and has surpassed Engen's portrayal.
So this weekend, a story broke that an actor from One Life To Live, Patricia Mauceri, who has been on the show since 1995, was fired for refusing to play a story beat in which her character Carlotta Vega, a Latina mother, expresses gay-friendly sentiment! "She objected to Carlotta's positive attitude about homosexuality, saying it conflicted with her personal beliefs." Needless to say, since this is a soap opera, the character of Carlotta is far from squeaky-clean, but apparently that never conflicted with the actress's personal beliefs.
It boggles my mind that, in this current economic climate, these actors have opted to trash their steady gigs because they can't bring themselves to do their jobs when gay material is concerned...
