June 20, 2008
Greetings readers,
You're catching us on Emmy day and as much fun as it may be, we're facing a red carpet in record-breaking heat here at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Oh, for those rainy days back at Radio City Music Hall....

With the news of Finola Hughes's return to Port Charles this summer, GH fans are wondering if we'll see more of the Anna Devane, sleuth of yore. Here's what Hughes had to say about the matter: "I would love for her to get to grips with some crazy crime that happened and actually try to solve it," she tells Digest. "But I don't want to go into something where she doesn't solve it because, let's face it, the police tend to play second fiddle to the mob. That's all well and good but it would be nice if it was played out so there would be equal footing and you really do see the other guys using their brains as much as the criminals do."

Will Hughes get her wish? Stay tuned.

June 6, 2008
As you'll see in the new issue of Digest on page 19, GH's Greg Vaughan (Lucky) was almost left out of our Father's Day wrap. As luck would have it, the always press-friendly actor was on vacation when we'd put in our request but he happily checked in as soon as he returned. We focused on Vaughan specifically since his son, Jathan, just turned the big "One," and we wanted to see how the proud Dad survived baby's first year. As a treat to our blog readers, here's the rest of that interview that didn't make it to print. Enjoy!

Can you sum up fatherhood in a word? "Tiresome [laughs]. I never know something so small could have so much energy!"
Were you in the delivery room during labor? "I was. I am totally in awe of my wife [Touriya]. Even more than I was before."
Was it scary? "I was too busy to be scared [laughs]. I was making sure the music was right, that my wife had a nice scent on the sheets and pillows beforehand, making sure she had water and ice chips, rubbing feet, rubbing ankles, holding hands. I know I wasn't the one about to bear children, but I was busy [laughs]."
Was it tough having to leave him and go back to work? "What was great was I could be on-set, have my phone in my pocket and I could get a picture [sent] of my son. Between Touriya and I, in the first few weeks after he was born, it was like a minimum of 50 pictures a day. She was always texting me pictures and moments. It was as close as you could get to being there in the room."
Considering you and Touriya both modeled, will Jathan be entering "the family business?" "Yeah. [The] Ford [Models] already has him on a contract. They had him on contract when she was five months pregnant because they wanted to have the rights [laughs]."
How is he at one year? "He's doing great. He's getting big all the time. He's growing like a weed."
What advice do you have for expectant fathers? "I recommend to any future father, get yourself a good tool kit because I keep having to put more baby stuff together. Man, my whole house is a playground of baby stuff."

May 30, 2008
So, did you happen to catch Patrick's video blog on GH? Personally, I thought it was great. Patrick babbled on just like a real guy would who was facing his fears about impending fatherhood. And having Coleman zoom in on the two pretty girls playing pool in the background? Priceless! Considering how smoothly it went, I was surprised to hear that Jason Thompson (Patrick) was actually quite nervous about the whole thing. Here's what he shared with me: "It got to a point where I was just trying to remember what I was saying," he confessed with a chuckle. "Afterward, I didn't even know what I did. It was like 10 pages of me just talking and talking and talking, jumping from one thing to another. I was more than a little worried about it." I don't know about you, dear reader, but I never would have picked up on that from what I watched. It's always refreshing to hear the actor's take on things, isn't it?

May 23, 2008
Did you see on our site that GH's Kent King (Lainey) was dropped to recurring status? What a mistake! King is a talented actress. (remember when she let Danny, the bastard who ran down her mother, drown in the swimming pool during her KNOTS LANDING days?) It's bad enough that GH features so few actors of ethnicity (they have them, they just don't get much story). However, this character is a shrink! And let's face it, Port Charles is one screwed up town in need of therapy. She should be featured in EVERYONE's story. Lainey's unlikely romance with drug addicted Iraq war vet Cody on last summer's GH: NIGHT SHIFT proved that she's more than capable of carrying her own storyline so please GH, reconsider and give this underused actress her daytime due.

May 16, 2008
Is it just me or do other GH fans think this way, too? I just don't know how to feel about Claudia. First, I hear Sarah Brown is coming back. Yay! But, she's playing a new character. Well, okay. That's weird, but I don't want Laura Wright to leave. I like her Carly. So, okay, I'll go along with it. Enter Claudia. She immediately sleeps with Sonny. Okay, that's entering with a bang. (Pardon the pun.) Then, she sashays around down in outfits cut down to her navel, rubbing her stuff all over the menfolk of Port Charles. Then, she organizes a hit on Sonny that ends up gunning down an innocent boy. I'm not really liking her right now, despite Sarah Brown's ferocity.

Then, it's hinted that she may have been sexually abused as a young girl. Okay, that explains the flirting with her brother and being a slut. Now, she's stabbed by Jerry, dumped in the harbor and left for dead. I guess that's the universe's way of her paying for what happened to Michael. Next up, it's Nikolas to the rescue and the two are going to bond? Well, I guess I'll go along for the ride, considering that GH does has a spectacular history of making unlikely couples work. (Hello, Luke and Laura!)

It's obvious that the disparity in Claudia's actions is courtesy of the writers' strike, but now that that mess is over with, please, writers, pick one direction and stick to it, or viewers may not end up caring about her at all.

May 9, 2008
Much like when I was a kid, it's now May so that only means one thing: Time to make our Christmas lists! Okay, so I liked to plan ahead, but here's what I'd love for my beloved GENERAL HOSPITAL, in no particular order....

1. Less bullets, more love.

2. Felicia comes home, again, to try and salvage the relationship with her only living daughter. Wagner's return for Georgie's funeral was truncated, possibly due to the writers' strike, and those scenes where Maxie chewed out her mother during her eulogy crackled with tension and excitement and earned Kirsten Storms (Maxie) a Performer of the Week nod. This is a gold mine waiting to be played, people.

3. Robert Scorpio must come back, if for nothing else, to meet his new grandchild. And really, couldn't Mac use his brother's help to clean up that crime-ridden town?

4. Let Bobbie and Jerry have at least a scene together. It boggles my mind that he's been back in town for over a year and has yet to set eyes on the woman he left at the altar when he was arrested. At least have her slap him!

5. Pick a guy for Lulu and stick with him. The ball was totally dropped with Lulu and Logan, who had great potential for an epic romance considering the historical Spencer/Baldwin feud. Then came the "I love you, but you're too dangerous for me" romance with Johnny. Um, haven't we seen that before with, Hmm, Jason and Elizabeth, Jason and Robin, Sonny and Kate, Sonny and Carly, Sonny and Brenda, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera?

6. Stop killing Quartermaines!

7. If we can't get Genie Francis back on a full-time schedule, at least have Laura wake up again to find out that Luke is really married to Tracy Quartermaine. First of all, I can hear her laugh now! If she thought Lucky becoming a cop was funny, wait till she gets a load of that. Then, once it sinks in that her remarriage was a sham, albeit a sweet one, it sends her back into Scotty's waiting arms. Then, we've got a delicious battle of warring couples, especially since Scott and Tracy were scheming bedmates back in the day. What do you think?

8. Let "Scrubs" a.k.a. Robin and Patrick be happy — at least for a little while.

9. While GH has a diverse number of minority characters roaming the hospital halls, can we get any of them a storyline? Stat!

10. Finally, I have to jump on the Brenda bandwagon and say it's time for Vanessa Marcil to reprise the role, if only for a short period of time. With Carly married to Jax, the stage is set for a romantic triangle to end all triangles. Imagine the romance, the passion, the catfights! I say, bring it on.

Thanks, Santa, and if you can deliver, I promise I'll be good. Really:)

April 25, 2008
In my decade-and-counting here at Digest, I've covered everything from the top-rated Y&R and GH to the ratings- hallenged PC and SUNSET BEACH. It's sad news that we're losing PASSIONS later this summer, now only seen on DirecTV, so I'm urging you — if you haven't seen this wacky supernatural soap yet, check it out while you still can. PASSIONS has always been outrageous with its talking dolls, New England tsunamis and daily witchery, but now it's dealing with a castration and reattachment surgery gone awry and the jaw-dropping tale of a hermaphroditic psychopath who's pregnant with his father's child. (Yes, all pronouns are correct.) PASSIONS is truly frenetic TV that we may never see again, for better or for worse, so give it a try.... But you may want to hold off eating lunch until after it's over:)

April 17, 2008
While it made for compelling story, I still think Emily's murder was a big mistake. I'm not happy that the Quartermaine ranks continue to diminish, plus in a dark world full of brooding mobsters, misguided molls and plastic surgeon/oncologist assassins, Emily was a beacon of light. Besides missing the character, I'll also miss her portrayer, Natalia Livingston. Like most gracious (and smart) actors do when they leave, they thank their soap's producers, writers, cast and crew — but here's something I don't hear very often: “'I want to thank Tom Stacy, too [laughs].' You've got to put yourself in there. 'I want to thank Tom Stacy for being so sweet and always writing such great articles about me and the show. I thank him for making that part of the job fun and I wish him all the best in the future, too!" Natty, you had us at good-bye.... Best of luck!

April 4, 2008
I'm still scratching my head as to why Y&R would wrap up it's "Gloria sees John's ghost" story so quickly. It was brilliant. It had strong rooting interest, as I was torn between Jack and Sharon taking back their home and feeling just a touch of sympathy for whacked-out Gloria. It brought out a lighter side to scheming Jeffrey and gave vet Jerry Douglas (John) some of the best material he's had in years — even though his character has been deceased since August 18, 2006. (Now there's a line you don't hear very often!) Jana's seance was laugh-out-loud funny and having Lauren fall down the stairs at the sight of "John" steered the action in a totally unexpected way. If this had been during the Golden Era under the pen of Co-creator William J. Bell, this delightfully loopy tale would have lasted longer than just a week. Memo to Y&R, unless it's a reliquary, there's no need to rush it.

March 26, 2008
As a kid "suffering" though my mom's soaps, I distinctly remember ABC's popular "Love In The Afternoon" ad campaign — and as it applied to the great couples of GH like Luke & Laura, Alan & Monica, Grant & Celia, Frisco & Felicia et al. What a sad state of affairs when today it refers to, um.... Uh.... A little help? Our wonderfully light and fun CarJax are embroiled in unending heartache and grief, our Team Scrubs has Patrick shirking responsibility for a pregnancy, Liason is about to, well, see next week's issue of SOD for that. Meanwhile, Sonny and Kate are trying to get back on track after his son shot her. Huh? Where is the love?