Friday, May 27, 2016

FANS PICK THEIR FAVORITE MOMENTS FROM 'GENERAL HOSPITAL'S' NURSES' BALL


It’s time, once again, for the Nurse’s Ball on General Hospital! First held in 1994 as an on-screen fundraiser for the titular institution’s Pediatric AIDS Unit and Outreach Programs, the Nurse’s Ball has served as an annual (through 2001 and then again starting in 2013) showcase for doctors, nurses, administrators, their friends and family, as well as occasional mobsters, to unveil heretofore hidden musical and dramatic gifts on par with… trained actors.

Though one outlier on Twitter confessed to disliking the Nurse’s Ball, the majority of those surveyed responded enthusiastically when asked to name their favorite moments from previous years’  festivities.

Watch the top 5 vote getters at Entertainment Weekly and have a great long weekend!

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

TOP 10 SOAP OPERA STAND ALONE EPISODES


Last week on Days of Our Lives, viewers found out that the presumed dead Aiden was – like so many previous residents of Salem – actually alive. But instead of getting the story of where he’s been (spoiler: held prisoner, talking to a dead bird that somehow managed not to decompose over a period of months) via dialogue, or through watching Aiden in his pen all this time, viewers were treated to a stand-alone episode that began with Aiden’s kidnapping on his wedding day, and went all the way through his escape back to Salem. They also got to watch actor Daniel Cosgrove grow facial hair.

Stand-alone episodes are obviously a departure for daytime, where a typical show will feature multiple storylines happening in near-real time (though if characters are flying from the United States to Europe, that might happen during a commercial break). DOOL wasn’t the first show to break format in such a manner. Check out some previous classic episodes at Entertainment Weekly, here.

Monday, May 16, 2016

ALICIA COPPOLA TALKS 'ANOTHER WORLD' (AND ME)

Michael Fairman (an old friend since our days of working on Pure Soap together) has a wonderful interview with Alicia Coppola (ex-Lorna; AW) about her new role as Dr. Meredith Gates on The Young & the Restless. Read the whole thing, here.

This is the part where I come up in conversation:

Lorna’s rape story was so powerful.  How was going through that experience as an actress?

ALICIA:  It was very draining, and also controversial. Alina Adams, an Entertainment Weekly Contributor, a wonderful writer, wrote a compelling article on Rape in Soaps. She highlights the message that soaps, intentionally or otherwise send, that women being raped instantly makes them better people; the notion that rape tames and subdues “difficult” women to make them likeable and softer.  All of this I completely disagreed with.  In her piece, she writes of Lorna’s rape.  I wrote to Alina and said (I am paraphrasing, of course…) “First of all, Lorna was always a bitch.  She was raw, and she was damaged.  She didn’t all of sudden become Mary, mother of Christ, because she was raped.  That’s nonsense.  She was a force to be reckoned with.  She was a badass, before the rape and after the rape.  So you can’t say rape tamed her, because that is what you are implying.”  Alina, as an amazing journalist, was so open to this dialogue and we did an interview addressing this.  Speaking from experience, I can promise you rape tames no woman, no one…quite the opposite in fact.  This was a very important storyline to me.

To read the entirety of what Alicia had to say on the subject, go to this Entertainment Weekly Community post.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

FREE 'GETTING INTO NYC KINDERGARTEN' ADVICE RIGHT IN YOUR OWN HOME!

You've heard of Tupperware parties (is that still a thing)?

Well, here's a variation on that theme: My Getting Into NYC Kindergarten workshops in public venues have been filling up so quickly, I've decided to expand into private homes, to make it more convenient for even more people to attend and get the full scoop on how the process works and when they should start preparing for it (spoiler: It's a lot earlier than most parents realize).

Here's how it will work: Round up a minimum of 10 people and I will come to your home at a mutually agreed upon time and date to do a free, hour long Getting Into NYC Kindergarten workshop.

And to thank you for hosting, I will throw in a complimentary, 30 minutes personal consult about your particular situation right afterwards!

Interested? Contact me at: AlinaAdams@gmail.com for further details.

In the meantime, you can find a listing of my upcoming public workshops, as well as podcasts covering a variety of Getting Into NYC Kindergarten topics at: www.AlinaAdams.com.

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH 'BOLD & BEAUTIFUL' STORY - NOW IN ONE CONVENIENT LOCATION!


The Bold & The Beautiful had a classic, soapy story brewing. Ridge married Caroline, only to learn that she was pregnant with his son, Thomas’, child, the result of a drunken hook-up when Ridge and Caroline were briefly on a break. (It was all Ridge’s fault, he dumped Caroline because he couldn’t give her the children she wanted. Then he got over it.) Caroline and Ridge assume the baby is Thomas’, because Ridge had a vasectomy (and those certainly never, ever go wrongon daytime). Ridge bullied Caroline into keeping the truth from Thomas and raising her baby boy as theirs, and Caroline went along because she truly loves her husband. And because Ridge bullied her.

But secrets never stay secrets on soaps for long, and viewers knew that little Douglas’ paternity was bound to come out sooner or later.

But did it have to be in such a clumsy and plot-driven manner?

How clumsy and plot-driven was it? Let me count the ways at Entertainment Weekly....

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: TOP 5 MOST MEMORABLE SOAP OPERA PROMS


When the Days of Our Lives teen set began preparing for prom in April, I was afraid that we were in for a Passions-like long celebration (parties on Passions which were supposed to last one night on-screen were known to stretch out for literally months of episodes). I feared it would go on through June, which is when most real-life high-schools hold their proms.

Turns out all that worrying was for nothing. Prom Night in Salem barely lasted a week. Ciara went with Theo, despite an earlier fight with Mark. Mark rigged the King and Queen of the Prom voting so that Ciara and Theo were named the winners then, when they went up to get their crowns, playing an embarrassing slide show about the two (guess the prom-supply store was all out of the traditional pig’s blood).

In retaliation, Ciara spray-painted Mark’s car. Except that said car actually belonged to Mark’s dad, a judge, and Ciara, along with the friends who helped her, were all arrested.

An eventful prom-night, but not really up there with the daytime classics. (Heck, it’s not even up there with 2000 when Phillip – yes, the one who’s now hooking up with Claire’s mom, Belle, took the school’s official Ghoul Girl, Chloe, to the Last Blast Dance. Chloe arrived dressed to the nines and looking fabulous, but that still didn’t stop her from almost getting soaked by the traditional pig’s blood bucket. Luckily, Shawn – yes, Claire’s dad – pulled her out of the way in time. Both Shawn and Belle were also at the dance. Don’t ask how it was only 16 years ago and they were childless teens, but now their daughter, Claire, is 17. It’s the magic of SORAS!) 

So which soap-opera proms really do stand the test of time? Click here to find out!