News Brief

Welcome Back, Genie! Laura’s Heart Could Save GENERAL HOSPITAL
Marilyn Henry writes: "Genie Francis returns GENERAL HOSPITAL today, August 25th, for a short run. She is one of the most beloved actresses of daytime and the fans have been begging for her prolonged return for years, to no avail. Now the show seems to be at its lowest point, suffering from acute ennui on the part of the viewers. Even the complainers have given up hope for change and the message boards, which used to be alive with rantings and ravings, are oddly quiet. So the question is: will Genie’s eagerly awaited return be enough to bring mob- and violence-weary fans back into the fold?"

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: OLTL's Erin Torpey
“Agents wanted my mom to move to New York and to California ever since I was a little girl, but my mom would never let me do that,” says Torpey, whose parents, Susan and Joe Torpey, still live in Perkasie (her sister is Shannon Lelli, owner of Doylestown's Planet Smoothie).

“Acting is a total gift and it's an amazing thing, but you can get trapped in this bubble. The only way I feel to keep that balance is to really have a life outside of it, to have an amazing life outside of acting.”

For Torpey, music is essential to that life. She released her first CD, the aptly titled “Part of the Plan,” last December and will showcase tunes from the disc when she performs at Puck in Doylestown on Sept. 5, two days before hitting New York City's venerable Knitting Factory.

PATRICK ERWIN: Age is just a number
"We complain a great deal about the lack of balance when it comes to veterans and older actors in daytime, and there are some shows that are guiltier of this than others. (Jill Farren Phelps hasn’t met a middle-aged or older character she didn’t want to push down a metaphorical staircase to his or her death. For the 'impact', of course.)"

Jason Biggs to star in "Boys' Life"
Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will kick off its 30th Anniversary Season with a new production of Howard Korder's comedy, "Boys' Life," directed by Michael Greif. This 20th Anniversary production of "Boys' Life" will feature Jason Biggs (ex-Pete, AS THE WORLD TURNS), Rhys Coiro, and Peter Scanavino as "the boys" as well as Dan Colman, Michelle Federer, Betty Gilpin, Paloma Guzman, Laura-Leigh, and Stephanie March. "Boys' Life" will begin previews October 2 at Second Stage Theatre in New York (307 West 43rd street) and will officially open on Monday, October 20.

Consuelos' firefighter-cook role requires acting
Mark Consuelos puts his acting chops to the test in his latest made-for-TV film, For the Love of Grace. For one, he plays a valiant firefighter.

"I'm the kind of guy who would run out of a building, not run into a building during a fire," he says with a laugh.

Secondly, he plays a valiant firefighter who - gasp! - cooks. Consuelos admits he's a handy griller, but that's about it. He says he rarely cooks for his wife, Kelly Ripa, and their three kids.

"If I want the family to get sick, I do," he says.

It's more than grim up north on CORONATION STREET, it's "boring, old fashioned and poorly written too!"
"Out of touch and disastrously out of decent ideas, this is the folksy soap that time forgot."