Interview: Catching Up With Rachel Boston

Like many young, in-demand starlets, Rachel Boston has co-starred in her share of television series — in fact, too many to name. As a veteran of such nighttime dramas as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “American Dreams,” “ER,” “Scoundrels,” “In Plain Sight” and “7th Heaven,” Rachel’s latest endeavor is that of high-school-reunion-goer in the Lifetime original movie “Holiday High School Reunion,” which premieres this weekend.

I spoke with Rachel recently about “Reunion,” as well as the new pilot she is shooting for Lifetime (to air in spring 2013) called “Witches of East End,” where she’ll star alongside Julia Ormond and Jenna Dewan-Tatum. But first up, high-school reunions.

Daytime Dial: Tell me a little about the movie and your character, Georgia.

Rachel Boston: “Holiday High School Reunion” is a romantic comedy filled with Christmas music. I play Georgia Hunt, a woman in her 20s struggling to find her way through career and relationships. When Georgia returns home for Christmas, her mom encourages her to attend her high-school reunion, and through a series of events, she is asked to face her fears and find the courage to go after what she really wants for her life.

DD: When you first read the script, what was it about the movie, or Georgia, or both, that made you want to be a part of it?

RB: I read the script when I was on a road trip with my mom through the desert. The relationship between Georgia and her mother really inspired me. She wants her daughter to live her destiny but supports her as she falls down along the way. It was also wonderful to sing Christmas music all day long while filming in the middle of the summer.

DD: In what ways are you and Georgia similar to each other, and how are you different?

RB: Well, we are both looking for true love and have walked down many different paths to find it. Georgia is still holding on to the idea of a love she experienced when she was 17. You can’t start the next chapter in your life if you keep rereading the last one, and she is working through the process of letting go. I went to an all-girls school, so our high-school experiences were very different. I loved the scenes of cheering, food fights and dances.

DD: How were Marilu Henner and Harry Hamlin to work with?

RB: Marilu Henner plays my mom, and she is delightful in the film. There’s a scene after I’ve been out with the boys in the football field that really touched my heart. Harry Hamlin works at the high school with my mom, and we have some really funny scenes.

DD: How would you describe the filming experience? As the star of the movie, did you feel more pressure, or was it just such a nice experience that that all flew out the window and you just had fun?

RB: We had 16 days to shoot the entire film, including three musical numbers, so it was a very intense schedule, but an extraordinary experience. We had a very small crew of brilliant artists, and working with our director, Marita Grabiak, was beyond wonderful. She poured her heart into the film and brought so much truth to Georgia’s journey. It was a true collaboration, and I feel so blessed to have been a part of it.

DD: After watching the movie, what do you hope viewers take away from it, like a central message, theme or feeling?

RB: My 94-year-old grandmother always tells me, “Just be yourself!” She is 94 and one of the most joy-filled and wisest people I know, so she has great advice, and it’s the central message of the movie. There will always be voices telling you to turn a different way, and it takes courage to stand in your center and stay true to your heart.

Interview — Michael Steger: Navid Explores His Dark Side

Michael Steger, photo by Benny Haddad

My favorite guilty pleasure is back: The fifth season of “90210” has started with a bang, and with shows like the first few episodes to go by, I think I can safely say that the gang is back on course (after an uneven and sometimes strange fourth season). Naomi and Max are married(!); Teddy and Silver are trying for a baby; Adrianna is in a love triangle; Liam is in Crazytown because of Vanessa; sparks are flying between Annie and a guy she met through Dixon’s rehab; and Navid, tired of being second choice and everyone’s punching bag, is showing his darker side. I spoke with Michael Steger — who’s played the once-nerdy, now-hunky Navid Shirazi since the show’s inception — and he gave me the scoop on the upcoming season. He also told me about the other projects he’s been working on.

Daytime Dial: First off, how was your summer vacation?

Michael Steger: Really good. At the beginning, I did a few small vacations. I went to Rosarito, Mexico, and Ensenada and then Chicago. And then I worked on two films in May and June, which was nice. It went by pretty quickly. And then I started back up on “90210” in July. So most of my summer I’ve been working.

DD: For those who might be living under a rock, I also want to point out that “90210” has switched to Monday nights at 8/7c on the CW. I know you are active on Twitter, so how has the fan reaction been for the new season?

MS: Very excited. I’ve been contacted by fans on Twitter: “When is the show starting? When is the show starting?” The energy is very contagious, and the fans have been really great about passing that info along.

DD: Looking back on the previous season, what have been some of your favorite moments?

MS: My favorite moments from season four is getting the chance to work with really cool character actors. I got to work with Anthony Azizi, who played my uncle Amal. And Shaun Duke, who plays my dad, and then of course all the cool recurring cast we have on the show, like Josh Zuckerman. There are so many really good actors coming on board the show. They represent the fresh energy that is so much a part of the show and is always my favorite part.

DD: How’s Navid doing this season?

MS: He starts the season in a bidding war with Liam for Silver, and now Silver has picked Teddy to have a baby with. It’s thrown Navid off-kilter a bit to where his character is tested, and he goes the route of a stranger, in a sense — he does something that’s really out of character.

He has an almost one-night stand, and he’s really not thinking. He’s trying to get back to Silver, so he’s doing as much as he can in that area. It’s completely out of character for him, but he is trying to get the attention with Silver at the end of the day.

DD: I saw some pictures of you and the rest of the guys online dressed as cheerleaders for a powder-puff football game. Was that fun to film?

MS: It’s funny, when you get a group of guys and you dress them up as cheerleaders, you have this feeling of, “OK, we’ve got to represent.” It ended up being a hilarious situation because we were all just making fun of ourselves the entire day. It was really funny. And of course, at the end of the day, we’re all like, “Oh did you guys see the paparazzi over yonder?” We were caught off-guard, but we still had a really good time.

DD: Tell me about Dixon’s recovery from the car accident.

MS: It’s going to take a while. His recovery process is a long one. The execs handled it in a very organic way and very believable. I thought they handled it very nicely.

DD: Can you give me any spoilers for down the road?

MS: I’m really not sure what will happen. Everything’s a surprise. I don’t like to know too much, you know? I just wait until I get the script to be surprised. We’ll find out!

DD: Tell me about the films you’ve been working on.

MS: They’re both in post-production. “Farah Goes Bang” is about three women who are coming into their own. They’re on a road trip to work on the John Kerry campaign during the 2004 Bush/Kerry election. It’s a very great story about these women coming into their womanhood. One is trying to lose her virginity, and they have all of the obstacles along the way. It’s a touching story of that time. I think people are going to enjoy it.

And the other one is “Blowing Vegas Off the Map,” which is a movie for the Syfy network. It has to do with an Egyptian curse, and Las Vegas is being decimated by a horrible storm. I think if you’re into sci-fi, you might enjoy it, but I haven’t seen any cuts, so I have no idea. But I’m sure it’ll be good, explosive fun.

INTERVIEW: Kellie Martin Enters New Territory

Kellie Martin as Capt. Nicole Galassin
(Photo courtesy Lifetime Television/
Army Wives)

Hot on the heels of the news that Lifetime Television has renewed the groundbreaking series “Army Wives” for a seventh season, I spoke with series co-star Kellie Martin, who played a pivotal and game-changing role this season. Kellie plays Capt. Nicole Galassin, and although we last saw Capt. Galassin flying to Afghanistan and hitting some bad turbulence, I wouldn’t count her out just yet. And neither would Kellie.

Daytime Dial: Your role on “Army Wives” is definitely one your fans haven’t seen you play yet. How did the whole thing come about?

Kellie Martin: A friend of mine, a writer friend from “ER,” called me up and said: “Would you be open to playing a lesbian military intelligence officer? We’re going to explore the world after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” And I thought: “Yeah! That sounds really interesting.” I have never played anyone in the military; I’ve never played a lesbian. That’s rare for me to say, since I’ve been doing this 30 years — I’ve played everything. But that is something I’ve never played.

I didn’t know that it was going to be as much of a story line as it turned out to be. I did eight episodes. I really feel like they hit the highlights of this woman’s life and how fast this couple’s world changed after the repeal. The way all of a sudden they were able to have more friends, they got married, they got a baby — it really hit all the high points.

DD: You sound like you really enjoyed playing this character.

KM: Oh yes, I was honored to play this woman. I thought she was so brave and so smart, yet in her personal life, she had to hide. It was really fun to play someone who comes out. And then to have Patti LuPone play my mom again was awesome. That’s the third time Patti’s played my mom on television. And it was just an honor.

I have so many people who tweet at me or who just come up to me and say, “You don’t know how this story line has changed my life.” Or, “This is me. This is exactly me. And I’ve been in the closet for years, and I’m in the Navy.” It’s nice to make people feel like they are not alone in this often-challenging world. I feel like Capt. Galassin is the girl next door. Everybody knows someone like her. I’m just very proud of “Army Wives” and Lifetime for following through with the story line like they did.

DD: Like with “ER,” you came onto an established show with established actors in place; did it make you a little nervous? How is the “Army Wives” cast to work with?

KM: It’s funny, because they’re both pretty big ensembles. I found on “ER” and on “Army Wives,” if you weren’t a part of someone else’s story line, you never saw them. The cast was very welcoming, and I was super nervous the first day. I had a ton of things to say. I had to put that uniform on for the first time, and I just fell into the character the second I put it on. So, that was a really big help to me. But the cast is lovely. I had a really, really good time. It wasn’t easy for me to be away on location so much. I was flying way more than I care to mention, because I don’t like to fly, but it was a really good experience.

DD: Do you think Nicole will be back for the seventh season?

KM: I don’t know if Nicole’s back. She was on a plane to Afghanistan at the end of the season, and there was a lot of turbulence …

DD: Yes, but turbulence can go away, and planes can go back the other way, too …

KM: Absolutely! I had a great time, and I never, ever know where my career’s going to head, so it’s always interesting for me to see what happens.

Kellie as Jordan
(Photo: Copyright 2011 Crown Media Holdings, Inc./
Photographer: Alexx Henry)

DD: You are in the new Hallmark Channel original movie called “I Married Who?” playing an uptight real estate agent, Jordan Grady, who goes to Las Vegas for her bachelorette party and wakes up after a night of celebrating to find she’s married to movie star Matt Swift (played by Ethan Erickson). Let’s just say that romantic comedy ensues. (“I Married Who?” premieres on the Hallmark Channel on Saturday, Oct. 20 at 9/8c.) You’ve done quite a few movies for the Hallmark Channel; what keeps you coming back?

KM: I’ve been working with them since 2003 or 2004, and I’ve really just gotten to love the people over there. I knew the CEO when he wasn’t the CEO, and all the publicity people who’ve been there since I started working with them. It’s really the people who keep me coming back. They just are very good to me, and they let me have a bit of input into the work we do, which I really appreciate.

I really have liked doing romantic comedies — the past two movies that I’ve done for them have been really fun, upbeat and, best of all, I don’t have to cry. I love that, because I’ve spent so much time doing drama that this is a really nice way to lighten things up for me.

DD: What was it about this particular movie, especially the character of Jordan, that caught your attention?

KM: I love the arc she goes through. Jordan starts out as a very tightly wound real estate agent about to get married to a very tightly wound attorney. She has to face who she really is beyond being type A and totally under control. She unravels a bit, and it was really fun to play a character who was unraveling.

DD: How are you and Jordan alike?

KM: Well, unlike Jordan I like to drink. Jordan doesn’t drink. I’m Irish, and I do enjoy a good drink. I did marry an attorney, but unlike Peter (in the movie), my husband is a recovering attorney. Eight months after our daughter was born, he said: “You know what? I don’t think I want to do this anymore. I don’t really like this.” I do like to be in control. I like to know what’s going on. I like routines, especially having a child. I love the ritual, routine nature of a day, because my daughter has a very strict schedule. We have a very rigid schedule, and that’s very much like Jordan.

DD: You had great chemistry with your co-stars, but I especially loved your scenes with Adrienne Frantz. Her character is hilarious, and she did such a great job!

KM: Can you tell we had fun? She’s so much fun.

L to R: Daphnee Duplaix, Adrienne Frantz and Kellie Martin (Photo: Copyright 2011 Crown Media
Holdings, Inc./Photographer: Alexx Henry)

DD: How did you get through takes without laughing through them?

KM: I frequently didn’t. There’s one scene I could see how they had to cut around our giggling. When we’re eating pizza, and Adrianne and I are hysterically laughing, and they had to find the little moments where we weren’t laughing because we were total goofballs. But it’s so nice to work with someone like her because she is a pro. She’s so much a pro that she can let loose, and you can allow for those little surprises to happen. It’s just lovely to be in a scene with someone who’s so good at what they do that we know we are going to say our lines and hit our marks, but we’re going to have fun and allow surprises to happen. And that’s what we did. I would love to do a series with that girl. We would have so much fun.

DD: What do you hope viewers take away from the movie after watching it?

KM: I really think it’s good to shake up your life every once in a while. I’m not saying to marry someone who’s not your fiance, but I think it’s good to step back every once in a while and get perspective on your life. Maybe step back and say: “You know what? Let’s do something crazy. Let’s go to Paris next summer,” or “Let’s take off school today and go to the park.

Just shake up your life every once in a while and realize you only live once.

Interview: Trisha Goddard, Ready for the Challenge

Trisha Goddard is a (mostly) new voice entering the daytime-television arena; although she has served as a guest host and conflict-resolution expert for “The Maury Povich Show,” beginning today, Trisha has a show all her own. While hosting her own show isn’t a new thing for her — she’s hosted and won awards for several talk shows in Australia and the U.K. — for American audiences, it will be a new thing for us. I had the pleasure of speaking with this quick-witted, humble and lovely lady about her new show (which airs in syndication, so check your local listings), and she can’t wait for you to welcome her into your living room each weekday.

Celebrity Extra: For those not familiar with your work, how did you get started in the business?

Trisha Goddard: Well, I actually started in news and current events. I’ve done a lot of other jobs, too — I was in a band; I was an air stewardess based in the Middle East; I worked in public relations. But as I worked other jobs, I took journalism courses, and I started in television in Australia. I started in news and current affairs, and quickly realized that health and social welfare areas — which were kind of new in those days — were where I wanted to be.

My first presenting job came about when the presenter of a show I reported for went on maternity leave, and they asked me to fill in. Apparently the viewers took to me, so I was offered my own show by another network. The press was very quick to point out that I was Australia’s first person of color ever to become an anchorwoman, which shocked me. I said, “Oh, it didn’t say that on the form when I was applying for the job.” But that was back in 1987.

CE: I know you also had your own talk shows in England, and then you came to the U.S. and started working with Maury Povich. What was that experience like?

TG: It was great. It was a really easy fit. Maury was very gracious. It was very lovely of him to have me on the show and hand over segments. That’s what I’ve been doing on and off for the past two years. Time flies when you’re having fun.

CE: And now you have your own daytime talk show, “Trisha Goddard.” Tell me about it.

TG: The topics will cover all of life’s dramas — happy, sad, humor — the whole gamut of relationships. It can be parent and child, relatives, what have you. What we did on my show in England was there are a lot of older people who want to know, as an adult: “Is this my sister; is this my cousin?” or “Is this really my parent?” Obviously, there’s a lot invested in that, if you’ve been brought up one way or to believe that somebody was your parent and isn’t. They’re more complex. A lot of these stories have layer upon layer, but they are the universal issues that everyone has: trust, betrayal, happiness, joy and identity. I’ll deal with all of those things, but in my very own way.

CE: Will you host celebrity guests, too?

TG: Yes, absolutely. A celebrity will be there for what they’re going through and what experience they can bring to the show rather than “I have a new book” or “I have a new movie” to promote for the celebrity’s sake. These celebrities will absolutely hold their own, and be willing to be honest and talk about whatever issue it is they went through that they have in common with the guest. It catches on with the celebrities who are interested in being real. We give them the opportunity to talk about something other than their new movie or their new book or what have you. But the focus of our show is on ordinary, everyday people.

CE: Since “Trisha Goddard” is a five-days-a-week show, covering most of the year, do you ever worry you’ll run out of topics to discuss?

TG: Oh no, no. That’s never a worry. You could do a show on divorce 300 times, and every single situation will be different. The ages, the people, different situations — you can never exhaust a subject, because there are different nuances in every single case. You never think, “Oh, I’ve done this story before.” You might have up until a point, and then it goes off on a completely different track.

CE: That’s true; you just read any newspaper, magazine or website, and there are human-interest stories galore out there.

TG: Oh, yes. And I read the newspapers all the time. Back home in England, I probably read four newspapers a day. Here I’m reading the websites and what have you. I’m always looking for ideas; I’m going to start getting local newspapers in different areas, because you start asking, what are the concerns on the ground? I want to get a feel for the issues at the local level and how I can bring that to the screen. It’s always exciting. There’s always a challenge.

CE: I know you are very involved in mental well-being issues and treatment — will you bring those topics to your show?

TG: Oh, yes. Collectively, mental health, mental well-being and mental illness is the entire spectrum. You’ll very rarely talk to people or about people without some part of that spectrum coming into it. It’s not always mental illness. It can be a lack of mental wellness, if you see what I mean. I can’t divorce myself from that; it’s what I’m passionate about. There are always people thinking that mad equals bad, and all those sorts of things. It’s one area that really needs to be de-stigmatized.

CE: I read that you’ve done your share of acting as well … I bet the “Doctor Who” fans are the most rabid.

TG: “Doctor Who” fans are very … everywhere I go, there’s some “Doctor Who” fan who jumps out and tells me exactly what episode I was in. That was fun. I did “Little Britain” as well, which is an English show. There was another show called “Fat Friends,” which was about a whole group of friends in a slimming club, and I filmed about three or four episodes with them. I was really, really flattered to be included. My one show that I’d like to be included in here in the U.S. — I will have died and gone to heaven if I did a cameo on “Modern Family.”

CE: How do you fit it all in: hosting your show here, your advocacy and charity work, maintaining a home here and across the Pond?

TG: When I was coming over to tape “Maury,” I would do the show and work intensely for a week, and then go home and do unpaid work as a mother, dog walker, wife, etc., so that was OK. At the moment people ask how it’s going to work out, and the answer is, I don’t know. It’ll be tough, but I don’t want to prescribe how things are going to work out, because part of life is just going with the flow and muddling through, and then when people ask you in hindsight, it sounds like you had this marvelous plan to make it all work. But it’s not like that. It’s interesting, but it’s scary.

Interview: Catching Up with Eric Mabius

Eric Mabius has put in his time on shows like “Party of Five,” “The O.C.” and “Popular,” moving on to co-starring roles on “Eyes” and “The L Word” before landing the role for which he is perhaps most famous (for now), that of playboy Daniel Meade on “Ugly Betty.” But now Eric wants to show his fans another side, that of the shy, slightly geeky Harold White in the Hallmark Channel original movie “How to Fall in Love,” which premieres Saturday night, July 21 at 9/8c. (Also, head to the Hallmark Channel’s Facebook fan page an hour earlier at 8/9c for a live, one-hour Q-and-A with Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, co-authors of “The Rules,” where they’ll give advice on dating and falling in love.)

When I spoke with Eric recently, he told me how much fun it was to play this against-type role and working with Brooke D’Orsay and Kathy Najimy. He also told me all about his new, the Sundance Film Festival hit “Price Check” with indie queen Parker Posey, as well as a few other projects.

Daytime Dial: I loved watching you as Harold — geeky, shy and not at all like Daniel Meade. Was playing a character like this one of the things that made you want to do this movie?

Eric Mabius: Definitely, that’s part of the reason why I said yes to the project. I am excited because people will be like, “Yeah, Daniel, the playboy from ‘Ugly Betty’ is going to play a geek.” But I think we all have our own inner geek, and it doesn’t take that much to bring it out.


I know we all may have seen a movie about the guy who’s geeky and needs direction in life, a sort of ugly duckling story. I felt like Bart Fisher had written something that was quirky enough and that I could spin it a little bit differently and still be real, just kind of drown it in reality. It may seem like an unlikely occurrence, Harold getting dating lessons from the woman who caused his dysfunction in the first place, but it’s entirely in the realm of possibility. I believe it especially because I fell in love with someone from high school, and I have two sons with her. It definitely was close to home for me. I didn’t date my wife in high school, but she was definitely by far the coolest woman there. She was definitely the most beautiful, but she also marched to the beat of her own drummer. I was in New Orleans 10 years after high school, and my friend played matchmaker with us, and that’s kind of how we got together.

DD: Do you have any awkward high-school stories to rival Harold’s homecoming dance experience?

EM: I don’t have very many of those stories because I moved around a lot. So I knew how to negotiate awkward situations because I had to learn how to adapt very early on. I chose the position of being more of a loner, and from that position it always kept people guessing, which had a certain amount of power. I was an athlete in high school as well, so I used to travel and compete and train with the Junior National Luge team, and I got to see the world. Also, I went to the prom with a friend of mine to avoid all of those potentially awkward moments. I had a little bit of foresight.

DD: I think this is a really good story to let people know that there is life after high school — much more — and what happens to you then isn’t the be-all, end-all of your life.

EM: I think that when you’ve only lived 17 years, you don’t have, you haven’t had a full canon of experiences, so every moment that you have here feels like the last moment in the world, because you’ve only had a handful of whatever those moments are. Your first love, your first dance, your first intensely awkward moments. And they’re supposed to be intense because it’s the first time we’re experiencing a lot of those things.


You do have to follow your heart, otherwise you’re living a false life. Maybe I’m naive or maybe I’m idealistic, but I fell in love with someone from high school, which is insane. If someone told me that I was going to marry someone from high school, I would tell him he needs to have his head checked. But you need to remain open to anything, because you never know where lightning’s going to strike, where you’re going to fall in love. You fall in love in the most unlikely times and places. People try to be very calculated about affairs of the heart, but it’s never going to work. You’ll end up with a sterile relationship, I’d think.

DD: I loved Brooke D’Orsay in “How to Fall in Love” — her character was just so adorable, and I loved your chemistry with her. How was she to work with?

EM: You’re correct — she’s absolutely adorable. So much fun and just so sweet. Oddly enough, as personality types, our own personalities as actors were the opposite of the characters we were playing. I think I’m a fairly calm, even person, and she’s slightly more neurotic, so as people we kind of balance each other out. It was fun because of the characters we were playing; we were kind of doing the opposite. When you’re thrown together in a situation like that to try to manufacture that attraction, you never know if it’s going to work. Fortunately, Brooke is just so sweet and gracious and honest, and that’s why I loved working with her. She doesn’t hide much, which makes it easy and a lot more fun to play.

DD: And Kathy Najimy was just wonderful, and so hilarious!

EM: She absolutely is, and I was so happy to see her again. She was so good on “Ugly Betty,” and she’s just like this ball of lightning. She’s got so much energy, and she’s always on — she’s another person who comes to play, and you’d better bring your A game. She’s a delight, and she’s just a quality woman.

DD: Tell me about your feature film that you did with Parker Posey, “Price Check.”

EM: Oh my god, you’re going to laugh your ass off. I think IFC bought the film. It’s a dark comedy centering on this guy I play (Pete Cozy), who gives up his dreams of being a music A&R guy. He moves to the suburbs of Long Island and accepts a marketing job at a small chain of grocery stores. He has a wife and a child, and is trying to pursue the “American Dream.” Parker Posey’s character, Susan, is put in charge of this section of grocery stores. Nobody in the office cares about his job. They’re basically just punching the clock and biding their time. Susan comes in and shakes everyone’s universe up. She is so quintessential Parker Posey. She is brilliant, and she’s so funny. It’s a lot of fun.

DD: You’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of strong female leads … Vanessa Williams from “Ugly Betty” comes to mind. And it’s so nice to know that in real life she is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever interviewed.

EM: I just saw Vanessa last week. She was being honored by the Covenant House for all of her charity work for them, and she invited us to her table. She just grows more beautiful and graceful with time. In the six or seven years I’ve known her, I have to say she is one of my favorite people in the world, and she is just one of the classiest women I know — next to, of course, my mother and my wife — but she’s just infinitely gracious and kind and giving. I don’t see that very often in any kind of business, but you certainly see it a lot less in entertainment — she’s a rare gem.

DD: What about the new USA series “Political Animals”?

EM: I’m really excited about it — excited about guest-starring on it. You have to keep an eye out for that show. Separate of me having to do anything with it, just the writing and acting in it alone is just out of this world. It stars Sigourney Weaver as the secretary of state, and it also has Ellen Burstyn and Carla Gugino. It’s just unreal. It’s a political drama, and another show for me with strong female role models. It’s just so good.

Interview: Genie Francis Discusses Future of Soaps

It’s a subject that’s on every daytime-soap fan’s mind but is afraid to bring up. It seems lately all you hear about are favorite stars being let go from soaps — Jack Wagner, Patrick Muldoon, Eileen Davidson, etc. — either in a cost-cutting move or story-line-related move, all in a fervent attempt to keep said soap from facing the chopping block come renewal time. I spoke with soap-opera veteran Genie Francis recently about this subject, and she gave me an enlightening look into what she thinks could save soaps and what the future for soaps might bring.

Daytime Dial: In recent years, we’ve lost “As the World Turns,” “Guiding Light,” “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.” Do you think it’s possible to save the remaining shows from the chopping block?

Genie Francis: It’s hard to say whether we’ll be able to save those shows and for how long. Our audience has really dissipated, and I think that’s because people are moving much faster than they ever have before. Nobody sits down in the afternoon and watches television unless they’re retired or home ill. People just don’t have the time. It’s a shame to see it dwindle as much as it has. I think what it may come down to is each network maintaining one show.

DD: It’s almost come to that already, with ABC having only “General Hospital” and NBC with “Days of Our Lives.”

GF: Right. I was glad to hear about “GH” getting another year. I hope this will give the new creative team the time that they need to fix that show. It’s a really hard thing they are doing, and it’s not something that you can snap your fingers and make happen. My hope is that those people who are really good people — really smart producers and writers — will get the time that they need.

DD: Not to jinx anyone, but the only one I don’t worry about is “The Young and the Restless.”

GF: Yes, they’ve come up a little in the ratings a bit this past month. They’ve been No. 1 for more than 20 years — I think it’s 23 years — and there’s a reason for that: They have found their audience, they’ve been really loyal to that audience, and I think they also keep their stories moving very quickly. When you turn on the show, you will see something happen.


There’s awareness now in television writers’ mind-sets that people have a short attention span nowadays. We’re impatient. The writers have really changed the way they write to keep a story moving quickly. I watched it the other night — I had it taped — and I watched the whole episode, and then I turned on a nighttime cable show, and “Y and R” was every bit as compelling, watchable, moved as quickly, acted as well, written as well. I just have to say that I think that the people in charge over at “Y and R” are doing a really good job, and that’s what it’s going to take. People are going to have to work harder to try to maintain the audience they’ve got.

Interview: Genie Francis Gets a Mother's Day Surprise!

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Genie Francis and Ted McGinley are back as newlyweds Peyton MacGruder and King Danville in “Notes from the Heart Healer,” premiering Saturday, May 12 at 8/7c, on the Hallmark Channel (and re-airing throughout Mother’s Day weekend). The couple is celebrating their first anniversary when they are surprised by an abandoned baby on their doorstep.

(As an added Mother's Day tribute, Hallmark Channel’s Facebook page — facebook.com/HallmarkChannel — is inviting viewers to share heartfelt messages, notes and photos of moms who have healed a heart! Post your #HeartHealer tribute today and tell us Hallmark and why your mom was magical and how she healed your heart! #HallmarkChannelCountdown #HeartHealer)

I spoke with the “General Hospital” alum recently, and she told me all about making this third film in the “Notes” series and how much fun it was to step into Peyton’s shoes again.

Daytime Dial: Back in 2007, when you made “The Note” for the Hallmark Channel, did you have any idea what a hit it would be — ranking as one of the network’s highest-rated film series of all time — and that it would spawn two sequels?

Genie Francis: I had no idea. I knew it was a wonderful movie. I loved the script when I first read it. I was so thrilled to get that job. And then we were all shocked that it did as well as it did. It was like this huge, unexpected wonderful success, and then, of course, they continued it on into a franchise.

DD: What was the filming experience like this time? Was it easy to get back into the swing of it?

GF: We worked very fast. We shot the whole thing in 14 days. I was amazed that we were able to shoot the entire movie with one baby (instead of twins, as many productions use), which I didn’t think could be done. I’m always impressed how well cast these movies are. The level of talent, the talent pool they have in Canada (where the series is filmed) is just amazing, and it’s beautifully cast every single time. It’s a perfect Mother’s Day movie.

DD: One of the things I like about these movies is while each is a continuation of the previous one, they also can stand on their own as individual movies.

GF: I think that’s true of all three of them. You don’t have to have seen the others to enjoy any of them. They do stand alone yet somehow go in perfect line with the others. It’s a difficult thing to do. I don’t know how they pulled it off, but they did.

DD: How do you feel about the premise of Peyton and King celebrating their one-year anniversary, and then this baby is dropped into their laps and we see how they deal with it?

GF: I thought that was terrific because they are later on in life, and even though it’s a new marriage, she has things that she hasn’t done. She has unfinished parts of her life. They’re an older couple, so for her to say to him, “You know, I’ve got to do this,” it’s got to take him aback. What’s cool about it is that through this experience, Peyton learns that not only does she want to be a mother, but she starts to believe that she can be. She starts to forgive herself for who she was in her youth and realizes maybe she’s not so bad. His willingness to do it speaks of how much he loves her and how strong that marriage really is.

DD: I know forgiveness is a big theme of this movie; what are some other things you hope the viewer takes away from it?

GF: Well, what I love most about Peyton is that she gets involved and she brings everything up as sort of a philosophical or spiritual question like: “Why did I get this baby on my doorstep? I’ve got this baby, but I can’t stop thinking about the mother. Maybe if I can get to this mother, I can prevent her from ending up like me.” She always finds a way to make lemonade out of her lemons in life, from the bitterness in her life, and that’s a great quality. And she’s confused. She asks the big questions, like, “What’s best for this baby?” It’s a struggle for Peyton, but there’s been a healing for her in that she knows that she’s got it in her to be a good mother.

Interview: Catching Up with Virginia Williams

The USA Network's hit legal drama "Fairly Legal" is finally back tonight for its second season with 13 all-new episodes. The show centers on the law firm of Reed and Reed, which was founded by Kate Reed's (Sarah Shahi) father, and is now being run by her stepmother, Lauren Reed, after her father's death. Lauren is sharp, shrewd, hard as nails, and is pretty much the same age as Kate ... so, you can see where a lot of the conflict lies.

I spoke with Virginia Williams, who plays Lauren, and she is anxious and energized for fans to finally get to see the show's new season. With almost a full year between seasons one and two, you can bet viewers are more than ready for a new offering of "Fairly Legal," which airs Fridays on USA at 9 p.m. EST.

Celebrity Extra: With such a long hiatus between the seasons, you must be excited to finally be premiering season two!

Virginia Williams: Yeah — and it’s fun to see how excited the fans are getting. I think a lot of people forgot about the show, understandably. What’s great about this season is, as good as last season was, I think this season is going to be just exponentially better. It’s tighter, it’s funnier, it’s wittier, and it’s lighter. It’s just a better show all around.

CE: What can you tell me about season two?

VW: I’m trying to figure out how to phrase it without giving too much away. I think it’s pretty obvious for us to even have a season 2 that Kate has to come back to work at Reed and Reed. With the relationship between the girls, we get to see them come together a lot more. They don’t have such an antagonistic relationship, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily going to see eye to eye. They still are extremely different characters. They’re the odd couple. They’re always going to look at the world through really different lenses. I think one thing that was missing in season 1 that we get to see in season 2 is how much they both respect what the other one does. They both get that they are each great at their jobs, they just do their jobs completely differently.

It’s fun to watch them come together and then grow apart, and come together and then grow apart, but they’re these two women who are essentially two sides of the same coin. They both love justice and in doing the right thing, they just look at it in different ways. Lauren’s lens is always true in the eyes of the law. She truly fights for what she believes in, and she believes that the law is king. Kate believes that since humans made up the laws and humans are flawed, she works to do what she feels is the right thing despite what the law says.

CE: The character of Lauren could easily have been pretty one-dimensional, but with your portrayal of her and with the benefit of an excellent writing staff, you've really brought out her different facets and dimensions.

VW: Thank you. I’ve worked very hard as an actress to bring dimensionality to her. She absolutely could be played extremely one dimensionally, and on paper she can look like a trophy wife who’s money-grubbing and in it for the wrong reasons. I do feel that season 1 sometimes wrote to that, but a lot of the time, it was my own personal struggle when trying to bring that. The writers have written to her facets more, which is really great. We get to see Lauren at home for example. Everything still revolves around Reed and Reed — the show is about the law firm — but we do see glimpses of Lauren at home: coming back from a jog, going on a date, having a resemblance of a life outside of work. We get to see her with her hair down, literally and figuratively. Those are things I’m really excited about, and this next season we get to see some of the little colors of her.

The most fun characters to play as an actor are the ones who hold their cards really close to the vest, and we only get to see little glimmers of their fears and insecurities. That is really what I love about her. I was really drawn to this character because I thought, “How fun would it be to constantly pile on the layers?” Which is what I find I do with her. I just constantly try to pile on the layers, and if two or three of them come through and the audience sees them, great! Then you’ve done your job well. But I wanted to play someone who is very guarded, and can only show little bits and pieces. I think it’s a really fun thing to play. She’s like a volcano always ready to explode. At least through season 1 that was kind of how I played it, with all the pressure that was on her.

Through season 2, she’s still quite guarded and protective and exacting and stylish and brilliant and all these great things that I love about her, but she’s a lot more comfortable with her position. This allows me some flexibility as an actress and how I play her, which I’m really happy for. I think last season was about Lauren proving to everyone else that she was capable and that she wasn’t just a trophy wife — she could get the job done and could lead the firm. This season we see that she not only is extremely capable, but the firm ends up being better off than it was even before Teddy died. She comes into her own a bit, and the confidence that comes with that allows her to loosen up just a little bit.

CE: You shoot the series in Vancouver — how do you like it up there?

VW: I love shooting there in the summer. We shot the first season through the summer, and Vancouver became one of my top-three favorite cities in the world. Absolutely love it. But (laughs), as a Southern girl, I’m not so fond of shooting there in the winter.

CE: What else does this season have in store for Lauren?

VW: We get to see Lauren moving on from the death of her husband, which is nice. As early as episode three we see Lauren going on a date, and by the end of the season, we have a bit of a cliffhanger story line — a love story line. This season Justin and Lauren get to work together a lot, which is really fun. And there’s definitely a love-triangle story line with Kate and Justin and Ben.

CE: I read that Meatloaf is a guest star this season. How great is that?

VW: Yes! Unfortunately I didn’t have any scenes with him, so I didn’t actually get to work with him. I’ve been singing "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" for well over a month. We have some really, really great guest stars this year: Mark Margolis and Betsy Brandt, who are on "Breaking Bad," will be on the show. I get a lot of really good stuff with Mark Margolis. He’s just outstanding and mortifying and scary as hell, which is great to work with. I know all of production has been very pleased with who we’ve had and what they’ve brought to the table. It’s going to be a great season!

Interview: Catching Up with Courtney Thorne-Smith

Courtney Thorne-Smith is no stranger to comedy. While she may have had her big break starring as Allison Parker on nighttime soap “Melrose Place,” she really honed her acting chops on shows like “Ally McBeal” and “According to Jim.” For the past few years, she’s co-starred on the CBS hit comedy “Two and a Half Men,” playing Jon Cryer’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, Lyndsey Mackelroy. I spoke with Courtney recently about being on a headline-making sitcom, and how the cast and crew are leading up to the show’s ninth season finale on May 14.

Celebrity Extra: You’ve been working pretty much nonstop in Hollywood since 1986, and when “According to Jim” ended after eight seasons, I thought you would take a little breather from series television. What made you decide to jump back in with “Two and a Half Men”?

Courtney Thorne-Smith: It wasn’t really jumping back in — it was sort of like I put my little tiny toe in. The first season I was on, I did only two episodes, and then I did about 10 last year and about 10 this year, so it’s nice. When [my son] Jack complains about me working I say: “Sweetie, I work 10 weeks a year and most of those are half-days. So you really don’t get to complain.” This schedule is ideal for being a mom. I get to go to work and be this absolutely insane character and do these crazy things that I’ve never gotten the chance to do before, and then I come home and make Play-Doh and cookies.

CE: Tell me about your character, Lyndsey, and her relationship with Alan, played by Jon Cryer.

CTS: I said to somebody the other day who was asking me about Alan and Lyndsey, “I love their relationship so much because of their honesty.” They are two people who look at each other and say, “Seriously, we’re just not going to do any better.” They’re settling, and I just love the honesty. They’ve said it to each other several times: “Really? Do we have options? We’ll just stay together. Why not?” That just makes me laugh.

I also love the scene earlier in the season when Lyndsey is dating a younger man but decides she wants to be with Alan. She tells him: “I want to be with you because you’ll never leave me for a younger woman because you can’t get one.” But it was said with this joy and this love. How great is it? We don’t have any options, so let’s just be together.

CE: How did you feel about coming onto this established hit sitcom? Were you anxious, excited, scared?

CTS: Oh, terrified. When I signed on, it was only for two episodes. But I’ve known Jon for a long time, and I’ve been a fan of his too — he’s just the greatest guy. I thought, worst-case scenario, I get to watch Jon do his magic for a few weeks and then go on with my life. But I’m still on — and I’m lucky because I get to go in and work, and then I get to come home and be a mom. It’s been the most surprisingly wonderful career opportunity I’ve ever had.

CE: How was the transition from Charlie Sheen to Ashton Kutcher?

CTS: It was surprisingly smooth. Everybody wondered, “What’s going to happen?” The writers wrote a really good character for Ashton that he just stepped right into. The cast, crew and writers are all so solid that all they had to do was add another character to the mix. People miss Charlie as a person because he’s wonderful and funny and smart and sweet, but they got Ashton, so it’s a win/win. All the people here are such extraordinary pros that it was pretty seamless.

Live Chat with Roger Howarth

Fans of ABC’s hit drama “General Hospital” will be able to submit questions and receive real-time responses from Emmy winner and Fan Favorite Roger Howarth (Todd Manning), who will be up on Twitter at @generalhospital, during the East Coast broadcast of the show on WEDNESDAY, MAY 9 from 3:00-4:00 p.m., ET.  This event kicks off General Hospital live twitter chats with cast members throughout the month of May.  In the episode tomorrow, Todd returns to Port Charles to help his daughter Starr.