Don Diamont’s “Dollar” Bill Spencer Is Worth a Lot More Than a Buck

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Right now, The Bold and the Beautiful’s “Dollar” Bill Spencer is on top of the world:  He’s standing on a balcony in a hotel in Dubai about to marry the current love of his life, Brooke Logan.  He’s also the CEO of Spencer Publications.  But can Bill keep having it all? Of course he … [Read more...]

Soaps: Where Intelligent Women Still Rule

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Women are still the core of soap opera.  They are what the plots are about and they make the stories go.  An overwhelming number of women on soap operas are very intelligent, assertive and masters of their own fates.  Here’s a round-up of the most intelligent and sometimes devious women … [Read more...]

Daytime Emmy Nominations – Marlena Still Cares

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman     The Daytime Emmy nominations for 2014 have been announced. Do you care?  After all these years, Marlena still does. So let’s discuss: Best Actor:  Aside from Jason Thompson (Patrick, General Hospital) the other four nominees all come from The Young and the Restless:  Peter Bergman … [Read more...]

Disgraceful, Delightful and Disgusting: This Week’s Soap Events

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman From The Young and the Restless: This week Nick found out that a doppelganger for his dead daughter Cassie has been in town for months disgracefully spooking Sharon into getting shock treatments.  The look-alike (who doesn’t even have a name) admitted the sham and said that Victor had … [Read more...]

Ridge Forrester: Master of B&B’s Universe

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a.  Connie Passalacqua Hayman Every soap opera needs a leading man.   But perhaps because Ridge Forrester seems to have been at the center of most plots since The Bold and the Beautiful debuted more than 25 years ago, he seems more like a Master of the Universe than just a plain leading man. Born handsome and … [Read more...]

Are You Buying These Fanciful Plot Twists?

Bt Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman In their drive to create more and more entertaining soap opera, writers sometimes devise situations that are fanciful and, to put it bluntly, hard to believe.  After all, soap viewers will buy anything, right?  Wrong.  Recently, three soaps have come up with situations which Marlena … [Read more...]

The Ho-Hum, Overly Violent Carly Kidnapping Denouement

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman We’ve already said that General Hospital’s Heather-kidnapping-Carly plot was a big ho-hum. Heather tried to blame it on Franco, her son, who had previously tried to kill Heather, his mother. No surprise, the accusation went nowhere and the outcome was predictable: Carly, a central GH … [Read more...]

General Hospital: Robin’s Reason to Leave Is Unbelievable

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman One of the bad things about General Hospital  is that it grows so unbelievable at times.  For example, how many would-be killer psychos can one town have at a time?  Right now, we have four:  Heather, Dr. Obrecht, Franco and Ava. But unbelievably, the unbelievability gets worse: there … [Read more...]

All Hail Friday Cliffhangers!

By Marlena Delacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman One of the most important and unique of all daytime soap opera conventions is the Friday cliffhanger.   On Friday, at the end of a week’s worth of episodes, either a secret is exposed or something significant happens which creates big suspense, compelling the audience to want to tune in to … [Read more...]

B&B and GH: Real Love and Lackluster Crime in the Afternoon

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman For ages we’ve complained about the absence of romance -- real love -- in the afternoon.  Someone must have been listening because this week The Bold and the Beautiful gave us a mega dose of love scenes concluding in a real beauty: the carefully orchestrated “first time’ for Wyatt Fuller … [Read more...]