By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Bradley Bell has been trying a bold soap experiment the last three quarters of a year on The Bold and Beautiful, featuring one storyline, the Hope-Liam-Steffy triangle, almost to the exclusion of most others. And he's been succeeding -- the ratings are still comparatively healthy. So I ask … [Read more...]
The Mega-successful, Classy World of Bill Bell
July 5, 2012 by 2 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passlacqua Hayman When I was a girl soap reporter, I called him "Mr. Bell" during interviews because of Bill Bell's exalted status in the soap industry. And Bill Bell (1927-2005) would just laugh and go ahead to speak about what one always talked to him about: the work. He was the only person I ever … [Read more...]
General Hospital: Cuddly but Problematic
June 13, 2012 by 7 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman With all the cancellations these past few years, this old soap enthusiast is thankful to have at least one soap to look forward to, and yes, cuddle up to in my afternoons. That soap is General Hospital, a doomed show I really want to see live on. I watch The biggest soap opera of all is … [Read more...]
Murder By Death: The End of OLTL
January 13, 2012 by 18 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix aka Connie Passalacqua Hayman I just finished watching the last episode of One Life to Live and I am feeling depressed and betrayed. Not by the last second gonzo surprise that Victor is alive, but by the show’s cancellation itself. Compared to soaps that were mostly played out (like Guiding Light and my once beloved All … [Read more...]
The Kardashians: A Soap
December 27, 2011 by 13 Comments
By Connie Passalacqua Hayman aka Marlena De Lacroix Soap starved, I have become obsessed with the Kardashians. Every day, I can't wait to see what's happening with the three sisters whose IQs combined don't top mine. But never mind that. Their lives are filled with romance, glamour, strum and drang, not to mention heavy make-up: things … [Read more...]
How Prospect Park Can Save Soaps
August 19, 2011 by 12 Comments
By Connie Passalacqua Hayman aka Marlena De Lacroix In the effort to salve our wounds this summer, the canceled All My Children and One Life to Live sacrificed an essential element of soap opera: believability. All these people back from the dead simultaneously! Dixie! Leo! Zack! How are we supposed to buy any kind of reality behind it? … [Read more...]
All About My Mother
April 27, 2009 by 42 Comments
By Connie Passalacqua Hayman (Marlena De Lacroix) My mother, Jeanne Passalacqua, passed away last Thursday, April 23, in Bronxville, N.Y from complications of Alzheimer's disease. She was 88. My mother had two great passions in life: entertainment and education. She became totally devoted to movies during her Lower East Side Depression … [Read more...]
David Selby as Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre
February 6, 2009 by 5 Comments
Attention Dark Shadows fans: David Selby, remembered fondly as the romantic heartthrob Quentin Collins on that long-running soap of yore, is playing Abraham Lincoln in a new play, The Heavens Are Hung In Black, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Selby has played Lincoln twice before. But this time, he says, is different: "This play goes … [Read more...]
