January 18, 1999
Non-Spoiler Articles

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Soap Opera Weekly

SPEAKING MY MIND

Let me share with you Ken Corday and Tom Langan’s latest effort to bury the first amendment. SOAP OPERA WEEKLY will no longer be covering Days of Our Lives in any official way. The show has cut off all contact with us: no information, no photos and zero cooperation with interviews. Ostensibly the reason for this radical move is that the duo feels the soap magazines don't help ratings. However, magazines that don't do any kind of criticism will still be granted official cooperation, so you figure it out. We were also told that Corday and Langan didn't like our “Best and Worst” issue, especially that we singled out the Hope/Gina story as Worst Storyline. I have my suspicions that your horrified responses to their letter expressing the opinion that the soap press should exist only to praise the shows had a great deal to do with their decisions to take their balls – and bats – and go home.

This, by the way, is not the first time Corday has tried to cut us off at the knees. We went for four months without covers or cooperation from the show several years ago when the exec felt we didn't give his show enough nominations on our Dream Ballot! We were gleefully informed by the then publicist for the show that we were being “punished” for our terrible affront. A highly professional and adult response, don't you agree? (The show’s current press representative behaved soberly and like a gentleman when relaying Corday’s decision. Also, NBC wasn't involved.) I didn't expose this situation at the time because, through a variety of sources, we were still able to do business, and I suspected that time would heal Corday’s wounds and we would be able to work with them again.

However, I am compelled to speak out this time. Anyway, you have a right to know what's going on, and, since our coverage will change, we have a right to tell you why. I assure you that, as we did during the last Days lockout, we will still be covering the show for our readers. We'll be getting our information from whatever sources we can. We will label all rumors as such. You will still see Hits and Applauses where they are warranted. You won't see many more Misses than under normal circumstances. We won't sink to a punitive level of journalism. However, we also won't be operating within the proscribed system of mutual cooperation as we do with the rest of daytime. We won't hold back information so that the mainstream press can get the exclusives they demand. We will reveal what we know as we see fit, not as the show sees fit. We will not, of course, be ruining storylines; this serves no one. If our photographs do not reflect current haircuts or cosmetic surgery, you'll understand why. But we will do our utmost to  represent the actors as fairly as we always have.

Let me point out that SPW is perhaps 90 percent positive. We agonize when expressing negative critical opinions – to which we sign our names and for which we take responsibility – and only do so when we feel it might benefit the show to see them. That is the function of legitimate criticism: to illuminate. How fortunate for daytime that nothing is absolute, that the shows are living, breathing organisms, so to speak, and nearly anything can be fixed. All serious art forms and entertainment are subject to a critical eye and ear. Why should soaps be any different?

Daytime drama deserves respect; it deserves a press that respects it be taking it seriously. Pandering to the shows by serving only as mindless cheerleaders does nothing to advance or help daytime. Who will listen to us when we praise a show’s virtues if we express no honest opinions to the contrary? Do you think Wendy Riche is thrilled that we have been critical of General Hospital and Port Charles of late? Certainly she is not. But she hasn't cut us off, and I hope she remembers that when GH was in top form (as it has been during most of her tenure), we were extravagant in our praise. Paul Rauch doesn't like criticism any better than anyone else, but did he cut us off because we've questioned certain things about the direction of Guiding Light? Of course not. It's a good show with a few glitches, some already in the process of being rectified. We shared our concerns because we care about what happens to GL – to all the soaps, including Days. We want happy fans. We want healthy soaps. Anyone with an objective eye can see that.

To Ken Corday and Tom Langan, I extend an olive branch. We want to work with you as we do with all the soaps. Just as we lauded the terrifically written, acted and produced story of Sami’s death-row drama week after week as it unfolded, we must be allowed to take exception to areas we feel let viewers down. We are fully aware that we serve at the pleasure of the industry we cover. But if we are to serve both our readers and this venerable industry with integrity – and self-respect – we cannot operate under the constant threat of excommunication. Soaps, fans and the soap press have grown up and are finally being taken seriously by the “outside” world. We can't, nor should we wish to, go back.

See you next WEEKLY, MIMI TORCHIN, Editor-in-Chief

Soap Opera Weekly

LAST WEEK

Nancy promised to tell Craig about Chloe’s paternity. John remembered kissing “Hope” on the submarine. Victor encouraged Kate to dance with Nicholas. Victor stood and toasted the new year. A drunken Nicole started a fight with Celeste. Bo and “Hope” were married. “Hope” held Shawn at gunpoint and forced him to jump from the Penthouse Grille terrace. “Hope” then shot Marlena, but was shot herself after she and Bo struggled for the gun. Philip vowed to be the only guy for Belle. Chloe was hurt when Mimi suggested she have a complete makeover. Belle found an unconscious Shawn on the ledge.

Soap Opera Weekly

PUBLIC OPINION - Size Doesn't Matter

Very deep gratitude is what I feel toward Days of Our Lives after watching the scene in which Nancy was hit by a car. The look of terror on Craig's face was such a heartfelt emotion that I truly felt deep sympathy for him.

The gratitude, however, is for the way Days has handled the whole Craig and Nancy storyline. It takes a lot of courage to have one of the most handsome leading men be involved with a  beautiful, full-figured woman. I applaud Days for showing people that full-figured women can be beautiful and intelligent. I just wish that more soap operas would take the cue. T.M. Nunn, Chickasha, OK

Soap Opera Weekly

LOOK TO THE YOUNG - By Marlena De Lacroix

I've developed a wonderful way to counter the blues. I look to the young! I find it amazing, interesting and incredibly soothing that over the past six months or so soaps have attracted the best crop of new performers in years. Then again, discovering performers in their first professional TV roles has always been one of the most thrilling  privileges of being a daytime soap viewer.

In going after a new teen audience, Days of Our Lives has made the heaviest investment in hiring a new crop of actors. I think the biggest star will be Nadia Bjorlin, who portrays Nancy's  daughter Chloe. (Why, oh, why is this name so popular on soaps now? Isn't Chloe on General Hospital enough?) Bjorlin’s Chloe has genuine depth – a quality quite uncommon to most of the teen characters created this year on Days and Passions. (Compare the intelligent, introspective Chloe to the grating Belle and her even more annoying sidekick, Mimi, on Days. Or to those saccharin packets Charity and Miguel on Passion.) Chloe is an opera singer, as is Bjorlin in real life. Could the creation of this character have been inspired by real-life teen sensation Charlotte Church, who sings like an angel?

Days has also ensured Chloe’s prominence through her connection to Nancy. How can we not absolutely love anyone who is so precious to our Patrika Darbo (Nancy)? The teary and  ever-genuine Darbo has just killed in the initial leg of this mother/daughter reunion story, and Bjorlin has already proved herself an interesting and watchable young actress indeed.

Soap Opera Weekly

WHO’S NEW - by Janet Di Lauro

NADIA BJORLIN – Days’ Chloe, Nancy's long-lost daughter

Is Days of Our Lives your first big break? “It was my very first audition. I just graduated from high school in New York, got an agent, and a week later I got this job.”

How did you celebrate getting your Days job? “I didn't have time to celebrate. I had a weekend to move out here. I celebrated by packing my bags.”

Singing was your entry into show business? “Yes. My parents – my mom, Fary, and my father, Ulf (a conductor and classical music composer, respectively), are well-known in Europe. We used to do this little ‘Von Trapp family’ thing. Since my brothers and sisters and I all played instruments and sang, my father used to bring us up onstage when he would recitals or smaller concerts. ‘Here are my children. Let them do something for you.’ We started becoming really popular. Eventually, I started studying classical music and opera.”

Did anybody at Days take you under their wing? “Patrika Darbo (Nancy) has been so sweet to me since the first moment we met. She told me a lot of little things, like how to get used to being on the set, how to know which camera is on you, etc. She also reminded me that the microphone is always on, so be careful what you say.”

Are you modeling Chloe after anyone? “She's a little bit of me, a little bit of what I've seen in high school of kids who get picked on. She's a bit of an outcast. Everybody's going to think that she's a big freak and a nerd, especially because she sings and likes opera.”

How would you describe Chloe? “She's a little bit of everything right now. You can't really tell what's going on inside her head. Obviously, she feels very scared, betrayed and hurt. So much has hit her at once.”

Your look on the show is different from the real you, isn't it? “They're playing me down. I wear fake eyeglasses. No makeup. They brush my eyebrows down so it looks like I don't pluck them. My hair is really ratty and frizzy. I won't be dressing like the other kids.”

Is it hard to be on TV this way? “It's kind of funny. At first it was like, ‘I don't want to look like this in front of the camera,’ especially since this is the first real thing I'm doing. I didn't want people's first impression of me to be, ‘Ewwww! Look what she looks like!’ “

What's your real look? “The complete opposite of Chloe. I don't think anyone would recognize me if they saw me on the street.”

Birthday: August 2

Birthplace: Newport, RI “My family moved back to Sweden when I was 2 months old. Then, when I was 7, we moved to Palm Beach, Fla.”

Marital Status: Single

Previous Credits: “I haven't done any television before Days, but I have been singing professionally since I was a child.”

Soap Opera Weekly

WINNERS & LOSERS

Winner - Susan Seaforth Hayes, for doing double duty on Sunset and Days in December. Hey, NBC: Cast her as Tabitha’s good sister on Passions.

Soap Opera Weekly

REAL NEWS – Should Cigarettes Be Regulated By The FDA?

Peter Reckell (Bo, Days): “I'm not one for people's rights being taken away. Even though I am so against smoking – I think its ridiculous and stupid, especially when smokers don't think about secondhand smoke and how it affects me and my health – I don't believe the choice should be taken away.”