Salutations, Soap-Boxers! Well, I know that when it comes to painful, stare-at-the-wall acting; clothes that Cher would dismiss as too extravagant; and a bunch of people who count Botox as an essential vitamin and never seem to do any work at the oddly-empty, massive fashion corporations they own (unless having angst-filled conversations with someone standing behind your right shoulder counts as work), that a lot of you get your fix at the corner of Hollywood and Whine with THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL.
But those of you who haven’t been to Genoa City since Cricket (Laura-Lee Bell) finally started living up to her name by growing an extra pair of limbs and antennae and eating wallpaper paste, should certainly contemplate a return visit. We’re talking undead gay body-snatching and baby-swapping, secret gay affairs, temper tantrums over sexual preference and an unwilling face transplant – and that’s just what’s happening *off* the set of THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS (Mondays, Foxtel W Network- Midday).
I don’t have much time for soaps (unless they have the words ‘Cove’ or ‘Lair’ in the title and are set on a island with a serious witch/vampire/shirtless hot young guy infestation on it). Most of the time, I have a serious soap aversion (not in the same way that Amy Winehouse does, mind you – I like washing!). If I wanted to see a ferocious septuagenarian matriarch with hair only marginally higher than her shoulder pads screaming at her daughters-in law for sleeping with her husband’s step-daughter’s pool-boy’s uncle’s Chihuahua, I’d just read the Old Testament like a normal person.
There was a time, however, when I gave Soapies a whirl. A friend of mine got me hooked on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS in the late 80’s due to there being ‘a guy I’d like’ on it. Said guy was actor Thom Beirdz, who played Phillip Chancellor III on Y&R and who was indeed just my type. I watched it for a year or two (the damn things are a harder monkey to get off your back than smack and Pringles combined, once they sink their claws in) until Phillip got killed off by the show in a car wreck and I could suddenly leave the house in the afternoons again.
A few years ago, I heard that the actor Thom Bierdz had come out, and though I was chuffed that my crush on him would have been reciprocated… had he been aware of my existence and had I been approximately 13,000 kilometres to the North… the information didn’t really make a huge blip on my soapie-free mind.
However, something very odd has happened across the entire daytime Soap Opera Multiverse this past year or so. Daytime Soaps, seemingly all at once, have suddenly *discovered that Homosexuals exist*. And that we are dynamite for the ratings. The balls…er, ball started rolling on AS THE WORLD TURNS, which introduced the very cute Luke and his sweet boyfriend Noah, who actually got to kiss and have love scenes on the show just like any other people. Numerous Soaps immediately jumped on the bandwagon, and THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS was one of them…
Firstly, in January 2009, they introduced Rafe Torres (Yani Gellman) a lawyer for the Newman family. (Y&R factoid – Everyone on the show is from one of three families – the Newmans, Abbotts and Chancellors, and they’re all bonking each other behind each other’s backs. Seriously, Genoa City must have a sizeable population of inbreed mutants living in its sewer system…) When Rafe Torres helps Ashley Abbott get her child back after a kidnapping, Ashley sets the handsome lawyer up on a date with a female friend, and oops! Rafe comes out as the first gay character in THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS’ 36 year history.
Next, they brought back my boy, gay actor Thom Bierdz, as Phillip for the first time since 1989. (Dude still looks *fine*, twenty years on) Seems that he wasn’t killed in the car crash after all- he felt trapped in a lie by his overbearing family and on the eve of a marriage to his pregnant fiancé, faked his own death and fled to Australia and a new life of being openly gay. Phillip returned to the show in April and is now the second openly gay character on the show (and, at the moment, the only openly gay actor in the show in real life).
And just last month, villainous Adam Newman, who has been busy causing miscarriages in his girlfriends and embezzling funds from various charitable organizations, (based on his level of cartoon villainy, I’m surprised he hasn’t attempted dropping ACME products on roadrunners yet), seduced Rafe (not onscreen- we see them dressing in the bedroom afterwards) to stop him from getting wind of Adam’s nefarious schemes. The character of Adam has previously been heterosexual, so this marks arguably the first bisexual character on Y&R.
Some controversy greeted amoral Adam’s same-sex songfest. Original Adam Newman actor Chris Engen had a homophobic hissy fit, refused to film a same sex kiss and demanded his character be de-gayed. Producers responded by firing his ass (hah!) and recasting the role. (Engen later claimed that he was not homophobic at all, that he had (everybody) ‘a lot of friends who are gay’). Regardless, Adam is now played by Michael Muhney (from the awesome horror flick NO MAN’S LAND aka RISE OF THE REEKER) who is not only a much better actor, but looks so eerily similar to Gay TORCHWOOD actor John Barrowman that Y&R would be advised to cast Barrowman as Adam’s good (or even more evil) twin who can show up and blackmail/impersonate/marry/impregnate Adam during the Summer sweeps period!
High hair, high drama, and hot gay guys causing mischief on screen and off – even if you’re not Young, you need to get Restless!
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