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Soap updates | 13 TV Media Weekly | December 8 - 14, 2012 Soap Updates Hollywood Q&A By Adam Thomlison TV Media Kelly Sullivan stars as Kate/Connie in "General Hospital" By Andrew Sawyer TV Media For the week of Dec.3 - 7 The Bold and the Beautiful Taylor reminds Thomas that his inheritance from Stephanie means he doesn't need permission to make changes to Forrester Creations.After secretly conspiring against Thomas,Eric and Rick get an ultimatum from him about their places within the company.Caroline threatens to expose Bill's meddling to Liam and Hope,but Bill stops her and she encourages Hope not to give up instead. Brooke is placed in a difficult position when she is forced to take sides,and she shocks Caroline and Rick by defending Bill's actions.Meanwhile,Steffy steers the conversation to personal matters after calling Hope in for a meeting.Hope later confesses her love to Liam and that she wants him back, but he claims he's already moved on.Brooke tries to deal with the meaning of a vivid dream she can't shake. Days of Our Lives Still suspicious of her intentions with John,Marlena spies out Kristen's hotel room and is shocked to discover her in bed with Brady.Kristen spots her and later confronts her as to whether she'll tell John,but Marlena claims it's not her place.Maggie urges a disappointed Daniel to get away from his troubles at Smith Island,but both Jennifer and Nicole follow him.Daniel diagnoses Jennifer with appendicitis after she collapses in front of him during an argument.Meanwhile,Eric tries to explain to his sister why he became a priest, and he reminds Sami of her own past sins when she gives him a hard time about hiring Nicole.A conflicted Will agrees to let everyone think Nick is the father of Gabi's baby.Abigail lets Cameron think she's moved on,but she confides her true feelings to Maxine. General Hospital Spinelli has an extreme reaction when he finds out Maxie has decided to be a surrogate for Dante and Lulu.Felicia and Maxie get into an argument,while Olivia has a vision that disturbs Lulu.Blair returns to Port Charles and strikes an alliance with Tea and Skye. Carly is having trouble dealing with the men in her life, but later seeks out Todd for comfort.Robert worries that it might be too late to help Anna,while her bold move pays off and she makes a shocking discovery. Meanwhile,Connie insists she doesn't know anything about Molly's missing manuscript.AJ gets wise to Tracy's plot,and Todd warns Johnny to keep away from his daughter.Patrick wants to accompany Sabrina when she asks Todd to underwrite this year's Nurses' Ball. The Young and the Restless Chelsea accuses Adam of emotionally cheating and claims it's worse when he denies having an affair with Sharon.Sharon thanks Adam for his help but urges him to devote his energy to his wife and the two say goodbye.Billy vows he will never give up on their marriage when he tries to get Victoria to open up about her kidnapping.Meanwhile,Summer tears into Nick and Phyllis for not keeping the family together.Leslie shares her concerns with Neil about working with him at Jabot due to their history.Victor gives Adam information on Jack's pain pills for use in trying to reclaim the company,but Phyllis catches him with it and he covers by telling her she's just paranoid.Victor and Nikki invite friends and family to their new penthouse for a celebration and are stunned when Sharon arrives unannounced. Q:Are we going to see "The Firm" again this winter? We haven't heard anything about it. A:The answer is no,unfortunately.After getting a full,22episode first season (though it was exiled to the Siberia of Saturday nights just a few weeks in), NBC canceled the series. Many were surprised,as a TV version of a smash-hit book that had already been adapted into a smash-hit film seemed like a lock. Even John Grisham,the publishing money machine who wrote the original novel,was on board, saying in an interview with Poptimal.com that "I'm convinced the show is going to be a success." However,critics,and apparently most viewers,weren't so sure. "USA Today" called the series "legally bland." The premiere had weak ratings, and for the most part the numbers only went down.NBC did air all 22 episodes,but it did so in the summer,on Saturdays,and so it could be that the network just had little else to put on.Fall shows with better numbers are frequently canceled early and never seen again. And yet the show had promise. Indeed,"Forbes" magazine ran a story about the show under the headline "Why NBC's 'The Firm' Won't Get Canceled" (the magazine is,of course,now eating its words).The article was describing how all 22 episodes of the show were purchased up front (another reason why all 22 saw air). "The Firm" was made under a new production model,the article said,in which the risk for making new shows is more evenly spread between independent production companies and TV networks,and the producers put more effort into making the shows sellable internationally. It also showed a more traditional sort of promise,in the form of a handsome and popular leading man.Josh Lucas,who played lawyer Mitch McDeere (the role played by Tom Cruise in the 1993 film version),is an established film star who had the male lead in the 2002 romcom "Sweet Home Alabama,"and played Charles Lindbergh in the 2011 Clint Eastwooddirected biopic "J.Edgar." Q: How historically accurate is 2003's "Timeline" (the one with Gerard Butler, Paul Walker and Billy Connelly)? A:With a premise involving time travel,teleportation and modern-day U.S.marines taking on medieval French knights,a surprising amount of real-world research went into the 2003 sci-fi adventure "Timeline,"says Michael Crichton,who wrote the book on which it was based. "When I started,I didn't have much background in medieval European history (to put it mildly)," he said in an interview on the website of his publisher,Random House."And fiction demands detailed,rather mundane information of the kind that isn't found in most history books." That's information such as "daily routines,food,clothing,"he says,not like what would happen if you threw a grenade at an armored horseman (though that does appear as a concern in the book). That said,the author of such equally complicated fantasies as "Jurassic Park"and "The Andromeda Strain"said that his books aren't intended as history or science lessons. "The stories usually require some background information,so I explain the background,to make the story understandable.That's all." As for the film itself,in some cases accuracy had to be sacrificed for the budget.Most notably, none of the film was shot in France (medieval or otherwise). The only true location they used was the desert in Nevada.Otherwise,historical landmarks in Quebec and the ancient Czech city of Prague had to serve as stand-ins. Q: Can you tell me the name of the Christmas TV movie Katharine Hepburn starred in back in the '90s, and if it's available on DVD? A:Yes,and yes. Film legend Katharine Hepburn played Cornelia Beaumont,a curmudgeonly New Orleans aristocrat whose unmarried niece falls for a con man (played by Henry Winkler) in the 1994 telefilm "One Christmas."As a matter of fact,the relationship between Winkler's con man and his estranged young son was actually the core of the film — Hepburn had relatively few scenes. That's understandable,since the actress was 87 years old at the time and suffering from Parkinson's.Indeed,"One Christmas" was her final film — she died nine years later,in 2003. The film was first released on DVD later that year.I say "first" because it was reissued six years later,and again in 2011,in a twodisc set with the 1997 telefilm "A Christmas Memory." The link between the two films is that both were based on stories by famed literary figure Truman Capote. In fact,both are said to be autobiographical tales of the author's childhood (Winkler's character,then,represented Capote's father),and so "A Christmas Memory"can be considered a sequel of sorts to "One Christmas." Those two stories were bundled together with another holiday tale,"The Thanksgiving Visitor,"in a book from Modern Library publishing in 1996. Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town.

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