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Today’s Specials at The Dusty Rose Cafe
Coffee: Black Velvet Cognac Flavored
Tea: English Breakfast
Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Chicken, Brie and Alfalfa Sprout Sandwich
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

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Lucrezia’s memorial was surprisingly uneventful. Marco talked it over with Vincenzo and decided to push the small ceremony forward without waiting for Lucrezia’s mother. Marco was still fuming about the conversation he’d had with Lucia, angry over her threats to sue Perla for an accident that was deemed entirely out of her control.

At the time of her death, Lucrezia had been in possession of identification belonging to the missing Belize woman, Camila Agota. This made it impossible to simply bury her remains here in the U.S. or even send her home to Italy. The authorities in Belize were willing to investigate the claims of Lucrezia’s false identity but in order to do so they wanted her body to be shipped back to their country for DNA testing.

Trey had called and outlined the whole situation for us a few nights ago. We were saddened to hear that it needed to happen this way but we had no say in the matter. Once Lucrezia’s remains arrived in Belize, they would perform the DNA testing against samples from Camila Agota’s parents to either prove or disprove a match. We all knew what the outcome was going to be but in order to make things official, we needed to go through the motions just the same.

During the conversation Trey told Marco that the FBI planned to contact Lucrezia’s family, her mother Lucia more specifically, but given the unusual circumstances he offered to let Marco or Vincenzo inform her of the cases’s status. Marco instantly refused, saying he wanted nothing to do with the Raghatti’s. As far as he was concerned, the matter had turned completely official. He wanted no part of communication with that part of the family.

Vincenzo didn’t care either way. He was convinced that during her conversation with Marco, Lucia had been speaking out of grief. Although he believed his brother, he had a difficult time believing that Lucrezia’s mother would have been more concerned with money than dealing with the death of her oldest child, for the second time.

Marco was incensed by this, convinced that had Vincenzo been on the receiving end of Lucia’s tirade, he would have completely lost it.

But that was the way it always was…Vincenzo was the cool one…Marco was the hot-tempered Italian.

So back to Lucrezia’s memorial. The attendance list consisted of me, Vincenzo, Marco, Perla, Paolo and his nurse, my parents, Jess, Marjorie, Jillian and my siblings. I was touched by my family’s attendance but I wasn’t surprised. Whenever times were rough everyone always manages to gather together.

The memorial itself consisted of a small mass at a local Catholic church. It was private and held in one of the church’s small enclosed chapels. The attending priest gave a beautiful sermon next to a tasteful framed head shot of Lucrezia. When I asked Marco where the picture had come from, with a roll of his eyes he confessed he pulled it from a photo album on her Facebook page. Good grief.

After the small ceremony, Vincenzo invited everyone to Seven for a late lunch. Surprisingly, everyone agreed to go. It was the respectful thing to do but I think my family was also a little curious about Vincenzo’s recent restaurant acquisition.

They weren’t disappointed. Vincenzo had ordered a lovely luncheon consisting of appetizers, three courses, drinks and dessert. Not your typical “mercy dinner” but rather highly enjoyable. Perla needed constant attention which everyone was happy to bestow. The accident had left the older woman with visible scars. She was no where near one-hundred percent recuperated and the more I watched her the more I realized that she’d probably never fully be her old self again. Vincenzo and Marco were doting sons and in that respect nothing had really changed. But there was a maturity about them both that I was witnessing before my own eyes.

The two brothers had gone through so many changes and transformations in the past year. Over dessert I glanced over at Marco who met my gaze with a wink. I suddenly flashed back to the moment he arrived at my house one year ago, spoiled ‘wife’ in tow, ready to make fast deals and quick money…ever the smooth-talker. Now when I looked at him I saw a man who had been through a lot and seen a portion of humanity that most of us would probably never have to endure and he was wiser and more compassionate for it.

As for Vincenzo, he was turning out to be one of the strongest male figures I’d ever known. He, too, had gone from carefree playboy to someone who’d been dragged through the mud and come out clean on the other side. I looked over at him, across his dinner table in his restaurant, and saw the gentle way in which he cared for his parents. Paolo may still be the official patriarch of the Romani family but Vincenzo was the head of it. Rightfully so.

After dinner we all went our separate ways. Kelly and Caroline were holding down the fort so I didn’t have to worry about going into the Rose that day. Marco and Vincenzo were going to take Perla and follow Paolo and his nurse back to his rehabilitation hospital - the one we hoped he’d be released from soon. The family agreed that it was time to give him a chance to convalesce at home, especially with the slow but sure return of warmer weather and sunnier skies.

I said my goodbyes and told them I’d see them at home later. When Vincenzo hugged me he lingered a bit, telling me how much he appreciated the show of support from my family. Then he looked at me intently and corrected himself…our family. His smile gave me shivers - something I hadn’t felt in a while.

I stopped at a CVS on the way home, tossing magazines, random cosmetics and lotions and whatever else that struck me into my small shopping basket. I rolled down my windows and breathed in the fresh air, letting it fill my lungs and my heart with a promise of spring.

As I drove down my street, my house came into focus but what I saw on my porch was not at all familiar. I squinted, approaching my driveway slowly.

I pulled my car into the drive but did not open the garage. There before me sat two women…one middle-aged and one appearing to be about eighteen or nineteen.

“Who are you?” the older woman yelled to me as I stepped out of my car.

“Who are you?” I retorted. “Is there something I can help you with?”

The woman stood up and smoothed out her skirt. “I’m Lucia Raghatti,” she said with a heavy accent. “I’m looking for my cousins, Marco and Vincenzo. Do I have the right house?”

Until next time…

Speaking Tuesday at the Credit Suisse Global Media & Communications Convergence Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., CEO Les Moonves said he wouldn’t hesitate to yank the network signal from an affiliate if it didn’t play ball on sharing retransmission consent fee revenue.

Moonvest said CBS did that in Jacksonville, Fla., four or five years ago when the station said they ought to be paid by CBS. “We ended the affiliate agreement, and they went from the No. 1 to the No. 5 station,” he said. “There are alternatives. I worked hard to make CBS the number one network. The affiliates are sharing the $600 million NFL. I need something back for that.”

Read the full article for more Moonves gems at B&C.

In Part One of our interview with Michael O’ Leary, the longtime GUIDING LIGHT actor shared his motivation to bring about STEAMBOAT The Series, and revealed how he been able to channel his insecurities and creative energies into this project.  In this part he shares more about the harsh realities in the entertainment industries, and the changing landscape of media.  Plus who is Kim Zimmer’s character based on? Read below to find out!
 
We Love Soaps:  Of course viewers are watching thinking, “How much of this is based on his real experience?” I mean you have budget cuts, green screens, awkward product placements.  So how much of this was based on your real life experience of working at GUIDING LIGHT?
Michael O’ Leary: The budget cut thing was definitely part of my GUIDING LIGHT experience.  But budget cuts are applicable to everyone.  I don’t know if there is anyone who hasn’t gone through budget cuts.  I don’t care who you are, where you are.  Unless you are an undertaker or an accountant, you have to deal with budget cuts.  And the real part of it was that fear of asking, “What’s next?” My experience with GUIDING LIGHT and the entertainment industry is that everything is changing.  We don’t know what’s going to happen with network television.

I sat down with Morley Safer of 60 MINUTES.  Even they don’t know what’s next.  What’s happening to the evening news?  Nobody is watching it anymore.  Nobody is sitting down and watching network television unless it’s SURVIVOR.  Who is sitting down at 7pm to watch a scheduled show? Not many people are doing that.  The internet changed that because you can watch that whenever you want to watch it.  You can TiVo it.  The old model of a 30 minute show, that you watch 3-4 commercials, that is all changing.  Everything is moving to the internet.  We’re in an in-between stage like radio was with television came around in the 1950’s.  This is where the excitement and innovation is.  Here you can take some chances.  And you may fail.  We may end up saying, “Okay nothing happened, but we gave it shot.” 

We Love Soaps:  It is a new terrain.  I see you and Martha Byrne on GOTHAM and Crystal Chappell on VENICE as pioneers in this new landscape and I admire that.  We have seen you on GUIDING LIGHT for many years participate as a member of an ensemble.  Now I see you taking an active leadership role in presenting your creativity. 
Michael O’ Leary: Each one of us is taking what are sensibilities are and trying to make it into a different format, with no money.  But the only place you can do that is the internet.  If you’re looking for a network to say yes to you, hell will freeze over.  This is the great thing about the internet.  At least it gives you the forum and opportunity to get your ideas out there.  For Martha and Crystal and I, at least you want to get the shot at bat. 

We Love Soaps:  Let’s talk about Kim Zimmer’s role as the Executive Producer on STEAMBOAT.  Fans can’t help but speculate who this is based on.  Is there anything you want to say about that?
Michael O’ Leary: Of course I think of all the Executive Producers I’ve worked for.  Originally I wanted the Exec to be a man.  But Kim lives three blocks from me, and I thought, “Okay, I’ll make him a her.” Kim does not at all resemble Ellen Wheeler in any shape or form.  There was Gail Kobe, who was my first Exec.  There was Jill Farren-Phelps, Paul Rauch, and Michael Laibson.  I can’t say of all these Execs that she resembles anyone in particular.  All I wanted was a real top female who, as she says, has bigger balls than anyone else on the show.  The men are a bit afraid of her. 

And this is another underpinning of the show, where are men in this new model? You’ve got women who are the breadwinners, and I think many men are lost.  So I wanted a female in a position of power, who is smart, who is trying to protect her own interest but at the same time keep the show on the air.  You have these men underneath her thinking, “What do I have to do? Where do I go?” If you really look at soaps today, who are the stars? You can arguably say that Eric Braeden is the largest star on soaps, but really it’s the women who are the divas, it’s the women who women want to watch.  The men are facilitators for the women’s story.  The biggest stars in daytime I’d say are Kim Zimmer, Susan Lucci, Erika Slezak.  So on STEAMBOAT you have men trying to keep their jobs, working under women who are smarter than they are, and their employment and their life depends on it.

We Love Soaps:  Why the name “STEAMBOAT”?
Michael O’ Leary: Originally I thought of “Studio 27” but that name never stuck.  Then I thought of this slow moving methodical boat.  When I thought of “Steamboat” I thought of KNOT’S LANDING for some reason.  I thought of something with an old time 1970’s feel to it.  It’s a bit dated and corny, kind of like LOVE BOAT. 

We Love Soaps:  You shot these five episodes.  What happens next?
Michael O’ Leary: For lack of a better way to say it, we are out of money.  So we’re hoping that we get some banner advertising.  We need marketing dollars to keep it going.  We have some strong cable leads, but nobody can look through the looking glass and see what’s next.  We just want to be able to shoot some more shows come April 1st.  I’ve got some great stories to tell, but we need to be able to pay the actors and the crew and keep it going.  That’s what Crystal and Martha and what we all want.  I’d love to get six months under my belt so we can sell something.

We Love Soaps:  Crystal has seemed to have found that merchandising is a great way to get financial support.
Michael O’ Leary: We don’t want to charge people for the show.  That’s something Scott [Bryce] agree on.  We want people to see it without having to pay.  Today I have heard from some source that you need 1.5 million hits, per day, for advertisers to get their brand behind it.  I’m thinking. 1.5 million? That’s more than the numbers of who watched GUIDING LIGHT on the network.  There’s no internet show that delivers 1.5 million hits a day.  If anyone else out there knows anything about this, I would love to hear from them.  If anybody has any insights, I appreciate anyone’s feedback.  We’re looking for people that might have insights in this area.  You always feel like the clock is ticking.  Scott doesn’t necessarily feel the same way I do about that.  But I feel you have a certain amount of time called momentum, and that while the show is airing you have momentum. When it’s over it’s over.  I just want to keep episodes on the air and keep doing it.  I feel that Scott’s not worried about that and God bless him because he’s a smarter guy than I am.  

We Love Soaps:  If you could go back to the beginning of this project and give yourself one piece of advice, what would that be?
Michael O’ Leary: I’d say, “Do your homework before you do it.” Meaning that if you want to go on the internet, do a lot of homework about what that entails and who the players are.  Research the brands, know what the brand marriages are.  Know how to get in contact with them.  Have your boots on the ground.  Build a good team around you.  You need 10-15 people, and you need to classify each job.  You need someone who is an expert in internet marketing, you need someone who is an expert in brand management.  You reach out to people and say, “We’re about to launch a new show.  If anyone has expertise in X,Y,Z, can you reach out to me?” That’s what I would do differently.

Damon L. Jacobs is a Marriage Family Therapist practicing in New York City, and the author of “Absolutely Should-less: The Secret to Living the Stress-Free Life You Deserve“. He is re-imagining a world without “shoulds” at www.shouldless.com.

Scott Clifton to exit ABC’s “One Life to Live.”

Daytime Confidential reported a rumor alert earlier about Scott Clifton being let go from ONE LIFE TO LIVE. Clifton confirmed the news on Twitter this afternoon: “Hey guys, just want to let you know the rumors are true: I killed JFK. (Oh, wait, the OTHER rumor? Yeah that’s true too. OLTL let me go.) Had a blast working on the show, with a KILLER conclusion. I really hope you guys keep watching ’cause I did some work I’m really proud of.” Clifton has played the role of Schuyler on ONE LIFE since January 2009.

Soap Opera Digest is also reporting that Austin Williams (Shane) has been taken off contract, but will remain with the show in a recurring capacity.

The 1st Annual Indie Soap Awards were held on February 1, 2010. CHICK’s multi-talented producer/director/writer/star Kai Soremekun won the award for Best Directing. In case you missed her memorable and creative acceptance speech, you can watch it below.

To catch up on the latest episodes of CHICK, including a brand new episode released on Monday, visit whoischick.com.

To read Damon L. Jacobs recent interview with the inspiring Kai Soremekun, you will find it in three parts here, here and here.

Here are the results from the We Love Soaps “Indie Soap of the Week” poll for the week of February 28-March 6, 2010. VENICE finished in the top spot again for the seventh straight week out of the eight indie soaps that aired one or more episodes last week. Check back on Saturday when this week’s polling begins.

Watch/listen to last week’s indie soaps:
- CHICK
- DIARY OF A SINGLE MOM
- GOTHAM
- PARTY GIRL PLUS ONE
- STEAMBOAT
- TABLE OF CHOICES
- THE LIKE US SHOW
- VENICE (subscription)

GOTHAM airs every other Monday night and since this is an off week, the show has released another “Just a Quickie” preview of next week’s episode. The episode will feature the debut of Matt Crane as Perry (looking great by the way). You can also catch a glimpse of designer Nicole Miller as well.

Soap fans like myself mark April 1, 2009 as one of the saddest days in soap history. Our beloved show GUIDING LIGHT was canceled after 72 years, and the future of soaps looked dim. Fortunately, creative forces like Michael O’ Leary have taken to the internet to tell new and different continuing stories that are amazing and pleasing fans across the world. I recently talked with O’ Leary to discuss the birth of STEAMBOAT and it’s future. What would lead him to create a show that would mock himself and his weight? Read below to find out.

We Love Soaps: I love what you have been doing with GUIDING LIGHT on the So Long Springfield tour, allowing the fans to have closure.
Michael O’ Leary: You hit the nail on the head. Closure is such a metaphor for everything. It allows us to say goodbye to our fans, which he hadn’t had a chance to do.

We Love Soaps: But I have learned how often times positive things can come out of events that we perceive as sad or negative. We can get often find new beginnings out of endings. Which is where STEAMBOAT comes in. Share with us how STEAMBOAT came about.
Michael O’ Leary: I had been thinking about this for three or four years. I actually wrote a movie version of this and I had done a [staged] reading of it. GUIDING LIGHT had a troop of actors that got together and started doing readings of plays. I thought this was an opportunity to have the cast read this project, which essentially an OFFICE version of Soapdish. I had it in movie form. One of the actors that was there was Michael Park. I thought Michael was off-the-charts funny. But come April, when I sent the script off to anyone, which ironically was when the show got canceled, Michael Park was on my radar. Once Michael Park said yes it opened up my writing. I realized I could satire this in the way I really wanted to. He is just hysterical. His chemistry with us was unexpected, and very exciting as a writer. I wanted to do a satire of a daytime soap, and aside from Soapdish that had not been done before.

We Love Soaps: I’m enjoying this a lot more than Soapdish. For me, Soapdishpoked fun at soaps, STEAMBOAT is poking fun with soaps, it feels more respectful.
Michael O’ Leary: There’s no mocking, it’s just poking fun at each other. It is completely self-effacing. I said to the actors, “Look, I make fun of myself more than anybody. You’ve got to have sense of humor about this because we’re really making fun of each other.”

We Love Soaps: There’s a lot of making fun of you, perhaps more than others. What was your motivation for having that in there?
Michael O’ Leary: A lot of what you see is what came together in the last couple of weeks. When Michael Park said yes, everything came together. And what came together was: two middle aged guys on a soap opera who are struggling and trying to find a way to make a living and hang on to their job. STEAMBOAT is a metaphor for life and this new economic model which asks, “How do we stay relevant and keep a roof over our head? How do we keep our jobs?” It’s this heightened sense of desperation, presented in a satirical way. My character is really the straight person in all this. Michael Park is playing Dirk, who never loses a minute of sleep, who thinks he’s going to have this job the rest of his life. He thinks he’s ten years younger than he really is. He’s living in a fantasy land. But by virtue of living in fantasy land, he never worries about anything. His world is falling apart, but he doesn’t see it. My character worries about everything, he is a realist.

We Love Soaps: Your character can see the writing on the wall.
Michael O’ Leary: He sees the writing on the wall and I’m working with this bipolar violent leading lady [Beth Chamberlain] who has a tendency to beat up her leading man. We have our first love scene, and I think somehow, someway, if I can just do this love scene, and have it click, then the audience will love me and the producers will love me. It’s about all these lies we tell ourselves and none of it is true. It’s that intuitive feeling that, “If I can just do this then my boss will love me and everything will be okay.” I call that “hope,” and you wake up in the morning saying, “I just hope everything is going to be better.”

I think this is why STEAMBOAT resonates with people. They like my character because he seems like a guy who is trying to do everything he can. He comes up short but they still like him. Part of the goal here is just to put that out to, to be vulnerable, and say we all have these things we feel insecure about. Even though my gut is not that big, it was my holiday gut. It has since gone away. I really wanted to let it all hang out. Oddly enough the response from the women has been overwhelming. I always think it’s tougher to be a woman than a man because there is this model of what women look like. Even for guys though, there is a model of what guys look like, and I’m not that guy. So I’m going to present what middle aged men think and have insecurities about: this is what we look like sitting on the couch on a Sunday watching the football game. I think we have moved up to #9 on YouTube most subscribed comedy channel.

We Love Soaps: I think it’s quite brave of you to put out your fears about your weight. It adds to the humanity of what’s happening in the show.
Michael O’ Leary: There is a lot of freedom in showing your vulnerabilities. There is a lot of freedom in saying you’re not perfect. I think our culture is so vanity oriented, and I would put myself in that category. I remember that as a 25-year-old actor on GUIDING LIGHT. That’s your bread and butter, that’s how you make your living. But at a certain point it doesn’t serve you. The question in our culture is, what is relevant now? What makes you viable? Is it hard work? Or something else? These are questions we are all asking each other. I’m hoping to bring all that in the format of this show.

We Love Soaps: You were talking about the search to feel viable in an industry based on appearance. How do you find that viability inside yourself?
Michael O’ Leary: For me, it is if someone laughs. I have always thought there is a clown stuck inside of me. When I started on GUIDING LIGHT years ago, Pam Long recognized that and let me exercise it. It’s not entirely suited for soap operas and daytime, but I wish it was more a part of daytime. There is a deep mine of talent from the soap community. But for reasons I do not entirely understand, the people who run shows are not entire comfortable with a couple with comedic sensibility. People want to laugh, and if you add that to the entertainment pie, then people watch knowing they’re going to get romance, melodrama, and laughter. I have always wanted to do something like this. I have to say, “Thank God for Scott Bryce,” because he made this happen for me.

We Love Soaps: How so?
Michael O’ Leary: He’s somebody who had the facility, the studio, the relationships with cameramen and sound people. He was able to make the shoot date possible. We needed someone who could direct it, produce it, and get it done, and he got it done. This is why I have to look at Twitter and Facebook and look at what Crystal Chappell has done with VENICE and say, “Wow, she understands the power of Twitter and Facebook.’” That’s how that whole show got done. You need a combination of word-of-mouth, but you also need someone who can say, “I believe in this, let’s get this done.” Scott did it.

We Love Soaps: I know you have been getting on Twitter now and using that to promote the show.
Michael O’ Leary: I’ve been trying to get up to speed on that. Every other night I go on, I tweet with the fans. I love that it’s so interactive, you get a sense of what the fans really like and don’t like. They’re really into this who Lactene girl thing. They are repeating the phrase, “It’s not just silky, it’s milky.” You are having repeat this silly phrase as part of a fictional product. I’m thinking that we may be onto the something, some way to make this show viable. You go the an advertiser and say, “Hey, the audience is into this whole product placement thing, isn’t that important to you guys?”

We Love Soaps: Is that the next step for STEAMBOAT, to get corporate sponsorship?
Michael O’ Leary: We’re not discounting anything. The wonderful thing about YouTube is that we have some people who have looked at it who are in a position of pitching us. We have some strong leads now, leads meaning people from the network who liked it and are going to talk to somebody. Our hope with YouTube is that we roll out these shows and that someone in a position to keep this going will give us the ad dollars we need to produce more shows.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Come back for Part Two where O’Leary discusses STEAMBOAT’s future, and finding success in the new world of web programming. Plus, what does the title mean? Who is Kim Zimmer really portraying in the show? Come back to find out! Until then, watch the entire series here.

Damon L. Jacobs is a Marriage Family Therapist practicing in New York City, and the author of “Absolutely Should-less: The Secret to Living the Stress-Free Life You Deserve“. He is re-imagining a world without “shoulds” at www.shouldless.com.

Soap Opera Digest is reporting that Arleen Sorkin, who appeared as DAYS OF OUR LIVES’s Calliope from 1984 to 1990, and made brief returns in 1992 and February, 2006, will be back in May for a short run. Sorkin received two Daytime Emmy nominations during her original DAYS run and won three Soap Opera Digest Awards.