One of My Favorite Movies: 'Boys on the Side'

This will be my first post highlighting my long list of favorite movies. I'd thought I'd start with one I first encountered in the last year. Released in 1995, Boys on the Side stars Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore. Goldberg is an outspoken lesbian lounge singer, Parker is a neurotic real estate agent and Barrymore is a free spirit open to anything life has to throw at her. As you can probably tell, this is a movie about life; movies of which I have a HUGE soft spot for. My outlook on it is that life happens, whether or not we want it too, and there are little movies that portray this happening in an effective way. Boys on the Side nails that in every way. Not to mention it co-stars Matthew McConaughey as a police officer craftily named Abe Lincoln. 

Whoopi Goldberg, who happens to be one of my favorite actresses, definitely has those hilarious moments that we all know. But she also mixes in an effective blend of dramatic emotion that makes her character, Jane De Luca, seem loveable and hilarious. But Parker's character, Robin Nickerson, is that uptight woman who we all can sort of relate to in some way. She harbours a big secret that becomes a focal point of the storyline, and along the way she learns the importance of letting the little things go and opening up to living life to its fullest. Barrymore's character, Holly Pulchik (pool-chick), is a naive young women who just hops onto any ride that will take her someplace new. All these seemingly different women play out the different stages of life, together in a group, and you fall in love with all of them along the way. If you haven't already seen Boys on the Side, I strongly recommend it. You won't regret it.

First Impressions: Ray Wise debuts as Ian Ward on 'The Young and the Restless'

Last Thursday, veteran television actor made his debut on The Young and the Restless in the recurring role of Ian Ward, the former cult leader who impregnated Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) with Dylan McAvoy (Steve Burton). While the plot that revealed Dylan as Nikki's son was dreadful, it seems has though head writers Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante have a handle on things now. Ian first appeared as a surprise to Nikki, when she came home and he was there.

In just the few scenes we saw last week, Wise's eery portrayal of Ian completely won me over. He had just a few lines, but he totally has the feel of a hypnotizing psycho who brainwashes lost teenagers. Fans have been complaining for months that the writers at Y&R have no respect to the show's history. While making Dylan Nikki's son does seem completely stupid and forced, introducing Ian is finally playing out a part of a longtime character's history that was never fully explored.

Wise's introduction as Ian is certainly more interesting than the never-ending Carmine Basco murder saga, which doesn't seem to be drawing to a close anytime soon. Sigh. I don't wanna speak too soon, but I predict a great, creepy storyline ahead for us. Maybe Ian will take Fen Baldwin (Max Ehrich) or Summer Newman (Hunter King) under his wing and history will repeat itself? Catch The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS.

'The Carrie Diaries' continues to soar dealing with social issues

                             Austin Butler as Sebastian and Katie Findlay as Maggie

The Carrie Diaries has quickly become one of my favorite shows on television. The CW teen/period drama that is due to conclude its second season in the coming weeks sure has had a whirlwind of a season, dealing with several socially relevant storylines. First, Maggie (Katie Findlay) finds out she is pregnant by her casual sex partner Simon (Josh Salatin), who happens to be a cop employed by none other than Maggie's father the chief. He reveals he is engaged to the "love of his life" and refuses to give her any money for an abortion, leaving Maggie pregnant and alone. Sebastian (Austin Butler), who had been fighting rumors that he and Maggie had been dating, embraces her and agrees to help her. Not only that, he poses as the child's father to avoid scandal with her and Simon. He tries to get her to have the baby and put it up for adoption, but she falls ill with complications. She is rushed into surgery with her life on the line, survives but tragically loses the child. Carrie urges her to tell her parents about her affair with Simon, resulting in her father firing him. Simon then verbally attacks Maggie in school, leading to a fistfight with Sebastian that gets him expelled. The writing was impeccable, the performances were stellar, and the story addressed the social issue of teenage pregnancy in the 1980s in a very unique way.

Then, just a few weeks ago, the series tackled another socially relevant 1980s storyline. Walt (Brendan Dooling), who had recently come out of the closet as gay and is dating a man named Bennet (Jake Robinson), is terrified when Bennet gets word that his ex-boyfriend is dying of AIDS. He takes "the test" and urges Walt to do the same, throwing him and his friends, especially Carrie, into a tailspin. Walt thinks he is being punished for being gay, which is what a lot of gays thought during the 1980s AIDS breakout. The episode ended with both Bennet and Walt being clear of the disease, but the scare was equally dramatic and just as well written as the show's last storyline. I'm sending big koodos out to the writing team of this season of The Carrie Diaries (which happens to include Terri Minsky, creator of Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire), because these storylines and the rest of them were excellent. I'm hoping for much more to come! The Carrie Diaries airs Fridays at 8/7c on The CW.

Are the allegations against Michael Muhney true, or not?

If you're a soap fan on Twitter, you've most definitely heard about what's been going around about ex-The Young and the Restless star Michael Muhney, who shocked fans by announcing he had been abruptly fired from the CBS soap in December. No one was quite sure why he'd been fired, but even the actor admitted in an interview that he is a little too outgoing sometimes. Then, last week, celebrity gossip site TMZ shocked fans once again by revealing that Muhney was not in fact fired by bold executive producer Jill Farren Phelps, but by higher-ups at CBS Daytime after co-star Hunter King (who portrays Summer Newman) complained that he had "groped" her breasts on two separate occasions, and that the harassment was unwarranted. Of course, several fans including myself continue to question that the rumor is true, given that TMZ is all celebrity gossip. But just wait, we haven't even gotten to the most disgusting part of this saga.

Immediately after the news broke that Muhney reportedly groped King, crazed fans have been attacking King herself on Twitter! I've seen tweets completely bashing her for getting "their fave" fired, others that said she "probably deserved what she got" and, the one that takes the cake for me, is a tweet saying, "I wish Michael Muhney would've groped me. Girl should've just enjoyed it." I'm still speechless at that tweet. Myself and many others just don't know what to believe anymore. Several other stars of Y&R have been tweeting asking fans to stop attacking King, particularly Greg Rikaart (who portrays Kevin Fisher), who has been responding to tweets for days that promote King in a negative way. Just today when a fan bashed him, he asked her if she needed a hug, or "perhaps some lithium?" It's amazing that King's co-stars haven't kept silent on her attacks, but this to me just makes it seem that Muhney is 100% guilty.

Muhney, who was once a big Twitter fan, kept silent on the social media site following the announcement of his firing. But just this week, his silence was broken when he tweeted a quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see", followed by: "...and that quote doesn't only apply to what is being said about ME. It also applies to others. Please be kind to everyone. #respect". This, of course, doesn't mean that the rumors aren't true just because he tells us to believe none of what we hear. I really don't have an opinion anymore. At first I thought the rumors were completely bogus, then they looked more on the true side, and now there's so much hate and so many more rumors going around I don't know what to think anymore.

Not to mention website Highlight Hollywood writing an article about how TMZ reportedly got the Muhney rumor from none other than head of CBS Daytime Angelica McDaniel, whose husband supposedly works for TMZ. I for one definitely don't believe what Highlight Hollywood has to say, as they're just as bad as the crazed fans campaigning for Jill Farren Phelps to be fired as executive producer. As I said a few days ago, lord Jesus in the heavens. Soaps on the screens AND behind the screens! I'd like to conclude with a quote from Y&R star Joshua Morrow that he tweeted yesterday: "Twitter's not an anonymous complaint box. It's a box of "STAYS" - stay classy, stay reasonable, stay intelligent, stay nice = STAY INVOLVED :)". Words to live by right there, at least for some people. Catch The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS.