St3phForrester

It was nice to hear Kristen & Felicia get a mention today. [ETA: ] Also, I wonder if we'll get to hear from Eric how he feels about Quinn now that her schemes and manipulations are coming to light, seeing as he was one of the few characters willing to sympathise with her early on in the piece. Will he say something about "I was told she was dangerous/crazy/untrustworthy but I didn't listen and now look what's happened" as everyone plays the blame game? Donna straight out warned him about Quinn all the way back at Thanksgiving; Quinn overheard and smoothed him over the next day with shiny monogrammed cufflinks. The shiniest of shiny things won't save her ass now. Gosh, thanks Kitty Redstone! I'll let you know. :) HA! You took the words right outta my mouth St3phForrester! Alarms were bursting in my brain when they did that close up of Eric reaching over to hold Katie's hand.See, you all know you're wrong for that! I was so trying not to go there and have those thoughts. If Ericatie is wrong, I don't want to be right. I don't know about other soaps but my impression is that it's the same across the genre - the male characters are simply archetypes for the female characters to play against. If one assumes that the majority of soap opera viewers are women, the idea is that having two polarising options in a love triangle (for example) gives the female character and by extension the female viewer a sense of power and agency in her life (see: the Hope/Liam/Wyatt triangle). Brooke can be (and is) seen as triumphantly conquering the might of a cocky arrogant prick like Bill Spencer/Ridge Forrester/Nick Marone/etc., a ploy that has similarities to but falls way short of the Byronic romance; Stephanie was a kick-ass-and-take-names kind of lady because her husband was so spineless and weak-minded (however, I'd like to point out that Eric was not initially a doormat during the first 3-4 years of Bold and was actually very determined to do his own thing regardless of what Stephanie/his family thought about it. His resolve weakened over time). As much as I would love to see a male character fleshed out a bit more, I imagine the fear there is that they would overshadow the female characters which will not do in the soap opera genre, and so TPTB won't go there. Shame. ETA: More spoilers for 6/16:

I admit I didn't watch all of this episode; I decided to practice guitar instead and only stopped to listen for the Eric/Katie scenes. You guys - he reached over and held her hand!!! They'll be married and divorced by the time they get to Abu Dhabi. I saw no tweets about a location shoot inside a whale, so I can say with some confidence that that won't happen. Me neither. I still don't understand why Brad Bell didn't orchestrate a fight scene for maximum impact on this one, it just seems like a no-brainer plot device. There are too many questions being asked here. Massimo doesn't deserve a call, he hasn't bothered to call or write Ridge or inquire about any of his grandkids in about 5 years. I don't care if Massimo has been MIA, and we don't really know if in the background there is a relationship between R/M, but he is still Ridge's bio dad, and should be told about his son. The last I read about Massimo (and Nick for that matter) was that no one knew where he was. The writers haven't forgotten about him because Brooke mentioned his name in the FC coup storyline recently. I imagine only Stephanie would have had his contact details and so probably took them to the grave with her; would Eric have kept her address books and other similar personal effects? I doubt it, but I'm happy to be proven wrong. Also, I would argue that there would be time wasted trying to get in contact with Massimo while the rescue effort is on - better to tell people who are present in his life right now, and then fill others in later when there are more details to save everybody worrying about it and creating a mess of incorrect information. But I agree that Eric should have been the first called, the fact that he is Ridge's father notwithstanding; I would have thought Brooke & Eric's close relationship would have meant that Brooke would confide in him first before the sister she's been warring with for the last eighteen months or so. But that's probably just my bias towards those characters and their relationship. ERIC: "Are you sure we're talking about the same guy, here?" KATIE: "He's a changed man!!!!!!!!!!!!" I agree, despite the mess she's in at the moment. I'm more interested in her approach to her own femininity, her own morality, and the way she conducts herself on a broad scale, in contrast to the other lead female characters (principally Brooke and Katie who are her contemporaries) and the comparison between her and Stephanie, especially in the light of what soap operas expect of their audiences versus what the audience expects from their soap opera. (I'm thinking about writing a paper on it.)

So Katie called Eric a gentleman today. Game on! (Oh, I'm joking. But I will always take glee in seeing characters' orbits collide like this, and especially with two of my favourite B&B actors.) Me too. The other thing about all this is that Ridge is impossible to root for (right now), so by default we as the viewer stand by Bill, but if Bill has now acted indecently in collaboration with Justin - it was Bill who gave the order to dump Ridge, after all - how can we support him? I'm sure it crossed Bill's mind that such a fall would at least injure Ridge if not outright kill him, so is his "We're doing all we can to rescue him" act just that - an act? What happened to this honesty that Brooke, Katie and Quinn were busy championing in the last few episodes/weeks? But as someone mentioned upthread, this is true to Bill's nature, taking advantage of a situation to suit his purposes, and in the battle of character growth vs character change, I'm quietly glad this is still part of him - as the introduction of Quinn has demonstrated, there needs to be someone who is able and willing to be the catalyst of drama. Which brings me to this point: This is where I would have liked to have seen Quinn interact with Brooke a bit more in the lead-up to this Quill revelation. They had two scenes at the introduction of the Fullers, once when Quinn went over to the Logan mansion to talk shop with Brooke about Hope, and then shortly after that when Brooke came to FC after the HFTF relaunch show, the one Eric barred her from attending because of the negative publicity Brill was drumming up. Other than that I don't think they've had any other scenes together apart from the recent FC board meetings when everyone turns up for no reason. How much more emotional impact would this selfie revelation have had if Brooke & Quinn were friends? Didn't Brooke & Sheila team up for a little while around the time of the BeLieF patent storyline? Hell, what about Stephanie & Lauren and the picture in the Good Book? And when it all turned to shit there was drama gold to be mined. Now, not so much. With Quinn as a friend of Brooke's, you have her develop into a sinister, emotionally-driven villain instead of the Machiavellian nuisance she is, and also have her more deeply involved in the front-burner story as opposed to simply "running interference" for Wyatt/Hope/Liam. But anyway, shoulda woulda coulda. God bless the Smelled a Fart School of Acting! And the comments on the YT page for this video make the experience even better.

Do I dare to dream?

I imagine it has to do with separating the character of Bill Spencer from Brad Carlton, as Don Diamont moved over to B&B relatively quickly after being pink-slipped from Y&R in 2009. Why it's so manscaped, though, I don't know - probably just due to it being grown at a time when metrosexuality was the in-thing, and now it's an identifier. I bet it's a pain in the ass to maintain.

Highlight of the day was Darin Brooks and his over-the-top British accent that came out of nowhere! Reminded me of Ian Buchanan for some reason. I feel this too. Action sequences are not soap opera's bread and butter but you would think in this day and age there would be easy ways to film this sort of thing without it being too time consuming or expensive. I did see KKL trip a little as TK dragged her along the sand; on one hand I feel she should have played it up and gone with it, but on the other she probably wanted to stay relatively bruise-free for the triathlon. Oh well. I would have liked to see Ridge hanging from the helicopter for a little while before falling into the sea, too, in true cliffhanger style, but again, oh well. It wasn't a completely terrible sequence though, just didn't live up to the hype of the promos for mine. Oh, and also, the lack of fight from Brooke was uninspiring. She even let Ridge buckle her up! C'mon now. Rena Sofer continues to play her scenes to perfection, even if Quinn as a character is starting to unravel. Forgive me for painting with a broad brush, but it would seem like the POC in Bell-A are jacks-of-all-trades. What's up with that? It begins...!

The wedding planner's name is Altaïr. Someone at CBS has been playing Assassin's Creed! And I'll admit to being suckered into the Kelly & Don Do Dubai show, even in the low-quality video I've seen of these episodes the place looks amazing. But did Eric say it takes a day and a half to travel from LA? Surely not - from Upside Down Land it's only a twelve-hour commercial flight. Wouldn't flying over the US, the Atlantic, and most of Europe be going the long way? Seriously, and his being stressed out over the situation with Brooke & Bill together played straight into Quinn's hand. I thought that scene between Rena Sofer & TK was well played, particularly from RS, you could see the cogs turning in Quinn's mind every time Ridge opened his mouth. And it's started off a chain of Chinese Whispers - Quinn manipulating not only Ridge into "dragging Brooke" away from Bill, but also manipulating what actually happened as discussed upthread (turning a ONS into an "affair"), and then Ridge relating that piece of information to Eric who will a) believe anything anyone tells him and b) has a vested interest in Brooke's well-being as a card-carrying member of the Bridge Club. This might be stating the obvious but I can't wait for tomorrow's show when Eric confronts Quinn over this. I did find it problematic that Ridge stated "Brooke is a Forrester / she belongs with Us" and Eric implicitly agreed with it; the socio-political environment regarding women's rights at the moment is highlighting all these comments about free agency (or lack thereof), especially when it comes to Brooke. I thought that was so funny! I was looking and then thinking, wait a minute, that's from Y&R! I guess Sony let them use it. They did the same with Heather Tom's Victoria footage from Y&R not all that long ago when she was reminiscing of her ugly duckling days. Come to think of it, I don't think there's anyone in the opening credits anymore that they can use a whole lot of original archival footage with, the exceptions of course being KKL & JMC (and they did that last year with the Palm Springs tent recreation) - everyone else has a new face. Speaking of bad films, have you seen Don Diamont in The Incredible Adventures of Marco Polo and His Journeys to the Ends of the Earth? I only watched the first half hour before giving up on it. I think it's meant to be a children's movie (or at least I hope so for it's sake). Beverly Hills Cowgirl Blues is another stinker not even James Brolin could save - JMC is in that playing a plastic surgeon. There's a goldmine of terrible movies in the filmographies of our favourite soap stars if you're willing to dig deep enough. Oh! I forgot to post some spoilers for 6/9:

Aww you guys! That Eric & Ridge father-son moment at the end there, well I just melted. I love JMC & TK together and I wish they had more scenes. Couldn't help but feel a little sad though as Eric left the office, and that look they gave each other, it was almost like that would be the last time they would ever see each other. Maybe it's just me living in fear that it'll be the last time JMC's ever on screen. It's always interesting to me whenever Ridge & Eric talk about the Bridge relationship given that troubled history between the three of them; when he says things like "your relationships with other people are only temporary" my mind goes straight to all that drama they went through in the early 90s and how hurt Eric was when Brooke left him for Ridge. The other thing that caught my attention was when Eric said he was no fan of Bill's, which we know anyway, but I wonder what their interaction would be like? The last time they were in a room together was at Thanksgiving last year, and Stephanie's farewell party, and I think a Christmas before that when the Logan sisters burnt the turkey? But they didn't speak to one another; before that it was the takeover of FC by Spencer and Donna's involvement with the CatWalk when the interaction was appropriately terse. What about now? Alas; this may only be fanfiction material, and I ain't wading in that particular pool for love or money. Collinwood, that is a great idea. You could even kill two birds with one stone by having a corporate Forrester Creations plot and a surprise Brill wedding plot at the same time - Brooke & Ridge fly over as co-VPs to open the new boutique, Bill hot on their heels, etc... And good point re: Brooke being Bill's "latest acquisition" - the way that man likes to mark his territory by drowning his women in jewellery! Reminds me of something Heather Tom said about Bill buying Katie so much stuff she wouldn't be able to move underneath it all. Re: those spoilers, RuntheTable: My money's on It wasn't so bad in Shark Attack 2 but it was there, and that was 2001 (?).

It's true. KKL was invited to compete in the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon in March and when she asked CBS for vacation time to do it they decided to follow her over there for a story. From memory they were only there for about a week or so. How she had the energy to work on B&B and compete in a triathlon at the same time is beyond me.

Eric's brother John was first mentioned around 1994 (?) when Eric's niece Jessica all of a sudden turned up on the doorstop of the Forrester Mansion that summer, and quickly got herself involved with an older college boy which the Forresters later took to court on statutory rape charges. I don't know if John was ever mentioned to be older or younger than Eric but I always assumed he was younger because he was supposedly spontaneous and irresponsible. His wife Maggie came to LA later on and was Stephanie's housemaid for a little while, and eventually married James Warwick IIRC. The character has never been played on-screen by anyone, and I hope they don't ever cast him because it'll ruin my idea of John Forrester actually being John McCook and that giving Eric a brother named John is just a big B&B in-joke.

Casting News: Australian actress Ashleigh Brewer cast as Ivy Forrester Spoiler tags just in case: NuSteffy?

LG did an interview recently with Soap Opera Network and mentioned that everyone's reels were about dead babies and it made her doubt her choice - but I don't think she really had anything else to submit because Caroline didn't have a meaty story last year, and in any event her character is more comedic and light-hearted anyway. The Daytime awards don't seem to be split like other awards are so I guess performers can submit whatever is their strongest material. I like this too: I love Don Diamont.

Interesting comments from Quinn today about sexual/gender politics, particularly when she said she "despises herself" for "wanting to be wanted" and that her desires overcome her "like an illness" - I wonder where that comes from. Obviously she's not so shy that she doesn't pursue sexual relationships (or encounters? Not sure what the best word is here), and up until now her character has been presented to us as a woman who isn't ashamed of doing so; she often says things along the lines of "I'm just here for the sex" when referring to (or even talking to) Bill. What's the agenda behind now giving her the guilt trip over making a pass at Bill? What shames her? The presumption has been that she does it because she enjoys it and if he says no, then no harm no foul. I could understand it if Quinn had her issues with sexual promiscuity given that the last time she engaged in that kind of activity she had an unplanned pregnancy, but I don't think that's it. And here's another link between the character of Quinn and that of Stephanie - in the 90s Stephanie made no secret of going after Eric and allowed herself to be charmed by him (to the chagrin of Jack Hamilton), but would in the same breath berate Brooke (and Sheila) for using their sexuality in an underhanded way to get whatever they wanted. Anyway - Rena Sofer did a great job with the material and of course it was a Patrick Mulcahey script today, he undoubtedly writes the best dialogue. It's always amazing to me - or if not amazing then close to it - how an audience can be manipulated into believing one thing after first believing another. Once upon a time Dollar Bill Spencer was an A-grade asshole but now he's the guy to root for in the Battle for Brooke and I'd say the majority of us are in the Brill camp after this recent character assassination of Ridge Forrester by TPTB. I feel a little sorry for TK because this material for Ridge pushing shit uphill can't be fun to play and the fact that it's all so predictable isn't fun to watch. Oh well. Loved Don Diamont today; I wish he would whisk me away to a secret location. Pretty sure baby Zane has figured out how to steal the scene - make heaps of noise and throw toys around right when there's an important line - a real diva and only 18 months old... Spoilers for 6/2:

Oh my!

¿Por qué no los dos? Guys today is fight day and I am excited. It's not shirtless oil wrestling but I'll take what I can get. Also wanted to drop this off here - I don't know if anyone watched SMASH when it was on, but I decided to check it out a couple of days ago because TK is in it and in one of the episodes he's part of a Bollywood musical number, much to my amusement! Eagle-eyed viewers will spot him dancing awkwardly (but adorably) in the top right corner towards the end. Link to Youtube

Oh my God you guys there's gonna be a Officially Team Brill after today's show, those scenes were super sweet. I guess it doesn't hurt that KKL and DD are chemistry machines. I noticed that Hope & WyaZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Also, Quinn, pro tip - you can't dust off animal hair with your hand. Use a bit of tape. I wonder what he could do to hurt RJ that would upset Ridge any more than he already is at the simple thought of them being in the same room. Crash a quadbike? Fall out of a hot air balloon? Give him a haircut? I saw that comment from Bill as more of a sleight against Ridge than against RJ - the boy's only nine. Bill's also said the same things about "manning up" Will, who is all of two years old. I follow Winsor Harmon on Twitter and he's been posting pictures recently placing him at CBS (sunrise in the carpark, in the make-up chair, a suit collection ticket), so one assumes Thorne's got more scenes coming up in the next couple of months. Don't know about Hunter Tylo. I did see something about Schae Harrison filming some more scenes but I had to stop following her on Twitter because her constant tweeting cluttered up my feed so I don't know if that's true. On a similar vein: JMC's daughter posted a selfie of them on the B&B set about three weeks ago and then yesterday Zack Conroy took a cast one on that backlot bridge thing that he was in as well, so he's around. Doing what, though, I have no idea. If we have to suffer through the banality of Hope & her brother husbands then surely whatever Eric's up to is worthy of some screen time. If love is supposedly in the air for everyone else, why not go back to the Eric & Donna story for a little while? All it would need is a scene a week and the conflict could be that Donna wants to pursue that relationship again but Eric's not sure because he thinks he's too old for her/he's still a little burnt by Taylor/he doesn't want to let go of Stephanie's memory/he's in the middle of an existential crisis because no one's listening to him at FC and he's got designer's block and he's not contributing anything and I don't know, it doesn't have to be much. And that's all separate to the storylines going on right now - he could've been put into the Thorne/Aly/Taylor thing quite easily, and I'm sure there's room to pop him in every now and again with the Kridge/Brill saga even if it's just to have him as a sounding board for Brooke seeing as he's her biggest fan, or even Donna, what with her stuck in the middle of two warring sisters. Or even to counsel Ridge - his own son, for goodness' sake. But anyway. I don't know if you guys have noticed but I have strong opinions on this topic.

I meant the Discovery Channel guy - his boat's called the Down Under and he wears an Akubra so all signs point to him being Steve Irwin, but the accent's way off. Bill's impersonation of Ridge today was fun.

IIRC Katie played the Eric card in the aftermath of the birthday party fiasco, pointing out to Brooke quite unnecessarily that she was not beyond breaking up a marriage in the pursuit of love. I would imagine Katie would blame Brooke if Ridge should falter and return to his destiny in the same way that Stephanie always blamed her for ruining not only her marriage but her son's marriage(s) - it was never really the fault of Eric or Ridge that they strayed from their relationships, as far as she was concerned. Off-topic but I watched (or rather "suffered through") Shark Attack 2 earlier and, guys, it was the worst thing I have ever seen. Terrible direction, abysmal story, cheeeezy dialogue, the worst Australian accent I've ever heard, lousy special effects, etc. If the pretty ever tempts you - and there's pretty to be had if you like the look of Thorsten Kaye - take a pro tip from me and watch it with the sound off.

Did I well up a little bit at the end there with Aly & Taylor hugging it out? No, I just had something in my eye. We say this all the time but what a shame that Hunter Tylo can't move her face any more, otherwise these highly emotional scenes would have been ten times better. But what now? I was hoping TPTB would drag this out a little longer and heighten the tension by, say, having Aly take Taylor hostage at knifepoint or something. Are they just going to move on with their lives now? Where's the drama in that? Always here for a dick-measuring contest between Ridge & Bill but for some reason TK was flatter than usual in the snark department this episode and it wasn't as much fun. I did read an entertaining spumour this morning about the upcoming Dubai story, wherein which sounds like a laugh and a half. I hope it's true. (ETA: found a magazine scan confirming the spoiler. There's an easy joke about the camel picture but I won't go there.) Seriously. First he fiddles about with the esspresso machine and then pours himself a healthy glass of scotch? Out of someone else's wet bar? Without asking? What an asshole. Not that this is really relevant to anything, but you've reminded me of something Susan Flannery said about Stephanie never going anywhere with a handbag or a purse (even though she did carry a clutch early on) because she never had to have money on her, which I thought was an interesting observation. But anyway.

How long has it been since we've seen Bill & Katie in a scene together not screaming at each other? It was, for lack of a better word, refreshing. Don't know if anyone watches on CBS.com but the bonus scene was nice too, I liked the line about Ridge only teaching Will how to draw "tanks and robots and dollar signs". Odd comment from Bill about Will & RJ becoming family when Katie & Ridge marry, though - they're already maternal cousins. RJ is and always will be Katie's nephew and she his aunt, as Will is and always will be Brooke's nephew and she his aunt. Not sure how the writers missed that one. While we're on the subject about Hunter Tylo looking dreadful, whatever happened to Winsor Harmon? Talk about a match made in cosmetic hell. Thanks for the rundown annsterg, and I stand corrected - nine men is not as big a number as I had assumed (I blame Stephanie for this). Actually while I think about it, what about Dave? They never slept together on-screen but they were engaged (not that that equals that they were sexually active, of course). Don't make me laugh! I think so too. The way Thorne caved in so quickly after witnessing another Aly meltdown, putting his life on hold yet again because of his daughter's inability to let go of the past, paired with previous reactions from elder family members (Pam, Eric, Brooke), would suggest this angle. I also think that this approach to Aly's "issues" gives her the impression that she can say and do as she pleases and not face any repercussions for it as we've already seen - boardroom outbursts, slapping Wyatt, etc. Thirding this. Was Ronn Moss's Ridge ever this much of an asshole? I also wonder whether Bill would be as accepting of the situation if he was still losing - at the moment he's on top of the world, so whatever Katie & Ridge want to get up to is of not much consequence to him. According to tomorrow's promo there's a Bill/Ridge scene which will be interesting (but then I'm always interested in Bill/Ridge, so...) I am always (and easily) impressed with scenes like this. Most of the time I'm too busy concentrating on what Zane's doing or how the actors respond to whatever he's doing that I have to rewatch the scene multiple times to figure out what's actually being said. Same with the cat they had on last week, when it sneezed in Darin Brooks' face and he said "Bless you" to it and I missed what came next because I was laughing.

What was with that scream from Hunter Tylo at the end there? Sweet holy soap opera Jesus. Also, loved Caroline & Wyatt today. Linsey Godfrey & Darin Brooks have great comedic timing. Tagged just to be on the safe side - Liam even said something to the effect of Brooke having been shamed for her sexual promiscuity her entire adult life and therefore wouldn't be bothered with seeing evidence of the Quill sexcapades, which I thought was interesting - I'm well aware that Brooke has indeed slept with many, many men during the last 25 years, but have any of them ever been flings on the side? I get the impression that Brooke loves (with a capital L) the man she's with at any given moment, and that this "slut from the Valley" label slapped on her by Stephanie et. al. is more of a misnomer than a fair description. Can someone clarify this? Of course the fact that Brooke has sex out of love instead of lust wouldn't affect how Brooke would react to hearing Bill slept with another woman while she had him on ice, but I'm just curious. What I would give to see a "stuck in a room" scenario with those three. I don't think so - Eric & Taylor finished almost a year ago - July 2013 IIRC - and I have always assumed that Taylor boarded the next flight to Paris in her PJs and didn't return to LA until Hunter Tylo came back a month or so ago. I also remember Thorne saying something to Aly about him not having a woman in his life when they were talking about Thorne selling their house and coming to live in the FM, which was around Thanksgiving, and Eric mentioned speaking to Taylor during the holidays and it sounded to me like that may have been a long-distance phone call. I could be wrong, of course. It's also possible that Aly & Hope are the same age but that Hope has matured faster than Aly, or alternatively Aly hasn't matured at the same rate as most girls - I could totally go for Aly having a stunted emotional development in comparison to Hope who has a lot of growing up to do being in the spotlight, etc etc. Thorne did say that Oliver was too old for Aly and Oliver replying that there were "some years between [them]" (paraphrasing) but I wouldn't say Aly is underage. But who knows how old anyone is on this show anymore? By the way, has anyone seen the promo for next week? Clearly someone at CBS is on speed.

So they dusted off the old relic Eric for two lines? Thanks, show. But at least you tried with the awkward Bill/Wyatt man-hug thing, and the coordinated WTF reaction from Rick & Caroline, that was nice. And did TK laugh when he played Ridge talking about Bill being tacky? I actually really liked the first half of that conversation between Brooke & Ridge. If we'd had more of that when TK was first introduced as Ridge, if we'd seen three or so months of Bridge to re-establish the relationship if only to have it be a springboard for the new Kridge direction, maybe the transition wouldn't have ended up being as clunky as it was. Alas. Noticed also that the directors are doing the "hide pregnant actress behind props" thing again, which I loathe. It was horrible to watch when they did it to Jennifer Gareis, but I guess this time around Caroline doesn't have a frontburner story so we won't see as much of Linsey Godfrey. Brooke can't sit with us! Some spoilers for 5/19:

When are those two gonna end up in bed together? Because seriously.

What's that old show business rule about not working with children and animals? Someone obviously forgot to tell The Bold and the Beautiful this. Little Zane continues to be the cutest thing on the planet and I have to give props to Heather Tom - I know she's not everyone's favourite here but damn, that boy just wouldn't stop wriggling through her lines and yet she powered on like it was nothing. And when she started crying for real it broke my heart. I had to laugh when TK said "Hi" to the baby like they were old mates; he might smell but at least he's got a sense of humour. But Brooke is not doing the right thing. She's using documents she knows were signed under false pretenses... if those papers were so tainted, and the methods Bill used were so repugnant, that Brooke broke up with Bill over them, how is it they're ok to use now? The problem here of course is Brooke's love for Bill. Does she love him because he loves her and only her? Is that why she's willing to forgive him for tricking her sister into signing legal documents without Katie reading them? Brooke thinks she's righting the ship but as far as I can tell, there's no ship to right - if her aim is to return the situation to the status quo then she's on a fool's errand, because everything's moved so far away from where they originally started. The other issue is Katie's love for Ridge. One might say Brooke's stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place - hurt Bill or hurt her sister? - but Katie's hurt Brooke, too, by involving herself with Brooke's "destiny", despite the fact that this destiny never plays out the way Brooke wants it to. I think this is what makes this papers situation a double-edged sword - is it love or revenge? Personally, I agree with Shira - this wasn't Brooke's card to play - but this is Brooke all over, this is the history of the character, playing cards that aren't in her hand. In the same way that hate drove Stephanie to interfere in people's lives, Brooke is driven by love. In any case, I'm curious to see what Katie does next - continue working at Spencer Publications with Bill? It would certainly make an interesting parallel with Brooke and Ridge working together at Forrester Creations - we've all heard Bill slip up every now and again about "my Katie"; would proximity test his resolve in the same way everyone assumes it will with Bridge? Perhaps not immediately; perhaps time will tell. In other news, I keep seeing today that Ronn Moss' band Player will be playing at the Nurses Ball over at General Hospital, but can't find anything official to confirm this.

Oh, absolutely not (well, FWB maybe, but that's another story). Perhaps "friend" was the wrong word. Everyone knows Bill Spencer would stab his own mother in the back if it meant he could get whatever he wanted, I won't deny that. I was more interested in the way Bill was talking to Ridge, "man to man, father to father", that left him open to a potential Ridge verbal attack and showed Ridge that he was hurting, when their previous interactions have been more or less dick measuring contests. I don't know, maybe it was the way Don Diamont played it.