News Round-up: James Franco, Reynolds, Hickland, Park

James Franco brings movie star magic to GENERAL HOSPITAL
"On some level, it just says much about who James Franco is," executive producer Jill Farren Phelps said. "He goes to school, he does a soap opera, he does 30 ROCK, he's a movie star."

Daytime actors put in long hours, and Franco was extremely professional and accomplished, memorizing dozens of pages of dialogue for a day's shoot, Phelps said. "That's not to say I don't have any number of actors on this show who could qualify as movie stars, but there was something about what he brought that was just so much fun."

Will film star JamesFranco prove a shot in the arm for GENERAL HOSPITAL?
Mark A. Perigard from the Boston Herald writes "ABC didn’t make an episode available for review, but judging from the scene, he appears as lifelike as a desk. In a medium that celebrates excess, that’s a bad sign."

Community theater built foundation for Michael Park's success
Michael Park (Jack, ATWT) expected that he would go into the family business: his grandfather's construction firm. Park worked there summers, and figured one day he would also take a larger role. So Park, a Canandaigua native, studied architecture at Nazareth College. He never thought 20 years ago that he would be a pivotal character on a popular daytime television drama. But a girl, an audition and an unexpected casting -- slick gambler Sky Masterson in "Guys & Dolls" -- changed all that.

Silvio Horta on UGLY BETTY's possible cancellation
“Obviously, we all want the show to continue, but I don’t want to get caught off guard and have them tell me it’s the last season and have to wrap everything up in one episode,” he says. “So I have two season-ending arcs planned — one where it’s the last season and one where we continue for another one.”

NBC Moving Primetime Emmys Back To August
NBC will host the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards to Sunday, August 29, 2010, the network said Wednesday. The move allows NBC to steer clear of a scheduling conflict with its Sunday Night Football franchise, and also means that the Emmys will have less original competition on the other broadcast networks.

BET debuts first original web series
Viacom's BET Network will launch its first original web series later this month, about the world of Black Hollywood. Buppies, which stars Tatyana Ali (Roxanne, Y&R), is a drama that follows the lives of a dysfunctional group of friends as they get to grips with LA's young black power elite. The 10-week series will debut on BET.com on November 24.

Catherine Hickland coming to McDonald's in Detroit
Catherine Hickland (Lindsay, OLTL) will stop by McDonald's in Novi on Friday. McDonald's has invited her in celebration of its newest beverage -- the Frappe. Hickland is scheduled to be at the restaurant from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Those attending the meet and greet can enjoy a free sample mocha or caramel frappe during the hours of the event.

Ray Bradbury to perform at James Reynolds' theater
“We’re so honored that Ray has chosen our theater as a place to produce his shows,” says veteran actor James Reynolds (Abe), who co-owns the Fremont with his wife Lissa. “There are few people of letters in this country as respected. Not a week goes by that I don’t read Ray’s name in an unexpected place, and that just shows the breadth of his influence.”