Monday, August 27, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP: Frank Dicopoulos' New Career; Plus, Lenny Platt, Tonya Pinkins, Michael Forest

GUIDING LIGHT alum Frank Dicopoulos 'Discovers' new career
Unable to find many acting jobs and concerned about providing for his family, which includes his wife, Teja Anderson, and children Jaden, 18, and Olivia, 15, Dicopoulos, 55, decided it was time for a career change.

“I had to reinvent myself,” he says.

Today he serves as the host of NJ Discover's ARTISTS AGAINST THE ODDS, a show about local artists facing tough obstacles, and EARTH TREASURES, a reality show set at the Earth Treasures jewelry store in Eatontown, which Dicopoulos describes as ANTIQUES ROAD SHOW meets PAWN STARS.

“I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” he says. “I’m all over the place, hustling 24-7, looking into this and that. But it is extremely rewarding.”

TRUE BLOOD Season Finale Post Mortem: Alan Ball Answers Burning Questions, Previews Season 6
"Eric was kind of like a mischievous cad, but I don’t think he was ever, like, a true villain the way that Russell was or the way that Maryann was. And he’s done a lot of really heroic things himself. So I never really looked at Eric as the bad guy and Bill as the good guy – at least not since the very early seasons. But it remains to be seen what will go down with both of them."

Indie Soap Award nominee and ONE LIFE TO LIVE alum Jackie Hoffman joins THE NEW NORMAL
Hoffman will play the mother of Justin Bartha's character, David.

ONE LIFE TO LIVE alum Lenny Platt will head cast of "If You Start a Fire [Be Prepared to Burn]"
Kevin Kautzman's play, which will open the company's 2012 season, will be directed by Mondays Dark co-founder and resident director, Kenny Howard.

Tweaked and revamped GENERAL HOSPITAL survives soap operas death row
"I don't think that it will change in the near future that the television market that exists in the United States right now will ever be anything other than challenging," Mr. Valentini said. "[ABC is] very excited about the 50th anniversary, and we'll be laying and rolling out lots of different things between now and April and past then. So I'm pretty confident."

After a Big Year Onstage, Tonya Pinkins Tests the Waters
In the last year Pinkins has performed in a whopping five New York productions: Katori Hall's "Hurt Village," John Patrick Shanley's "Storefront Church," Kirsten Greenidge's "Milk Like Sugar," as well as "Measure for Measure" and "All's Well That Ends Well" at Shakespeare in the Park.

"It was really a gift," she said. "It's never happened to me before. And now I need to sing."

Soap alum Michael Forest sums up his acting career
“I look back, and it certainly hasn’t been what you might call a distinguished career, but on the other hand, it hasn’t been bad. Some of the things that I’ve done, I take a great deal of pride in. But, like all actors, you do work in material and situations that are not what you want, and you try to make it the best you can. Acting has its ups and its downs.”

A Warm Welcome for DOCTOR WHO in New York
BBC America opted for the Ziegfeld, Manhattan’s largest single-screen theater. Advance tickets priced at 11 cents, in honor of the current 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith, were teased on a variety of Web sites earlier this month, with sales touched off by a Twitter post on Aug. 16.

Minor pandemonium ensued. While many purchasers had no problem acquiring tickets on MovieTickets.com, which handles Internet sales for Ziegfeld screenings, the barrage of would-be buyers crashed the system. Users waited in limbo for long minutes before learning they had been shut out. Some reported seeing the credit-card details of strangers on their purported receipts.

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