Soapsuds Book

Finola Hughes (Anna on General Hospital and All My Children though she played Alex for a short time on AMC also), along with Digby Diehl wrote Soapsuds, which was published in 2005. The novel is about the life of a British actress who ends on a California based soap opera Live for Tomorrow. There are spoilers about the novel in this, so don’t read this if you don’t want to know.

Kate McPhee was a dancer, and actress who ended up on in soaps as she was running away from her past in England. Her boyfriend Rafe was sleeping with her best friend Leslie, and obviously she needed to get away. While nursing her broken heart, Kate gets cast as Devon Merrick, a recast role on Live for Tomorrow set in Hope Canyon. The way the book handles the swap is Devon got in an accident and she got a new face. Soap opera rapid aging syndrome (SORAS) is also mentioned along with other conceits that are unique for the genre. We also see Kate go to fan events, and while she admits that she won’t recognize or remember everyone she meets, the good feelings from the events will live on with her. Kate goes through martial arts training as part of her job, so details are given as to how stunts are done. Also, made mention is drinking on set along with sex both on the soundstage and in dressing rooms. Kate also has to do the morning news junket and a photo shoot and we meet Nigel in PR. Set redressing for numerous events is another factoid that was featured.

While the book was humorous in tone, it did not look down on the soap viewing audience. At times, industry behavior was looked down upon. The executive producer of this fictional soap opera named Daphne seemed reminiscent of Gloria Monty as she was a perfectionist, but thought outside the box. The Meredith character seemed to be based on an exaggerated Susan Lucci mixing her real life personality with that of Erica Kane. Meredith was a diva with a “capital D”. She would hold up taping, not allow her character to age, and would fuss about the actress portraying, the role of her child. Eventually, Meredith did get some comeuppance, the worst of which occurred during a special live broadcast of a Live for Tomorrow episode.

Due to Kate’s clashes with Meredith, Devon became a lesbian in the story. The way this was handled was ridiculous as they hedged their bets at first, and she only was with a woman during a vampire story, later her character got amnesia and fell in love with a man. Due to Devon’s sexual issues, people (both viewers and fellow actors) wrongly assumed Kate loved women, but she was straight. That said in 2005, the only lesbian character in daytime soaps that had any traction was Bianca, so perhaps the book was making fun of how badly such stories are written in soaps.

Kate’s romantic life is also explored, the first man, a magician, she met in LA and it was bad timing as he got a job out of town, the second a writer, left LA for work leaving her with four dogs, the third Wyatt was a fellow actor on Live for Tomorrow, who was married to her friend Christine, who was also her makeup artist. Wyatt’s character Marcello only comes late in the story, as he had been a regular on another soap opera. Their screen test was electric, and they developed feelings, but she couldn’t hurt her friend. I would have liked to know more about the people Kate considered her friends at studio like LaTrisa, Mzee, Carlos and Trent.

There was also chatter about the vapid performers that are in daytime and how great some of the older stars are. No names were mentioned, but I loved that portion of the book obviously. The terminology of black hole was also used about how some people are such poor actors that they suck the energy out of scenes.

One minor quibble with the novel was the Daytime Emmy Awards section. Devon ends up having to go back to her hotel to change clothing. Then there is a bomb threat, and she cannot get to Radio City Music Hall, the problem is Kate is able to watch the entire broadcast. The channel that was airing the live Emmy show would preempt it in NYC for that kind of potential danger. When everything was cleared, but she was still stuck in traffic that is conceivable, but the idea the entire show aired seemed implausible. The rest of the material about the Daytime Emmy Awards seemed realistic.

The book ended with a cliffhanger as Kate wrote a letter to Wyatt telling him that they could not be together. We have no idea if he got the note or if it got in the wrong hands. That was fitting to a soap opera, but was somewhat frustrating.