Guilty Pleasures: The Bold and The Beautiful

Ah, The Bold and The Beautiful, a 1/2 hour of Guilty Pleasure every day. Watching this show is like having a decadent piece of dark chocolate. But just like chocolate, you can have too much of a good thing which is another reason why I like B&B. It's only a 1/2 hour everyday which is manageable for me.  I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that most of the remaining daytime shows could take a leaf out of B&B and either scale back to a 1/2 hour or learn how to write tight.

B&B revolves around The Forrester family who own Forrester creations and their rivals Jackie M. What cracks me up about this show is that they are probably the only two fashion houses that have no gay designers on staff. I have a friend who is jonesing for Thomas Forrester to come out of the closet (which would be fabulous and might actually justify the actor who plays him the Emmy he won this year for basically doing nothing).  Jackie M is sort of the low-rent version, say Allen B to Forrester's Carolina Herrera.  Forrester Creations is classy while Jackie M relys on sex to sell their line.  Jackie M is now being designed by Bridget Forrester who used to be a doctor (don't ask, it's too long a story), and is owned by Nick Marone, Ridge Forrester's half-brother.  There's also Bill Spencer who owns Spencer Publications which produces glossy fash mags.

The lovely blonde on the left is Brooke Logan Forrester Forrester Forrestor Marone Forrester among other names. She's the heroine of the show or at least one of them. From the wrong side of the tracks, she fell in love with Ridge Forrester at first sight and has spent the past 23 years trying to win his love, often vying for it with brunette beauty Dr. Taylor Hayes.  Along the way Brooke has married Ridge's father (by whom she had two children) and both of his brothers. She also had an affair with her daughter's husband (the father of child number 3) and now she's 'accidentally' had sex with her other daughter Hope's boyfriend at her Hope's graduation party (don't ask, it's a long story). 

The stories on the B&B move quickly, almost too quickly. Certain storylines (the death of matriarch Stephanie Forrester's estranged mother Anne, Beth Logan's death) were over in like a week.  Nick Marone who just found out that his wife slept with his much younger stepfather just filed for divorce and slept with another woman, all within like a week. I'm beginning to think that the head writer and executive producer Brad Bell has ADHD.  On the other hand, the show is filled with impossibly beautiful people, seriously this is probably the best looking cast on daytime. Not that the acting is terrible, Susan Flannery could give master classes in acting.  They've even managed to attract Patrick Duffy to play the recurring role of Stephen Logan.

The best change the show has made was changing Steffy Forrester from rather boring to a miniature version of her namesake and grandmother. When she first came on the show she was involved with a boring romance with her sister's and her mother's ex-boyfriend Rick Forrester (don't ask, it's too long a story) which bordered on incestuous. Now she's a schemer who will stop at nothing to get rid of the Logan family who she feels have take over the family business and dragged them down. Also Brooke Logan stole her father from her mother Dr. Taylor Hayes, the former alcoholic pyschiatrist.

I'm telling you this show is like crack, I can't stop watching it. It's the only soap that I watch on a regular basis.  Try it, and see if it doesn't become a guilty pleasure for you too!

It's About Time! Prince Albert of Monaco getting hitched

Last week it was announced that Prince Albert of Monaco was finally, finally getting hitched at the ripe old age of 52 to his long time girlfriend Charlene Wittstock. The couple will be getting married next year (long enough for him to change his mind) in a civil ceremony (the legal one) and then a religious ceremony in the same Cathedral where his parents were married. Both ceremonies will be televised.

His fiancee, Charlene, is from South Africa and competed in the Olympics in swimming for that country. She is 32, twenty years younger than her groom. According to PEOPLE they have been dating on and off for ten years, but other sources say that they met at the Winter Olympics in Torino. If it's been ten years then she ties Kate Middleton for woman who has had to wait for years for her prince to propose. No matter, the future princess who has been living in Monaco for the past 3 years has been tutored in protocal by her future sisters-in-law. Really? Princess Caroline and Stephanie would be the last two people I would look to for advice on protocal. Particularly Stephanie.

This engagement ends speculation that Prince Albert is gay, rumors which have been floating around for years. The dude has two illegitimate children, not that proves anything, so did Richard the Lionheart and Edward II. My feeling is that Prince Albert waited so long because of his sisters distasterous track record with marriage. Princess Caroline traded up when she married HRH Prince Ernst but now she's stuck with a guy who gets drunk and likes to pee on things in public, and Princess Stephanie who married her bodyguard, got divorced, had a baby out of wedlock and then ran off with the circus. How do you compete with that? Also, Albert being single meant that Princess Caroline's son Andrea would inherit the throne which won't happen if Charlene gives birth to an heir which is entirely possible since she's only 32. What do you want to bet that they have a baby 9 months after the wedding just like Princess Grace?

I myself am looking forward to seeing what the bride is going to wear next year. She wore a lovely dress to Princess Victoria's wedding in Sweden, which of course should have been a sign that an engagement was iminent.