SOAP SYNOPSES By Jacqueline Cutler Tribune Media Services (This column represents on air summaries for the week of May 9-13, 2011.) All My Children Ricky continued trying to get physical with Kendall and stopped when he heard glass breaking. Griffin had created the distraction. Opal told Amanda she sensed romance blossoming between Tad and Cara. A group of teenage boys arrived at the abandoned house where Griffin and
Kendall continued to bond. Madison told Ryan she would do anything to keep Scott by her side. Jack and Krystal kissed. Caleb showed up and told them that Spike had the phone and that Erica called and could be in trouble. The Bold and the Beautiful The Logans, Forresters, Spencers and Marones gathered for an emotional occasion. Whip covered up his insecurities regarding Ridge to Taylor. Katie attempted to reconcile with Bill, but
this couldn’t happen, considering Bill still had Steffy on his mind. Steffy had flashbacks of herself and Bill loving each other. Tawny concocted a new scheme after Liam turned down Amber’s latest offer. Knowing that the odds were against them, Hope and Liam still shared a poignant moment. Days of our Lives At the safe house, Sami lashed out at Rafe and asked why he followed her. Rafe was clueless. Abigail and Melanie met for the first time and shared their excitement over their parents
dating. Chloe met a handsome stranger at the Cheatin’ Heart and went back to his hotel room, where they made love. Sami came face to face with Rafe and his impostor. A gun was brandished, and Sami wound up clipping fake Rafe, who she knew was an impostor. General Hospital Siobhan discovered Aiden’s paternity while Lucky and Jason had a profound talk about Jake on what would have been his fourth birthday. Abby went to Johnny for help in finding the mysterious hit
woman. Lucky asked Jason to not take revenge on Luke. Krissy wondered why her herbal supplements didn’t match the online images. Carly asked Shawn to assassinate Anthony, but he refused. One Life to Live Natalie listened to Marty’s taped confession to changing Liam’s paternity test. Tess and Cutter realized their relationship was based on spite. Kelly found a crazed Marty in John’s room. Kelly grabbed a knife while Marty brandished a broken bottle. Cutter admitted that
he married Tess to get the Buchanan money. Natalie looked for John but only found a note directing her to the roof, where Marty awaited. The Young and the Restless Chloe and Kevin became prime suspects in Jana’s death. Nick was infuriated when he saw Adam in Sharon’s apartment. Nikki thanked Victor for persuading Michael to no longer serve as Phyllis’ lawyer, and they ended up making love. Diane found them and snapped a photo of the two lovers with her cellphone camera.
COVER STORY
‘Law & Order: SVU’ officers command uniform respect By Jacqueline Cutler © Zap2it On the screen, they’re dealing with the most hideous aspects of humanity. When the director yells cut, the actors from “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” leave the rapes and murders their characters encounter and fall into easy patterns established after years together. The 12th season closes Wednesday, May 18, a pretty remarkable run for a spinoff. On a recent drizzly day in the expanse that is Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers, the cast finishes one episode and begins the season finale, the 24th of the year. Official word had not yet come from NBC as to whether this would be renewed. “We’re not going anywhere,” says Richard Belzer, who plays Detective John Munch. “The show makes too much money — for other people.” “You know that cha-ching sound?” adds Ice-T, who plays Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola. “It’s (creator) Dick Wolf’s cash register.” Ice-T is playing a video game in his dressing room when Belzer pokes his head in. They’re very different guys, but playing partners all these years gives them a deep bond. “We don’t finish each other’s sentences,” Belzer says. “We just look at each other, and whole paragraphs are finished.” They’ve played partners for 11 years, which Belzer notes “is longer than my first two marriages — combined.”
Ice-T is convinced they’re all playing heightened versions of themselves. “Chris is definitely an angry white man,” Ice-T says of Christopher Meloni, who plays Detective Elliot Stabler. “Fin is really Ice-T, if I was a cop. “I just use me,” Ice-T says. “I’m cheating, I guess. I’m a career criminal in real life.” “He’s kidding,” Belzer interrupts. “No, I’m not,” Ice-T says. “But to have a career criminal playing a cop, you get a cop with an interesting dynamic. You can get a player to act like a square, but a square never comes across like a player.” Maybe, but many actors over the years have guest starred on the show, if for nothing else, to play against type. Independently, many cite Carol Burnett as a favorite. She knew the crew’s names before she stepped on set. By now, this is a fabled set. In the courtroom, always the second half of the original “Law & Order,” two floor tiles, invisible to viewers, reveal special moments. One reads, “On this spot Gregory Hines danced for us 2/4/03.” The late, great tapper played a defense attorney. Another states: “A striped bass blew up on this spot 3/3/11.” John Stamos guest starred in an episode in which someone was killed with a scuba diver’s knife that pumps out explosive gas. A bass (an already dead bass, the publicist notes) was blown up during rehearsals to replicate how the knife could be
ways expecting” of a spouse dying on the job, Florek says. Fans also know he was a Green Beret, and when Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) was being stalked, Cragen handily took down the perp. “The old, bald guy knows what’s going on,” he says. Florek says he still likes his character, and Meloni feels the same way about Stabler. “I’ve always thought the mood of him was the quiet hero,” Meloni says of Stabler. “He is a flawed guy. He has taken on the code of honor to protect and serve. It’s Christopher Meloni stars in indelibly tattooed on his brain.” “Law & Order: Special Victims “At the end of the day, he has Unit” Wednesday on NBC. a heroic core, or a heroic thread,” Meloni says. “He is the best kind of hero. He is not going to bust used. Pieces of the huge fish through the wall with two guns splattered everywhere. blazing. He lived up to the best “SVU” moved into this studio part of himself. In the end, his full-time when “Law & Order” trademark is the core.” was abruptly canceled last year. As is his partner, Benson. There are a few vestiges from the Hargitay isn’t on set; she’s adoptfirst show, beginning with Dann ing a baby. Still, the season’s two Florek, who has played Capt. final episodes run on schedule. Donald Cragen since 1990. Though not a typical cliffhangHe recalls a line from the er, the aim is to make the season audition for the pilot: “Fellows, enders a bit bigger, says writer you’ve got to find me something. Dan Truly. And contract negotiaI’m getting my butt barbecued,” tions are ongoing; if actors don’t Florek says. return, the finale would leave With that he launched a career plausible reasons for why their as a man who rarely tightens his characters are absent. tie and sits behind a desk with a In the season finale, Truly signed baseball in a Lucite cube. says, what begins as a purse Incidentally, though Cragen is a snatching leads to a multiple Mets fan, the ball is signed by murder. The person on a shooting spree admits the gun was crew members. $300. Over the years viewers “Guns are such a force mullearned that Cragen’s wife, a tiplier,” Truly says. “An evil intenflight attendant, was killed in a tion, or bad mood, or mental crash. “I got the call she was al-
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SOLUTION F RANKT R I P P OU I ALO E HA L P R I C E UN P I N T A D AMR O S S N T AG S O O F L O ONE ADO UMA E AD R E U C ANNCURRY M A R OMA E L L I E GE N DAE X I I I S COT TAD S I T MAY 15 - 21, 2011 – BRAINERD, MN/DISPATCH – 11