HOLLYWOOD—This week’s Gold Standard goes to three players on television. Two are daytime staples and one a primetime star. Katherine Kelly Lang who portrays Brooke on “B&B” is our leading lady choice this week. Peter Bergman who portrays Jack Abbott on “Y&R” is our second daytime pick. Then we round it off with British star James Frain, who portrays Lord Thomas Cromwell on Showtime’s international mega hit, “The Tudors.”
The week these stars all shined had them all facing betrayals. None more fun than Brooke Logan’s feeling of betrayal yet again by her nemesis of decades Stephanie with her the Queen’s second installment of “The Logan Chronicles.” This series has become a big hit on the Internet and has even raised ad sales and subscriptions of Spencer Publication’s magazine Eye On Fashion. While Stephanie touted her wealth even during this tough economic times, ex-husband Eric Forrester is fibbing to bill collectors saying, “The check is in the mail.”
Katherine Kelly Lang plays shock and pain like few actors in the daytime field. Brooke was tired of the devastation Stephanie has laid in her wake and being called a whore on the Internet was a bit more than even Brooke could stand. Brooke decided to fight back with her own online blog and boy she had fun with it. Stephanie was prepared for the attack but Brooke was not prepared for the showdown she had with her husband Ridge’s ex-wife Taylor. Brook also didn’t realize that her decision to fight her mother-in-law back would cause even more friction between her son Rick and her stepson Thomas, who has recently taken a trip on the dark side.
Katherine Kelly Lang is one of those actresses so beautiful that she’s rarely given the credit for her depth of dramatic acting as she can produce. Lang’s feelings of betrayal not only by her constant bickering mother-in-law, but also from her husband who sides with Mommie Dearest most of the time, causes her to take a dramatic turn to the right and she does not overplay her shock and amazement. She obviously reads her scripts and knows that even though “B&B” is known for it’s over the top storylines, that Bradley Bell wants his stars to play it straight. She did play it straight, but with bewilderment to fans who say every week, how did she pull that off?
What does Peter Bergman play best? The multifaceted star is known best when his character of Jack is enraged. Last week Jack found out that his brother Billy slept with Jack’s wife Sharon and may be the father of her unborn child. Jack may also be the father and Sharon’s ex husband Nick is also a potential candidate. But even though it sounds like the Abbott family belongs on The Maury Povich or Jerry Springer Show, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Bergman’s shock as he learned from his ex-wife Phyllis that his wife Sharon not only slept with Phyllis’s husband Nicholas but also Billy was heartbreaking for Jack. Since Jack and Billy’s father John Abbott died, Jack became a father figure to his kid brother, who has no respect for anyone and doesn’t feel anything is off limits. Jack knew that Billy was a spoiled brat, after all he’s the son of Jill Foster Abbott, the epitome of selfish describes Jill. But Jack had been instrumental in seeing his brother Billy reunited with the mother of his daughter. Jack also asked Billy and his wife Chloe to move into the Abbott mansion where he could be instrumental in not only his niece’s life but his young brother’s as well. When Peter Bergman reacted to Jack’s horror it was as if Bergman had been hit in the stomach by a heavy weight champion boxer. Bergman’s shock flowed through his performance and his on screen presence tensed up and his voice deepened. But without just being boring and playing rage, the tears in Jack’s eyes came to play as well. That’s what Bergman plays best. Rage with vulnerability. An emotion many male leading men don’t like to play and certainly few other than Henry Fonda captured just enough of both emotions to make him likeable to his audience.
Bergman is not only likeable to the audience, he’s a dream come true for any daytime fan who is interested in seeing this side of their leading man. David Canary on “All My Children” is the only other actor in soaps who comes close and Bergman’s still ahead by a country mile.
What heartbreak Jack felt and Bergman conveyed when Jack told Phyllis that Sharon and Nicolas were both lying to the two of them. Jack’s desperation comes at a price. Surely the citizens of Genoa City know that with Jack’s tears, blood also comes. Who will pay the price for Billy and Sharon’s betrayal of Jack? Thankfully with Maria Arena Bell helming the show, we’ll find out soon.
And lastly, on Showtime, “The Tudors” rein as king of the ratings. For good reason too. This series which chronicles the life of Henry the VIII, maybe England’s most tyrannical and yet interesting monarch, showed us this week Henry’s true selfish ambition takes no prisoners. When Thomas Cromwell’s friends and the King’s men all betrayed him James Frain poured out an emotional performance like no other. This man has been underplaying the role intentionally, because Cromwell was not just the King’s trusted ally, but a disciplined politician who navigated the evil traps set for him by his King and his King’s friends.
Cromwell rose in the King’s favor when he helped find a way to arrest, prosecute and execute the King’s second wife Queen Ann Boelyn. But Cromwell’s future was also doomed. Frain looked in horror out of the Tower while seeing men pillaging and sacking his home and taking out every treasure. Cromwell knew that being jailed in the Tower of London was only going to end in his death.
While at the last moments of his life, like all loyal patriots, which Cromwell was, he asked the people of London to continue to honor and obey their King. While hearing the cheers of Catholics screaming, “kill him, off with his head” he looked over at his enemies, the Duke of Suffolk, The Bishop of Canterbury, Lord Thomas Seymour and Sir Francis, all the men who set him up and framed him for treason against His Majesty. But Cromwell instead of looking at them with anger stared almost saying, you may be next. He then looked past all the cheering mob screaming for him to die and saw his only son, who had just become a father himself. He lastly looked up at the executioner and prayed that he would be killed with one strike by the ax. Immediately it dawned on Cromwell that the executioner was indeed drunk. He cringed almost in horror of knowing his death would not go easy. Frain’s reactions were amazing. They were the signs of a man in distress at his final moments and he played them all to the hilt.
Fans of the show probably know that in truth, Cromwell’s execution was not only harsh, by beheading but that his head was hung on the London Bridge facing away from England as if he had been a traitor. King Henry VIII never got over this execution. It was not long before he figured out that Cromwell was perhaps his most loyal servant. Alas Frain is done with the series, but he will be missed, though Lord Cromwell will not be.
Television is struggling for viewers. These three shows seem to be the best of what television can be.
