Leading Ladies, Beauty And Deception

HOLLYWOOD—We all know secrets can tear a family apart, destroy a marriage, ruin trust between lovers and this week we saw all of that. Ashley Jones as Bridget Forrester Marone on CBS’s “The Bold and the Beautiful” has faced issues with her husband Nick before, but this week she was stunned by an all new low on his part. Lesli Kay who portrays Molly on CBS’s “As The World Turns” and also works on “B&B” was amazing as Molly faced doubt that Holden was telling her the truth. Kay is sensational in her original “ATWT” role and both of these ladies are in distress about lies their significant others are telling them. Then there is Eileen Davidson, who portrays Ashley Abbott Newman on daytime’s number-one drama “The Young and the Restless.” Ashley’s memory is starting to come back to her and she’s going to be a dangerous woman for her stepson Adam Newman. These women showed great intensity in their wonderful performances and are this week’s Gold Standard for Leading Ladies.

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Ashley Jones as Bridget Forrester Marone

Ashley Jones, who portrays the former physician now fashion designer Bridget Forrester Marone on “B&B”, is one of the best performers on the planet. The beautiful young star credits her great work with being lucky enough to work with the best actors on TV and the best writer and executive producer in Bradley P. Bell. When Nick and the surrogate mother of his and Bridget’s baby, Sandy, spent the past month investigating who raped Sandy years ago; we knew that Bridget would not take it well being kept in the dark about their investigation. Bridget’s fears and insecurities with her husband stems from his affair with her mother Brooke years earlier. Bridget’s mother also slept with and had a baby by Bridget’s first husband Deacon. Fans know that the beauty cannot stand secrets and if Nick thought his wife would be upset about his hiding Sandy’s past from her, that was the understatement of the week.

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Lesli Kay as Molly

Bridget laid into her spouse and poured her heart out, thanks to Ashley Jones, maintained great dignity and also splendid acting chops while letting fans see a sensitive and vulnerable side to the character once again. Fans love Bridget, she’s the heart of the Forrester family, but she also has had it being left in the dark by those she loves and this week she let it be known that it had better not happen again. Viewers of “B&B” know that Brad Bell is too much of a genius to let this storyline drop. Jones and Wagner are absolutely magnetic on the screen.

Molly saw blood on Holden’s clothes, Damian Grimaldi is missing. Putting two and two together is not going to equal four on “ATWT,” as the writers are full of twists and turns that only get more exciting by each episode. Lesli Kay is one of television’s great beauties and wonderful actresses and seeing Molly demand answers from Holden this week made me realize how much we’d missed seeing Kay on the series that will be going off the air in September. As long as Lesli Kay is on the show, the world will continue turning with talent.

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Eileen Davidson as Ashley Abbott Newman

“Y&R” viewers have waited in great anticipation for Maria Arena Bell to put her plan in motion for the unraveling of Adam Wilson (Newman), the youngest son of Victor Newman. Adam spent last summer gas lighting his stepmother Ashley into believing both Sabrina Newman was actually alive when she was dead and into believing he did not cause Ashley to miscarry her baby when he accidentally pushed her down the stairs while trying to scare her one night. Ashley then created a hysterical pregnancy in her head and believed for months that she was pregnant only to be handed a baby while she was in a mental hospital that was passed off by Adam as her own, but it actually belongs to Sharon Newman Abbott, who is now married to Adam herself. Fans wonder when a brilliant woman like Ashley will figure it all out? This week Ash’s memory was triggered when her mother Dina sent her a gift that reminded her of the night she miscarried. Ashley played with aplomb by the stunning Eileen Davidson is starting to put it together. Knowing Eileen is one of the sweetest women in the world is exciting when you see her as a total bitch on “Y&R” who has decided she’s had enough of the lies and deceptions Adam has been engaged in, with her as the focus of it.

Leave it to Ashley Jones, Lesli Kay and Eileen Davidson to prove that women in daytime may be beautiful, but are talented thespians as well. February sweeps hits up for CBS daytime as Brad Bell pushes Bridget, Nick and Sandy to the breaking point, Chris Goutman has super couple Molly and Holden having trouble and Maria Arena Bell’s year long secret may just come to a head on “Y&R.”

 

Photographs Courtesy: Ashley Jones, Lesli Kay and Eileen Davidson by Gilles Toucas, Bell Phillip Television Productions