Franco Joining Cast of General Hospital

James Franco's guest stint highlights shows thuggery

(NEWSER) - Sure, it’s weird that James Franco is guest starring on General Hospital—but what’s weirder is that the soap is one of the small screen’s most violent creations, even by daytime television’s dubious standards. It stopped being a show about a hospital long ago, writes Willa Paskin for DoubleX , and now focuses on thugs—of whom Franco will be the latest—and their murders, rapes, and love affairs. More»

Guest stint on General Hospital will go down in art history

(NEWSER) - Finally, James Franco explains to us what in the world he’s doing guest starring on General Hospital: Performance art. In a look at the genre with which he is “obsessed,” Franco writes about its history—and his newfound spot in said history—for the Wall Street Journal .

• In appearing on the soap, he says, he's out of context, as he would be if he wore Green Goblin makeup and tried to fly on a New York subway platform. "It would be about inserting myself in a familiar space in such a way that it becomes stranger than fiction, along the lines of what I'm doing on General Hospital."

James Franco follows in the footsteps of Rosanne, Snoop Dog

(NEWSER) - James Franco’s much-hyped General Hospital guest stint began Friday, but can he live up to the true classics of the celebrity cameo genre? Many other luminaries have guested on daytime TV, and “they almost always shake things up like a schizophrenic with a fake pregnancy interrupting a wedding in a tornado.” Mary Elizabeth Williams runs down the best of the best on Salon —watch the clips. More»

22-year-old smashes glass, crawls inside

(NEWSER) - A struggling actor stuck waiting tables managed to make an appearance at the Ed Sullivan Theater—and was arrested for his trouble. Police say James Whittemore, 22, kicked through a glass door at the home of the Late Show with David Letterman yesterday morning, after a night of drinking, and crawled inside. He allegedly then used a velvet-rope pole to smash three more doors, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Seeks joint custody of twins after 2 years of marriage

(NEWSER) - It's not exactly today's most shocking story: A week after his naked hotel antics, Charlie Sheen has filed for divorce from his estranged third wife, Brooke Mueller, citing irreconcilable differences, ABC News reports. The pair married in 2008; Sheen is seeking joint custody of their 1-year-old twin boys. Sheen and Mueller were separated on Christmas Day 2009, the actor noted in documentation, after he pulled a knife on her. Click here for more. More»