Best Soap Opera Cameos

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'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»

Or is the hyper-focused actor-slash-everything for real?

(NEWSER) - “Can James Franco possibly be for real?” That's the question that consumes Sam Anderson’s extensive New York profile on the actor who is no longer just an actor: He’s enrolled in four graduate programs and planning to start a PhD program at Yale before he's even done with them; he publishes short stories and puts on art shows; and all the while he still has the time to appear in some seven movies coming out in the next year. And let’s not forget that General Hospital guest role . More»