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Christian LeBlanc Delivers Heartbreaking Performance As Michael Hires A Hooker On Y&R!
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On Thursday’s episode of The Young and the Restless, Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc), who is struggling with his prostate cancer diagnosis and how he can satisfy his beloved wife Lauren (Tracey E. Bregman), set out to do something very personal and very heartbreaking. Not wanting to go home with Lauren, he hires a hooker to meet him in a room at the G.C.A.C. The hooker is played by Lindsey McKeon who is making a guest star appearance on the daytime drama series for two episodes. After Michael asks her name, which is Felicity, she asks Michael who is going under an alias what he wants and desires.
But soon it becomes apparent that Michael needs to talk. And as he and Felicity are on the bed, Michael begins to reveal his inner most feelings and fears when he says: “I would like to live my life without medications. I would like to life my life with fear of becoming half a man. I’d like to take my wife to bed. I would like to spend tonight making love with my wife until we crash exhausted, and then I would like to wake up to the smell of her hair, the curve of her hip, and then I would like to do it all over again. I want to life my life. Not this new life that was thrust on me. But I can’t have that. It’s unfair as hell. I can’t have what I want, but I can give my family what I want for them, and that’s for them to be happy without me, and they will be happy without me. My son will learn from my mistakes, and my beautiful wife … I want her to have passion and joy with someone who can seduce her, and excite her, and be there for her. And gives her everything she deserves and desires … everything.”
A very sad Michael talking out his inner most pain and thoughts with Felicity was a must-see moment,that was delivered picture -perfect by Y&R stalwart Christian LeBlanc. While it’s still early in next year’s Daytime Emmy game, we think this scene is a keeper and worthy of consideration, and brought us to tears under the incredibly gifted LeBlanc.
What did you think of Michael hiring a hooker and then later just talking to her? Were you touched by the performance of Christian LeBlanc? Share your thoughts below!
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Truly among past amazing scenes by Christian, this one is most memorable. He is so able to allow the most vulnerable side of this character to emerge and connect with a new cast member. As acting is all about working off the reaction of the other actor(s), compliment to the actor who played Felicity. She was a perfect counterpart to the emotions of the scene. It was also well written script exploring the many layers of self doubt when faced with a cancer diagnosis that can affect masculinity (or femininity if a female with cancer) and certain sentences definitely rang… Read more »
Very well-written post, Wendy. You have delved into the core of Michael’ soul and psyche…….and what compels him do show his emotional and human side. My sisters and I were discussing why hire a fille de joie? His masculine pride will not allow him to show that weakness to his wife……He does not want to fail her, disappoint her or himself….there will be nothing to prove to a stranger/hooker. She is only in it for the money, right? That’s what we surmised. Fortunately for Michael, this particular ‘lady of the night’ has a conscience and a soul. I suppose something… Read more »
PS. I also wanted to add that this was both an act of desperation and rebellion on Michael’s part. He has so much turmoil going on inside of him. ….and anger!!!! This struggle is probably suffocating him….but, he recoils from the one person, other than himself, who can really help him…..Lauren!
I would love to say so much more on this delicate and heartbreaking subject, but I will drive all of you nice people to distraction. LOL.
Sickness and in health? A good spouse is a good friend. If you cannot talk to whomever you marry about ANYTHING, your marriage is in big trouble!
@Timmm. Absolutely, Timmm….If a spouse cannot turn to his/her better half, then there is no bond…where there is no bond, there is no marriage. That is the crux of the matter, I think. Michael’s and Lauren’s relationship has been a precarious challenge way before his illness. The trust had been severed since her affair with the bar tender, I don’t care how rosy their relationship seemed to be. Some people’s marriage cannot prosper or survive after a betrayal like that. I could never remain married to a husband who had cheated on me….not for the kids, not for anything. So,… Read more »
I echo the sentiments expressed by both Wendy and Cee Cee. You both expressed yourselves beautifully. I know a lot of folks are unhappy with the direction Y&R has taken as of late, and I certainly understand why, but the aforementioned scene was heart wrenching, poignant and honest.
And to use a tired old phrase, it serves as a good example of a character driven story line. Bravo to the writers and bravo to Christian Le Blanc.
And to quote Dickens’ Oliver,”Please sir, I want some more.”
I agree with all of these comments. I have to say that for most of this storyline, I’ve been annoyed. Lauren and Michael survive Sheila Carter, the return of Sheila Carter, and then the return of Sheila’s evil sister Sara who LOOKS like Lauren; they survived all of Kevin’s shenanigans, all of Gloria’s shenanigans, Michael’s past; and my favorite, they survived the unappealing task of raising the most INSIPID child on the planet, Fenmore. And after all that, including Carmine (Good Lord, how could I forget him?), it’s cancer that brings them down??? Then, I thought about it and realized… Read more »
aha!
Michael paying for sex is not– heartbreaking –it is stupid..
Michael bangin a hooker is ridiculous and stupid, not *heartbreaking..
(if the hooker is better than Luren it might become a thing LOL ..) I hear they know their trade well .. lol
Pratt will have Michael diddling hookers, gotta love it !!
oww oww! forward..
Michael gets the clap, herpes or HIV..
I betcha..
half the Y&R characters have some sort of disease and it’s Laurens time to get a disease, too..
It’s going to herpes !! .. ohh geez lol ..
Perhaps reading is not your strong suit su……..nowhere in the above article did it say Michael bangs…….as you so crassly phrased it…….her.
Ended up he didn’t have sex with her, they just talked.
Is all this leading up to that mikey will die? I sure hope not.
The last thing I want to see is Lauren playing the senior sex kitten and acting like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Su, su, Su. I do believe you are missing the point. Michael hiring a hooker is the HEART of the matter. I am not a man, but I can surely understand the male ego and all its ingredients, nuances and mental machinations. A man may have everything he can possibly want, but losing one’s potency and sexual prowess, which is an integral part of what makes a man a MAN, is like having a death sentence looming over his head. Considering the fact that his wife cheated on him when in seemingly good health, imagine how insecure he must feel,… Read more »
What Cee Cee said. No, nothing sexual did transpire. Michael wants Lauren to think something did so she will be disgusted and be done with him in order to abate the grief that his impending death will cause. He also needed to confide with an indifferent stranger so he can get out all those demons, the fears, the abject sadness without dragging her down. Because the kind hearted prostitute doesn’t know him, he can let it all out without hurting her. He can’t do that with Lauren because he doesn’t want to destroy her chance of leading a happy and… Read more »
you’re completely missing the point – he didn’t have sex with the hooker, he revealed his soul. not sure what episode you watched or perhaps you’ve been brainwashed by Pratt and JFP to only see the sensational, sophomoric side of a story. This scene was beautiful and classic Y&R.
Michael is confused and scared. He knows his wife is a sexual and vulnerable woman. He doesn’t know how to handle the cancer and possibly losing his ability to satisfy his wife. The scene with the hooked showed he is terrified and must find the answer within himself and not Lauren.
The hooker is just like a doctor…there to make you feel better and charges a fortune…lol
duh .. I know that..
I was giving the boring scene a new twist.. something interesting to happen..
The stupidest thing I have ever seen;
a man gets himself an attractive prostitute and and doesn’t even attempt to see if he can get it up (the purpose) but instead he puts all his self-pity on her..
that is ridiculous stupid..
They went through the whole thing for a self-pity scene with a prostitute aha only in soap would a man not do it, or try to.. now that would have been truly interesting; could he or couldn’t he.. 🙂
Jim, I am outraged you compared a doctor to a prostitute. Outraged, I tell ya!
Why……why……why…..(stammer, stammer, stammer)………………………………..a prostitute has MUCH better handwriting.
Pratt did the same storyline on Melrose Place when the character kimberly had cancer and hired a prosit ute for her husband Michael! Yep this bunch of writers for all daytime shows are real gems!
Just repeating a dumb joke one of my doctors recently told me to cheer me up…i do apologize if it offends anyone!!!
Jim–I was kidding–I thought your joke was not only funny, but it was appropriate.
Maybe you’re kidding back!
He only wanted to talk, no sleep with her.
Christian LeBlanc is a wonderful actor. His monologue was touching, very emotional. The actress playing Felicity (Lindsey McKeon) is such a fine actress, she managed to play back the ball to LeBlanc and, at the same time, held herself back. Two veteran actors meeting in an act of grace.
She learned from the greats when she was on Guiding Light. Her TV parents were Kim Zimmer and Robert Newman. She wasn’t that great when she started but she got so much better over the years. I just wish another soap would pick her up, she’s a beautiful woman and can act..
I was touched by Christian’s performance and my heart breaks for Michael and Lauren but this story really does not make sense. We haven’t seen how Michael came to this point because so much of his and Lauren’s journey has been off screen and ignored. It’s also not really true to Michael or the Baldwin’s long marriage. Their marriage is and has always been far more than just sex. So kudos to Christian LeBlanc for his fine acting, but his and Tracey Bregman’s efforts don’t make up for poor storytelling.
Pratt hates the storyline since he came on board that is why all of the proper beats have not been done. CLB scenes were well done these actors are having to fight I am sure to bring emotion into this since that is not Pratt’s strength.
Yes, Pratt said right here to Michael Fairman that it’s not a storyline he would’ve written because it’s about a man’s privates. Geez..I guess if a female cancer had breast cancer he couldn’t tell it because it’s just about a woman’s boobies? Immature. To be fair, it’s Phelps story and she only had Michael on 1 day a week! LeBlanc, Bregman & Rikaart did awesome with almost no material. Even Tognoni nailed it upon Phyllis finding out. But then nothing. I don’t like the direction Pratt’s taking it. At least push Lauren toward a single man-not a married one with… Read more »
is the GCAC the only place to book a room in town??
are there no motels for cheaters to take their side-pieces to without going to a high profile establishment like The Club?!
Obviously Michael did not want to hide his ‘illicit tryst’, otherwise he would have taken great measures to conceal an affair…if he were indeed having one. Read Harry’s post, The__Moustache…LOL. Victor??
those scenes were heart breaking & christian knocked it out of the park!!!
i don’t think he had sex with her – i really believe they just talked…………..
I know!
they should have had sex, or tried to..
now, that would be a bit earth shaking!! A shocker !! 🙂
instead we got another crying in my beer scene 🙁
Here’s my thinking on WHY Michael hired a hooker. I don’t think that Michael had any intention of ever having sex with Felicity, period. What I think he was doing by hiring the hooker was finding someone he can talk to about his issues with his cancer, losing his manhood, about the love he has for his wife and all of that, to someone that does NOT have that emotional or tangible or familial connection to Michael and his family. There was just no way that Michael would have talked to his mother Gloria about this, certainly not Kevin, certainly… Read more »
Yes, Michael….we all think what you so well expressed. It seems we are all on the same page except for su….”Gotta” love her….everything in Su’s book is black and white…with FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, here and there. Right, Su? LOL.
Over the years, writers come and go…and some storylines I like and others I don’t. But one thing never changes….I always enjoy Christian’s performance. He is absolutely one of the VERY BEST there is!!!!
Thank you Christian, for giving us your best EVERY TIME!!!!
Wonderful acting by Christian as ALWAYS……………….
I thought it was very strange. Not true to the characters.
Lindsey looked great.
Tracey also looked great.
HUH?
Lauren is a Barbie doll…and just as old.
oh CeeCee you had me “laughing OUT Loud” about Lauren (Barbie)…. “and just as old” I used to get so angered… ie: for and with, Traci Abbott, the heated rivalry and arch nemesis w/ Lauren Fenmore Baldwin Lauren always seemed to come out on top… and the much maligned Traci persevered.. had Colleen…. and married Steve Connelly alas, Colleen died if ever , there was a human interest story… it was with Beth Maitland… Traci Abbott being the youngest child… in her mind… “least” successful… of her older siblings Jack and Ashley the overweight sister… living in the shadow of… Read more »
@Patrick Thanks for replying. I am impressed by your post Patrick. So honest, so fresh….and yes, I agree about Traci. As far as I’m concerned, she is the most real character on Y&R. Somehow, the bosses have always featured her as a backdrop, within the rest of the scenery. The only real story she had was her infatuation and consequent love for the pool boy, Brad. But, even then she was upstaged by Carlton himself. There is something to be said about that…..had she been thinner and scheming, would she have had all the applause? Sad, isn’t it?…..how the pressures… Read more »
Well as long as everyone looked great, Mo, that is all that matters.
Who is Lindsey?
I do think Lauren looks great but sometimes she reminds me of one those unnamed girl muppets from Sesame Street.
You are being too kind to Lauren, Harry…LOL. At least the muppets have personality and ‘movable parts’. I think it’s great to look so good ….but, we are all aware Lauren is too artificial. I believe in plastic surgery, but not to be overdone……just a little nip and tuck here and there. She looks half her age….very unrealistic. If Lauren would be placed in a boutique’s window, she would be mistaken for a manikin. ….out of context, but I must say…. from what I am observing, it seems to me, that both Sage and Chelsea have been impregnated by no… Read more »
Rarely these days to Soaps surprise or shock me (spoilers, casting news, etc.). My jaw was on the floor during their first scene. It was perfectly acted by the terrific Christian LeBlanc (Emmy reel) and Lindsey McKeon. Michael is lost, and feels he is a burden to Lauren. In a dark twisted way (I love the show went there), he was trying to get his groove back by ‘practicing’ on a paid prostitute. In his mind, it was easier to burden a stranger with his issues and recovery than his own wife. I thought it was realistic for his character,… Read more »
Emmy? Please we just got through this years!
Timm, that is how I feel about the next presidential election.
Logically I see why Michael feels he may die and wants to know his family has moved on BUT his scenes were with an unknown character who is a hooker. I get that sometimes what you need to say or how you feel cannot be expressed with the people you love most but it is just hard to digest this scene entirely or should I say emotionally digest this scene because, who is Felicity? Why cannot Michael reach out to his best friend Phyllis? Another example of one of the worst written weeks on Y&R. Michael has barely said two… Read more »
That is true about Phyllis, Timm.
But I think he needed to confide in a stranger who doesn’t know him and who would be indifferent to his angst. Apparently, this happens in real life.
I also think his other motivation is for Lauren to find out that he spent the night with a hooker so she will be done with him.
Harry 🙂
He wanted to test it, she if he could get it up/do the deed..
and then it turned into self-pity rant with a prostitute aha!
c’mon, that is stupid.. now we’ll never know know; can he??
Christian LeBlanc is excellent, he is a prime actor, we all know that..
He gave a good performance, no doubt of that..
but-
the whole idea of scene was stupid..
it went from interesting, could he, to a self-pity rant.. aha!!
but it was good ..
Thanks for explaining it to me, Su00.
I didn’t get it.
What would I do without you?
I see your point Harry, I’m not connecting well with Gina either!
Hi, Timmm,
Perhaps he feels that Phyllis has enough on her filthy plate, and does not want to burden her. Beside the fact that she has been in a coma….could not be the best advocate if her mind was affected……It is also possible that Christian may not have the same chemistry with Gina as he had with Michelle. I realize that acting is acting…with anyone. However, these characters are human, and as such, they interact with some characters better than others.
I said this in another thread but it is worth repeating. One of the flaws of soaps today is they are being written for the most part for their entertainment value– but entertainment and storytelling are two different things. I can watch trending videos on the Internet all day long and be entertained, but they are not art. Entertainment makes me a spectator, I am watching the action, judging it, reacting to it. Storytelling is an art form, a writer, should be drawing me into the story, I shouldn’t be thinking about about how I am feeling, a writer should… Read more »
I agree wholeheartedly.
Christian LeBlanc is consistently one of the best actors on Y&R. His performances are always very touching, riveting and honest. The way he is able to deliver his material so believably and emotionally is what makes a great actor, which he is. I truly hope that Michael is able to overcome his cancer, because it would be a HUGE loss for Y&R to lose Christian LeBlanc. Lindsey McKeon also did a wonderful job, and it’s too bad her appearance is for only 2 episodes. Gina Tognoni also delivered an amazing performance this episode, when Phyllis was talking to a comatose… Read more »
Great acting from both leads in the two days’ episodes together; however, doesn’t Michael realize he may need a shrink? Soul-searching is one thing, but soul-searching with a hooker? If she had perhaps even confided in why she does what she does and draw a parallel between the two, fine. But the hooker with a heart of gold gimmick? If not a shrink, how about spiritual guidance for Michael? And someone else said I earlier: where is Michael’s fight for himself? If I were in his shoes, I’d be doing EVERY BLESSED THING to be with my loved ones at… Read more »
Michael is on a self-pity binge..
And dropped his pity pile on a prostitute AHA!
then, to top it off-
he never did find out if it works or not..
If he had given it test ride and worked he would be all smiley in Laura’s arms..
Too bad he didn’t do what he had planed..
now we’ll have month of Michael’s pity party .. lol 🙂
I like some campy, but humorous campy not ‘sappy campy..
be interesting to see how this works out for him..
Pratt will give it journey before the conclusion..
Oh, Lordy, Lord, Su. I am having so much fun reading your posts. Give it a test ride? That is hilarious…’ Hey, buddy, let’s go give it a test ride”. Su, this scene had nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with emotion. I agree with Harry. He needed to bounce things off and vent, to a certain extent, with someone impartial….a stranger. Moreover, if he wanted to show Lauren that he is not worthy of her devotion, then, what better way than hire a lady of the night? If you consider this fantastic and realistic show of… Read more »
Yes, that is probably the only thing we agree on, Su. Michael may well be experiencing self pity and self loathing. But, he is not looking for pity from anyone else. I doubt that’s what he wants. ….neither is he looking for validation that what he feels is justified. His mind is on a dark voyage….he is looking for that elusive place which may shed some light into what he is experiencing. He knows he is on the edge of a precipice ….he does not know if he will fall. But, I do think he is trying to get his… Read more »
I think this could earn him an Emmy . Obviously , he loves Lauren wanting to spare her a possible death.It is both selfish and a loving act for his wife.His fear of not being able to be a husband in all the ways for a vital woman in every sense of the word. Lauren shouldsee riright through him,she knows him better than any one.This will be a sad storyline.This couple have survived so much,always have .
I think Michael its pledging to life to his part.
He is great (Michele) however. ….there are two male actors on this show that are just horrible. …. (stitch) and (neal)
And, a Robert. Neil really really gets on my nerves….that holier-tha-thou attitude is misplaced. He is one of the most flawed character…he never learns his lesson. He makes the same mistake over and over. Again, he gets it on with someone young enough to be his daughter and then some. His behavior disgusts me.
Yes. ..what about the way he treated Sophia, the mother of his son (Moses)?
and when he got his sight back. ..he still acted blind. …
he simply can not act.
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