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James Franco, ‘General Hospital’ Alum and Oscar Nominee, in New Microdrama ‘Love, Lies and Frank’ on Shortical

By Michael Fairman

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James Franco
Photo: Shortical

James Franco (ex-Franco, GH), who has been trying to make a comeback of sorts, is now starring in Love, Lies and Frank, a new vertical drama for Shortical. Love Lies and Frank is among the first microdramas produced under the new SAG-AFTRA agreement verticals agreement.

The two-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner, and former General Hospital guest star is sharing the vertical screen with mainstay microdrama stars, Eric Guilmette and Neela Jolene.

In story, Love, Lies and Frank follows Jimmy Frank (Franco), the CEO of a high-powered ad agency. A man with confidence and humor but marred with risk and unresolved consequence, Jimmy navigates running his company while also dealing with criminal and supernatural underworld threats. Meanwhile, one of Jimmy’s ambitious employees, Daniella Hanson (Jolene), lands her dream campaign and reignites a forbidden romance with her eccentric boss’s stepbrother Cameron Frank (Guilmette), forcing her to choose between the career she’s fought for and the love she’s been hiding.

Photo: Shortical

JAMES FRANCO HEADLINES A MICRODRAMA

Guy Shimoni, CEO of Shortical said of adding James Franco to the cast, “Hollywood is beginning to embrace vertical storytelling in a meaningful way. To see a talent like James Franco headlining an original microdrama is an important milestone for the industry. We at Shortical are proud to be setting the standard by bringing world-class talent, filmmakers, and stories to audiences in an entirely new way, proving that premium entertainment can thrive in a mobile-first world.”

Love, Lies & Frank is directed by Eric Wang Schwager, written by Melissa Lynn Moore and produced by Knockout Shorts with Peter Gold of Gold Films. No AI generated performances or digital replicas were used in the production, which has been a recent move by several vertical short companies.

Matthew Ko, Co-Founder and CEO of Knockout Shorts added, “Love, Lies & Frank was a really fun collision of worlds. It gave us the opportunity to play with the conventions of the genre, and subvert them just enough without losing sight of what audiences already love about these stories. The goal was always to make something that felt both familiar and completely unexpected.”

Photo: ABC

THE ARTIST KNOWN AS FRANCO ON GENERAL HOSPITAL

General Hospital fans will recall it was back in 2009, that James Franco, played the artist known as “Franco” who was fixated on death and became a main villain of the show and nemesis to Jason Morgan (Steve Burton). At the time, James Franco explained about his GH alter-ego. “Franco works in a lot of different ways. He does graffiti, performances, photographs. He creates installations based on murder scenes featuring murders he possibly was involved with. He’s interested in pushing the boundaries of art – both aesthetically and ethically – and he will go way too far.”

James played “Franco” for a few runs on the soap opera from 2009-2010 and again for stint from the fall of 2011 to early 2012. Later in 2013, the role of Franco was recast with Roger Howarth playing the role until 2021.

The last several years have been difficult for James Franco to find work in Hollywood, following a 2019 sexual misconduct scandal and abuse of power allegations of inappropriate behavior towards aspiring actresses at his now-defunct acting school, Studio 4. Franco settled a lawsuit for $2.2 million in 2021, later admitting he slept with students and addressing issues surrounding power imbalances. The actor maintained he did not open his acting school to lure women for sexual advances. Since the scandal broke in 2019, James has only appeared in five films and mostly from international distributors.

Love, Lies & Frank is now available exclusively on Shortical here.

So, what do you think of James Franco starring in a microdrama? Did you enjoy him as General Hospital’s OG Franco? Let us know via the comment section below.

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Yes yes yes love James Franco,y

Really have no use for him after his mockery and disrespect of GH.

The only real Franco. And his story ended appropriately when Jason emptied a clip into him and then burned down the building his body was in, just to make sure he was dead.

A fitting end for a psychotic serial killer. No reason to ever bring back a character with that name, let alone in the form of a recast just to satisfy legal red tape that the Valentini/ReRon regime found themselves in when they attempted to graft the remains of their cancelled previous show into GH.

And definitely no reason to attempt to sanitize such a character, blame his long string of murders & terrorism on a “brain tumor” and claim he was now a family man who was fit to teach “art therapy” to children.

Applauding wildly. Thank you. And moreover, it was not fair to Roger Howarth to recast him as Franco.

I would love to see James Franco on Off Broadway in a play he writes, directs..and acts..perhaps an autobiography of being Franco..and changes n lessons in his life..

General Hospital

‘General Hospital’ Alum Eva LaRue Talks Guest Performer Daytime Emmy Nod With Maurice Benard: ‘I Only Have a Nomination Because of You’

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It was back in episodes of June of 2025 that saw the undoing and ultimate death of Natalia Rogers-Ramirez after complex and poignant scenes delivered by soap opera vet, Eva LaRue on General Hospital. Prior to her demise, Sonny (Maurice Benard) had Natalia believing they were going to head out of the country and set up their lives together, only for Sonny to pull out at the last moment after learning of all of Natalia’s deception.

Throughout her run on GH, LaRue’s Natalia became one of the most hated characters of the year, especially because of the character’s bigotry against her own gay children, Marco (Adrian Anchondo) and Blaze (Jacqueline Grace Lopez), and that she was revealed to be the ex-wife of Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota). But even with all that, Eva triumphed and secured a Daytime Emmy nomination going into the 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards on October 30 in the Outstanding Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series.

LaRue faces tough competition from the other nominees that include: Christopher Sean (Paul, Days of our Lives), Jasmine Burke (June Hughes, Beyond the Gates), Jeff Kober (ex-Cyrus Renault, General Hospital), and Ray Wise (ex-Ian Ward, The Young and the Restless).

Outstanding Guest Performer Nominees

Photo: NATAS

EVA LARUE SCORED HER FOURTH EMMY NOMINATION

Now, on a new Sunday, October 11 edition of Maurice Benard’s mental health series, State of Mind, the two former co-stars talked about LaRue’s fourth Daytime Emmy nomination. She previously won an Emmy for her work as as Celeste Rosales on The Young and the Restless in this same category in 2020, and was nominated three other times including this year.

The others were for co-writing the song, “Dance with You Again” for All My Children in 2004 and in 1997 in the Supporting Actress category her role as Mario Santos on the beloved ABC soap opera.

Speaking on her nomination, LaRue says it’s Maurice who was truly helped her deliver her performances. “I only have a nomination because of you,” she said to the three-time Daytime Emmy winning Lead Actor. “You said to me that you were going to get nominated.” Eva added, “God bless the writers because they wrote some fantastic stuff for me to go out on.”

Maurice responded, “You had levels in your work that day that we did those scenes. But you were on fire!”

Sonny and Natalia, GH

Photo: ABC

MAURICE BENARD’S BOLD EMMY PREDICTION

Explaining the category she is nominated for to Benard, LaRue said, “I’m nominated for Outstanding Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series. So (the category) was those of us who were like not on contract, but we were there for a while. I mean now, I feel like that guest thing is so much more competitive than it ever was, because so many of the soap operas are taking people off contract, which then throws them into the Guest category.”

Benard, who shares he has great Emmy karma predicting the acting awards on daytime’s biggest night, made his bold 2026 prediction sharing his pick. “I would say you’re gonna win (to LaRue). And I would say if not, it’s between you and somebody else. There’s no reason why you wouldn’t win for the ‘Guest’ category.”

You can watch part 1 of the conversation between Eva LaRue and Maurice Benard on State of Mind below. With part 2 being released next Sunday on October 18.

Now, let us know, do you think Eva has a chance at grabbing the gold for her work as Natalia-Rogers Ramirez on General Hospital? Would you like to see her win? It’s been a very heavy time for Eva after just recently losing her brother. Let us know your thoughts via the comment section.

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General Hospital

GENERAL HOSPITAL: Who Winds Up Hitting the Sheets First? Jordan and Michael or Curtis and Monet?

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Curtis, Monet, Michael and Jordan

After today’s Friday, October 9 episode of General Hospital, Monet Mitchell (Blythe Howard) informs Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner), that not only is she Jordan’s (Tanisha Harper) half-sister, but the best damn lawyer there is to get him out of spending the rest of his prison sentence in Pentonville. Does he believe her?

If Monet can come through, would Curtis look at her in a whole new light, especially since his girlfriend, Jordan has headed to Europe with Michael (Rory Gibson) to visit the burn clinic to restore her face and remove the scars that have plagued her since the car accident with him?

It appears GH is ready to shake-up the couples and the romance on the long-running ABC soap opera. We already know Tanisha Harper previewed that the series is trying out the chemistry between Harper and her GH co-star Rory Gibson, and that Michael and Jordan might explore their burgeoning feelings for one another since both currently work together at Aurora Media, and understand what the other went through following horrific sets of circumstances that left them scarred.

Photo: ABC

As for Monet, she would like nothing more than to stick to her sister as their is still a deep troubled history between the two yet to be fully revealed. It would seem Monet would love to flaunt a relationship with Curtis. And knowing Curtis, he will be so eternally grateful to Monet for helping him gain his freedom that this might be a possible scenario. But the question becomes, who cheats on who first?

Do you think Jordan and Michael hook-up while away from Port Charles? Does Monet take advantage of Curtis, if and when, he becomes a free man? Does Curtis already sense Jordan pulling away from him but is keeping that inside, or will this all come as shocker if he were to learn Michael and Jordan have become closer?

Tanisha and Rory

Photo: ABC

While much of this is speculation, it does seem like the trajectory of the storyline; given that Michael’s recent love interest Jacinda (Paige Herschell) was written-out of the story, and it appears that Serena Baldwin (Kelly Kruger) is now being put in the romantic path of Jason Morgan (Steve Burton).

GH spoilers for the week of October 12-16 indicate that on Wednesday, October 14, Michael reflects on his past, while on Thursday, October 16 Monet advises Curtis.

So, do you think that Jordan hits the sheets with Michael, and Monet and Curtis will hook up? Or, do you think it will all be a giant tease? If it becomes true, who would you be rooting for to end up together? Any of them? Let us know in the comment section below.

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General Hospital

GENERAL HOSPITAL: Chase Turns a Blind Eye to the Scathing Headline About His Ex-Wife and Runs to Her Defense

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Chase

By the end of the Thursday, October 8 episode of General Hospital, we were left scratching our heads at how utterly indefensible Chase’s (Josh Swickard) complete and utter blind eye to his ex-wife, Willow’s (Katelyn MacMullen) actions and his knight in shining armor antics are so misguided.

Let’s break this down! After Lulu’s (Alexa Havins) piece in The Invader has the whole town of Port Charles talking, Carly (Laura Wright) laughs in Drew’s (Cameron Mathison) face about how he was trapped in a wheelchair with a paralytic drug for months, while Tracy (Jane Elliot) filled Michael (Rory Gibson) and Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) in on the article, which to this point they have not seen.

Said article, comes on the heels of Lulu’s little chat with Sidwell (Carlo Rota) in his hospital room. The headline reads: “Motion Denied: Congresswoman Gives Husband Paralytic Drug For Months!”

Michael and Brook Lynn worried that Willow will lash out do something vengeful and blame the Quartermaines for this. They hope that Chase will finally see the light to who Willow truly is.

Willow

Courtesy/ABC

WILLOW CAN DO NO WRONG?

Meanwhile, Chase is meeting with his lawyer Monet Mitchell (Blythe Howard) to discuss his separation from Brook Lynn, when he suddenly gets a text from Tracy. He opens it up and tells Monet he has to bolt. Something has come up. So, Chase being Chase, shows up in the Quartermaine kitchen and blames Brook Lynn, Michael and Tracy for a hit piece on his ex-wife.

The three deny involvement. But Chase being Chase, doesn’t believe a word they are saying. He then makes a VOW to stop them from trying to destroy Willow’s reputation any further! After he storms out, Brook Lynn is angered and devastated that no matter what, Chase is standing by his ex, and not trying to save his marriage to her.

FRIENDLY SUPPORT INTERUPPTED

Meanwhile at the gatehouse, Willow is opening up to Britt (Kelly Thiebaud), who came by to see her to offer her support. Willow admitted the story is true and that Sidwell gave her the paralytic drugs to use on Drew, in return for having her implanted in congress to do his bidding and to take Drew’s seat. Willow’s concerned that the mere existence of this article will cause massive problems with her political career and the custody arrangement over her children she has with Michael.

As Britt tries to help Willow figure a way to save herself, Chase arrives fuming mad. He tells Willow he is absolutely sure that Brook Lynn, Michael and Tracy were behind the article and he knows exactly how they could fight back.

So, does it seem to you that even if Willow admits to Chase to what she did to Drew is true, that Chase will just feel bad for her and not see anything but desire for her? Is Chase going to continue to be the dumbest male character in daytime? Weigh-in via the comment section, but first, check out the scenes between Britt and Willow below from today’s GH.

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Jonathan Bennett joins the cast of GH as Joe Fitzpatrick. Catch the latest promo! Leave a comment.Leave A Comment

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