Van in the Iron Mask

O HAY BOI:


That's Van/Luke (is it Batman, or is it Bruce Wayne?!) dressed up as Lord Byron for ATWT's upcoming costume ball fiesta extravaganza party. Hee on the choice of character. All the costumes look pretty cool, actually, from what I saw. Except that Emily-as-Marie-Antoinette has some kind of mohawk do-dad, but I'm sure it was borne of tears and guilt and remorse for all her many many sins and OH PAUL HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!!!

Er, back to Van. I've not been very into ATWT for months, probably because Days has actually been getting good. I don't really know what ATWT wants me to care about lately. Am I supposed to be excited that Dusty is emotionally abusing another, even younger woman just a few short months after his beloved "Red" turned in for her extended dirt nap? Am I supposed to care about Mike/Katie/Simon, round 487364 (even though I don't mind CarlySimon at all, actually)? Also -- SPOILER ALERT, kind of, even though it's just casting news and it's in the mainstream press --

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I find it rather amusing that both Mark Collier (Mike) and Paul Leyden (Simon) are leaving by year's end. No idea if they'll recast Mike, though I don't see the point; I'm sure Simon will take off again, though. I like both actors/characters well enough, except this Katie-go-round feels so pointless and boring. Katie-and-Mike is just not a very interesting pairing, except that both actors look nice and they're sort of pleasant together. And they don't seem willing to commit to another real go at Skatie, so whatever. Go away, please, and let Katie get her spunk/brain/soul back. How did one of my favorite characters turn into my favorite substitute for downing a whole bottle of Sominex?

Anyways...

I'm bored by Luke's role as of late, too. I'm not a demented Luke/Kevin shipper -- *~LUVIN~* omg!!!11 -- but I'd like to see some real momentum to that situation. I thought they were done with it, and then they were really heavy on it for, like, two weeks during the Raven Lake stuff, and since then... nothing, really. Have I missed something? Because it seemed like there was more to that story, whether it was Kevin actually having some attraction to Luke or just them re-opening a friendship and Luke struggling to keep his feelings to himself, but maybe that was just the way the actors played it. I don't know, it just didn't feel like, "Bye Kevin, we'll never see you again!"

Meanwhile, Luke is inexplicably friends with Jade. I don't get what they are going for with that character, seriously. I like Elena Goode just fine, and I might care about Jade if I had some clue what the hell the writers thought of her. Is she good? Is she bad? Is she anything? This whole Jade-is-really-Rose's-daughter bit seems like such an afterthought, and now we get that sanctimonious idiot Lily running around like the Patron Saint of Orphaned Sociopaths. "Oh, Gwen, my niece has just been in a Very Dangerous Accident involving falling books! Will, how can you speak ill of my niece?" I half-expect Lily to throw a coming-out party for Jade and recruit Gwen, Will, and Maddie to be her attendants, carrying the train of her dress and feeding her grapes.

P.S. Ghost of Rose? If you were going to appear to someone and be all omniscient about Jade, it might've been helpful if you'd done it back when she was suspected of being a serial killer a little while back. I know Lily was in a coma, but really.

Vanorexia

On December 1, Van will take part in a reading of the play "The Laramie Project" to commemorate the 30th birthday of Matthew Shepard. The reading is being put on by the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which was founded by Shepard's parents after his 1998 murder, and will be held in Times Square, NY. Other participants will include Judith Light, Cyndi Lauper, and Chad Allen. If you happen to be in the area, you can purchase tickets here.

No silliness in this post. This is actually a worthwhile cause, so kudos to Van for his participation.

V'Day

Today Van turns 25 years old!

From all of us, but especially our good pal Beyonce:

HAPPY B'DAY!

May you be rockin' chinchilla coats and skiing through the lawn in stilettos with your pet alligators for many more years!

He's the VAN!

I don't even need to take credit for that title, because Soap Opera Digest came up with it. The link is to a nice interview with Van from a few weeks back. But, in the name of marking our territory: Step off, ho (TV Guide), or we'll piss on you!

Meanwhile, cool trivia. Despite being VANatics, we didn't know this. Yes, yes, we're not very good VANatics, and we should be drawn and quartered and have our corpses dust-bustered by Carly and Lily, but still. Van's full name is Evan Vanfossen Hansis. How cool is that? Very regal.

Vancing with the Stars

We'd be remiss if we didn't offer apologies for being such poor Vanatics. But the truth is, ATWT has been kind of a snoozefest this summer. Jen's two-week death scene had its moments, but I'm fairly certain they could've been condensed into, like, one episode; this Maddie crap smacks of rewrite (of a six-month-old character!). The show just hasn't held our attention much these last few months. We've been making an effort to watch the show more often, and we promise to update this thing more often than every two months, too.

Van's CBS blog has been updated a few times, though it seems he's been suffering from the same sort of heat-induced lethargy that we have. The latest entry is particularly cute, as it deals with all the younger cast members going out for Alex Chando's 20th birthday. There's also a terrific one a few entries back regarding the parallels between soaps and comics, something I've always found intriguing. Definitely worth a read.

Also noteworthy: a short film in which Van starred at NYU is available on YouTube. It's cute and rather well put-together for a student short.

More snark coming soon.

Vanity

Sorry for the lag in posting. Things have sort of calmed down at Vanatics HQ (read: our computer rooms) since Luke came out and the story settled into a regular rhythm.

But line of the day, nay, week clearly goes to Luke. In today's episode, he told Lucy that he has no fashion sense: "I like stripes." If that ain't an internet shoutout, we're ham sandwiches.

Luke and Lucy pal-ing around? Could be fun. Spencer Grammar is an appealing actress, stupid accelerated medical program aside. Not quite the Maddie/Luke BFFship for which we've hoped and dreamed, but it'll do.

VAN of the hour

AfterElton.com has a new interview up with Van, talking about his storyline and the coming-out episodes. It's a great read; they actually discuss the issues in some depth. Best part:

AE: [Luke]'s just a typical teenager.
VH: Yeah. And that's a very important thing. He's probably the worst dressed kid on the show.

But the stripes! All the stripes! Stripes are high fashion in Oakdale!

At least they haven't shoved him into something like that clown-pee shirt that Henry keeps wearing over and over.