Paula's Soapbox

Days of Our Lives is beginning to look a lot like a reality show, with a barrage of actors leaving seemingly every week. Late last year Lindsay Hartley, who played Rafe and Gabi's sister Arianna exited the show. Now fresh on the heels of Mark Hapka's (Nathan) apparent firing comes the announcement on soapoperadigest.com that Shelley Hennig (Stephanie) and Jay Kenneth Johnson (Philip) will soon be exiting the show as well. Apparently both Shelley and Jay have opted not to stay with the show - no word yet as to whether their characters will be recast. Without recasts it seems impossible to explain the exits given their current storylines. Nathan will likely go to Baltimore, but I'm not sure how they are going to explain Philip and Stephanie's absence without recasting. I suppose since Stephanie is now single she could simply leave town in pursuit of a fresh start; but with Philip being the father of Melanie's baby it seems like a recast may be necessary. All of these...

With the Parker paternity storyline now coming to a close, DOOL seems to be giving GH a run for their money in how to bungle the endings of perfectly good storylines. I, like many viewers, assumed that once it was discovered that Philip cheated on Melanie and fathered Chloe's child, and that Stephanie was keeping this from Nathan, there would be a Melanie and Nathan reunion. However, two very important things happened last week that will undoubtedly make that impossible. First, it was announced that Mark Hapka had been fired. Then DOOL released a promo which shows Melanie finding out she is pregnant, presumably with Philip's baby (unless of course they find a way to write in that she slept with someone else). DOOL has been teasing its viewers for months about a Nathan and Melanie reunion and to suddenly drop that as a possibility seems like such a waste. Where is the return on the viewers' investment in watching this show? Of course there is always a chance that th...