Hall of Fame: Genie Francis

Genie Francis
2009 Soap Opera Hall of Fame Inductee

• Alice Dennison, Family
• Laura Vining Webber, General Hospital
• Patricia "Tyger" Hayes, Bare Essence
• unknown role, Glitter
• Jenny Bernard, Hotel
• Melinda Jenkins, Hotel
• Diana Colville, Days of Our Lives
• Ceara Connor, All My Children
• Ceara Connor, Loving

Eugenia Ann Francis, better known as Genie Francis to her fans, was born on May 26, 1962 in Englewood, New Jersey is probably daytime TV's most famous teen star ever.

Her father, Ivor Francis, a Canadian actor of English descent, was on the Gloria Monty-directed soap opera Bright Promise in the early 1970s, a few years before his daughter would work for her. He died in 1986 from the effects of multiple strokes. He played a brief role on General Hospital as an adoption counselor when his daughter was also on the show. Her mother, Rosemary Daley, is a former actress/model of Lithuanian descent. Genie is a confirmed Catholic. She has an older brother Ivor Jr., a younger brother Kenneth, and an older half-sister Shelley from her father's first marriage.

Genie met actor/director Jonathan Frakes while filming the television show, Bare Essence. After meeting again during the filming of the miniseries, North and South, Genie and Jonathan started dating in 1985. They became engaged in 1986, and married on May 28, 1988. The couple have two children, Jameson Ivor Frakes, born in 1994, and Elizabeth Francis Frakes, born in 1997. They have just recently moved from Belfast, Maine to Beverly Hills, California.

Genie's acting career started at the age of 13 with a guest appearance on the Aaron Spelling primetime series Family playing Alice Dennison, an unfriendly classmate of Kristy McNichol's Buddy Lawrence, in 1976. Even with only one professional acting credit to her name, she followed that with her most famous role, that of Laura Webber Spencer on General Hospital, a role in which fans got to watch her grow from a young teen of 14 into a young woman.

When Monty took over the producer position on the ailing show and decided that the dramatic focus should be on the younger characters, Douglas Marland wrote a daring story in which the confused, immature Laura took an older man as a lover. When her lover David Hamilton taunted Laura with the fact that it was really her mother that he loved, Laura accidentally killed him, and her mother took the rap for the murder.

Her ferocious, highly emotional performance at fifteen amazed her peers and, through word of mouth, hordes of teenagers were brought into the General Hospital audience. The highly melocramatic storyline was beautifully juxtaposed by a sweet, puppy-love romance with Scotty Baldwin (Kin Shriner). The ratings took off.

Then Pat Falken Smith, well known for her rape stories on Days of Our Lives, took over and wrote a highly ambiguous, controversial storyline in which Laura would fall in love with her rapist-seducer, Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary). The chemistry between Francis and Geary was undeniable, adn when "the powers that be" got around to calling the rap a seduction, Francis felt - and justifiably so - that her highly skilled performance as a rape victim had been negated.

The series of stories would bring her instant stardom though. A series of Luke-and-Laura-on-the-run stories would make Luke and Laura an international phenomenon and bring General Hospital unprecedented ratings. The stories sealed forever Luke and Laura as the most popular super couple in daytime history and brought them appearances on the covers of TV Guide, Us Weekly, and People magazines.

The television couple wed on November 16, 1981, with 30 million viewers tuning in to make this episode the highest-rated hour in soap opera history.

Francis was exhausted. For five years she had appeared almost daily, learing 50 pages of dialogue everyday along with her high school tudor on the set. She had no personal life at all, and felt that her whole adolescence and teenage years had been skipped. While she was in the midst of her tumultuous affair onscreen, she had not even been kissed in real life. At the peak of her success, Francis left the show in December 1982 to try her hand at primetime television and to take a brief break from the life of a soap opera actress. Her last scenes as Laura showed Laura disappearing in the fog while being trailed by a kidnapper.

Soon after, she landed a contract from CBS which included two big-budget TV movies and a series pilot. She landed the starring role in the made-for-TV movie, Bare Essence. The movie received high ratings, putting an end to the speculation that a former daytime actress could not lure a large primetime audience. When the movie was opted for a weekly series by NBC, she found herself starring in her own series. Sadly, Bare Essence, was not a success, being unable to capture the impact the movie had made, most in part due to lethargic writing that never was able to showcase the talent Francis had at all.

She decided to take time off to study and moved to New York, also hoping to launch a career on the stage. Genie had remained a fan favorite and viewers of GH wanted her back. GH offered a huge salary for thirty appearances and despite her desire to work on the stage, she agreed to come back. Fans were delighted when she returned to General Hospital on November 14, 1983. Her return was brought about to coincide with the departure of Luke when Geary decided to leave the series. During her first week on the show, the ratings jumped, adding three million viewers to the GH audience. When her limited run ended, Francis stayed true to her theater ambitions and returned to New York. She would return to General Hospital for one more brief visit in November 1984, but her work during this time was mostly on the stage and in primetime television.

She co-starred in the hit ABC miniseries, North and South (Books I and II), as the good Southern sister, Brett Main. Genie's extensive television work also included recurring appearances on Murder, She Wrote. Later she was seen in the television movie, Perry Mason and the Case of the Killer Kiss, and in Heaven and Hell, the third North and South installment.

She also was lucky in finding work on the stage where she has appeared in Crimes of the Heart and See How They Run. In 1991, Ms. Francis appeared in the Williamstown Festival Theater production of Defying Gravity. That same year, she made her New York City debut in The Baby Dance at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Greenwich Village. She also appeared in a Comedic Curtain Raiser at Manhattan Class Company for their festival of One Acts, called "The Group."

Through the years, other daytime soaps have pursued Francis because of her tremendous popularity. She appeared on Days of our Lives as Diana Colville from 1987 to 1989 and on All My Children as con artist and incest victim Ceara Connor Hunter from 1990 to 1992. She reprised her role as Ceara on Loving in November 1991. She then returned to GH in 1993. In 1994, when Francis fell pregnant with her first child, the pregnancy was written into the show and Genie took six weeks off for maternity leave. However in early 1997 when she fell pregnant again, she took a much longer absence from the show, staying away for nearly a year and a half.

In September 2002 she abruptly left General Hospital following ABC's refusal to work out a contract she wanted.

In June 2006, Francis began negotiating with the casting directors on the show in returning to the role of Laura Webber Spencer for a limited run through November. She returned to the show with spectacular fanfare to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Luke and Laura's wedding. The magic of Luke and Laura was recaptured, and the reunion garnered the show more publicity than it had seen in years. Though she reprised the role for only one month, Francis's stint was so successful that she garnered a Daytime Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, which she ended up winning in June 2007. "Oh my goodness!" she said. "Thank you so much. I am overwhelmed. I've waited 31 years for this moment."

In December 2007, Francis had a starring role in the Hallmark Channel movie, The Note, which earned her critical acclaim.

Genie Francis returned to General Hospital in August 2008 to reprise her role as Laura Webber Spencer. Francis told the AP, "It's a mother-daughter story. Years ago when I started playing the character as a 14-year-old girl, it was a mother-daughter story, only I was the daughter. So it's kinda cool this is full circle. It's nice to come back for visits. General Hospital is my home." She continued, "I would stay on, but General Hospital honestly doesn't seem to want that relationship with this character at the moment," said Francis. "They want little short doses during sweeps periods. It's not entirely up to me. I'm thrilled and delighted my audience stands behind me. If they didn't, you can be sure I wouldn't get to come back for these visits." Laura's character was written off as returning to France for treatment for her illness.

Where Are They Now: Ann Gillespie

Ann Gillespie (Siobahn Ryan, Ryan's Hope; Vice Squad Officer, Hotel; Emory, 7th Heaven; Mrs. Ellis, ER; Mrs. Roenisch, The Practice; Shelly Thomas, Sunset Beach; Jackie Taylor, Beverly Hills 90210; Mrs. Geller, Gilmore Girls; Mrs. Finch, Judging Amy; Jackie Taylor, 90210)

Source: UPI.com

Ann Gillespie headed back to '90210'

Published: Aug. 5, 2009 at 10:16 AM

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Ann Gillespie, the actress
who played Jackie Taylor-Silver on the 1990s teen soap "Beverly Hills, 90210," has signed up to appear in its spin-off "90210."

Gillespie played the mother of Kelly Taylor on the original series.

The CW network told TVGuide.com she has agreed to appear as Jackie in several episodes of the second season of the new edition, starting in October.

Jennie Garth reprised her role of Kelly when "90210" debuted last year. She is expected to appear in several installments of the show in Season 2, as well, TVGuide.com said.

Where Are They Now: Claudia Lonow

Claudia Lonow (Hayley Cole, Hotel; Diana Fairgate, Knots Landing; Hairdresser, Beverly Hills 90210; Waitress, 7th Heaven)

Source: Ausiello Files

Press Tour Diary:
'Accidentally on Purpose'
by Michael Ausiello

WHO: Jenna Elfman, Ashley Jensen, Jon Foster, Grant Show, Lennon Parham, Nicolas Wright, and exec producer Claudia Lonow.
PREMISE: Knocked Up for TV. With half the laughs.

2:34 pm/PST: CBS handed out bowls of condoms prior to the session. And Skittles. Still debating which one I’m going to tear into first. Decisions, decisions…

2:35 pm: Elfman says the show is not a rip-off of Knocked Up. Rather, it’s a rip-off of based on a book called Accidentally on Purpose.

2:38 pm: Ashley Jensen’s real-life pregnancy will not be written into the show. On leaving the New York-based Ugly Betty for the L.A.-based Accidentally on Purpose, Jensen says, “I’m not getting as many air miles.”

2:41 pm: Regarding her numerous failed attempts to find sitcom success after Dharma & Greg, Elfman says, “I love comedy so much. And I was bound and determined to find another great show.” Wait, she’s already lined up another project after Accidentally?

2:44 pm: Opted to go with the condoms. Now comes the fun part: Deciding which critic I’m going to have sex with tonight. [Scanning the room] No. No. Maybe with a blindfold. No. Ew. Changed my mind. I’m going with the Skittles.

2:48 pm: Grant Show won’t rule out a guest appearance on The CW’s Melrose Place reboot. “We’ve been talking, but there’s nothing solid yet,” he says. “I’m not opposed to it.” Says if it happens, it’ll probably be in season 2.

2:53 pm: Jensen concedes that A.O.P. is “much more conventional than Extras,” her late, great showbiz farce with Ricky Gervais.

2:54 pm: Assuming the show will last nine whole months, Elfman’s character will eventually have the baby, insists exec producer Claudia Lonow (a former Knots Landing actress).

3:01 pm: Wait a second, are we allowed to have sex with the folks on the panel?!

3:02 pm: A CBS page informs me that no, the condoms can only be used for consensual sex with a fellow critic. Curses.

3:03 pm: Session’s over! Time for “sundaes on Monday” snack break!

3:20 pm: CBS is trying every means possible — the soothing sounds of a xylophone, free swine flu vaccines, cold hard cash — to lure us upstairs to The Diplomat room for The Doctors press conference. Nothing’s working.

3:22 pm: The show’s publicist is now reminding folks that the show “is Emmy nominated.” Still no takers.

3:26 pm: Publicist just returned to announce that The Doctors is “the No. 1 new show in syndication.” Crickets.

Hall of Fame: Denise Alexander

Denise Alexander

2009 Soap Opera Hall of Fame Inductee

• unknown role, Perry Mason
• Lois Adams, The Clear Horizon
• unknown role, General Hospital
• Emily Sanders, Ben Jerrod
• Lorna Hill, General Hospital
• Susan Hunter, Days of Our Lives
• Dr. Lesley Wiliams, General Hospital
• Gail McLain, Hotel
• Mary McKinnon, Another World
• Sister Beatrice, Sunset Beach

Denise Alexander (born November 11, 1939) is best known to modern audiences for her role as Lesley Webber on General Hospital, a role she created in 1973. She has been called at times the most consistently popular actress in the history of television soap operas.

Born on Long Island, New York, she moved to Los Angeles when her father, Alec Alexander, an agent who handled at that point such notables as Frank Gorshin and Sal Mineo, decided to make the switch from the east to the west coast.

Alexander began her career as a child actress performing in radio shows such as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I Remember Mama, The Marriage where she played the daughter of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and the radio soap opera Perry Mason. A successful child actress, Alexander racked up literally thousands of performing credits on TV and radio, 5000 in radio alone, by the time she was a junior at UCLA where she majored in English. On the stage, she starred on Broadway as Evelyn Munn in the revival of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour and appeared with Ethel Waters in A Member of the Wedding. She made her feature movie debut at age fourteen in the John Cassavetes film Crime In The Streets in 1956. Television began to claim her almost exclusively, and she eventually guested in over 200 shows, including Father Knows Best, I Remember Mama, Ben Casey, Twilight Zone, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Virginian, The Danny Kaye Show, and Combat.

On daytime television, she got her first regular job in 1960 portraying Lois Adams on The Clear Horizon for two years. She next appeared in daytime on the pilot episode of General Hospital on April 1, 1963; the name of her character is unknown. Next she would have a shorter stint as Emily Sanders on the short-lived NBC soap opera, Ben Jerrod, which had debuted the same day as General Hospital.

Alexander took a brief reprieve from acting and tried to sell real estate. Her return to acting happened in 1965, again on General Hospital for a short stint, this time as Lorna Hill.

Alexander first came to fame in the soap opera genre by playing Susan Hunter Martin on Days of our Lives a role she created in March 1966. A popular actress, much of the show's early success had to do with Susan's rivalry with Julie Olson (played the longest by Susan Seaforth Hayes). She became so popular in the role that she was frequently at number 1 in the most popular fan poll of the time conducted by Daytime TV magazine; twice being named Best Actress of the Year for 1972 and 1973. For seven years, her character was involved in a never-ending series of melodramtic turns -- mental instability, serious illness, rape, murder, etc. -- but Alexander tore into the role with exquisite emotionalism and gothic beauty that kept viewers riveted.

In 1973, Susan Martin was written out of the show temporarily when the Days casting office hit a snag renewing her contract and the contract lapsed. ABC Daytime rushed to offer her a then-unheard of salary/perks package to join General Hospital. When Susan Martin finally returned to Days, a new actress was playing her.

A few months later, she started on General Hospital, playing the role of Dr. Lesley Williams, which would become her longest-tenured role in daytime. At the time of her move to General Hospital, she received the highest salary every paid to a daytime actress.

For several years, the character of Lesley lacked direction. She was burdened with frigidity, a psychopathic husband, and a child that aged ten years overnight. It seemed for at least awhile that General Hospital just didn't know what to do with the character. That all changed as Alexander as Lesley proved pivotal to the show's comeback in 1978 after the late Gloria Monty took over as producer. In a storyline written by the late Douglas Marland, Lesley took the rap for her daughter's murder of David Hamilton, culminating in Lesley's trial for murder and the alienation of her husband Rick. Alexander's performance in this plotline and in the subsequent Rick-Lesley-Monica triangle was just as important as the Luke and Laura love story in bringing General Hospital to number one in the ratings. This culminated in her once again being named Best Actress of the Year by Daytime TV magazine in 1980.

In a 1981 People Weekly interview, Alexander spoke about her General Hospital boss, calling the late Gloria Monty "a wonderfully bossy little lady."

Alexander stayed with the show for eleven years, choosing to leave after tense contract negotiations in 1984. She last appeared in March 1984. Fans were outraged when her character was not just written out but killed off in an automobile accident, leaving little chance of a return to the show, especially since at this time returns from the dead were not standard fare in daytime dramas. Fans picketed the ABC studios. General Hospital's ratings which were already declining continued to do so after her departure.

In 1986, she was offered a big salary to portray the absent McKinnon matriarch, Mary, on Another World. The role was created by Margaret DePriest who had written for General Hospital years before, and had worked with Alexander there. When the commute from her home in Los Angeles to Another World's studio in New York City proved to be difficult for her, she left in 1989. In 1996, she returned to General Hospital and has played the character of Lesley on a recurring basis. In 1997, she began appearing for a few months as Sister Beatrice on the NBC soap opera, Sunset Beach.

Outside of soaps, she has produced for both network and cable television, spoken as guest lecturer/speaker to groups from charities to civic groups to college audiences. She has also worked as a photojournalist for Ladies Home Journal and other magazines. For the Katherine Hepburn film Olly, Olly, Oxen Free, directed by her longtime companion Richard Colla, she served as still photographer and production coordinator.

In 1982, she also co-produced and co-starred in Shaft of Love for Showtime Cable Network. The soap opera comedy featured such daytime favorites as Tony Geary, Kin Shriner, Morgan Fairchild, Ed Nelson, and Susan Flannery.

Besides her wins as Best Actress mentioned above, Alexander holds the record as being the performer with the most appearances in their monthly Top 10. She received one Daytime Emmy nomination in 1976 as Best Actress for the role of Lesley.

Hall of Fame: Anthony Geary

Anthony Geary

2009 Soap Opera Hall of Fame Inductee

• David Lockhart, Bright Promise
• George Curtis, Young & the Restless
• Lucas Lorenzo Spencer, General Hospital
• Eli Gilmour, Hotel
• Phil Tanner, Hotel
• Bill Eckert, General Hospital
• Luke Spencer, Port Charles
• Luke Spencer, General Hospital: Night Shift

Anthony Geary, the first media superstar created exclusively by daytime drama, was born May 29, 1947 in Coalville, Utah, a small mountain community of eight hundred people. He has earned the adulation of millions for his emotionally provocative, often hillarious performances of anti-hero Luke Spencer on ABC's General Hospital.

Geary was a gifted student in Coalville, attending the University of Utah as a Presidential Award Scholar in theater. Jack Albertson saw Geary perform there, and cast him as his son in the tour of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Subject Was Roses. The production, starring Albertson and Martha Scott, toured Hawaii and settled at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles, where Geary decided to establish himself, taking a job selling toys in a department store while making the audtion rounds. One of the highlights of his department store job was selling trains to Shelley Winters. He took other odd jobs such as a Vegas chorus boy and acted in summer stock, eventually racking up credits in over forty stage productions. A highlight in this period was his co-starring engagement with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in Your Show of Shows.

For nearly a decade, Geary shuttled back and forth between the stage, film, primetime and daytime television.

Among his early films, he was in a quickie Western called Educated Heart and a horror exploitation film Blood Sabbath, which was mercifully never released. His best movie role was a small part in the 1971 anti-war cult film Johnny Get Your Gun, adapted from Dalton Trumbo's novel and directed by Trumbo.

Geary has performed in more than 50 stage productions throughout the United States. His extensive theatrical credits include roles in productions of The Wild Duck, The Inspector General, The Cat's Paw, The Glass Menagerie, and Barabbas at the Los Angeles Theater Center. In addition, he toured with a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, portraying the title role. He also portrayed Octavius Caesar, opposite Lynn Redgrave and Timothy Dalton, in a production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra for PBS and the BBC.

He has made guest appearances on more than 40 primetime television series. Among his TV credits are roles on Starsky & Hutch, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco, The Blue Knight, All in the Family, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Partridge Family, Most Wanted, Mannix, The Mod Squad, Room 222, Doc Elliot, Temperatures Rising, Marcus Welby, M.D., Arthur Hailey's Hotel and Murder, She Wrote. In the 1971 All in the Family episode, Geary guest-starred as a friend of Mike (portrayed by series regular Rob Reiner). In the episode with him was fellow future soap star Phil Carey, where in a strange turn of events Geary's character is mistaken as gay by the town bigot Archie Bunker. The real gay man turned out to be Archie's best friend (Carey's character).

He also performed in the television movies, Perry Mason and the Case of the Murdered Madam, Kicks, Sins of the Past, The Imposter, Intimate Agony and Do You Know the Muffin Man?.

He received unanimous critical acclaim, and a DramaLogue Award, for his one-man show, Human Scratchings, performed to sold-out houses in Los Angeles in 1996. As a producer, Geary received a Cindy Award for the drama, "Sound of Sunshine, Sound of Rain," a children's story for Public Radio. He has also taught improvisation and story-theater techniques. He competed in track and field and swimming events as a college student, and also raced horses. He is a certified scuba diver as well as an accomplished rollerblader. He also claims to be "the world's oldest Hip Hop dancer."

It was in daytime television though that Geary became a household name.

He took his first role in daytime in 1971, working for the first time with future General Hospital executive producer Gloria Monty as a sensitive young man David Lockhart who was unjustly committed to a mental hospital as a child on ABC's Bright Promise, a role that first brought him praise from daytime critics. His surrogate mother in the series was portrayed by his future General Hospital co-star Susan Brown.

In 1973, he followed that role portraying rapist George Curtis on Young and the Restless on CBS. Again although his character was not a likable one, critics noted the talent of the young man. The six-month storyline where Curtis raped virginal heroine Chris Brooks, shocking in it's day, put Young and the Restless in the thick of the ratings race and gave Geary the dubious distinction of perpetuating daytime TV's first non-marital rape, a distinction that would later haunt him on General Hospital when Luke raped -- or seduced -- Laura on the famous disco floor.

In 1978, Monty, who had directed Geary in both Bright Promise and in the TV movie Sorority Kill, was in the midst of renovating the ailing General Hospital. She remembered Geary's work and he auditioned for the role of Mitch Williams, an ambitious politician who would be paired romantically with the volatile Tracy Quartermaine, portrayed by Jane Elliot. In a sense of coming full circle, years later Geary would end up as the romantic partner of Tracy onscreen.

Monty decided that Geary's talents would be better suited for a different part, and writer Douglas Marland created the pivotal role of Luke Spencer for Geary.

Geary's character began as a rather sleazy foil for his white-trash sister Bobbie, who played dirty tricks on Laura (portrayed by Genie Francis), the young woman to whom Luke became perversely attracted, leading him to rape her on the floor of the disco as Herb Alpert's Rise played in the background. Luke's love for the confused Laura humanized him, and Geary's poignant pantomiming touched a responsive chord among viewers.

The character became so popular that the writers turned Luke into a protagonist. His popularity soared, especially during a series of Luke-and-Laura-on-the-run stories. These were nearly improbable storylines seemingly lifted from the pages of a spy novel, which only served to further the character's popularity. Those stories and their 1981 wedding began what was arguably the greatest love affair in the history of General Hospital, if not daytime television.

Viewers quickly warmed to Luke, and easily forgot or overlooked the rape, due to his street-smart sarcasm, his inventive humor (often improvised by Geary), and his outlandish dress -- a wardrobe presumably from Geary's own closet. Luke Spencer has been described as the most popular character in soap opera history.

As Luke and Laura, Geary and Francis jumped to the top of fan magazines. Both were named Best Actor and Best Actress at the 11th Annual Daytime TV Magazine year end awards.

Luke's populariy was due in big part to Geary's portrayal, his acting. The audience found Geary's performance refreshing, especially after a generation of blandly handsome, often passive leading men. One critic said, "Geary's individualism, uniqueness and awesome range is the most notable in daytime (television) history," a statement that is typical of the actor's reviews. Early on, he was rewarded with three consecutive Outstanding Lead Actor nominations from the Daytime Emmys, taking the award in 1982.

In 1983, Geary took a three-month hiatus from the show to star in a the TV movie Intimate Agony opposite One Life To Live star, Judith Light. Geary gave an appealing, low-key performance in the story about a doctor fighting an epidemic of herpes at a popular beach resort. He returned to GH with a reported salary of $500,000, unprecedented at the time. He was back in top form as Luke fought to regain use of his legs after an accident. He found the dramatic storyline a relief after all the spoofy, science fiction adventures the character had boxed into. Geary soon chose to depart from the show though. A year after his return, his departure was handled in grand style, with the return of Genie Francis and a happy ending for soap opera's most famous love story.

He returned to the series the first time in 1984 in a special, limited appearance.

In January 1991, Geary returned to General Hospital in the role of Bill Eckert, a cousin of Luke Spencer's, and a man of many, often dark, colors. As the story progressed, he was seen on-screen as both Bill Eckert and Luke Spencer, when Luke returned for good on October 29, 1993, until the death of Eckert in 1993.

He has won the Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" for General Hospital six times, a record for male actors and tying with Erika Slezak and Justin Deas for the most Daytime Emmy wins by an actor.

Geary has a winter and summer vacation from General Hospital every year where he is gone for a few months. He usually spends his time at his other home in Amsterdam.