LoveLure's Luke and Reid Blog

9.01pm GMT/4.01pm EDT

Part 1 of today’s episode, thanks to ADL:

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And Part 2 is back. Here it is:

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ETA, 7 Feb 2011: Okay, this is REALLY out of place on this blog, but I’ve gotten several hits from people searching for information on “Much Ado About Nothing” and small casts, so I take it there is a dearth of information on that subject on the internet! So, I’ve added an addendum at the bottom of this post with the complete 10-member cast list along with the roles they played.

Hi, everyone,

Okay, this is a little out of place, but given how lame today’s episode was overall, and how little there is to say about it, I thought I would finally finish this off and get it posted. I meant to finish it sooner when memories were still fresh, but too many other things got in the way.

As you may have heard, I was lucky enough to be join the fan group (hailing from as far away as Texas, Seattle, and Germany) who attended the Vermont Shakespeare Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing starring Eric and Jenny Sheffer Stevens during the weekend of August 13-15.

My brief thoughts? It was by FAR the most enjoyable Shakespeare I have ever seen – and that’s not “just because” Eric was in it. I say this as “not-a-big-Shakespeare-fan” whose last bard production was the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Stratford production of The Tempest with Patrick Stewart! Indeed, this “small-town” production was arguably one of the top 5-10 live performance experiences I can remember.

For those who are wondering, the production will NOT be available for purchase on DVD due to contractual restrictions with the actors. Similarly, photos are limited to publicity shots and bootlegged photos as we were explicitly asked not to take photos or video during the show.

What follows is my layperson’s review (remember, I was a math major!). And also, I would be remiss if I didn’t put in a plug for Vermont Shakespeare Company.

If you didn’t get enough of an endorphin high from donating to Doctors Without Borders, and you want to show even more appreciation for Eric Sheffer Stevens’s work as Dr Reid Oliver, in lieu of fan mail or personal gifts, you can consider adding Vermont Shakespeare Company to your list of worthy causes. Let me make this clear: This is ME, LOVELURE, making the suggestion, NOT Eric.

https://www.vermontshakespeare.org/donate.html 

We know that this is a company near and dear to his heart and he appreciates donations to them, but he is definitely NOT out there using his celebrity to guilt people nor  does the humble guy have any expectation of people to make donations. However, I have personal ties to VT and I really thought the production was fabulous, so if I can help make a small difference to ensure they thrive (and do another show next year, where they might invite a certain New York actor to perform…), then I am going to use this wonderful digital soap box to do so.

You can leave a personal message on the PayPal donation page if you are interested.

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11.57pm GMT/6.57pm EDT

Now available to watch in full HD from smuchshypush (ahhhh….):

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This post is by request from a Reid Oliver Facebook follower who asked just how LuRe fans go about expressing their feelings about the end of ATWT and the ending for Luke and Reid. What follows is an updated version of the Campaign thread, which was designed to promote a LuRe vs Nuke endgame.

So, if nothing else, that is something to keep in mind. For anyone thinking TPTB completely ignored “the fans” – I don’t think they did, or we would be watching goofy Luke fly off to LA with Noah this week while Reid….well, who knows what they would have done with Reid then. However, where the storyline appears to be heading reflects a brand of “creativity” that many of us might quibble with.

At this point, as mentioned on the hotline post, there is not much we can do with respect to what airs over the next three weeks, but there several things we can do to make our opinions heard about how it plays out, how the characters of Luke and Reid end up,  the messages being sent to viewers and the GLBT community, and more.

If you’re reading this post, then chances are Luke and Reid have touched you in some way.  Rather than merely venting with likeminded fans, you can channel your energy to make our collective voices heard.

For starters you can:

• CALL the Hotline while it is still open
• Send EMAILS & TWEET – to the soap press, mainstream arts press, gay press, and last but not at all least, to TPTB
• Continue to VOTE in the polls (especially on the SOS/SID/SOD magazine polls)
• DONATE to Doctors without Borders or Vermont Shakespeare Company or the Walnut Hill School for the Arts – or pick a charity that you think represents how you feel about Luke and Reid.
• At this point, there are not many places where you can send POSTCARDS to, but I am a sentimental fan of the postcard campaign and will try to bring that information over from for anyone interested in sending snail mail to the soap magazines or any other appropriate addressees (I’m open to suggestions here).
• COMMENT where you are able to and interested. This could be on threads like on AfterElton’s GOOL and liveblog pages, Soap Opera Source Pulse, or public boards like Soap Central (holy cow! the number of views on these threads is HUGE, and they keep starting new ones!) and TWOP . There are likely to be interviews post-endgame (Michael Fairman has teased about one with Eric Sheffer Stevens) which will be very well-read by fellow Lurians among others. I will post links to articles when they are made available. There are also open threads on a interviews by Greg Hernandez, Nelson Branco, and Michael Logan, among others.
• SPREAD THE WORD. Let any fellow Lurians know via Facebook, LJ, other fan sites and plain old-fashioned word of mouth.

I’ll also selfishly suggest:

• Join in the TRANSCRIPT project – you don’t have to type anything up and you don’t even need to have English as your first language. The full-episode transcripts already exist online – they just need to be edited down to the LuRe scenes. So you just need to be willing to watch clips while reading/editing down the transcripts.
• Contact me if you’re interested in doing transcript or recap TRANSLATIONS. This had never really occurred to me before it was suggested on Facebook, but I’d estimate 20-30% of LuRe fans are international, so it’s a great idea, if there’s interest.
• Post a message on the tribute/venting page(s). You can start with: Celebrating Luke and Reid, Van and Eric. Other pages will be added as spoilers do/do not pan out and the show ends.

There is a fantastic page started by Bittersweet Berlin on Facebook with many more additional ideas. I will bring those ideas over to this blog if I can find anything intelligent to add – for now, Bittersweet sums it up beautifully.

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The latest rumor running around regarding Luke and Reid has nothing to do with the plotline. Rather, a certain someone or someones have been spreading the word that they have an unnamed friend in an unnamed department at CBS who is claiming that multiple endings were filmed, and therefore we should all call the hotline where we can speak to a live operator. As this page is getting a decent number of hits, let me reiterate: I don’t think this can hurt (how much worse could it be? never mind, don’t answer that), but given the spoilers released this weekend, it seems pretty likely that the ending we will see is already set in stone.

So, since I think this can’t hurt, I’m posting here with some hotline FAQ, suggestions, and additional thoughts. In particular, regardless of how the endgame plays out, assuming the lines are still operating at show’s end we should definitely inundate the hotline with our feedback – good or bad….and it can’t hurt to set the stage now (if nothing else, for most of these call’s it’s on P&G’s dime, not ours!).

That being said, even before this rumor came out, I called twice in the last two weeks (more on that below). The lines have been quiet – no wait either time, vs during Endgame campaigning, when waits were as long as 15-20 minutes. In general, people who have called reported good experience. If you want to call, do so because it’s cathartic and empowering to be active and do something, whether or not it makes a difference. With the Endgame, those of us who participated certainly believe we were heard.

For LRO members, you can view the thread of hotline tips and experiences by clicking here.

If you’re looking for other ways to vent your frustration, send postcards, join the Doctors Without Borders fundraising campaign, and email everyone you can (TPTB, soap magazines, local arts press, gay media) with your thoughts.

I just called and didn’t get a live operator. Does that mean this rumor is completely bogus?

I always assumed if they had any sense, given the rabid fanbases and media attention to this storyline, they’d film multiple endings. But given the "official" interviews being given (between Van’s latest and CG’s) I’m bewildered as to why they’re giving so much of any ending away (especially if they filmed two) and  skeptical about whether there are still any decisions left to be made. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

That being said, I still think it can’t hurt to call. It only needs to take a few minutes and I will continue to call whenever I have something new to say (I mean sheesh, look at  this post – have I ever been short of things to say?!).

Re: the hotline – [b]normal hours are 9am-6pm Eastern Time[/b]. The phone lines were definitely open this week and I’m not surprised it’s not open overnight or over the weekend. I believe it’s a Cincinnati P&G call center, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they share reps with Pampers and Tide (even though they always answer with “thank you for calling ATWT.”

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