home | actors | characters | forum | gallery | guestbook | library | links

STRICTLY STORYLINE: BAD BLOOD
Lizzie's leukemia on GL presents complications for her and conflicts among her loved ones.
by Valerie Davison
Soap Opera Weekly
June 6, 2000

This is not a story we would even have attempted with another little actor," says Guiding Light head writer Barbara Esensten, "but we knew she could handle the material. She's just marvelous, and we think she's going to be a huge star someday." Nothing faint about that praise. She's talking about Hayden Panettiere, of course, the young charmer who plays Lizzie Spaulding, and who is currently facing the challenge of playing a 9-year-old diagnosed with leukemia.

"The first thing we did was call in Hayden's mother," Esensten says. "We said, 'What do you think?' She said, 'Well, that's tough, but there's one thing about my daughter: She can separate reality from make-believe.' "

Panettiere's first reaction was, in fact, "Whoa! Cool! I'm gonna get a big storyline," and she handled pIaying nausea and dealing with needles, albeit phony ones, like the trouper he is. However, she does admit that, in the initial weeks of it, the storyline spilled over a bit into her real life. "A couple of times, when I got sick," she says, "I would ask my parents, 'Could I have leukemia?' Because I was playing leukemia, I was afraid I was going to get it."

Leukemia is neither contagious nor genetic, and obviously isn't contracted through the power of suggestion. In fact, childhood leukemia (defined by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America as occurring under the age of 15) now has an almost 95 percent cure rate, thanks in large part to the advances made in bone-marrow transplants over the last 10 years. "There are actually banks now; where you can store umbilical blood," says Kathy Lotty, a pediatric nurse from Children's Hospital in Boston, who consults with GL on medical matters. "It's there in case the child or sibling ever needs it. Or you can simply donate it."

Though leukemia's early onset symptoms mimic the common cold, and manifest extremity bruising not uncommon to any normal, rough-and-tumble kid, a good pediatrician will likely pick it up, because, as Esensten points out, we tend to take our kids to the doctor more often than we go ourselves, and they get more blood tests. "It usually involves a fever of unknown origin and an infection that won't clear up," Lotty adds. "But GL is dealing a lot with the psychological aspects of it. That's what they really want to play, and they've done it very well."

"When tragedy strikes, people react in different ways," Esensten says. "Phillip is used to being able to say, 'Do this, do that,' so he got out a pad and pencil and made a list. Not that it made any difference. [Everybody] was just looking for something to do. Family members often struggle with guilt, asking, 'Is there something I should have known about in my family?' Or, 'Am I being paid back for doing bad things?' We're not playing this aspect with Beth. We also have Lizzie getting angry. She spills ice cream on her dress, and asks, 'Why does everything happen to me?' This is what's underneath, all the time."

Helplessness, anger and guilt are but a few of the typical responses that will be explored. It's also common for all concerned to put on the happiest face possible, for everyone else. When Beth brushes Lizzie's thick and wavy hair, and both realize she may lose much or all of it from chemotherapy, Lizzie consoles, "Don't worry Mommy, it's only hair." Later, however, she says, privately, "I didn't want my mom to worry; but God, could you please, please save my hair?" Susan and Max, knowing how she feels, come over wearing hats, and give her one, too. The situation actually forges a stronger bond between Susan and Lizzie. "When my hair first comes out, on my pillow; I tell her before I tell my parents," says Panettiere, in character. "I figure she'll understand without getting all weepy on me." While Lizzie will incur some hair loss as a result of chemo, she'll never lose it all, and it will be handled technically by wetting down Panettiere's own hair, and attaching removable extensions. "There are some things I wouldn't do to an actor or an audience," assures the writer. "This is not a two-hour movie, where you cry for maybe a half an hour and then leave. This is a four-month story, and [some things] would be just too hard to watch every day. That's why we also try to show the other side; let her have some fun."

So why tell such a story? While Esensten presages "a good result in the end," it's still a gut-wrenching process to observe. "Tragedy either tears families apart or brings them closer together," she says, "and we wanted something that would bring them together. This child links a lot of people, even people who don't usually get along, and that gives us the opportunity to use some of the wonderful characters who don't always get their own story, like Alan, Lillian and even Frank. And if we can bring together all these people, then what will happen? What other complications can we introduce?"

The ultimate complication was introduced months ago, of course, when Phillip and Beth were in a plane crash, and wound up comforting each other a little too much. Beth's resulting, extremely troublesome pregnancy was actually part of a much grander scheme, designed to produce a likely bone-marrow donor. "The day it was revealed that Lizzie had leukemia, our switchboards lit up," Esensten reveals. "The audience got it right away." There are other sources they can mine as well, that lie in the show's history. "Just who is Beth's father?" asks Tina Sloan, who plays Beth's mother. "Lillian has never said. I've always thought that would be worth exploring."

Aside from the obvious dramatic values, and the rewards of using a large cast to good advantage, such a storyline can have far-reaching implications. Lizzie's chemo will seem to be working, then the effects will diminish. "Beyond that, bone marrow is really the answer," Esensten says, "And we're going to be talking about transplants, in general. As they begin to think more and more about the subject, as they try to find donors for her, the family will realize they haven't signed the backs of their own driver's licenses. We take a story like this very seriously, and hope something good can come out of it. It's important to realize how many people die each year because they can't find matches."

For more information, contact the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America at 800-955-4572. #