It’s about to get sudsy.  Fresh off of nominated turns as a lovable stoner (”Pineapple Express” and a lovable activist (”Milk”), James Franco has decided to join the popular soap opera “General Hospital.”  The details from Variety are scarce but it has been confirmed that Franco will play a mysterious person who enters Port Charles, the primary setting for “General Hospital.”  The man’s intentions, of course, are unclear but the same cannot be said for the show’s producers–Franco’s two month story arc begins during November 20, coinciding with November sweeps.

“GH,” as the fans call it, is no stranger to big time stars.  In the old days, the show had guest stars like Milton Berle, Sammy Davis Jr. and even Leonard Nimoy.  More recently, however, the biggest draw has been Billy Dee Williams.  That said, I am happy to see Franco restoring honor to the title of GH Guest Star.  I have a feeling my mother is going to enjoy his two months.

In his book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman lays out what is essentially the unifying theory of Johnny Carson - the idea that the advent of cable and the home video market, not to mention the Internet, has splintered public tastes to the point that there’s no longer any such thing as a shared cultural experience anymore; according to Klosterman, the last patch of common ground was Johnny Carson, and once he disappeared from the airwaves, he took the last link in our pop culture chain with him.

Klosterman had a point, one which grows ever more relevant with each passing year - but every so often, a cultural event comes along with enough significance to achieve true water cooler status. Case in point: the long-awaited debut of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace in 1999, a breathlessly anticipated extension of a film franchise that was virtually inescapable in its day. When George Lucas announced he was working on a prequel trilogy that would fill in the story behind the original films, pretty much everyone was at least curious to see what they’d look like - and the hardcore fans were on pins and needles.