IS THIS THE STRANGEST CAREER MOVE EVER?

Elizabeth Taylor passed through Port Charles in the early 1980s. But she was nearly two decades off her film-star game. Now it has been confirmed that James Franco -- the actor I'd most like to wake up next to -- will begin a two-month story arc on General Hospital beginning November 20. Most daytime stars only dream of one day making it to the big-screen, so why would a still-in-demand film star step down not only to the small screen but to daytime? And apparently, he was the one who approached the show's producers looking for a job.

Yes, the GH cast includes the best actors in all of daytime, such as Anthony Geary, Jane Elliot and Nancy Lee Grahn. But James Franco just came off the most successful year of his career and a near Oscar nomination for Milk. His upcoming films include Eat, Pray, Love, with Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, and a role as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl. Maybe he's a closet GH fan? Maybe he's being a rebel without a cause. (He did, after all, once win a Golden Globe for portraying James Dean in a TV movie.) Maybe he just likes to slum. Whatever the reason, I'll take any James Franco sightings I can get. I'm so in.