European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 15, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                People started seeing us in a Neil Light claims Jesse Ventura Here in the  not their build bulk and bad boy reputations land them their parts. Schwarzenegger Stallone sex football Star Fred dryer it s hard to make people sympathize with these Guys. They re Large they re Good looking surrounded by pretty girls Studd says. So you get John Studd to step on their Heads a couple of times and then people feel sorry for  when Ventura landed his role in predator he was responding to a Call for a 6-foot-4, 250-Pound killer. I just walked in there with Blond hair Down to my shoulders about six earrings and a fun Manchu Mustache and i did t even read Ventura recalls. The casting director he says looked me up and Down two times then said let s go meet the producer " Ventura became so Friendly with Schwarzenegger during the filming that the sex weightlifter invited him Back for the running Man. The body has also just finished another film Thunder ground which is due out in 1989. It was easy to put wrestling behind him. I was a 10-year Veteran and that s not the kind of career that s Gonna last forever says Ventura 37, an sex biker and Vietnam Veteran whose departure from the ring was hastened by blood clots. Piper made his acting debut battling amphibian like mutants in the a flick hell comes to Frogtown. His review it was horrible just a  but he was fortunate enough to Hook up with director Carpenter a wrestling fan in they live a science fiction film about a futuristic America overrun by wealthy aliens republicans. Piper an sex Golden gloves Boxer who lived for years on the streets of Toronto says acting turned out to be More of a Challenge than expected. As a wrestler he was renowned for his sputtering stuttering fireworks in interviews before and after matches. I came out to . Originally figuring i was Gonna be another James Dean you know but everything i did in wrestling was wrong for acting. It s just the opposite for movies. When i did the wrestling interview show Piper s pit i improvised everything. That s what people liked you know this Guy is winging everything. But when you take a 40-foot by 20-foot screen and i m there going hello there i had to learn How to underplay to get Down to get subdued Piper says. There Are some problems. Studd has complaints about Sleazy Hollywood operators. Others object to typecasting. Why would i play a wrestler Ventura asks. Everyone knows i can  and then there re the critics. The new York daily news reviewed they live under the headline they live but who cares a lot of people have always accused pro wrestlers of or acting in the ring the reviewer wrote. But do i feel silly now if Roddy Piper is any indication wrestlers can t act a  got the last laugh. They live became the nation s highest grossing film in its first week out. To soap with a Kosher touch by Nancy Shulins associated press Leah Laiman s life would make a Lousy  was raised an orthodox jew i Hamilton Ontario where she spent he weekends Reading the classics. She moved to new York and attended a jewish women s College. She did hang around Greenwich Village one summer though she did t exactly blend into the crowd. I was the Only orthodox Kosher Virgin beatnik in new York she says until her father showed up to take her Home. It is therefore no Small irony that Laiman a woman with barely a nodding acquaintance with life s seamy Side should wind up As the head writer for one of the Seamer soaps Abc s Days of our lives. Soap opera digest rated it the most violent soap on television. Bad planning Laiman explains. Murder and mayhem Are simply a cheap Way to end a Friday. The show did go through a period where there was a lot of violence toward women. I m sorry for  other than that though Laiman makes no apology for the violence and sex served up on her soap. Sure soap operas Are full of sex and violence she says. But they Are not like movies and they Aren t rated a there is a limit to what you can do. And in a Way soaps Are very moralistic. Yes people do naughty things but the bad people always get punished. The Good Guys always win and get lots of fan  Salem u.s.a., the show s fictional location is a slightly More enlightened place than the White bread town Laiman found when she moved Over from Abc s general Hospital three years ago. Like most soap opera settings Salem remains overwhelmingly White Middle class. There Are two Blacks she says. And everybody s  not quite everyone it turns out. Enter the first orthodox jewish characters in the soap opera s history. Some people who watch these shows probably Don t know any jews she explains. I just wanted to show they have no  she created Robin a Beautiful Young doctor who just happened to be an orthodox jew. Robin fell in love with Mike also a doctor and As Luck would have it a Christian. Robin s father was a pharmacist. He wore a Yarmulke All the time. Robin never ate out. In the non Kosher cafeteria at the Hospital All she could eat was  since intimate dinner dates Are a soap opera Staple Laiman created a Kosher Deli and saw to it Robin stayed Home on the Sabbath. On Friday nights she lit candles and would t answer the phone or ride in the car unless it was a medical  Mike gave serious thought to converting then realized he could t give up his heritage. Eventually Laiman resolved the plot by having Robin and her father leave town. Laiman regrets that their departure meant there were no More jews in Salem. Still the alternatives would have been worse. For Robin to marry a non jew or worse to abandon her own religion would be out of the question. In charting the soap s plot Laiman remains mindful of her influence Over the audience. I would never let a woman have an abortion and go crazy about it she says. I might not have an abortion myself but it s not up to me to put that in the show and influence  after six years in the soap opera business she worked on general Hospital for three years before moving to Days Laiman says i m still shocked to this Day that people respond to the show the Way they do. They identify so totally with these people s lives they see them Only As these  As head writer Laiman s Job is to map out the Story which is subject to approval by the network. Associate head writers break the plot Down into daily segments. Dialogue writers fill in the daily scripts. The show is filmed in los Angeles but Laiman prefers to stay in new York. She travels to the West coast for meetings but spends most of her time in the Manhattan apartment she shares with her husband producer director Ralph Toporoff her stepdaughter Melinda 19, and her 15-month-old baby Danielle. The couple also has a Stepson Ian 23. Writing a soap opera does t require tremendous writing Talent though it does require skill and understanding of the medium Laiman says. Soaps Appeal to Middle of the Road conservatives. Television is not about Public service. It s about advertising dollars and ratings and not offending  still she keeps an Eye out for ways to incorporate her values into the show and to pass along responsible information whenever possible. When the Story line dealt with sexual abuse Laiman included a hot line number at the end of the episode. She also tried to make it very Clear that sexual abuse is not the victim s  with Robin s departure Salem is for the time being once again an All Christian town. But Laiman says plans Are already in the works to bring Robin Back. In the meantime there Are other ways to get her Points across. Coming up a love Story involving a plastic surgeon who happens to be Black. Days of our lives head writer Leah Laiman with daughter Danielle 15 months. Sunday january 15,1989 the stars and stripes Page 17