In Honor of James Franco Joining the Cast of General Hospital: Five Other Superstar Soap Cameos

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James Franco is many things -- movie star, fashion model, Ivy Leaguer, Queer cinema academic. And now he's something else: A soap opera actor. Not just any soap, mind you, but General Hospital. The AP reports he'll play "a mystery person" who arrives at Port Charles in an arc that lasts approximately two months, beginning November 20th. Says EP Jill Farren Phelps: "It's an honor that an actor of Franco's caliber would choose to spend some of his valuable time in Port Charles." Is he Lucy Coe's illegitimate son? Bobby Spencer's new boytoy? The man who broke up Luke and Laura? We just don't know. Because we haven't watched General Hospital since the '80s. (And also -- it's a mystery! It says it right there in his character description!)

Now we know of plenty movie stars who got their starts on daytime dramas -- Brad Pitt, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jonah Hill, to name a few (OK not Jonah Hill) -- but we're struggling to come up with established movie stars at the peak of their game who downgraded to soaps. But when did that stop us before? In honor of Franco's interesting career turn -- perhaps for his final thesis in The Sudsy Gaze: A Feminist Survey of Daytime Drama in Post-Iraq War America -- we thought we'd celebrate some of the most memorable superstar (using the term loosely) guest appearances on soaps.

1. Elizabeth Taylor on General Hospital (1981)

Before she was obsessed with tweeting her support for Kathy Ireland on Dancing with the Stars, she was equally obsessed with General Hospital -- to the point where she herself was the mystery arrival at Port Charles, playing the widow of evil genius Mikos Cassadine. Unfortunately, she couldn't pronounce her former husband's name, as you'll see from this potty-mouthed blooper reel. Dame Liz!

2. Snoop Dogg on One Life to Live (2008)

Not only did Snoop get crunked-up-in-this-bitch for his One Liffle to Lizzle cameo, he also recorded his own version of the theme song! He loves OLTL!

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