Erica Kane Teaches Us to Have It ALL

Also, what's her spiritual cousin Kim Cattrall up to?

Are you ready for some knowledge? I mentioned in an earlier newsletter that I recently pored through my entire book collection, and unearthed some real wacky gems, including the profound volume that I’m digging into for you today: the 1997 quasi-self-help/mostly-humorous-PR-exercise and masterwork Erica Kane: Having It All.

If you are unfamiliar with Erica Kane, the iconic character that the equally iconic Susan Lucci played on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children, then I am simply not sure what to do with you — other than direct you to her Wikipedia page, which is robust and thrilling, and which correctly notes that she is “the most popular character in American soap opera history,” adding that TV Guide called her "unequivocally the most famous soap opera character in the history of daytime TV.” The section on her marriages spans fourteen paragraphs; the one about her “cultural impact,” five. I personally spent many hours of my youth and young adulthood hanging out with Erica …