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General Hospital's Kin Shriner Is Back. Will Scotty Be the New D.A.?

When we last saw General Hospital's Scotty Baldwin — the fan fave rascal played by Kin Shriner — he was abruptly ending his marriage to Laura (Genie Francis) because he suspected she was still hung up on her ex-hubby Luke (Anthony Geary). But Scotty didn't flee Port Chuck to lick his wounds. Instead he vowed to stay in town and reclaim his old gig as D.A. Now the election campaign is about to kick off — but who the hell would vote for a guy whose rap sheet includes robbery, blackmail, kidnapping, assault and illegal burial? Well, for one, Shriner would! 

Michael Logan

When we last saw General Hospital's Scotty Baldwin — the fan fave rascal played by Kin Shriner — he was abruptly ending his marriage to Laura (Genie Francis) because he suspected she was still hung up on her ex-hubby Luke (Anthony Geary). But Scotty didn't flee Port Chuck to lick his wounds. Instead he vowed to stay in town and reclaim his old gig as D.A. Now the election campaign is about to kick off — but who the hell would vote for a guy whose rap sheet includes robbery, blackmail, kidnapping, assault and illegal burial? Well, for one, Shriner would! 

TV Guide Magazine: Scotty's last two stints as D.A. were plagued with scandal and corruption. What's different now?
Shriner:
Hey, don't go shading his campaign with his shenanigans from yesteryear, Mr. Logan! Baldwin is exactly the guy to clean up the crime in Port Charles once and for all. True, back in his younger days, he was involved in some slippery stuff and was a mouthpiece for the mob but he's straightened out. Now he stands for justice. He deals from a clean deck now!

TV Guide Magazine: Yeah, right. So he's really, truly, officially over Laura?
Shriner:
It's too painful for him to constantly be "the other guy." That breakup scene with Genie was probably the hardest one I've ever played. Scott has been obsessed with that woman since he was 16. I guess he just gave up.

TV Guide Magazine: He couldn't cut Laura just a little bit of slack considering Luke seemed to be dying?
Shriner:
Oh, that Spencer character is always dying. It's always something with that guy. And she'll always go running to him. Maybe Laura should have thought, "Does Luke really want me at his side right now?" Laura made a call that maybe she shouldn't have made. Maybe Luke doesn't give a s--t. Maybe he'd rather have Tracy by his side. And now Laura has ruined her marriage for a guy who may not want her so...whatever.

TV Guide Magazine: Still, this doesn't seem like the same never-say-die Scotty Baldwin who crashed the famous Luke-and-Laura wedding and snatched the bouquet.
Shriner:
Ya gotta move on and put your life and your job first. Now all he cares about is getting back that D.A. badge.

TV Guide Magazine: Should Scotty win the election, will he use — or, more likely, abuse — his power to get back at Luke?
Shriner:
If he can't have the girl and live happily ever after, he may as well be the disgruntled, wisecracking, fast-talking lawman and make Spencer miserable! He also plans to bring down that mobster Sonny Corinthos, who got Scott's daughter involved in drugs and stripping. He also needs to do something about the ineffectual PC police department headed by Anna Devane. And now we've got even more mobsters in town with this Ava and Julian Jerome. Of course, Scotty can't really fix this mess. [Laughs] If we clean up the town, we got no show!

TV Guide Magazine: With Laura out of the picture, who is Scotty's next romantic conquest?
Shriner:
There are a lot of girls on the show he could go after. He's not too old for Ava. His old flame Lucy Coe is still running around and they've got me doing some fun stuff with crazy Heather, so they're digging up that whole thing from 30 years ago. We had a great run when Heather and Scotty took the waterfront for a ride. What about Anna Devane? What's her story? Scotty'd have to get Duke out of the way, I guess. He'll arrest him, too! 

TV Guide Magazine: Didn't Scott and Tracy have a thing once?
Shriner:
It was an affair, though I don't think either Tracy or Jane Elliot wants to acknowledge that now.  

TV Guide Magazine: But Scott could get back at Luke by stealing Tracy!
Shriner:
I don't think Jane will go for that. She'd be like, "Scott Baldwin? Kin Shriner? Pee-yoooo! No, thank you!" You know Jane. She loves working with Tony. They're like the Lunt and Fontanne of the soap-opera world. But I don't care. I'm just very pleased to be off the ice, thawed out and back on the show.  

TV Guide Magazine: You recently joined Twitter [@kinshriner] and seem to be having a rough time with it. What's up with that, dude?
Shriner:
People talked me into this crazy tweeting business and I still don't understand what it's about. Why do people do it? My tweeting is ridiculous. I tweeted a picture of a shuffleboard court where I live in Ft. Lauderdale and said, "Mark my words, shuffleboard will return with a vengeance to South Florida." Then, two days later, I tweeted a picture of me playing shuffleboard and I wrote, "As I predicted." And I'm the only one playing shuffleboard! I'm making ridiculous tweetings and I don't know what I'm doing.

TV Guide Magazine: Your tweets have been so odd I thought maybe you were going all Franco on us and trying to make art. Didn't you tweet a picture of a fish?
Shriner:
I did! I tweeted a fish and wrote "Who is the artist?" It's like I'm doing a game show. I tweeted a picture the other day of me and Julie Pinson, the girl I worked with on Port Charles, and I said, "Which one of Scotty's old flames? Guess who?" And people said, "Well, that's Julie Pinson." Huh? I don't get it. Is this fun for people? Let me assure you, this tweeting will go away very soon for me. I've only done it a month or so and I still don't understand why. I read different actors' tweets and they're just sort of blowing their own horns about something...or nothing. If you're just tweeting pictures of yourself — "Here I am on the beach today" or "Here I am eating my lunch" — who really wants to see that stuff? I see people tweeting their dinners. There's some weird stuff going on! Then there's that whole drama about how often you have to tweet to keep your followers from abandoning you. You have to keep them lathered up? It's too much stress.

TV Guide Magazine: Who talked you into this, anyway?
Shriner:
Everybody is saying that this type of thing is very important, career-wise. My friend John Stamos gets cast on shows because he has a million followers. But if you're like me and don't have anything to promote, I don't think you should be promoting yourself playing shuffleboard. What's next for me...checkers? This can't end well.

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