‘General Hospital’ Casting News: Finola Hughes Taking A Break From GH

“General Hospital” was rocked this week when Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan) died as a result of a mob hit. Finola Hughes, as Anna Devane, has turned in a heart-wrenching performance as she grieves over the loss of her soul mate. And now, “General Hospital” casting news has broken that the hit ABC soap is also losing Hughes. But before you panic, know that it’s just a short break! The 30 year veteran of GH will take the summer off the show to direct her second feature film.

Hughes’ first film, The Bet, was a well-reviewed romance that won accolades at a number of film festivals. Her second film, Byrd and the Bees, that she’s taking time off to shoot, is another romance that sounds sweet and magical. The film is about a struggling romance writer named Rebecca Byrd who comes out of a painful breakup and decides to shake up her life. She travels to Scotland to search for her biological father who she thinks was just a sperm donor. Instead, she finds he is alive, well and lord of a Scottish castle. Stolen bees lead Rebecca on an adventure and she falls into a romantic story of her own.

Hughes has nabbed some incredible talent for her cast including Jonathon Rhys Meyers (The Tudors), Peter Stormare (Fargo), Tracy Spiridakos (Revolution), Jason Connery (son of epic actor Sean Connery) and Dancing with the Stars hottie Maksim Chmerkovskiy. And what’s especially cool is that she cast on-screen “General Hospital” love Ian Buchanan (Duke Lavery) in the film as well. The movie will be filmed in Scotland, so Scotsman Buchanan should be right at home.

Ron Carlivati, head writer of “General Hospital”, said the soap will work around the time off Hughes needs. He recently discussed how the show will deal with her absence saying, “You get to see some of what becomes of Anna after Duke dies, and we’re forced to hit the pause button a little bit with Anna Devane, but she will be back, rest assured.”

While GH show runners have not revealed specifically how they will deal with her absence, based on some “General Hospital” gossip and spoilers we’ve dug up, we have a couple of ideas. First, Anna will try and contact daughter Robin Scorpio (Kelly McCullough) to let her know that Duke has passed but she won’t be able to reach her. Robin is supposedly in Paris, but Anna will become worried since her daughter has a history of being put into danger.

After Duke’s memorial service, which will be part of the two day live “General Hospital” event on Friday May 15th and Monday May 18th, Anna will take Duke’s ashes and leave town. Anna specifically mentioned on the Thursday May 14th show that Duke requested to be cremated and so she wasn’t sure where to place his clan plaid that would traditionally be draped over his coffin. Anna can take the ashes to Scotland, scatter them and then head to Paris to track down Robin. No matter how they work out her exit, we can all take comfort that Anna’s absence will be short-lived.

So what do you think, soap fans? How will Anna’s absence be explained on “General Hospital” and what adventure will be be up to while she’s off-screen? Share in the comments below!

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