General Hospital: Rena Sofer's Recurring Status Spells New Beginnings For The Quartermaines
Soap fans were thrilled when Rena Sofer finally brought Lois Cerullo back to "General Hospital" in October 2023. Her timing was perfect because her ex Ned Quartermaine (Wally Kurth) had amnesia, believing himself to be his previous stage persona, Eddie Maine. Soap Opera Digest in September 2023 (via Daytime Confidential) reported that Sofer explained Lois returned to help her daughter, Brook Lynn Quartermaine (Amanda Setton), as well. One condition of her return was that she insisted Ellen Travolta reprise her role as Lois' mom, Gloria Cerullo.
Lois has helped Brook Lynn deal with her meddling grandmother, Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot). She also blabbed to Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) that Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros) was the one who ratted out Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) and Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) to the SEC for insider trading – effectively destroying his marriage to Nina and nearly obliterating her lifelong friendship with Olivia Quartermaine (Lisa LoCicero).
Unsurprisingly, fans were dismayed to learn that Sofer has been demoted to recurring status. Her contract was short term, and she told the Associated Press in October 2023 that she and her husband were going to move East, remarking "I just thought, when I moved here, one of my first big jobs was 'General Hospital,' and it just felt very full circle for one of my last jobs in Los Angeles while I live here to be 'General Hospital' and doing this character that I love so much." Many lives are going to be affected with less Lois.
Lois' work isn't done yet
Rena Sofer is among dozens of actors who are on recurring status at "General Hospital," a list that includes James Patrick Stuart (Valentin Cassadine), Bradford Anderson (Damian Spinelli), and Lynn Herring (Lucy Coe). But we've seen a lot of those characters recently, and Lois' work isn't done yet. While Brook Lynn Quartermaine is almost as strong-willed as her mother, she's going to need Lois' backing as she continues to push back against Tracy Quartermaine, who forcibly bought most of Deception Cosmetics from Lucy Coe with the intent of giving it to her granddaughter.
Ned's also got his hands full now that Drew Cain has become so much darker since his horrible stint in prison after the SEC debacle which nearly cost him his life after being beaten up. Drew's on the warpath against Nina, but hasn't forgotten that Ned was the one who initially threatened to expose his insider trading crime in order to oust him from the family company, ELQ.
And while besties Lois and Olivia Quartermaine, Ned's wife, have patched things up, they still need some healing. We need to see more of them mending fences. Besides, Olivia needs someone to vent to at times. Many recurring actors like Kathleen Gati (Liesl Obrecht) don't live in California and continue to make the trek to appear on the show, so hopefully Lois will return frequently as needed, and this won't be the last we've seen of her.