The Devil Is In the Details

The old saying goes that truth is stranger than fiction, but if the fiction we are talking about is soap opera strange, than the truth is going to have to be so far out there it would be like playing left field in Dodgers Stadium while sitting in the bleachers. If the fiction is Days of Our Lives Strange, the true story is going to be playing left field in Griffith Park. When I went to People.com this morning and saw the headline “Man Tries to Exorcise Days of Our Lives Star”, I thought I had stumbled onto a spoiler, but the confrontation happened in the real-life Los Angeles and not the imaginary Salem. Wha? Continue reading for the full details.Drake Hogestyn, who plays John Black on Days, was confronted by Carl Raymond Cheney while standing on a ladder near his home. According to the AP story, Cheney was holding a bible and started shouting “‘Where is he? I will cast him out.” like a wannabe Celeste Perrault. To tell you the truth, it all sounds really hilarious until you read the part where Car Raymond pushed grabbed Drake’s wife and pushed her, forcing the soap star to jump off the latter, swing the intruder around by his hair, and then punch him in the face. No really! I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

In the end, everything turned out OK, as Cheney was restrained until police could come. Now one might be inclined to pass Cheney off as just another crazy loon, but let’s cut the guy some slack. One day he sees John Black in a coma, fighting for his life after being shot by his own half-brother, and the next day, he sees John taking down his Christmas lights. Demonic possession is a plausible answer, and of course exorcism is the corresponding solution. Carl was only doing what any of us would have done had we been presented with the same circumstances and were, you know, batshit crazy.