‘HOSPITAL’ BREAK LETS ACTOR TAKE TIME OUT FOR SELF

Sometimes the best-laid plans--especially vacation plans--are destined to fall by the wayside. Paul Satterfield, who plays Paul Hornsby on “General Hospital,” can attest to that.

Recently, while en route to spend a week off at his home in Mendocino, Satterfield took a detour. At the last minute, he dropped by to visit an old high-school buddy who lives at the beach and spent the entire week with him.

“It’s a whole other world down there,” reports Satterfield, who took advantage of the warm air and sunshine. “Life is about eating right and working out and getting some sun.”

Joking that he was “missing in action all week,” Satterfield admits that R&R; was exactly what the doctor ordered. “I needed to slow down more than I’d realized,” he says.

Now that he is rested, Satterfield is focusing his attention the rest of the summer on two projects. First, he is planning a family reunion. Second, he is determined to finally tape the songs he has written. He has a band of backup singers in the family--his mom, Priscilla Coolidge; aunt Rita Coolidge; and his sister, Laura Satterfield. They have all said they’d collaborate with him. Laura, incidentally, worked on the soundtrack for “Made in America,” starring Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Danson and Nia Long (who plays Kat Speakes on “Guiding Light”).

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Robert Gentry has joined the cast of “The Bold and the Beautiful” in the recurring role of attorney Elliot Parker. In the story line, Parker will represent the Forrester family in its fight to gain control of the Belief patent from Brooke Forrester (Katherine Kelly Lang).

Gentry is well-remembered for his longtime role of Ross Chandler on “All My Children,” which he created in 1983 and played until 1989. His last soap-opera stint was on “Generations,” where he played Jordan Hale from 1990 until the show left the air the next year. Gentry’s previous soap roles include Philip Lyons on “Another World” (1979-81), Ed Bauer on “Guiding Light” (1966-69) and Giles Morgan on “One Life to Live” (1983). Gentry made his daytime debut on the soap “A World Apart” as John Carr (1970-71).

Gentry’s Elliot Parker is more or less a replacement for the recurring role of attorney Steve Crown, which was played by Perry Stephens. Stephens recently had to leave “Bold and Beautiful” to fulfill personal-appearance commitments in Europe.

“General Hospital” airs weekdays at 2 p.m. on ABC. “The Bold and the Beautiful” airs weekdays at 12:30 p.m. on CBS.