Gay storylines and daytime have been a hot topic for a long time. I remember Donna Pescow as a lesbian who fell in love with AMC’s Devon Shepherd, and Michael Bruno as Laurel’s adorable gay brother. And then there was OLTL’s storyline, with Ryan Phillippe as a gay teen coming out. When the AIDS quilt was unfurled, there wasn’t a dry eye from sea to shining sea.

Good stuff. But seriously short of a full-blown, knock-your-socks-off romance involving gay characters. As I write this, it’s not clear whether Polish beauty Lena identifies herself as lesbian or bisexual and I don’t really see that it matters. The Bianca & Lena romance is new territory for All My Children and for soaps in general, either way.

I’m sure there are viewers who are offended by the very idea of this couple, but I’m not one of them. To me, a love story is a love story, and if you can convince me that two sympathetic, fully drawn characters share a palpable attraction, have enough conflict to keep them interesting, and a commitment to be together against all odds, I’m pretty much on board. Something to gain, something to lose, and hearts that beat a little faster when they’re together. And Bianca and Lena have all that.

The reality is that except for a little gender bending, AMC is writing a classic soap opera romance for these two. Young, innocent Bianca, hurt in the past but not afraid to leap into love, meets jaded, cynical woman-of-the-world Lena, torn by her own double-dealing alliances as well as her newfound belief that real love can exist. That kind of Little Red Meets the Big Bad Wolf plot is a classic, especially when we see the Wolf having doubts about the dark and dangerous life that late he’s led and Little Red getting a major wake-up call that maybe the world isn’t all happy, happy, joy, joy like she thought. The outcome should be that Red becomes wiser and the Wolf rediscovers his heart, a la Jack and Jennifer and Patch and Kayla on “Days” and Luke and Laura on “GH” and Max and Luna on “OLTL.” One partner’s goodness and optimism and love saves the lost sinner, who mends his or her evil ways, while the other partner’s cynical, world-weary knowledge makes Pollyanna deeper and wiser. Classic. The only difference here is that they’re both girls.

It helps that the scenes where they flirted, circled, swooped, and shattered have been prettily played by both Olga Sosnovska and Eden Riegel. Riegel manages to be starry-eyed and still retain a feisty intelligence, anger and firm resolve, while Sosnovska has been just dandy, expertly portraying all the shadows of desperation, hope, betrayal, and overwhelming, unexpected love. Neither has balked at taking their girl-meets-girl story to its logical conclusion, with a kiss, a touch, a longing glance... And a steamy tryst or two along the way.

This is one of those romances where I find myself wanting to go, “Awwww...” with alarming frequency. I’ve seen Bianca grow up, and I find myself rooting for her to find love at long last, to get past the sadness and the vulnerability and the burden of being Erica Kane’s daughter. I know some of the BAM fans are cranky that didn’t happen with Maggie, who is closer to Bianca’s age and social group. But where’s the conflict there? The only ones I can think are that Maggie is not a lesbian (which is kind of a tough one to overcome) and that Bianca was already in love with Maggie’s twin sister, which means she would wonder whether it was really her or the fact that she looks like Frankie that Bianca is attached to. Frankly (no pun intended) I find either of those not at all that entertaining as a soap story. I also think Bianca has grown past Maggie. In recent scenes they shared, where Maggie was whining about Henry and Bianca kept her own counsel, Bianca seemed light years ahead of Maggie when it comes to maturity and growth. If they were on the same footing before, they’re not anymore.

Nope. I think Lena is a good match for Bianca, precisely because she is older, mysterious, elegant, and sophisticated. In short, Lena is like a female Cary Grant in “Notorious,” which is about as yummy as it gets, if you ask me.

Lena’s story intrigues me, since she’s smart, misguided, and seems to keep digging herself a deeper and deeper hole. You have to wonder just how far down she can go and still expect to climb out. As I write this, Bianca has fallen hard, and then discovered a few of the nastier lies Lena sent her way. Bianca has not been in a forgiving mood so far. But that just ups the dramatic ante. Can Lena find a way back to forgiveness? What can she possibly do to make amends? Or will the sting of rejection send her onto an even darker road, continuing her string of terrible choices, making her situation with Bianca even worse? Pop the popcorn and settle in, kids! It’s getting good.

It also boosts their story that they’re tied into so much else on the canvas. Bianca’s estranged sis, Kendall, had to admit that her boyfriend was sleeping with Bianca’s girlfriend. Quel horreur!  Bianca’s mom, the venerable Erica Kane, had to confront the idea that she might lose both her beloved daughter and her company to corporate spy Lena. Quel dommage!  The Kane women actually teamed up — all three of them — to unveil the whole conspiracy. Quel surprise!

And then there’s the Boyd factor, diabolical Michael crossing and double-crossing everybody, the rest of Fusion and Enchantment, and even new parents coming on the scene (as if Erica weren’t plenty of parental problems for everyone), all of it creating more complications for Lena and Bianca, as well as Kendall,  Erica and most of Pine Valley by extension.

When a romance plays on that many levels within the couple and without, it’s cooking with gas.

For the Song O’ the Week, I’m using something called “Ah, But Underneath,” written by Stephen Sondheim for one incarnation of his fabulous “Follies.” I think these lyrics are so perfect it would be criminal to mess with them. Well, I did trim out a bit here and there. But I hope you enjoy the brilliance of Sondheim as I’m relating his lyrics to the Lovely Lena.

She was smart, tart, dry as a martini

Ah, but underneath

She was all heart, something by Puccini

Ah, but underneath

In the depths of her interior

Were fears she was inferior

And something even eerier

But no dared to query her superior exterior

She was chic, sleek, anything in fashion

That was just a shell

Take a close peek, you could see the passion

That was one as well

To conclude, you’d soon discover

The secret of her appeal

Was the wonder which lay underneath

Which she wasn’t about to reveal...

I used this song because I think it highlights what it intriguing and compelling about Lena — she has a whole lot of secrets, and we still don’t really know what goes on underneath. Unlike the woman in the song, I do think there will be something real and sweet and loving revealed underneath all the layers of deception when all it said and done. I guess we’ll find out. I hope Lena is around long enough to find out.

It may be true that this is all a smarmy marketing ploy by ABC, banking on the idea that straight men, bisexual and lesbian women, and some other folks who are just curious, will tune in specifically to see girls kiss each other. ABC may very well be taking a page from marketing research that says lesbian love is all the rage, that the Jennifer Anniston-kisses-Winona Ryder sweeps move by “Friends” a few seasons ago scored in the ratings or that the upcoming Showtime series — “The L Word” — the one they’re calling a lesbian version of “Sex and the City” — is getting all kinds of buzz. If so, it seems to have worked. An ABC press release indicates that ratings were up 15% over the weekly average for the Lena/Bianca kiss episode.

And if it was just a ratings grabber, more power to the AMC scribes for choosing a canny promo hook and then building a decent story around it rather than just tossing out a few sensationalistic seconds of lesbian lip-smacking. If the PR department wants to platform ads on what is actually a good story, who cares?

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