J.T. Cornell
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J.T. Cornell is a fictional character on NBC's daytime drama Passions. He has been played by Kenneth Tigar in 2001 and by Michael Sabatino from May 18, 2006 to July 18, 2006 and again from October 5, 2006 to December 28, 2006.
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[edit] Character information
[edit] Character history
J.T. Cornell was the editor of tabloid magazine Daily Private Lives, until his past of tax evasion forced him to leave the country. J.T.'s magazine was the rag that publicly revealed that Ethan Winthrop was not a potential heir to the Crane empire because Julian Crane was not his biological father. In reality, Ethan's mother Ivy Winthrop, had a secret rendezvous with longtime love Sam Bennett on the night that she had married Julian, resulting in her pregnancy with Ethan. Ivy had kept this secret for 25 years.
In May 2006, J.T. resurfaced in Rome, when Theresa Crane was trying to track him down to get him to prove to Ethan that it was Ethan's wife, Gwen Winthrop and her mother, Rebecca Hotchkiss Crane that were the ones responsible for sending the e-mail to Daily Private Lives and not Theresa, who most of Harmony seemed to think was responsible for the earth-shattering reveal. Theresa met J.T. in a hotel bar, and not aware who he was, came with him to his apartment. Meanwhile, back in Harmony, Gwen and Rebecca feared that if Theresa found J.T., the secret they had worked to keep for five years would finally come out. Rebecca called J.T. in Rome, but unaware that Theresa was there, left a message on Cornell's machine that implicated her and Gwen in the paternity scandal. Theresa overheard the message, and answered the phone, tormenting the Hotchkiss women about their lies were finally catching up to them. J.T., unaware that Theresa knew anything, drugged her drink in order to get her into bed. Theresa realized what Cornell was up to and switched the drinks, knocking Cornell out. While J.T. was unconscious, Theresa snooped around the apartment, looking for evidence to connect him to Rebecca. Ethan tracked Theresa down to Cornell's apartment and tried to get her to leave. She wouldn't listen to him and insisted that she had proof that it was Gwen and Rebecca who betrayed him and not her. Theresa told Ethan that she would get Cornell to admit the truth to him. She took Ethan to the living room to see J.T., but Cornell had regained consciousness and realized who Theresa was. He stole the evidence connecting him to Rebecca, the answering machine tape and a photo of him in bed with Rebecca, and hid out on a ledge. After a long while, Theresa gave up searching and left the apartment. However, she was not willing to give and after some near misses, ran into Cornell at a Roman masquerade ball. She chased him through the streets of Rome and eventually cornered in some ruins. Cornell was determined to get away, even going so far as to try to drop a large stone pillar on Theresa's head. She caught up with him and offered him $10,000,000 to tell Ethan the truth. Agreeing to Theresa's bribe, Cornell confessed the truth. Ethan, however, refused to believe J.T.'s confession, citing Theresa's 10 million dollar bribe as his reason.
J.T. got away again, and ran to the church of the blind monks, where Alistair Crane had taken a stolen religious chalice. Alistair planned to unlock the chalice's holy power by exposing it to fire. If he had succeeded, Alistair would have untapped immortal power, which he would have used to take over the world. He dragged J.T. into his plan's and Cornell was forced to help Alistair unlock the chalice's secrets. Luckily, Alistair's plan failed and J.T. ran away, chalice in hand. Thinking he was free and clear J.T. ran into Chad Harris-Crane in the Roman catacombs. Chad was determined to bring the chalice back to the Pope and bring J.T. with him. J.T. offered Chad some startling information in exchange for his freedom. Interested by Cornell's offer, Chad agreed. J.T. gave Chad the miracle that he had hoped for - a life with presumed half-sister, Whitney Russell and their young son, Miles Harris by informing him that he and Whitney were not related. It had been just another one of Alistair's disturbing plans to destroy his son Julian's relationship with Dr. Eve Russell. In reality, Chad was Alistair's son with Liz Sanbourne, who also turned out to be Eve's adopted half-sister. After providing Chad with proof, J.T. escaped.
Later that night, Theresa caught up with J.T.. Pinning Cornell to the ground, Theresa demanded the proof that implicated Gwen and Rebecca in the paternity scandal. J.T. still refused, but offered up even more shocking information - that Ethan was the biological father of her young son Ethan Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane. Puzzled by this information, and since the boy's birth believing Julian was the father, demanded proof, which J.T. handed over. After his little chat with Theresa, J.T. escaped again.
Gwen, now in Rome, ran into Cornell one last time and offered money to leave the country. Bribe in hand, J.T. made tracks and left the Italian city.
Theresa decided not to tell Ethan that he was Little Ethan's father.
On October 5, 2006, J.T. sent Rebecca a series of text messages asking to meet her. Rebecca, desperate to reconnect with J.T. asked a confused Gwen if J.T. could come to Harmony to investigate Theresa (Theresa had recently named Ethan as C.E.O. of Crane Industries in the event that she died before Little Ethan came of age). Gwen was furious with the idea and shot it down immediately. Too bad for Gwen, later on Rebecca learned that J.T. was already back in Harmony!
J.T. is the star of the latest online tie-in to Passions entitled Tabloid Truth. Cornell is apparently in town to extort money from its residents, aware that pretty much everyone has a deep dark secret.
J.T. recently pitted Gwen and Theresa against one another to see which would pay him the most money to reveal the secrets of the other. Theresa appeared to be the victor but later it was revealed that Julian Crane had convinced J.T. into taking Gwen's side. Julian was hoping to use Theresa's hope of reuniting with Ethan to his advantage by having her trade him "their" son for the proof against Gwen.
Recently an unknown person tried to shoot J.T. presumably because of a blackmail letter. To escape J.T. went in drag. A jealous Rebecca jumped to the conclusion that J.T. was cheating on her and confronted J.T. unaware that it was just him in drag. Rebecca became aroused and the two went to a seedy hotel.
J.T. betrayed Rebecca however, when he gave Daily Private Lives a flash drive containing evidence against Harmony's citizens. His plan to leave Harmony with all the blackmail money failed when a mysterious person dressed in a santa suit killed him and stuffed him inside Chad and Whitney's wedding cake.
The only question that remains is who was so desperate to keep their secrets that they would resort to murder.....
[edit] Trivia
- J.T.'s full name is Joseph Talbot Cornell. As of June 2006, he was 46 years old and 6'0". [1]
