Kimberly is not leaving General Hospital. I repeat. Kimberly is NOT leaving General Hospital. Apparently, the internet was abuzz today with rumors that Kimberly McCullough would be leaving GH because she tweeted that she has been accepted into the AFI Directing Workshop for Women 2010. This is a three week workshop in May, which while it does have a lot of pre-production and post-production involved with the projects participants will be working on, Kimberly confirmed she will still be able to do General Hospital and the workshop at the same time. The workshop only has 8 participants each cycle and Kimberly was chosen to be one of them! The Kimberly McCullough Connection would like to congratulate Kimberly on this prestigious honor and we look forward to seeing future projects from her.

It sounds short-term, but it looks like our Robin is getting herself a storyline! Here are some details provided by Soap Opera Source.

General Hospital has cast four time Emmy winner Michael Learned in a short term role as a cancer patient who will interact with some of the staff at the hospital. According to the report from Soap Opera Digest, Learned will share scenes with Robin (Kimberly McCullough), Patrick (Jason Thompson) and Lisa (Brianna Brown), in addition to some of the other hospital staff.

Probably best known for her role on The Waltons as Mrs. Olivia Walton from 1972-79, she also appeared on ABC’s All My Children and One Life to Live in 2005 as the Honorable Judge Turner. Some of her other television credits include, St. Elsewhere (1984), Hothouse (1988), Murder, She Wrote (1989), Who’s The Boss (1989), Profiler (1998), and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2003). More recently she appeared on the hit NBC series, Scrubs (2006-09) as Ms. Wilk.

Learned has also been nominated for four Golden Globes (Best TV Actress – Drama in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976) for her portrayal of Mrs. Olivia Walton. In addition, she also garnered multiple Emmy nominations (1973-78; 1981-1982), winning in 1973 for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Drama Series – Continuing) for her role on The Waltons. In 1974 and 1976 she received wins for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, also for The Waltons series. In 1982, she received an Emmy win (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series) for her portrayal on the television series, Nurse.

Learned’s stay at GH will be short term and she will begin taping in mid-March and air in early April.

Kimberly has been nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actress category for the 3rd Annual TV Guide Soap Opera Spirit Awards! Kimberly has been previously nominated in 2009 along with Jason Thompson in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Duo for their work on General Hospital: Night Shift. The eligibility time period for this year is between Jan. 01, 2009 – Dec. 31, 2009. A panel of TV Guide Canada editors chose the nominees and winners. Honorees will be announced on a special podcast edition of Michael Fairman’s On Air, On Soaps on March 9, 2010 at 7 p.m. PT along with being printed in the weekly Suds Bubble feature on TVGuide.ca the next day. Good luck, Kimberly! Also, rumor has it that the 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Pre-Nominations will be announced on Friday, February 26th. Ballots are due on February 19th and judging DVDs for Final Round panels will be sent the week of March 16th, 2010. So between we know for sure that sometime between February 19th and March 16th, the pre-nominations will be announced. *Fingers crossed for Kimberly*