Evening News

INTERVIEW: DAYS OF OUR LIVES star Peter Reckell
Reckell tells TV Guide Canada's Nelson Branco: " I hope we never return to that fantasy style of writing. Chips in the brain? Returning from the dead? [laughs] Been there, done that. I’m lucky Bo hasn’t really been involved with any of that, other than him being hypnotized once. People are watching reality TV, and we need to return to real life. Daytime was the original reality TV. As for Bo, he’s become the white knight of the show, however I try to play against that as much as possible. I’d like him to be a bit more complex like he was written when we first introduced him."

Deep Soap: One More Time
Sara A. Bibel blogs: "If you've been watching any of the ABC soaps, you've undoubtedly seen the promos trumpeting ALL MY CHILDREN's upcoming romance between Jake (Ricky Paul Goldin) and Taylor (Beth Ehlers). The ads portray it as a story the audience should be eagerly anticipating. It's an interesting strategy, given that Goldin is a recent recast of a formerly supporting character that has been off the canvas for years and Taylor has appeared on camera for less than thirty seconds. Goldin and Ehlers played an enormously popular couple, Gus and Harley on GUIDING LIGHT. The actors had fantastic chemistry. ABC was so interested in pairing the duo again that it signed Ehlers before even figuring out what character she was going to play. Initial rumors had her slated to be a recast of either Liza or Hayley. The show wisely, in my opinion, chose to create a new character for her. Clearly, ABC is selling the actors, not the characters or the storyline. They're banking that GL fans will follow them to a new show, and that their great chemistry will make them appealing to AMC fans who have never seen them before."

DAVE MUSKERA: ATWT making an impact
"...what is now happening that never happened before is that adult gay persons of a positive nature are now very visible on television and in other media. To be gay is no longer to be invisible. Even the stogy long running soap opera AS THE WORLD TURNS features a young gay male couple who actually kiss and show affection to one another. Amazing!"

TV Squad Soap Report: PASSIONS played out
"Perhaps the strangest soap opera of all time has come to an end now that PASSIONS has been canceled by DirecTV. The gothic, modern psycho-drama set in a small Maine town replete with witches, elves, zombies and even some regular people, lasted nine years on the air. In primetime terms, that would be a hell of a run. For soaps, it characterizes PASSIONS as a noble -- to some -- failure."

Mark Consuelos: Wife Kelly Ripa ‘Psyched’ for His UGLY BETTY Role
Mark Consuelos says his wife Kelly Ripa is "psyched" for him, but that hasn’t stopped her from engaging in some friendly husband-and-wife one-upmanship.

"They did an episode last week with her and Regis," says Consuelos of Ripa, who will make her own UGLY BETTY guest appearance on the show’s Sept. 25 premiere. “So she was like, ‘Aw, I did it first. Gotcha!’"

Groff and Miller to do Shakespeare in the Park
Tomorrow night the seventies rock musical "Hair" will celebrate its opening night at Shakespeare in the Park. There will be nudity in this revival, directed by Diane Paulus, but not on the part of stars like "Spring Awakening's" Jonathan Groff (ex-Henry, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) or All My Children's Patina Renea Miller (Pam). Instead, all the stripping at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park will be left to chorus members.

Subversive soap opera challenges conservative Mideast marriage customs
NOOR delivers an idealized portrayal of modern married life as equal partnership - clashing with the norms of traditional Middle Eastern societies where elders often have the final word on whom a woman should marry and many are still confined to the role of wife and mother.

Some Muslim preachers in the West Bank and Saudi Arabia have taken notice, saying the show is un-Islamic and urging the faithful to change channels. But all the same, the show may be planting seeds of change.