TV Guide Canada's Nelson Branco has come up with his funniest "fearless predictions" yet for all the daytime soaps for 2009.
Some of my favorites: - During an AMC airing, Ricky Paull Goldin (Jake) calls Beth Ehlers "Harley" by accident and not Taylor. The next day, TeleNext and P&G sue for damages. "We’ve got Kim Zimmer for another year," shouts GL EP Ellen Wheeler.
- Barbara Bloom manages to impress even herself when she recasts the role of Craig Montgomery for the umpteenth time. So, who’s the lucky patsy this time around? Jeff Trachta (ex-Thorne, B&B)! "Wanna hear my cabaret act?" Craig asks his stunned siblings Margo and Katie. "You guys look like you need to hear some Liza Minnelli — STAT," he says before bursting into song.
- Desperate for more mainstream PR, Ronn Moss is caught wearing Kyle Lowder’s thong on-air. The guys at THE SOUP literally cream themselves.
And of course...
- [DAYS OF OUR LIVES] Executive producer Ken Corday’s improved golf game almost lands him the cover of Golf Digest, but Eric Braeden (Victor, Y&R) scores it instead. Roger Newcomb is officially convinced there is a conspiracy against Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann landing a cover, or any cover, for that matter. "Nuke can golf, too, you know! A hole in one, and, all that … hello, people," shouts Newcomb loudly and proudly. Later, Jack Wagner (Nick) tells Newcomb to shut up. "Gays can’t play golf, fool," he says. "Now go revive my girlfriend’s career, please. Heather Locklear would be fabulous on SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES, non?"
Soap star Laurence Lau treads the boards at Riverside Lau's latest play is the erudite English professor Terence O’Keefe in Tom Dulak’s "Breaking Legs," which will open Friday at the Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach. The two-act comedy is set in an Italian restaurant, owned by a successful mobster and managed by his daughter, one of the professor’s former students. The fun begins when O’Keefe shows up in search of financial backing for the off-Broadway production of a play he’s written about a murder.
"I’m thrilled to be back in Vero Beach," said Lau, who appeared in the Riverside production of "One" in 2005. "Interacting with a live audience gets the adrenaline pumping. It’s much more fun than working within the constraints of television."
His current appearances as Brian Wheatley in AS THE WORLD TURNS were taped before Thanksgiving. "Don’t miss the Jan. 14 episode," he said. "There’ll be a big resolution on that day."
SARA A. BIBEL: New Year's Resolutions Bibel names five New Year's resolutions she wishes TPTB would make including "Stop Underestimating Your Viewers" and "It's The Romance, Stupid."
MICHAEL FAIRMAN: The Best and Worst in Soaps 2008 In case you missed his appearance on "Stardish Radio" on Monday night, here's a run down of Fairman's best and worst from the year in soaps including ONE LIFE TO LIVE as Best Soap.
GBLT on TV in 2008 From the big screen to the small The Oregonian continues their great in '08 countdown on queer entertainment. Today's installment: the boob tube.
#5 - AS THE WORLD TURNS and ALL MY CHILDREN "Though daytime TV has always been a bit more ready to tackle queer issues, as we're often relegated to soap opera status anyway, it's not really surprising to see some gay drama. That said, it is still fairly unusual to see hunky boys kissing so kudos to ATWT's Luke and Noah's steamy scenes (and Cyndi Lauper cameo). ALL MY CHILDREN brought back a popular lesbian character from way back in 2000 who is now all grown up with 2 kids and a female fiance."
S.F. celebrity makeup artist David Clark dies San Francisco celebrity makeup artist David Clark, who began his love affair with show business playing a terrified child in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and ended it as an Emmy award winner who enhanced an array of luminaries - from Bette Midler and Cher to Pope John Paul II - has died.
Mr. Clark died unexpectedly of unknown causes at home in his sleep on Christmas Day, his wife of 36 years, Patricia, said this week. He was 56.
Long before Oprah wowed afternoon TV audiences with makeover magic, Mr. Clark - who did makeup for stars on popular soaps like GUIDING LIGHT and THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS - brought Hollywood glamour to millions of American women when he was hired as a spokesman for top cosmetics companies Almay and Revlon. He took his celebrity makeup show on the road to malls and morning TV shows around the country, teaching average women how to achieve his elegant makeup effects at home with products available at the drugstore.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Best Television of 2008 #2 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: "After some dramatic missteps in season two, FNL is back in top form this year, focusing less on teenage melodrama and more on small-town politics and custodial duties of all sorts."
Honorable mention: BROTHERS & SISTERS, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, LIFE ON MARS
New Year's Resolutions HOLLYOAKS' Chris Fountain: "Healthy eating - I'm feeling inspired by Jamie Oliver and I'm going to be cooking more for myself next year, instead of eating out. Nothing complicated - just meat and two veg."
EMMERDALE's Tony Audenshaw: "I have failed to keep up my last two years' resolutions, so 2009 is going to be the year I dance at every opportunity and help my friends grow vegetables."
CORONATION STREET's Jennie McAlpine: "I don't believe in New Year resolutions . I'll try to have more fun - although I don't know how I could possibly have more fun than I am having at the moment!"
Hot news! Soap Opera Weekly staffer Gretchen Keene was on the set of ALL MY CHILDREN, dutifully reporting a cover story on the Pine Valley High prom, when a gossipy crew member confirmed the rumors: Ceara was leaving the cast. The informant even slipped Keene the date of Ceara's final episode.
"We're the only ones to know when!" Keene, back at her desk, calls over to news editor Gabrielle Winkel, at Soap Opera Weekly's Manhattan newsroom.
Ceara, played by former GENERAL HOSPITAL star Genie Francis, has had a heckuva year, what with the incest revelations and her killing her father, followed by marriage to her onetime fiance's dad. But lately her story line's been dribbling out. Reporters on the ALL MY CHILDREN beat had been speculating about her exit for months-fatal crash? crime of passion?-but Keene nailed the specific day before her rivals.
In a period when more magazines seemed to be dying than being born, soap opera publishing has become a boom industry.
First the old standby, Soap Opera Digest (a biweekly), introduced the timelier Soap Opera Weekly in late 1989. Last fall the National Enquirer people launched a competing weekly, Soap Opera Magazine.
Two television networks, watching other media companies feast on their programming, began offering their own glossy soap magazines, available through 900 phone numbers: ABC's bimonthly Episodes and NBC's less regularly published Daydreams.
Now the owners of the Digest and the Weekly, believing that the market still isn't saturated, are about to unveil Soap Opera Illustrated, a picture-heavy monthly expected on newsstands in late August. Continue reading...
"This has been one of the most overlooked categories in all of publishing," says Bill Abrams, who runs soap opera marketing for ABC. "The interesting thing is, everybody's doing well."
Soap opera fans are famous for their loyalty: Two-thirds of those who tune into the hourlong soaps have been watching for five years or more, Abrams says. And it is clear from the 17-year success of Soap Opera Digest that they want to learn more about the stories, characters and actors than daily viewing can provide.
"The soap opera audience is insatiable," says Mary Ann Cooper, associate editor of Soap Opera Magazine. "Lucky for us."
The audience is also, perversely, smaller than it used to be, the women who once hung on a character's every affair having marched off in record numbers to join the work force.
About 8.7 million adults (three-quarters of them women) were daytime drama watchers in 1991, down more than 3 million from 1987, according to the data keepers at Mediamark Research Inc. More than half of those viewers worked full or part time.
So the soap books offer pages of show-by-show recaps and previews and highlight those episodes worth programming a VCR for. "We make it possible for people who can't watch every day to still be soap fans," says Mimi Torchin, editor in chief of the Weekly.
Close to 1.5 million buy the Digest, according to the latest figures filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and another 529,000 buy the Weekly. The Magazine hasn't been audited yet, but Editor Joseph Policy says it's selling about 360,000 a week.
Add in the 1.5 million who get ABC's Episodes every other month, the 7,500 or so "hard-core fans" and industry types who subscribe to the weekly newsletter Soap Opera Now, and readers of assorted smaller magazines, then quickly the number of fans who read about DAYS OF OUR LIVES and ONE LIFE TO LIVE begins to approach the number who watch them.
But soap opera journalism is a specialized form. "They don't want their illusions destroyed," Policy says of his readers. "They want to know things about actors, but only certain things, not the bad stuff. Not that they're having affairs or are alcoholics." All those betrayed spouses and long-lost siblings and licentious reprobates on daytime are "not just characters, they're friends. So you treat them as friends."
The magazines treat the industry gently, too. Even at the Weekly, which is probably the most journalistically aggressive and has the largest staff, "it's our policy never to reveal things that would ruin a story for viewers," Torchin says.
Each tabloid assigns reporters to each show, tracks the inevitable cast comings and goings, hints at outrageous adventures to come, interviews the stars and pours on the photographs. The differences between them have to do with attitude.
The Magazine buys into the fantasy more. Tales of backstage tensions and such realities as Nielsen ratings are considered of little interest; editors tend to keep their opinions to themselves.
When Policy was planning the launch, a prominent producer cautioned that to succeed, the new publication should be a love affair with soaps. "That's exactly what this is, it's a fan magazine," Policy says.
The Weekly is not a fan magazine, Torchin says. It pays more attention to the business and airs more opinions from its own columnists and readers. She writes a weekly editorial in which, last January, she offered pointed New Year's resolutions ("DAYS OF OUR LIVES should resolve to bring back from the dead only one person a year.")
Meanwhile, everyone's circulation is up and the scramble for scandal continues apace.
I created the video below as a tribute to the actors, writers, producers and other behind the scenes folks who have passed away in 2008.
Here is a summary of those who died this year. If someone is missing from this list, it was unintentional. Please let me know so that I can update.
Irene Dailey (September 12, 1920 - September 24, 2008) - (Pamela Stewart, THE EDGE OF NIGHT; Liz Matthews, ANOTHER WORLD)
Eileen Herlie (March 8, 1918 - October 8, 2008) - (Myrtle Fargate, ALL MY CHILDREN/ONE LIFE TO LIVE/LOVING)
Augusta Dabney (October 23, 1918 - February 4, 2008) - (Isabella Alden, LOVING; Helena Ashley, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; Carolyn Chandler Baldwin, GENERAL HOSPITAL; Betty Kahlman Barry, A WORLD APART; Barbara Norris Thorpe, THE GUIDING LIGHT; Peg Hale, LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING; Ann Holmes, AS THE WORLD TURNS; Laura Baxter, ANOTHER WORLD)
Robert Calhoun (1930 - May 24, 2008) - (Executive Producer, AS THE WORLD TURNS/GUIDING LIGHT; Producer, TEXAS; Director, ANOTHER WORLD)
Ray Goldstone (1919 - March 13, 2008) - (Writer, RITUALS; FALCON CREST; DAYS OF OUR LIVES; SEARCH FOR TOMORROW; LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING)
Edie Huggins (THE DOCTORS; THE EDGE OF NIGHT; LOVE OF LIFE)
Wade Battley (Art director, GENERAL HOSPITAL; DAYS OF OUR LIVES; PORT CHARLES)
Keith Pruitt (1961 - November 12, 2008) - (Frank Wendall, AS THE WORLD TURNS; Flynn Reilly, LOVING; Robinson, GUIDING LIGHT)
Christopher Allport (June 17, 1947 - January 25 ,2008) - (Tim McGowan, ANOTHER WORLD)
Shell Kepler (October 5, 1958 - February 1, 2008) - (Amy Vining, GENERAL HOSPITAL)
Clissold “Budd” Hill (1931 - November 20, 2008) - (Costume Designer, ALL MY CHILDREN)
Sherrell Hoffman (1938 - October 18, 2008) - (Director, GUIDING LIGHT; ALL MY CHILDREN, ANOTHER WORLD)
Claudio Capone (November 18, 1952 - June 23, 2008) - (The voice of B&B's Ridge in Italy)
Wayne Heffley (July 15, 1927 - November 19, 2008) - (Vern Scofield, DAYS OF OUR LIVES)
Dody Goodman (October 28, 1914 - June 22, 2008) - (Molly McDermott, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; Mavis Cobb, TEXAS; Martha Shumway, MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN; Althea Franklin, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW)
Studs Terkel (May 16, 1912 - October 31, 2008) - (MA PERKINS)
Keith Charles (March 4, 1934 - July 1, 2008) - (Rick Oliver, THE EDGE OF NIGHT; Nick Kane, THE SECRET STORM; Ross Cavanaugh, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW; Robert Jardin, WHERE THE HEART IS; Ted Chandler, LOVE OF LIFE; Alex McDaniels/Brandon Spaulding, THE GUIDING LIGHT; Ralph Mitchell, AS THE WORLD TURNS; Ted Clayton, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; Homer Dowd, RYAN'S HOPE)
James E. Reilly (July 15, 1948 - October 12, 2008) - (Writer, DAYS OF OUR LIVES; GUIDING LIGHT; PASSIONS; SUNSET BEACH; THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS; GENERAL HOSPITAL; RYAN'S HOPE; Consultant, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL)
Larry Haines (August 3, 1918 - July 17, 2008) - (Stu Bergman, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW; THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS; Sidney Sugarman, ANOTHER WORLD; Neil Warren, LOVING)
Beverlee McKinsey (August 9, 1935 - May 2, 2008) - (Martha Donnelly, LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING; Iris Cory/Emma Ordway, ANOTHER WORLD; Iris Wheeler, TEXAS; Alexandra Spaulding, GUIDING LIGHT; Myrna Slaughter, GENERAL HOSPITAL)
UPDATED: Dorothy Green (January 12, 1920 - May 8, 2008) - (Jennifer Brooks, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS)
Anthony Minghella (January 6, 1954 - March 18, 2008) - (Writer, GRANGE HILL; EASTENDERS)
I've been asked recently to create a guide to catch up on the stories of my radio soap/podcast, SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES, to make easier for new fans to tune in. I figured the best approach would be to recap the events of 2008 and set the table for what is coming in 2009.
2008 Synopsis The year started with Sam Zegas receiving mysterious phone calls. It turned out the person calling him was Angie Cartwright, a scorned ex-lover. Angie (Sara Maraffino) moved to New York and began taunting Sam with information about his past he supposedly would not want anyone to know. She then went out of her way to meet Mack (as Angela) and get close to him to get information on Sam. Sam went ballistic when he found out, but was afraid of what Angie might tell Mack if he revealed the truth. Sam's life got even more complicated when a scumbag lawyer (Tristan Rogers) showed up and tried to blackmail him on behalf of a seventeen year old girl Sam had sex with. Even Sam's sex therapist (Jill Larson) couldn't help him. His relationship with his parents (Kale Browne, Anna Holbrook) remained strained so he felt he had no one to turn to. He continued to grow closer to Stacey, much to Bobby's chagrin, and which ultimately split up Bobby and Stacey's relationship.
By the end of the year, Bobby and Stacey both were dealing with issues with their parents. Bobby's father (Mark Arnold) came to New York and Bobby found out he was having an affair. Stacey's father (Gerald Hopkins) summoned her to visit him in prison and begged her to testify on his behalf at his parole hearing. Stacey's mother, Rosalyn (Lisa Wilcox), returned to New York but Stacey wanted nothing to do with her. Rosalyn brought her doctor and lover, Pierre (Sean Kanan), with her but did not want Stacey to know the real reason she's been gone, she's dying of a rare blood disease.
Hannah and Dylan continued to struggle to be together. Hannah's digging into Jackson's past was the last straw for Dylan who broke things off with her. Jackson was angry with Hannah as well, but eventually forgave her and helped her land another Endicott Software commercial. At the same time, Henry's uncle Stu began blackmailing Jackson with information about his past.
Perry went on a downward spiral this year after learning Adriana was his mother, Zack was his father, and Zoey was his sister. Despite Rex's best efforts, Perry pulled away from him and began drinking. When Zack was shot following a convenience store robbery, Zoey begged Rex to allow Gregory to come to the hospital to see him, but Rex refused. Perry continued to insist he didn't want his biological family to know the truth even though Zack fell into a coma and may not survive.
Blake hired a new Features Manager at Manhattan Monthly, Casey Sanders. Casey (Tom Baran) moved to New York from Los Angeles with a lot of baggage including nightmares and unwanted phone calls. The mysterious man from his past made his way to Manhattan by the end of the year.
Matt returned to New York and grew close to Blake again, much to Henry's (Jack Finigan Davis) dismay. Henry admitted to Emmett that he knew Matt was alive and well long before anyone else and swore him to secrecy. When Henry intentionally did not tell Blake about a call from Matt, Blake was furious and Matt decided to leave town. At the airport, Matt ran into Blake's sister, Teri Dean (Anne Sayre) who was in town for a visit. Teri convinced Matt to stay and see Blake again. Eventually Matt went back to Erie and Henry smoothed things over with Blake. Meanwhile, a cad from Teri's past in France, Joseph Channing (Brody Hutzler), showed up in New York to win her back, but she wasn't interested.
Emmett met a guy on Craigslist and Henry convinced him to go out with him. Unfortunately, the man raped Emmett on their first encounter, leaving Emmett distraught and feeling alone. Henry insisted Emmett go to the hospital and call the police but Emmett refused.
NEW CAST MEMBERS IN 2008 Anne Sayre (Teri Dean) Kale Browne (Alan Zegas) Sara Maraffino (Angie Cartwright) Jack Finigan Davis (Henry Adler) Tom Baran (Casey Sanders)
FEATURED GUEST STARS/RECURRING ACTORS Tristan Rogers (Garfield Merriweather) Brody Hutzler (Joseph Channing) Anna Holbrook (Maggie Zegas) Sean Kanan (Pierre) Lisa Wilcox (Rosalyn Gamage) Mark Arnold (Robert Tucker) Gerald Hopkins (Richard Gamage) Cordelia Wexler (Jill Larson)
FAVORITE 2008 EPISODES Episode #860 September 29, 2008 - Sam brings Stacey to his parent's house for dinner.
Episode #865 October 10, 2008 - Joseph tries to make amends with Teri.
2009 PREVIEW Matt returns to New York when Blake names him as the new Music Editor at Manhattan Monthly. Casey struggles with his past and finds out things are worse than he thought. Sam's life crumbles when the truth about his sex addiction is revealed. Teri's life becomes more complicated when the identity of the man she's having an affair with comes to light.
WHERE ARE THE NOW: Billy Hufsey visits Cleveland, talks about acting-to-banking-to-acting career After FAME put away its jazz shoes in 1987, Hufsey went on to DAYS OF OUR LIVES where Hufsey's bad-boy character Emilio carried on a hot romance with Jennifer (Melissa Reeves). Hufsey remembered that Reeves was nervous about their first on- screen kiss because she'd had his FAME poster on her bedroom wall.
Hufsey walked away from show business to go into banking, but now he's decided to throw his life in reverse. He's relaunching his career in the VH-1 reality series CONFESSIONS OF A TEEN IDOL, which debuts at 8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 4.
SARA A. BIBEL: Soapy Holidays "Every year, I find myself immune to the holiday spirit. Christmas songs on the radio leave me saying, 'Bah Humbug.' I have no interest in Christmas specials, in large part because I celebrate Hannukah. But a good soap holiday will get me every time."
DVD Review: The Man Who Came Back "The acting is not all that bad. Eric Braeden, best known as Victor Newman on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, does a good job as the old war hero Paxton and does his best to channel his inner Charles Bronson a la Death Wish. Whether this is a good or bad way to go is up to the audience to decide."
The 26-year-old, who has played Zoë Carpenter in the Chester-based soap since 2006, was last month seen in Hollyoaks - Later in bed with her best friend Sarah Barnes (Loui Batley).
The storyline has since seen Sarah questioning her sexual tendencies, while Zoë has tried in vain to brush the encounter to one side in the hope that Sarah's father, who is also Zoë's boyfriend, wouldn't discover the incident.
Speaking of filming the lesbian scenes for Later Lister told Digital Spy: "I thought it was hilarious! I thought it'd be interesting, though. I was obviously quite worried about them. Loui [Batley] and I chatted a lot when we found out that it was going to be in the late-night eps and we were wondering 'oh no, what does this mean?!' But in the end, they weren't graphic or anything like that, so it was fine."
Kym Marsh expects CORRIE upheaval Kym Marsh has said that CORONATION STREET fans can expect her character to experience dramatic storylines at the start of 2009. The 32-year-old revealed that Michelle Connor will discover boyfriend Steve McDonald's infidelity with Becky Granger.
"Let's just say there's probably going to be a lot of change for Michelle in the New Year. "Michelle will be devastated when the affair is finally found out. She loves Steve with all her heart and thinks she's going to be with him for the rest of her life. Obviously he has other plans!"
Joanna Johnson (ex-Caroline, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL) - 47 Don Diamont (Brad, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS; ex-Carlo, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) - 46 Julian Stone (ex-Jerry, GENERAL HOSPITAL) - 46
Here are some of the latest soap videos to hit the web.
NOAH PUNCHES BRIAN: A drunk Luke jumped Brian's bones on today's AS THE WORLD TURNS. Noah saw them kissing and thought Brian was taking advantage of Luke and punched Brian's lights out. Nuke sex will have to wait until 2009.
PUDDLE OF MUDD: The band performed on today's ONE LIFE TO LIVE.
KATHERINE RETURNS: Jill refused to believe Katherine was real today on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and insisted she was really Marge.
ALL MY CHILDREN: On today's episode, Ryan proposed to Greenlee, Reese and Bianca accepted Zach's offer to hold their wedding ceremony at the casino and David continued to worm his way back into Krystle's life.
Nielsen is moving the February 2009 sweeps to March to avoid the "potential disruptions" associated with the switch to digital on February 17th. "February" sweeps will actually take place March 5 - April 1, 2009.
In a memo to clients, Nielsen told them of those and other plans it is undertaking to "ensure the accuracy of television-audience estimates throughout the DTV-transition period." TV stations use sweeps numbers to set rates for advertisers going forward.
Nielsen will continue to provide overnight ratings in metered markets as usual for February 2009 and anticipates no changes to national ratings reporting.
Nielsen's action plan for rating station signals is geared toward two constituencies: homes in its sample that make changes to TV equipment, such as buying new sets or converter boxes; and TV stations "changing their signal distributions," which essentially means all of them.
Nielsen said it cannot "proactively" raise the topic of the DTV transition with its panel households, since the sample is supposed to be representative of the general population. But field representatives will be trained to answer questions about the transition if panelists raise them on their own.
Former GUIDING LIGHT actor Kevin Bacon and his wife, former ANOTHER WORLD star Kyra Sedgwick, are among the many victims of the massive Ponzi scheme run by the disgraced New York money manager.
Bacon's publicist, Allen Eichhorn, confirmed Tuesday that the couple had investments with Madoff. He wouldn't say how much money they might have lost.
Madoff told federal investigators that his investment business was "a lie" that lost as much as $50 billion.
Vanessa Marcil Stars In The Hallmark Channel's The Nanny Express Vanessa Marcil is one sexy nanny who will help Hallmark Channel fans ring in the New Year. The former star of GENERAL HOSPITAL and LAS VEGAS is starring in the Hallmark Channel's Original Movie "The Nanny Express," which will premiere Saturday, January 3.
Soap characters "immune to their unhealthy living" Soap characters with unhealthy lifestyles should be shown reaping the consequences, say doctors. Private healthcare firm Bupa has released its top ten unhealthiest characters, arguing they could be used to hammer home health messages. It said heavy smoker Dot Cotton, from EASTENDERS, should appear breathless, with heavy drinkers in soaps having broken veins.
A BBC spokesman said it always tried to depict illnesses accurately.
UNHEALTHY SOAP CHARACTERS * Dot Cotton, EASTENDERS: Smoker * Shadrach Dingle, EMMERDALE: Alcohol dependent * Tyrone Dobbs, CORONATION STREET: Unhealthy diet * Heather Trott, EASTENDERS: Unhealthy diet * Louise Summers, Hollyoaks: Alcohol dependent * Shirley Carter, EASTENDERS: Drinks too much alcohol * Charlie Slater, EASTENDERS: Unhealthy diet * Lloyd Mullaney, CORONATION STREET: Unhealthy diet * Fiz Brown, CORONATION STREET: Unhealthy diet * Leo Valentine, HOLLYOAKS: Drinks too much alcohol
The survey comes as research at Derby University suggested an average of 17 units of alcohol were down on every episode of EMMERDALE, with a third of its residents potentially classed as "depressed drinkers", according to Department of Health guidelines.
Eva Longoria: "Marriage is a Commitment" Eva Longoria says marriage is something you need to work at. The DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES actress - who has been married to NBA star Tony Parker for a year and a half - says she recognizes one challenge of wedded bliss.
She tells the February Man Issue of Glamour, "Marriage is a commitment, so you always have to work at it. For us, just juggling schedules is the biggest obstacle we have, and we don’t even really have a problem with that either."
Cassandra Creech (ex-Denise, AS THE WORLD TURNS; ex-Dana, ANOTHER WORLD) Troy Kurtis (ex-Nico, GUIDING LIGHT) - 28 Ashley Bashioum (ex-Mackenzie, Y&R) - 25
I'm just back from vacation and playing catch-up. Here are some of the latest soap videos that caught my eye from around the web.
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS: On Friday's episode, Michael took a trip through life as if he had never existed and realized that he truly had a wonderful life. This is the entire episode from the CBS YouTube channel.
ONE LIFE TO LIVE: On today's show, Langston was thrilled when Dorian gave her a framed copy of her certificate of adoption. Dorian then invited her to go shopping in New York tomorrow.
SCRUBS WEDDING: Patrick and Robin were married on today's GENERAL HOSPITAL.
NUKE PREVIEW: On Tuesday's show, Noah gives Luke a letter that the can't open until 2009 when they "wake up next" to each other.
Thompson adds: "It's kind of like a real wedding. Last night I was memorizing my vows. I got up this morning, took the dog for a walk, and now I'll put on my tux, stand in front of a bunch of people, and regurgitate what I remember."
Peter Ames Carlin looks back at the year in TV Not that some people in TV aren't trying to give the people what they want. Unfortunately, the second season of CBS' JERICHO, made possible by a guerrilla campaign launched by fans who bombarded network executives with sacks of peanuts (a reference to a line of dialogue in the first season's finale) sank quickly to the bottom of the ratings and was canceled for a second time with no hope of resurrection.
Fans of AS THE WORLD TURNS characters Luke and Noah were more successful in their campaign to allow the gay couple a chance to smooch and engage in "steamy towel fights" just like the soap's straight characters do.
"This is a guy who, if you sit and talk with him, he really does have an enormous love and knowledge base of movies," Frons said. "Did he spend 20 years as critic for a major newspaper? No. He's very much of the TV generation who don't spend time reading newspapers. I think we have a guy who is giving the information that audiences want to hear about film to make decisions about what to see."
Bear attack video raises some hackles Put a TV soap star in a plastic box in the bear pen at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, tie a dummy alongside, turn loose the bears, roll video and what do you get?
A whole lotta controversy.
A storm of it has been building since a program called "Bear Feeding Frenzy" first appeared on the Discovery Channel.
State wildlife biologists call the self-proclaimed "documentary" misleading and worse. The bear authority who worked with the filmmakers says he got snookered. And some average citizens - taken in by the show's appearance of having been filmed in the wild - are outraged that television producers would be teaching grizzlies to attack lifelike dummies, tear into tents and break into SUVs.
Former soap star Chris Douglas (ex-Antonio, PASSIONS; ex-Dylan, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) - the man in the plastic box - narrates "Bear Feeding Frenzy" as if it were happening in the wilds of Alaska with many bears. Cutaways from the bears take viewers to various wild Alaska locations.
Second Harvest Heartland, Feeding America, General Mills, and THE BIGGEST LOSER Team to Help Community Lose Weight and Raise Funds to Feed the Hungry Second Harvest Heartland, theUpper Midwest's largest hunger relief organization, today announced a new partnership with Feeding America, General Mills and NBC's THE BIGGEST LOSER (hosted by Alison Sweeney). Through the Pound For Pound Challenge, for every pound participating dieters in Minnesota and western Wisconsin pledge to lose in the new year, General Mills will donate 10 cents to Second Harvest Heartland -- enough to provide one pound of groceries to someone in need. Funds will be distributed through Feeding America.
Kelly-Marie Stewart loves new role on HOLLYOAKS It is daunting starting a new job – especially when you have landed a part in a top TV show with soap’s most glamorous girls and gorgeous guys. But HOLLYOAKS' newest face Kelly-Marie Stewart is loving every minute of it.
The ECHO went behind the scenes with the newcomer at the Lime Pictures set, in Childwall, as she filmed for the C4 teen soap. The 24-year-old makes her first appearance in Hollyoaks on January 28 as bubbly, fun-loving practical joker Hayley Ramsey.
David Fumero (Cristian, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) - 36 Jason-Shane Scott (ex-Will, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; ex-Chad, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) - 32 Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (ex-Will, GUIDING LIGHT) - 10
Holi-'DAYS,' soap style DAYS OF OUR LIVES star - and Brockton homegal - Kristian Alfonso for the first time in many, many years is celebrating the hols in Hollywood instead of the City of Champions.
"We’ve decorated the tree, the house and we’ve got lights up everywhere and we’re trying to make it as festive as possible," reports the soap queen, who missed all the last-minute action at the South Shore Plaza, the snow and plenty of good Italian food this year.
But there’s one holiday tradition in Tinseltown that Kristian never misses. And that’s the filming of the DAYS Christmas show that brings all the stars and some of their real-life children together.
"It’s a holiday for us," said Alfonso. "We love all getting together."
This year, Kristian’s son, Jack Daggenhurst, 6, took part in the annual scene in which Santa Claus, played by Doug Williams, reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to pediatric patients at Salem University Hospital. Young Jack, following in the footsteps of his big brothers, Gino and Spartan, put on his jammies and played a young patient enthralled by Santa’s reading of the Clement Clarke Moore classic.
"Jack was very excited . . . he was thrilled," she gushed. "He had a great time. And it was fun to be able to spend the day with him."
What would you be doing ... if acting hadn't panned out Mary Beth Evans, DAYS OF OUR LIVES: "I don't know -- maybe a decorator or something; maybe a landscape architect. I love crafty things. I'm always painting my house or working in my garden, and I sort of love having a beautiful home of stuff that I do."
Justin Bruening, KNIGHT RIDER/ALL MY CHILDREN: "I was a video store clerk for a while. That was a good job. ... I could just go surfing all the time and not have to actually do much."
Just check out the sideline of Rutgers Stadium for a Scarlet Knights home game. Check out New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs, a one-time Auburn Tiger. A few feet away? It's got to be New York Mets third baseman David Wright. Watch soaps or LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY? The good-looking guy, who looks like a former jock, is Mark Consuelos, husband of Kelly Ripa and a former regular on ALL MY CHILDREN.
And the big fellow? Fuhgeddaboudit. It's James Gandolfini - aka Tony Soprano - a regular visitor at Rutgers games and one of the program's biggest salesmen.
Mystery soap stars set for MI High A former EASTENDERS regular is among the stars of the third series of MI High. There's also an appearance from a HOLLYOAKS veteran, a DOCTOR WHO stalwart and even a Hollywood veteran - but no specific names have been revealed.
"MI High is ambitious, adventurous and great fun, and that's what makes it hugely successful," says Anne Gilchrist, Controller CBBC.
"The new faces give this top quality drama a dynamic fresh look as it goes into a new, action-packed series."
HOLLYOAKS star wants smaller plots HOLLYOAKS star Gemma Merna has admitted that she wants to have smaller storylines in 2009. The actress claimed that her character Carmel McQueen deserves a break after being at the center of high drama on the Channel 4 soap for months.
Carmel has tied the knot with Calvin Valentine (Ricky Whittle) this year but later faced heartbreak after being caught up in a church explosion which killed her sister Tina (Leah Hackett).
"This last year has been mental for me," Merna told the Daily Star. "The McQueens have had a huge year and I have been in the middle of it. It's been great, don't get me wrong, but it has been absolutely exhausting. I would like to see Carmel and Calvin settle down in the New Year and start to enjoy being married. I don't think they are ready at all to have children, but you never know what the future holds for them. They are a popular couple and if you ask me they are the best in the show - but I guess I would say that."
Terri Garber (ex-Iris, AS THE WORLD TURNS; ex-Allison, TEXAS; ex-Victoria, GENERAL HOSPITAL; ex-Suzanne, SANTA BARBARA; ex- Leslie, DYNASTY) - 48 Bree Williamson (Jessica/Tess, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) - 27
INTERVIEW: GUIDING LIGHT's Kim Zimmer (Reva) "I think the state of soaps across the board is in jeopardy. Look at Deidre Hall (Marlena, DAYS), Drake Hogestyn (John, DAYS), and Susan Lucci’s (Erica, AMC) pay cut. It’s a trickle down effect. But it upsets me that they (P&G) has money, and it’s there. I think the longer people agree to pay cuts and downsizing their soaps, the more they get a way with it."
Murray Bartlett (Cyrus, GL): It’s about being with family. I usually spend the holidays with family. Because it’s the middle of the summer in December in Australia, I’ll spend the holidays with family on a beach or something. It’s beautiful where we go – there’s the beach and the ocean, there’s tropical rainforests. Back in 2000, I rang in the millennium on a sand dune with my best friends. That is my perfect kind of holiday.
James Reynolds (Abe, DAYS): Every Christmas when my son was young was special. A child’s excitement on Christmas goes deeper than just getting things. There’s a sense of magic and fantasy in anticipation of this special day.
Child Actors and Soap Stars Some actors have tried using their real-life children to play their onscreen children. The results have not always been good. An ALL MY CHILDREN actress thought it would be great to use her 10-month-old son to play her same-age daughter on the show. "One day," recalls Judith Barcroft (ex-Ann Tyler), "there was a scene which called for the baby to eat an orange. The scene took 10 takes. A baby cannot eat 10 oranges in an hour and not pay for it later in the day. Just say when we got home it was a long night for both of us." With that Barcroft retired her son, Ian, from show business.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS star buys in Agave development Jesse Plemons, who plays Landry Clark, has bought a house in the modern Agave development east of Interstate 35, according to Travis Central Appraisal District records.
Plemons, a 20-year-old Dallas native, can be seen walking his dogs around the neighborhood on weekends, according to various people who live in the area. But he has been busy lately, so Austin is just his home base.
Barbara Crampton (ex-Leanna, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS; ex-Mindy, GUIDING LIGHT; ex-Leslie, SPYDER GAMES; ex-Maggie, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL; ex-Trista, DAYS OF OUR LIVES; ex-Paula, SANTA BARBARA) - 50 Eva LaRue (ex-Maria, ALL MY CHILDREN; ex-Margot, SANTA BARBARA) - 42
TV’s ’08 hits and misses Scott Sode of the Southern Voice names his top moments for the year: "For gay visibility on television in 2008, there was the good, the bad and the icky. It was nice to see a record number of gay weddings and generally committed gay relationships. Too bad it wasn’t very hard to beat the previous record."
"What people forget is that he was very distressed about the path Nikki embarked upon with that David guy," says Eric Braeden, who plays Victor, referring to Nikki's ex, who killed Victor's new bride, Sabrina, in a car crash.
Victor stiffs his kids, too.
"The son Nicholas squealed on him and had a business liaison with Jack Abbott. And he has had a tenuous relationship with the daughter [Victoria]."
Hence, Victor will stay home alone, clutching a photo of poor, dead Sabrina, while the Newmans wait for him.
The edition, which airs on ITV1 on December 27, sees members of the McQueen clan from HOLLYOAKS take on EMMERDALE's Dingles.
Vernon Kay hosts as HOLLYOAKS matriarch Nicole Barber-Lane (Myra McQueen) leads out Gemma Merna, Jennifer Metcalfe and Claire Cooper, who play her feisty daughters Carmel, Mercedes and Jacqui. They'll be joined by Nick Pickard (Jacqui's ex Tony Hutchinson) - the show's longest-serving cast member.
Meanwhile, representing the Dingles will be Jane Cox (Lisa Dingle), who teams up with her screen relatives. She will be joined by Andy Devine (brother-in-law Shadrach), Eden Taylor-Draper (daughter Belle), Mark Charnock (nephew Marlon) and Lucy Pargeter (niece Chastity).
Both sides will be aiming to get their hands on up to £30,000 for the charity of their choice. As usual, they'll be trying to guess the most popular answers to a question put to 100 people.
Marley & Me looking strong at the box office early The film stars Owen Wilson and John Aniston's daughter, Jennifer, along with GREY'S ANATOMY's Eric Dane and former soap actress Kathleen Turner (ex-Nola, THE DOCTORS).
Analysis: SAG should face the facts As the prima facie evidence mounts that SAG's 122,000-plus members are in no mood to approve a strike authorization vote, the guild's two top bosses -- prexy Alan Rosenberg and national exec director Doug Allen -- seem to be twisting in the chilly December wind, looking for reinforcement on their ill-advised decisions on their contract negotiations strategy with Hollywood's majors.
The latest gyration came late Monday night when Allen advised members via email that the strike authorization vote, originally skedded to commence Jan. 2, would be delayed until after SAG holds an emergency national board meeting on Jan. 12-13.
In the first International Fan Spotlight segment, I spoke with AS THE WORLD TURNS fan Mark Knoop who lives in the Netherlands. This time, I talked with Marco Corsi, a longtime GUIDING LIGHT in Italy. The show is known as SENTIERI there.
Can you tell me a little about your background and how you became a fan of GUIDING LIGHT? I graduated from Università di Pavia in Italy and before I settled down. I was an exchange student at Miami University (Ohio) I worked and lived in England for short time, and in Florence. Now I live near Milano, in the financial department of a major Italian bank. I used to watch CAPITOL, and miss it so much. Paula Denning from CAPITOL, along with along with India Von Halkein on GUIDING LIGHT, are my all-time favorite characters on daytime ever. I tried to watch THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, but it never did it for me).
How long have you been watching? The Mrs. Piper storyline just glued me, and the arrival of India in the pouring rain. I've always been into soaps both daytime and nightime.
Is the show popular in Italy? GUIDING LIGHT was popular in the 80s and 90s. There is a rock hard fan base. I experienced it when a bunch of us got together at Milan airport to greet Kim Zimmer and Robert Newman a few years ago. Amazing! GUIDING LIGHT is not treated well by Rete4, the network that broadcasts it. Can you believe they show from 10 to 20 minutes per day? And that means that Italian episode 100 may begin with last five minutes of American GL 10000 and the first 10 minutes of American GL 10001. I hope you get my point. Continue reading...
Is the show running current episodes or is it behind? And do you watch current episodes through the internet and know what is going on now? When the show was regularly broadcasted we were about one year behind. Now, about three years. The show airs Monday through Friday at 4 pm. Until a few years ago I had friends tape the show in the United States and send it to me. Now I download it or watch it on Youtube. I kind of stopped watching last February as I wasn't involved anymore, where was the story? What happened to the dialogue? Gone were the days when I couldn't wait to watch the next day's show.
Do you follow the show through the American soap press? I've been a Soap Opera Digest subsciber for the past 15 years. Unfortunately, I just had to cancel. My Digest kept "getting lost" in the mail.
Have you met any of the cast from the show? And have any of the cast been to Italy? YES!!!! I've visited the set a few times. In 1996 I just waited outside the studio and begged the actors to let me in! They did. The same in 1999 and 2001. In 2005 I was lucky to meet the italian guy (Sante Cossentino) who the works pro bono as publicist for SENTIERI. Sante works as publicist for quite a few italian actors. With him I was given the "proper" tour. We went to dinner with Kim Zimmer, Ricky Paull Goldin, producer Maria Macina and Marj Dusay.
Does Guiding Light receive any media coverage there? From time to time GUIDING LIGHT actors would come to Italy. Kim Zimmer and Robert Newman have had some coverage in the press. Beth Ehlers was the last to come over here. She was vacationing and did some press too.
If you are a fan of a U.S. soap in a different country and want to speak about the show and its following there, send me an email at [email protected].
Mary Stuart, the show's only remaining original cast member, got the word while being held at gunpoint in an elevator shaft. In the midst of shooting a segment of SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, she was called into the producer's office. The news was sad but not unexpected: after 35 years on the air, longer than any other soap opera, her series was being canceled. Its fatal malady: low ratings.
SEARCH FOR TOMORROW premiered on CBS in 1951, when Harry Truman was President and TV soaps squeezed all their traumas into 15-minute episodes. Set in the fictional town of Henderson, the show provided early roles for such actors as Jill Clayburgh, Lee Grant and Wayne Rogers, and was an anchor of CBS's top-rated daytime lineup of the 1950s and '60s. But ratings fell, and the soap was dropped by CBS in 1982, only to resurface on NBC. In a last-ditch ploy to revive interest, a devastating flood was ordered up in February, enabling a revamp of sets, story lines and characters. It did not help: SEARCH FOR TOMORROW remained the lowest-rated network soap. Its final episode will air on Friday, Dec. 26. After that, the daily woes will be replaced by happy contestants on a new game show called WORDPLAY.
Thousands of needy people Wednesday enjoyed Christmas dinner a day early on Christmas Eve as city officials and Hollywood celebrities served up holiday meals at a charity agency in downtown Los Angeles.
Job losses and home foreclosures have forced more people to turn to the Los Angeles Mission, which saw an increase of 10 percent in meals served in the fall months this year, as compared to last year, said Herbert Smith, president of the agency.
Meanwhile, donations from the final quarter are down 15 percent as everyone feels the economic hardship, according to Smith.
"We've got a crisis," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who helped to dish up meals at the mission Wednesday.
An estimated 3,000 holiday meals were served and gifts were distributed to about 600 children during the Christmas Eve event, charity officials said.
Villaraigosa stood side-by-side with newly elected county Los Angles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas in the serving line. Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes South Los Angeles, vowed that county and city officials would collaborate to address homelessness.
The family of Hollywood actor Bruce Boxleitner and his wife, actress Melissa Gilbert, hosted the holiday dinner.
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS' Kate Linder, former DAYS OF OUR LIVES actress Kristen Renton and Corbin Bleu were among the celebrity volunteers. Linder also took time to pose for a picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus.
Fans of NBA teams give up their seats for soldiers J.R. Martinez was one of Atlanta Hawks' first guests in 2004, while still in the midst of the 32 surgeries he would undergo during a lengthy recovery. The 25-year-old has since rebounded to the point that he can loosely (but amazingly) describe himself as a show-business colleague of NBA fans Jack Nicholson, Spike Lee and Eva Longoria Parker, having landed a recurring soap opera role on ABC's ALL MY CHILDREN as a badly burned veteran of the Iraq war.
Yet Martinez, to this day, speaks of his first exposure to the roaring, tearful appreciation of Mavs fans as "the night of a lifetime."
"Celebrities get that kind of attention every time they walk into a building," Martinez said. "For that one night, you get to feel like a celebrity. You really feel like you're on top of the world. For that night, we were the superstars.
"You get these tickets, courtside seats, but on top of that, you've got all these people coming up to you all night long, thanking you for protecting them. All these people are so appreciative and almost worshipping the ground you walk on.
"I always tell them that you don't understand what a night like this does for us. It's worth more than you can imagine. These are things that a lot of these soldiers would never get to do [otherwise], and it's happening to [soldiers] that had lost all hope."
"I've loved every bit of my career," Trachta said in a phone interview last week.
He is doing his holiday show through this weekend and then he returns to his regular show in 2009.
SATIRE: EASTENDERS is real not a made-up soap "There was confusion then celebration at the BBC tonight, when EASTENDERS, long considered to be a fictional TV soap, was, in fact, discovered to be a genuine East End community complete with actual real life people in real life situations!
The proof came during today's Christmas episode, when a number of the cast were gathered together at Ian Beale's house for Christmas Dinner. As the throng finished eating, the strains of the DOCTOR WHO theme could be heard emanating from the TV in the background."
Y&R's Marcille engaged TheYBF.com is reporting that THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS actress Eva Marcille is now engaged to Lance Gross. The two attended the Daytime Emmys together earlier this year.
INTERVIEW: EASTENDERS' John Altman (Nick Cotton) "Going back for me was a bit like a dream at first. You know when you have those dreams about things you did a few years back and you end up almost reliving the past? But then I realised how much I'd changed - I'd matured quite a bit, too. It didn't take long to slot back in, either. Getting Nick's 'voice' back, getting his gear back on and going back into Dot's front room. It took me about a morning and I was comfortable with it all again."
Colleen Dion (ex-Felicia, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL; ex-Leslie, ALL MY CHILDREN; ex-Brett, ANOTHER WORLD; ex-Ramona, GUIDING LIGHT; ex-Evie, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW; ex-Cecilia, LOVING; ex-Dahlia, AS THE WORLD TURNS) - 44
"Project Holiday Spirit" officially launched on December 1st, World AIDS Day. As of today, fans of AS THE WORLD TURNS' Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann have raised $7,400 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
To find out more or to donate, visit the campaign website.
Here are some videos from this year's Christmas episodes.
GUIDING LIGHT: Thanks to Jeffrey, Shayne showed up at Reva's and put his ornament on the tree. THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: The Forresters went all out this year and the show ended with Eric playing the piano and the family singing "Joy To The World."
DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Bo had a vision of Lexie screaming for Theo.
ALL MY CHILDREN: Bianca gave Reese an engagement ring and Krystle flipped out.
If you, too, have been battered by the barrage of fake togetherness that assaults us every holiday season - that prime time for suicide, crime and marital discord - you may be cheered to know there is a way to see the Christmas traumas dramatized in their true form each year. If you need to be reassured that you're not the only one who gets migraines from jingle bells, just tune into soap operas. The much-maligned daytime dramas are one place you'll find acknowledgement that lots of people have a hard time with the holidays. I have found the best therapy for the crunch at Christmas is to buy a six pack of beer, a couple of pastrami sandwiches and sit back and watch the soaps on the day before Christmas.
November 9, 1965: "ATWT" Celebrates the Holiday Season
From left to right, seated, first row -- Franny Brennan (Toni Darnay), Dan Stewart (Jeffrey Rowland), Susan Burke (Connie Scott), Paul Stewart (Edmund Gaynes) . . . standing, second row -- Ellen Cole (Patricia Bruder), seated -- Alma Miller (Ethel Remey), Chris Hughes (Don MacLaughlin), Pa Hughes (Santos Ortega), Nancy Hughes (Helen Wagner) . . .third row -- David Stewart (Henderson Forsythe), Lisa Hughes (Eileen Fulton), Penny Wade (rosemary Prinz), Judy English (Sibyl Collier), Amanda Holmes (Deborah Steinberg) . . . top row -- Donald Hughes (Peter Brandon), Doug Cassen (Nat Polen), Judge Lowell (William Johnstone), Claire Cassen (Barbara Berjer), Neil Wade (Michael Lipton), Fred Collins (George Sampson), Bob Hughes (Don Hastings), Ann Holmes (Augusta Dabney), Bill Holmes (William Prince) . . . top -- Tom Hughes (Frankie Michaels).
Gary Sandy (ex-Hank, AS THE WORLD TURNS; ex-Randy, SOMERSET; ex-Michael, ANOTHER WORLD; ex-Stace, THE SECRET STORM; ex-Terrence, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) - 63
Here are some of the latest soap videos from around the web.
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS: The show produced a wonderful holiday episode today.
VICTOR & NIKKI'S WEDDING: Seeing Victor with Ashley today made me realize there's nothing like the best couple in Y&R history, Victor and Nikki.
GENERAL HOSPITAL: On Wednesday, Spinelli and Maxie became Santa's helpers to assist in spreading Christmas cheer throughout Port Charles.
OTALIA: I don't see today's excellent Olivia and Natalia GUIDING LIGHT scenes online yet, but here are their scenes from Monday's episode where Olivia told Natalia she and Emma were moving back to the Beacon after the holidays.
Lathered-up drivel shot in soft focus "The powers that be at Channel Ten (Australia) have shifted THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL into the proper person's timeslot of 6pm, and the entire landscape as we know it has changed.
This is a somewhat mystifying move to those of us who are reasonably enamoured of BOLD simply for what it is - absolute lathered-up drivel shot in soft focus and set in what appears to be a series of 1983-era pastel-hued brothels."
Joker tops poll of villains The Joker has been voted the top villain ever in a new poll. The Batman baddie - played by the late Heath Ledger in this year's The Dark Knight and Jack Nicholson in 1989's Batman - took the No 1 spot in a survey by Chewits, reports the Daily Star.
Soap villains were also represented, with Richard Hillman, played by Brian Capron in CORONATION STREET, in sixth.
DEXTER star joins UGLY BETTY DEXTER star Lauren Velez has signed up to appear in a multi-episode arc on UGLY BETTY. The actress will play a nurse called Elena who enters the life of Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Tristan Rogers & Finola Hughes On Robin's Wedding and GENERAL HOSPITAL's Golden Age Rogers tells Sara A. Bibel: "I'd like to see the Scorpio family become a solid family unit on the show, Frankly, that would be unique because I'm not aware that this show has any solid family units anymore. Given the state of the country right now, I think it would be good for this unit to be involved in a story of optimism and hope. I think it just screams out for it. This foursome could certainly do it quite easily. In some respects, we've touched on it in the last three episodes. I've seen snippets of a build there. Whether it's continued, I don't know."
PREVIEW: Y&R's Michael Glimpses a Not-So-Wonderful Life On Friday, Dec. 26, CBS' THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS affords a despondent Michael a magical look at how life in Genoa City would have been different had he never been born. In this daytime riff on It's a Wonderful Life, Paul serves as Michael's guide.
"He has had a bad, bad week," Christian LeBlanc says, assessing his alter ego's sad state of mind. "We've seen this building for a long time — ever since Kevin (played by Greg Rikaart) came on the scene — but the big, big [catalyst] was Lowell [Michael's father] being such a disappointment."
Adds LeBlanc, "If it weren't for Lauren, Michael would have been off the deep end long before this."
As such, it is Lauren (Tracey Bregman) who is living the most shockingly different life minus Michael's existence.
"What's great about Lauren and Michael," says LeBlanc, "is that these are people who are not saints, who were adults when they met and have pasts they are not proud of. And they found each other. So it's a shock for him to see Lauren as she would be, having ...." We'll cut Le Blanc off there, lest he spoil a major surprise. But to tease it differently, he says, "There is a point where Michael finds out just how much life would have been different" without him in the mix.
After the special episode airs on CBS, an alternate edit featuring commentary by LeBlanc will surface on cbs.com. Having had to watch the episode anew before recording his audio track, the actor says, "Even though I'm in all the scenes, I never got to see it [put together], and it's tough stuff. I had to step up my game. Michelle Stafford, Greg Rikaart, Judith Chapman ... these people threw down. The audience will get some really amazing acting. You've got to see it."
"She went from sleeping with Jesus to waking up with you. You're her rebound after Jesus" Billy to Tim about Tim’s relationship with Lyla on FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS.
"We only know nines and Walter is a three. Let’s face it, in the gay world, three doesn’t go into nine." Bob to Bree on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.
Kym Marsh: I'm not marrying Jamie Kym Ryder will be spending Christmas with new boyfriend Jamie Lomas - though she says they have no plans to get married.
The CORONATION STREET star, who met the HOLLYOAKS actor at the British Soap Awards in May, said they had not been talking about tying the knot.
"There's no truth in these rumors that we're getting engaged and all that rubbish - it's complete nonsense," Kym revealed.
The January 6, 2009, issue of Soap Opera Digest confirms that GUIDING LIGHT's John Driscoll (Coop) will be the leaving the soap. I knew this was coming and it's too bad, as Driscoll has been a favorite of mine for a long time.
As far as I know, the other younger actors rumored out are still around, at least for the next few months. Caitlin Van Zandt(Ashlee) and Bonnie Dennison (Daisy) are under contract with the show. Kane Manera (Grady) or E.J. Bonilla (Rafe) are recurring but are involved in upcoming story.
Driscoll was at the studio when I was there a couple of weeks ago so he's definitely airing into February.
I've been asked recently to create a guide to catch up on the stories of my radio soap/podcast, SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES, to make easier for new fans to tune in. I figured the best approach would be to recap the events of 2008 and set the table for what is coming in 2009.
In the first International Fan Spotlight segment, I spoke with AS THE WORLD TURNS fan 
