News Brief

Cleveland Plain Dealer: "All My Children" star Cameron Mathison (Nov. 13) and "Beverly Hills, 90210" actress Jennie Garth (Nov. 20) came close to getting a berth in the finals of "Dancing with the Stars" but were unable to hang on. They return for tonight's finale.

World Screen: ATWT and GL in Asia? Asia has suddenly become a force to be reckoned with in the international television industry. Certainly, compared to ten years ago, when the Asian economies came crashing down as if in a cruel game of financial dominoes, media markets across the region today are booming. While program sales to traditional broadcast-television outlets still remain a core part of their agenda, many distributors attending this year’s Asia Television Forum (ATF) in Singapore are also eager to do a range of business in Asia that includes striking new-media deals and forging alliances with local producers and distributors. Available to Asian buyers are Lethal Obsession and Voices from the slate of female-centered Power Thrillers, as well as two long-running CBS soaps, "Guiding Light" and As the "World Turns."

AfterElton: Liveblogging "As the World Turns": Love is a Four-letter Word Edition.

The Union Leader: Celebrities head to NH to campaign for the Presidential primary. The Young and the Restless" star Victoria Rowell is campaigning for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Melodika.net: As one of the most enduring soap operas on television today, the now 20-year-old "The Bold and the Beautiful" is still one of today's favorite dramas. Moreover, its hard-working stars, despite their hectic filming schedule, still have time to give for the various extra-curricular socio-civic and charitable activities laid out for them to participate in. Take for example Winsor Harmon, who plays Thorne Forrester and Lesli Kay who fills in for his sister, Felicia. The on-screen siblings will be joining more celebrities on the 5th Annual Jayo Invitational Celebrity Pro-Am Volleyball tournament.

Columbus Dispatch: About 20 years ago, actress Genie Francis was gracing the cover of every magazine and tabloid as the fabled Laura of the Luke-and-Laura romance from daytime's General Hospital. Thirty million viewers tuned in to watch their wedding -- a record that still stands. But the bride didn't live happily ever after. Francis was already snagged in a web of self-destruction when she was told that the show's producer considered her a mere appendage to her co-star. In the Hallmark Channel Christmas special "The Note," premiering Dec. 8, Francis plays a journalist whose career is in jeopardy when she discovers a note written by an airline passenger during the last moments of his life. Her quest to find the person who was to receive the note changes her life.

SON: All soaps were up in total viewers in the Neilsen ratings for the week of November 12-16, 2007.

Gay Socialites: "Days of our Lives" hunk Marcus Patrick gets naked for Playgirl, strips at gay club. Last Wednesday, photos surfaced from gays in West Hollywood who caught Marcus taking it off at Micky's, a popular gay bar.