News Brief

AS THE WORLD TURNS stars shine in Clinton
If you're wondering why that young tough was handcuffed by police early Wednesday morning outside the town bookstore, don't worry. It was all for part of an AS THE WORLD TURNS location shoot. The dozen or so fans that showed up to see their favorite soap stars in person kept a respectful distance across the street from the Towne Restaurant and Clinton Book Shop where the action took place.

Dino Rentoulis, manager, said the cast and crew used the Towne for meeting and make-up, ordering a couple dozen breakfasts along the way. Otherwise, it was business as usual. "The actors and actresses were sitting at the booths. They stirred up a bit of a crowd, but there was no craziness."

Beverly Harris of High Bridge said she was a lifelong fan of ATWT. "I was raised on this soap. We sat in the restaurant and had coffee and there they all were — Casey, Emily Stewart, Tom and Margo Hughes!"

Harris' mother-in-law, Delores Harris, of Flemington, has been a fan of the show for 50 years. "I like them all, especially the old ones (characters) like Tom and Margo Hughes. But the young ones are great, too. That Casey is a real character."

Councilman Gene DeCleene, who watched the taping from the sidewalk with residents, met location coordinator Emily Fischer when she first came to Clinton. "Emily came to the municipal building. I told her I was on the film committee and invited her to take a walk down Main Street."

Clinton Book Shop owner Harvey Finkel was told the film crew might move a few things, but when they left he'd never know they were there. "I had to turn off the music, pull the plug on the phones and take the bell off the door, otherwise they didn't move anything.

Finkel said the story filmed Wednesday was about a conflict over rare books or documents that required police involvement. Fischer, however, was mum about the storyline. "I can't divulge anything except to say that we'll have some exciting story lines coming up," she said. She did admit that the episode filmed in Clinton will air May 6.

Pinson recurring on ATWT
Soap vet Julie Pinson (ex-Billie, DAYS; ex-Shiloh, Y&R; ex-Eve, PC) has been hired for a recurring role as Janet Ciccone on ATWT. Her first air date is May 8. And she'll already have some friends on the set: Pinson played Austin Peck's (Brad) sister on DAYS (where he played Austin) and worked with Marie Wilson (Meg) at PORT CHARLES's GH (where Wilson played Karen).

AUDIO: Interview with Brandon Barash & Chrishell Stause
Brandon Barash from GENERAL HOSPITAL and Chrishell Stause from ALL MY CHILDREN discuss their soap roles and other projects.

EVENT: "Pot of Gold" features stars from DAYS and AMC
Samantha Bozza will present her annual Samantha's Friends fundraiser, "Pot of Gold," at 10:30 a.m. April 6 at Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club, 7650 Legacy Blvd., Bradenton. Actors scheduled to attend the brunch are Brandon Beemer, Martha Madison, Darrin Brooks, Rachel Melvin, Jay Kenneth Johnson, Nadia Bjorlin and alums Patrika Darbo and Kevin Spirtas from DAYS OF OUR LIVES and Walt Willey from ALL MY CHILDREN. Tickets are $75. Bozza uses the proceeds to purchase trained service dogs for the disabled.

Want to buy furniture from ALL MY CHILDREN?
Props for Today, a company that rents furniture for television and movie sets, is cleaning house. At its spring-cleaning sale, which starts Friday, many familiar (as well as obscure) pieces will be available to the public. The sale includes pieces of furniture seen on “Saturday Night Live,” “All My Children,” “30 Rock” and “Sex and the City”.

ANOTHER WORLD's John Randolph directs play
The Charlotte Players production of Neil Simon's first hit, "Come Blow Your Horn," which premiered on Broadway in 1961, is slated to open April 4 at the Cultural Center of Charlotte County Theatre. The production is directed by Michael Ryan, who is sure to be recognized by longtime fans of NBC's ANOTHER WORLD as the soap opera's fictional John Randolph, a role he played for 17 years.

TUDORS is giving Showtime a boost
Showtime's historical soap opera THE TUDORS is a perfect case study in how what used to be the alsoran pay cable channel is beginning to catch up to the big dog, HBO.

EASTENDERS really dig the scene at Ashridge
The flagship BBC soap filmed several scenes at Ashridge Estate, Berkhamsted which were screened on Friday, Sunday and Monday (March 21, 23 and 24). The estate provided the backdrop for one of the show's most controversial storylines - the burial of love cheat Max Branning's body.

CORRIE stars dating?
There are rumours that Michelle Keegan and Jack P Shepherd, who play boyfriend and girlfriend David and Tina in CORONATION STREET, may be dating in real life. According to the Mirror, Michelle has recently split up with her boyfriend, HOLLYOAKS actor Anthony Quinlan because he didn't like her "on screen canoodling" with Jack.

GREEK Return Scores High for ABC Family
The return of the freshman season of ABC Family's GREEK on Monday (March 24) scored the network its best ratings ever for an original series in adults 18-34 and women 18-34. It gained triple-digit increases in time period levels in the target demos from the previous year, a whopping 289 percent in adults 18-34, and hit a high of 1.4 million total viewers for the series. Other series highs include the following key demos: adults 18-49 (860,000), women 18-49 (544,000), viewers 12-34 (1.1 million) and females 12-34 (718,000). The hourlong became cable's most-watched program in women 18-34 (473,000) and females 12-34 (718,000) in that hour, and held a steady second place in adults 18-34 and viewers 12-34.

ATWT actress Lauretta Vaughn blogs about singing National Anthem
"I was asked to sing the National Anthem for the Nets basketball game yesterday (Friday)!!!!! I nearly crapped my pants for the 2 days I had to learn it!!!!!!! For those of you who saw my rendition in one of my interviews for Inturn, you will see that I evidently didn’t know the song and thus HAD TO LEARN IT!!!!

Well......I downloaded the song, prayed, listened to it over 70 times, prayed, researched the story of the anthem, prayed, listened to it some more, prayed, didn’t sleep, prayed again, worked out with my trainer, asked her to pray for me, sang it over and over again (mildly incorrectly), prayed some more, put my face and clothes on and faced the crowd of nearly 30,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It went well."

DAYS star Ali Sweeney updates her blog
"Am working at Days today. yay! As you may have noticed, I haven’t been in a lot lately. Which, I must admit, has been nice for me personally. I have been playing with Ben… being my old wanna-be Martha Stewart mom. We had such fun with our Easter crafts!! And Ben has been growing so much lately, He started pre-school!! Can you believe it? It’s so weird to talk about Ben being on Spring Break.

Back to Days – Ari is BACK!!! YAY!!!! You know how much I heart Ari Zuker. She rocks. And we have SO MUCH FUN working together. SO, I can’t wait to hear your feedback of Soul (Sami/Nicole) the sequel. I think Nicole is coming back just in time to remind Sami of who she really is."