News Brief

Soap stars paint a perfect picture with special needs children
For much of the weekend, visiting daytime television soap stars and locals spent their time with a cocktail glass in hand. On Saturday morning the celebrities traded those in for paintbrushes. The actors, in Marco over the weekend for the Southwest Florida Soapfest, arrived Saturday morning at the Marco Island Center for the Arts to pitch in with a program called Art for Autism. The event paired the soap stars with children and young adults, many of whom have autism or other special needs.

Ewa da Cruz, who plays Vienna Hyatt on AS THE WORLD TURNS, said she was touched by the experience. Da Cruz painted a picture of a beach with Fida Itayem, a 22-year-old woman with special needs. The performer said she often draws with charcoal and pencils, so she's a bit of an artist herself.

A+ SERIES: County's Hollywood connections
From early silent movies filmed in black and white to the latest in computer-animated storytelling, Madison County has left its footprint on American cinema. Soap stars from the county include ALL MY CHILDREN's David Canary and former ATWT and GL star James Rebhorn.

Former OLTL writer Sweet's new play
Men. Women. Can't live with them, can't live without them.

Those familiar lines should be enough to interest some people in Jeffrey Sweet's "With and Without," which opens Thursday and closes the main-stage season at the Bickford Theatre in Morris Township.

Sweet spent several years writing for ONE LIFE TO LIVE.

B&B's Heather Tom campaigns for Clinton in Kentucky
Voters in Kentucky are preparing for Tuesday's primary election. Former President Bill Clinton will be rallying for his wife on Monday in the Bluegrass state.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, a famous face gears men and women to get out to the polls. Heather Tom from THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL rallied for Hillary Clinton. Tom made several stops in Kentucky, including at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Ashland.

Nelson Branco's weekly "Suds Report"
Ehlers and RPG reunite on ‘AMC’! ‘GH’ courts Marcil! Nuke kiss again! Joe Mascolo, Tony Geary, Michael “Graz” and Jane Elliot leave!