News Brief

BLOG UPDATE: Sara A. Bibel
"These days, soap characters seem to have the lifespans of fruit flies. Death has always been a part of the genre. It should be. At their best, soaps are a magnified, funhouse version of our own lives, and unfortunately all of us eventually experience the deaths of loved ones. But so many characters have died in the past couple years, often in brutal, graphic ways, that death has lost some of its soap meaning."

Breaking SAG vs AFTRA News: Now AFTRA Ridiculously Threatens SAG
Sunday it came to light that SAG asked AFTRA to delay asking its membership to ratify the new deal with the AMPTP until after SAG reaches a deal, too. But AFTRA refused and threatened legal action in an unnecesaarily nasty letter in response.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan made $40M in its opening weekend
The new Adam Sandler flick features a wonderful guest appearance by veteran soap actress Kathleen Noone (ALL MY CHILDREN, PASSIONS, SUNSET BEACH).

After 20 Years, Kyle Chandler Gets Off the Bench
In a scene toward the end of the second season of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, the NBC drama marginally about Texas high school football and substantively about everything else — love, marriage, faith, class, parenthood, resignation — Eric Taylor is seen conducting the hard business of coaching, which, as is so often the case for him, has very little to do with strategizing the offensive line.

"I tried pre-med and pre-law, but I just wasn’t a great student," he said. "Then one night I was with a girl in Athens and we bummed some cigarettes from some people and started talking, and it was just one of those moments. I thought, 'O.K., here are some interesting people,' and it turned out that they were all in the theater department."

Burnet returns to HOLLYOAKS
Guy Burnet, who plays Craig Dean on HOLLYOAKS, is set to return to the teen-soap later this year. Are we to hope for a ruckus with John-Paul, his jilted-at-the-airport lover? Or maybe some tears from Sarah?

VIDEO: Watch the NewNextNow Awards
Luke and Noah of AS THE WORLD TURNS lost in the Best Gay Kiss category to Captain Jack and Ianto of TORCHWOOD.

Mad May returns to EASTENDERS to seek a fiery revenge
As villains go Dr May is probably one of the loopiest ones around. The doctor who fled Walford after trying to snatch Dawn's baby returns to Albert Square to seek her revenge which ends up in a fiery blaze. In dramatic scenes that will be aired later this month, the crazy lady finally gets her chance to reek further havoc into Dawn Swann's life.

BLOG UPDATE: Lynn Liccardo
"Ever since soap operas began on radio in the 1930s, they’ve have been seen as the homely stepchild of entertainment. Even when soaps were great – and make no mistake, they were once great – the public perception was that they sucked. And now, daytime soaps really do suck – an ironic, self-fulfilling prophecy come to pass. But they shouldn’t… suck, that is."