News Brief

Daytime Emmy ratings hit new all-time low
Opposite CAMP ROCK on Disney on Friday, the Daytime Emmy Awards on ABC settled for a preliminary 1.2 rating/4 share in adults 18-49 and 5.4 million viewers overall -- down from the kudocast's previous low of 6.1 million two years ago on ABC.

Inside The Daytime Emmys With Sara Bibel
"Hmmm… OLTL won writing and directing. So that means the best show is… General Hospital. There’s a simple explanation for how this seeming nonsensical result happened. Writers vote for writing. Directors vote for directing. Everyone in daytime votes for best show. It’s a different pool of voters, voting on different episodes."

Moments from the Daytime Emmys
Greg Hernandez of Out in Hollywood covers some of the highlights of this year's show.

BLOG UPDATE: Lynn Licadro "Pimping the 2007 Daytime Emmys"
"So, what is it with CBS? Why would they pass up the opportunity to put their shows front and center for two hours in front of an audience that loves soaps? Why did they think that pimping a show that lasted all of two episodes made more sense that showcasing GUIDING LIGHT, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2007?

A big part of it goes back to that corporate synergy thing. And, I’m not being snippy here; ABC has it, big time. The network owns and produces all three of their soaps, then rebroadcasts them on SOAPnet. They used this year’s Emmy broadcast to heavily promote a new show that will run on SOAPnet, MVP (a show about hockey players and their groupies), then ran an episode on ABC immediately following the Emmy broadcast. Now, I would rather have somebody poke me in the eye with a sharp object than actually watch MVP, but you have to give ABC credit for how well they’ve connected all the pieces."

Emmy Q&A with Lynda Hirsch
Hirsch on an outrageous Emmy moment: "There was one bizarre happening at the Daytime Emmys. Robert Gentry (Ross Chandler, ALL MY CHILDREN) was waiting to hear the announcement for Best Actress. Susan Lucci (Erica) was up. The actress was nominated for the fifth time and really wanted to win. When the winner was announced, Gentry became agitated. Gentry knew Lucci was not going to win.

He was mad -- not just because Lucci was not getting the statuette. A few minutes earlier, Gentry left the table to have a smoke. On the sidewalk he noticed a headline on the front cover of the Daily News: "Lucci loses." Gentry could not believe the headline was out before the award was presented. Seems someone at the awards office leaked the information to the press the morning of the show. Terry Lester (original Jack, "Young and the Restless") attended a private afterparty that night and showed off a new solid gold Dunhill lighter he had purchased for himself.

'I was at a newspaper office doing an interview when I saw the copy for who had won and lost the award. I knew I was a loser," he told me. 'I decided to make myself a winner and buy this,' he said, flicking the expensive lighter."

Tammin Sursok loses Daytime Emmy, parties like a winner
Despite being nominated for her first Daytime Emmy award, Sursok lost out to Jennifer Landon, considered TV royalty in the US, as the daughter of the late Michael Landon, of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE fame.

But you can't keep a good party girl down for long, with Sursok one of the first to prop up the bar at the gala after-party - on the arms of her THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS co-stars Vail Bloom and Adrienne Frantz.

Still keeping her mystery American beau under wraps, Sursok did make the most of the Tinseltown experience, spotted snapping up free designer shoes at the pre-awards gift suite, with her mum Julie in tow.

HOLLYOAKS babe Kari Corbett: I've gone blonde but am not doing bikini shoots
HOLLYOAKS star Kari Corbett insists she will not strip off to join the teen soap's sexy calendar girls. The former RIVER CITY actress went blonde before joining the hit Channel 4 show but insists she will be keeping her bikini for the beach. Kari, 24, who has also been in Monarch of the Glen, said: "I don't see myself as the kind of girl who wants to be known for bikini shots.

"It's up to each person to make that decision for themselves but I would be reluctant to go down that path. As far as the acting goes, it's great fun and I'm very happy to be on the show. I'm enjoying it tremendously."

Chatting up the guys of "MVP"
Dillon Casey has been getting a lions share of the attention for the gigantic billboard in Times Square that features him wearing very little and revealing quite an awesome body. Co-star Lucas Bryant joked: "It's just his head, it's my body."