Nelson Branco reviews the week in soaps, names his top-rated actors, and provides next week’s viewing cheat-sheet! Plus: ‘OLTL’s Melissa Fumero returns!
Deep Soap: Location, Location, Location
Sara A. Bibel blogs: "2008 may go down as the year that soaps left the studio. During the golden era of soap operas, shows rarely left the confines of their soundstage. When the shows aired live, it was impossible to go on location. There were too many variables and it would have been impossible to switch from location to taped segments. Once soaps switched to pre-taping in the 1970s, some began experimenting with location shoots. By the 1980s, sending the show to an exotic location had become a ratings sweep tradition. Supercouples married in lavish outdoor ceremonies. Adventure storylines culminated with cinematic action scenes. Shows even traveled to other countries. As ratings and budgets declined, location shoots largely disappeared. CBS has decided to bring them back, in an attempt to re-engineer the genre."
Where Things Stand With SAG Election...
On Tuesday, the Screen Actors Guild is scheduled to release the official list of candidates for the upcoming election now that the nominating period has closed and the Election Committees have confirmed candidate eligibility. Approximately, 1/3 of the total 69 national board seats are open for election this year. Hollywood and New York Division ballots will be mailed to all eligible SAG members on August 19 with a return deadline and tabulation on September 18. Election results are expected to be announced that evening. The Hollywood Division will elect 11 national board members and 22 alternates. Each seat is for a 3-year term (all national board alternates serve one year). The New York Division will elect 5 national board members and 9 alternates. Each of those seats is for a 3-year term (all national board alternates serve one year). Directors holding 7 other national board seats will be elected from SAG branches in Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Nashville, Nevada and Washington, D.C./Baltimore.
SORDID LIVES not renewed for second season....yet
Per Del Shores latest blog, the renewal rumor is false. "As much as I appreciate all the congratulatory emails and myspace messages regarding LOGO picking up the show for Season 2, this is an internet rumor."
From Donaldsonville to Hollywood
It’s quite a journey from Donaldsonville to Hollywood, but Stacy Caballero has made it with a few significant stops in between.
She’s an up-and-coming costume designer who worked on two recently released movies, the Will Smith superhero movie Hancock and the action racing movie Speed Racer, as well as the next, Star Trek, scheduled for release in May 2009. She was the assistant costume designer on all three films.
After an internship in Los Angeles, Caballero moved there. Even though she had very few "connections," she started sending out resumes and working in daytime television. She worked on the wardrobe team for THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and SUNSET BEACH and was finally offered a full-time position for THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. She stayed two years.
What attracted Y&R's Michael Damian to his wife?
"Her smile, and her beauty and energy," he tells OK Magazine. "She was shy when I first met her. She’s staring at me right now. She’s leaving the room now because I kicked her out. Actually, I met her at a telethon in Utah for the Children’s Miracle Network. She was there with her dad, which I didn’t know was her dad at the time, James Best, who is Rosco from THE DUKES OF HAZZARD. I thought it was her boyfriend! Later, I found out from my brother that it was her dad. Yeah, I was like ‘God, she’s so pretty and sweet’ and I got this really good feeling when I met her. I was actually in shock when she said she was a SOLID GOLD dancer because I thought she’d be like ‘hey I’m really cool, I’m on TV all the time,’ but she was very shy and soft-spoken."
Give the man a break already
The pitfall of playing a menacing soap character is that viewers, who become so immersed in the twisted storyline, find it difficult to distance the actor from their fictional persona.
While Robert Whitehead (Barker Haines, ISIDINGO), Joseph Mascolo (Stefano DiMera, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) and Seputla Sebodogi (Kenneth Mashaba, GENERATIONS) are famed villains, it is harder for soap addicts to accept it when the relatively good guys succumb to morally corrupt ways à la Jack Devnarain's ISIDINGO character, Rajesh Kumar, and, more recently, Marlon Roelfze's EGOLI character, Shaun, turning into a wife-beater.
SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES: Episode #838
Mack meets Angie. Hannah pays a visit to Dylan's.
HOLLYOAKS star praises lack of stereotypes
OLLYOAKS newcomer Lena Kaur has praised producers for not stereotyping Asians on the program. The actress, who plays Leila Roy, revealed that she has been impressed with her character's storylines since she joined the show alongside Stephen Uppal, better known as her on-screen brother Ravi, earlier this year.
Kaur told Take 5 magazine: "The storylines for me and Stephen aren't being dictated by the colour of our skin. We're both British Asians in real life as well as in the show. We are both totally westernised. We've been brought up in Britain, so the storylines will reflect people like Stephen and me."
Fans on soap box don't scare 'Sam'
The star of new web soap THE SECRET LIFE OF SAM KING has said he isn't daunted by the prospect of viewers posting critical comments about him online.
Greg Foreman plays record company runner Sam in the show, which allows fans to send messages to characters and shape plotlines on the social networking site Bebo.
Greg, who has previously appeared on CASUALTY said: "Because it's on the internet, people can interact with the characters on a day-to-day basis. They can watch an episode and then go on Sam's profile and say 'I can't believe you've done this' or 'You're lucky to be there'. Even if it's the most negative criticism people are giving you, at least they're watching it and they take an interest in it."
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