News Brief

DANCING WITH THE STARS Update: Lucci scores 21; May-Treanor Out
Everyone got misty-eyed for Misty May-Treanor this week on DANCING WITH THE STARS as she unexpectedly ended her run in this season's competition. During rehearsal Friday, Misty and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy were practicing their jive when she tore her Achilles tendon in her ankle. She told the audience that she thought she had hit the judges' podium, but in fact it was the sound of her tendon snapping. She was rushed to the hospital, and after thorough evaluation she cannot dance again anytime soon. She was sure to be a top competitor (she was definitely a favorite of mine) and it is a real shame to see her leave so early; everyone wishes her the best of luck with her recovery.

As for the other dancers, they were to perform either the jive or the Viennese waltz.

Susan Lucci started the show off by performing the jive. Her partner, Tony Dovolani, took her to Radio City Music Hall in New York to visit the Rockettes for inspiration for their dance. But, as inspired as Susan was, it didn't show. Her dance was stiff and lacked musicality. She was not very energetic in her movements either. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba described the performance as "timid and bashful." Susan received three 7's for a lackluster total score of 21.

More Lucci feedback this week:
Sun-Sentinel: "Susan Lucci is the poster child for the anti-jive. It was painfully slow and boring."
Orlando Sentinel: "Susan Lucci is too timid."
TV Squad: "...her dancing is still best described as reserved."

HOLLYOAKS' Jen: "I was too busy to eat"
HOLLYOAKS star Jennifer Metcalfe has claimed her character's gripping storyline has left her too busy too eat. The 25-year-old actress - who plays bitchy Mercedes McQueen in the Channel 4 soap - has dismissed rumours that she has an eating disorder.

Jennifer told Closer magazine: "I've got a big storyline at the moment, so for the last couple of months I've been manic, filming in the evenings and at weekends. I've also been having work done on my house, so it's been chaos. I didn't have time to eat and whenever I did, I burnt it off straightaway."

LYNN LICCARDO: Election 2008: Let's Pretend It Really Is a Soap
"The need to understand what has happened when a person changes so dramatically runs deep on our DNA. And so it is with John McCain. Newspaper columns and blogs are filled with pundits trying to figure out how the honorable, principled straight talking John McCain of 2000 morphed into the John McCain of 2008."

Terminally ill star Wendy Richard to tie the knot
Former EASTENDERS star Wendy Richard said yesterday she was dying of cancer and would marry her long-term partner. The 65-year-old actress said she had written her will and planned her funeral after being diagnosed in January with an aggressive form of the disease that has attacked her kidney and spread to her bones.

The star, who played Pauline Fowler in the BBC1 soap opera, has twice been diagnosed with breast cancer.

She said: "I went for my usual annual check-up and they found that some cancer cells had returned in my left armpit."

Valarie Pettiford Stars in "Thankful" at Upright Cabaret Nov. 14
Former ANOTEHR WORLD and ONE LIFE TO LIVE actress Valarie Pettiford gives you the reasons why she is thankful, as she puts her thoughts to music in her new show entitled "Thankful," presented by Upright Cabaret in Hollywood, California. Written and directed by David Galligan, the Tony-nominated actress blends a mixture of jazz, classic standards and musical theatre, accompanied by a stellar band musically directed by Ron Abel.

The most watched British TV shows of all time
EASTENDERS ratings in recent years have been mixed, but the show's Christmas Day special in 1986, featuring the Den and Angie story, is fourth on the list. That show, which garnered an astonishing 30.1million viewers, ended with Den handing his wife Angie a letter from his solicitor filing for divorce. This makes it the winner of the highest audience for a 'regular' British TV show ever.

TOM CASIELLO: What I Did on my Summer-Slash-Fall Vacation Across the USA (CHARACTERS WANTED!)
"I wonder if maybe the majority of us who aren't writing from our homes in other parts of the country are so surrounded by the urban hyper-reality of New York City and Los Angeles, that we've lost touch with what's going on in the rest of the world? It's no secret that many NYC'ers and LA'ers have a different view of life than someone in, say, Ohio or Tennessee or Texas or Florida. And I'm not talking about the whole blue state/red state thing. This isn't a measure of politics, just a measure of being in touch with who your audience is... or who the audience is that you don't have yet."

Also, check out Casiello's WANT TO BE INTERVIEWED BY A SOAP WRITER?

GL stars giving back in Jersey
Several celebrities will participate in the Matheny Golf Classic on Oct. 21, an event to raise funds to support the outpatient clinic of Matheny Medical and Educational Center in Peapack, a special hospital and educational facility for the developmentally disabled.

The event, to be held at the Somerset Hills Country Club in Bernardsville, will feature legendary high school basketball coach Robert Hurley Sr., who has been head coach at St. Anthony's High School in Jersey City for 35 years. His teams have won 25 state titles, have gone undefeated four times and have won 20 or more games in all but one season.

Five cast members from GUIDING LIGHT will be on hand for the event: Robert Bogue (who plays Mallett), Mandy Bruno (Marina), Bradley Cole (Jeffrey), Robert Newman (Josh) and Kim Zimmer (Reva). The actors are familiar with Somerset County as the show shoots on a regular basis in Peapack-Gladstone.