News Brief

INTERVIEW: OLTL's Kassie DePaiva
"I dont want life to be tame for her (Blaire). I like the excitement, although it does get a little exhausting in real life and on the soap opera. But it’s all good."

Kassie hints that more trouble is brewing than viewers originally thought. "Blair is gonna have her hands full with the turn of events in the next month. Once you think things have settled in, something else happens. Starr is giving the baby up, and there’s a lot of things that are going to come out with the birth of that baby."

Kassie also has her own take on Todd’s outrageous plan for his daughter’s baby. "I think he truly believes that he’s got this clean slate now with Marty, and if he can get her to believe that he is the good person that he is and not the bad person that he was, then he’ll absolve himself. People who are that narcissistic truly believe that. I think he truly believes that he can pull this off and that everything will be perfect."

GL stars in Philly today
Center City-bred Stephanie Gatschet and three of her former GUIDING LIGHT costars - Caitlin Van Zandt (Ashlee Wolfe), Bonnie Dennison (Daisy Lemay), and Lawrence Saint-Victor (Remy Boudreau) - will be on the Parkway today for the third annual "Free to Breathe" 5K. Gatschet (who played Tammy Winslow till earlier this year) organized this in honor of her mother, Nancy Gatschet, a lung-cancer survivor and local volunteer chair.

Gay characters increasing on TV
"Naturally, we want to see ourselves represented and have our stories told," says GLAAD president Neil G. Giuliano. "But this (broadening representation) is also important because we know that images on TV and in the movies have a lot of power and influence. They can go a long way toward helping others embrace the LGBT community with love and acceptance."

To that end, Giuliano is pleased to not only see more gay characters on the small screen, but more "fully developed" characters with "substantial depth" to them. In other words, characters who don't serve simply as gimmicks or window dressing or the butt of jokes as many gay depictions have done in the past.

A new low for McCain
The Presidential election gets compared to a soap opera in hundreds of newspapers every day, but I had to laugh at a quote from today's Winnipeg Sun: "Let's be honest: DAYS OF OUR LIVES has more believable plot lines than the ones being peddled by the McCain camp."

GAWKER: Four Soap Operas The CW Needs to Develop
"Midday soaps like DAYS OF OUR LIVES and GENERAL HOSPITAL may not last much longer, so it's even more crucial that the CW bring back a few of our favorites and soap us up."

TOM CASIELLO: One year ago today...
"One year ago today, I was in California.

I laid out a DAYS OF OUR LIVES episode where a hospitalized John sees Sami, believes she's Colleen, and tries to strangle her. I sat on a back porch with my head writer, gave a 'Welcome' embrace to my new co-head writer, had productive meetings with both my executive producer and Corday Productions, and headed back on a red-eye to finish my episode before the Monday morning 'Pencils Down' strike clock started ticking, saying a silent prayer that cool heads would prevail and the strike wouldn't last any longer than it had to."

HOLLYOAKS baddie returns to Chester
If you thought you'd seen the last of HOLLYOAKS villain Niall Rafferty, guess again. The psychotic hairdresser will be appearing in the late night version of the Channel 4 soap at the end of November. While little is known about the storyline surrounding his return to Chester, it can be confirmed that Barry Sloane finished filming the scenes on location in Wales last month.

In response to the NIGHT SHIFT photo controversy, Lynda Hirsch recounts a B&B prop story
"Props are a very important part of a soap set. Once when I was on the set of THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, a photo of a character who had been replaced was set up on the Forrester family mantle. The picture shown was of the previous actor. One of the other actors on the set spotted the mistake and took the photo off the mantle. A union member said he was not allowed to do that. After a 10-minute fight, a union stagehand had to put up the old photo. Then he put up the picture of the new actor. Sometimes the mistakes of a prop department can be tragic."

Hero Report: ALL MY CHILDREN's J.R. Martinez
On April 5, 2003, J.R. (recently cast as Brot Monroe on AMC) was the driver of military vehicle with three other soldiers in the city of Kabala. Martinez, who was serving in Iraq with the elite 101st Airborne, drove his Humvee over a land mine and was severely wounded. The vehicle was thrown into the air approximately 20 feet, ejecting the other three soldiers, and leaving Martinez engulfed in flames inside the vehicle.

The next thing Martinez remembers was being out on the ground, his sergeant cradling him in his arms, the skin on his face, arms and hands melting away. Then he passed out. He was transported to Kuwait, then to Germany and finally to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. When he woke up three weeks later, his mother was at his side. He had spent a good part of the three weeks in surgery. Parts of his ears were removed because they were so badly burned. His internal organs had been severely damaged when he inhaled the heat and smoke while trying to stay alive inside the burning Humvee. But, he was alive.

Martinez was battered, but he refused to be beaten. Even though he has undergone more than 30 surgeries, Martinez has an incredibly optimistic outlook on life. He is committed to supporting and assisting wounded soldiers and their families with their transition from military service to civilian life. He has dedicated his life to getting the message out that these men and women need help. He travels to hospital wards, telling his story, to comfort, inspire and encourage others in need.