News Brief

Farewell Dee-a-Palooza Week, Day One: Soap Shrink Says, “I Wanted to Be Dr. Marlena!”
From Marlena De Lacroix: "To mark executive producer Ken Corday’s ver-ry curious decision to fire Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn from DAYS OF OUR LIVES, we here at Marlenadelacroix.com figured we’d pull out all the stops to honor both Dee and one of the most popular characters in history, let alone daytime history, namely Dr. Marlena Evans – 32 years in Salem, 32 years as a daytime superstar!"

INTERVIEW: Y&R's Billy Miller
Miller, who plays Billy Abbott, told Michael Fairman: "There are days when you go to work, and I take everything personally, not only in my work but in everyday life. There are days I am very competitive and more competitive with myself than anybody else. And there are days when I beat myself because that is not what I wanted to do. And there are days when I feel slightly satisfied, and those are the good days."

Dear Captain Obvious: Issue #24
A Y&R update on this clever parody advice column.

INTERVIEW: Soap vet Sean Kanan
Kanan, who starred on THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and GENERAL HOSPITAL and has appeared on SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES this month, talked to Soap Opera Weekly's Mala Bhattacharjee about his new play, "It's Just Sex."

"It's fantastic. I forgot how much I love doing theater. First of all, it's going to the theater every day and rehearsing for six or seven hours a day — which I love doing. It's like playing with a bunch of friends. And let me tell you, the soap opera training really comes in handy learning lines, because it's a significant amount of dialogue and I'm onstage about 90 percent of the time. It was very helpful to be able to look at stuff and learn it really quickly."

GREG HERNANDEZ: UGLY BETTY episode brings back memories
"I nominate last Thursday's episode of UGLY BETTY for a GLAAD Award. Any gay high school kid who watched it I'm sure identified with the pain Justin was feeling when his new best friend, Randy, succumbed to peer pressure and blew him off in favor of his 'cool' buddies who couldn't believe he was even hanging out with a drama geek."

TOM CASIELLO: Turkey Soap
"I'm especially looking forward to Thanksgiving, and seeing how the soaps treat the holiday. In recent years, it's been getting harder and harder to really deliver an original, moving, heart-warming Thanksgiving episode. Not because we don't want to - quite the opposite. It's just that every year, so much time and care is put into the Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes, and it gets harder and harder to do something that's never been done before."

"Moral rubbish" in Botswana
I loved this line from an article I read today: "Botswana is stuck with TV that sells western values, morals and images of excellence and or failure. It has shown everything from DAYS OF OUR LIVES, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, FALCON CREST and every other kind of Hollywood inspired moral rubbish."