News Brief

Leah Laiman: Letter from New York
"Many people like to describe their lives as a soap opera. Not me. When someone finds out that I´m the current co-headwriter of AS THE WORLD TURNS, the first question is invariably: where do you get your ideas? My fervent answer is always: not from my life! I´ve been happily married to the same man for more years than I can say without giving away the fact I look waaay younger than I am. Thank God, our children are happy, healthy, and more or less, trauma free. Whether that´s a tribute to our parenting skills or undeserved luck, we don´t question too closely. So, instead of looking inward for melodrama, I have to focus outward.

With one hour a day, five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year to fill, I am in constant search for inspiration. I can adapt a plot from classic Greek tragedy (you can´t go wrong with "Oedipus") or classic vintage movies (It Happened One Night works for almost any new couple). Newspapers and magazines offer an embarrassment of riches. The old chestnut switched-at-birth-baby story you might encounter on any number of shows I´ve written (GENERAL HOSPITAL, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, ONE LIFE TO LIVE, ANOTHER WORLD, GUIDING LIGHT) was the subject of numerous articles and, needless to say, a hefty lawsuit, several years ago. I grant you there aren´t too many people who return from the dead just as a former spouse is on the verge of marrying a new partner. Still, thwarted romance, in all its many guises, is a recurrent theme in reality as well as fiction. That dreams are born and die then live again is irrefutable, whether on the screen or in your heart."

Y&R's Braeden on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER tonight
Tonight's episode, which caps Stella's (Sarah Chalke) storyline for now, features flashbacks of Robin's childhood in which Eric Braeden (Victor, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) plays her imposing father, who had wanted a son.

Y&R's Bloom cast in Angel of Death
Vail Bloom has joined the cast of Sony Pictures TV online movie Angel of Death, starring Lucy Lawless and Zoe Bell.

Radio soap star Studs Terkel dies at 96
Studs Terkel captured the essence of Chicago in the pages of his best-selling oral histories, chronicling common people and celebrities alike.

Along the way he became an ageless master of listening and speaking, a broadcaster, activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Terkel died Friday at age 96.

During World War II he took a job in a radio soap opera called ”Ma Perkins.” Terkel, who did a competent James Cagney impression, played the part of a gangster, Butch Malone.

Leann Hunley: Day of DAYS
"I was at the 'Day of DAYS' event yesterday at Universal Studios. It was so unfortunate that the rain spoiled some of the planned events....I was looking forward to the look-alike contest...wanted to see who looked most like me! Anyway, for those of you who came, THANK YOU for braving the weather and hanging in there with us."

Have a question for Tristan Rogers?
Post your questions and he may answer in his Unscripted vlog.

ShiWired.com and The Advocate on AMC
SheWired.com Senior Editor Tracy E. Gilchrist and Advocate.com Editor Ross von Metzke prove that lesbians and gay men do get along… especially when they’re getting bitchy over the latest dirt in Hollywood.

TEG: My girl Tamara Braun! Did you see her debut on AMC?

RvM: It's on my TiVo. But yes. She is very hot.

TEG: Okay...so not being a soapy, how do they utter that shit without losing it? I would be like a cast member on CAROL BURNETT or Latifah as Gwen Ifill…giggling my ass off the whole time.

RvM: Yeah, some of it is complete sap. You'd find a way for $300K a year plus benefits.