News Round-up

TV Guide Canada's 2008’s Entertainer of the Year
Nelson Branco bestows the honor on Y&R executive producer/head writer Maria Arena Bell. Bell has helped turned the soap around this year. She told Branco, "When I returned to Y&R, a lot of things had changed. A lot of the characters and storylines had [swung] in some wonky, strange directions."

Paul Rauch also chimes in including this comment on what Irna Phillips would think of soaps today: "Irna would think the business has grown vitally, but she’d also think it’s pulled back because of budgetary concerns. She’d be amazed at the mechanism of daytime TV today, and, of course, she’d be impressed that the storylines have deepened. The essence of what she created still airs today. Story is everything. Without story, good production means nothing."

Celebs to give back on USO Holiday Tour
A host of musicians, comedians and actors will soon join forces as part of an annual USO (www.uso.org) holiday tour led by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.

Committed to giving back and showing their support to those serving overseas, Admiral Mullen and his guests will travel to five countries in six days, visiting posts, meeting senior officials and staging a series of entertainment concerts/events featuring Grammy Award-winning comedian Lewis Black, country music singer Kellie Pickler, award-winning actress Tichina Arnold (ex-Zena, RYAN'S HOPE; ex-Sharla, ALL MY CHILDREN), guitarist Zac Brown, stand-up comic Kathleen Madigan and actor/funnyman John Bowman.

DAYS' Reynolds also visits the troops
Amy Danielson, Bill Brochtrup, James Reynolds (Abe, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) and Lissa Layng will spend Christmas and New Year’s (in Germany and then Kosovo) with the soldiers, chatting with them and signing autographs. It’s part of an Armed Forces Entertainment effort called the Hollywood Handshake Tour, which salutes hospitalized soldiers and shows them America supports and appreciates them.

SARA A. BIBEL: Don't Call It A Comeback
"This business of killing off characters and bringing back the actors seemingly moments later is perplexing. It's not unprecedented. Years after GUIDING LIGHT killed off the ultrapopular Lujack the show brought back Vincent Irizarry as his previously unknown twin Nick McHenry. But this recent -- I'm not sure what to call it, re-acting? -- trend seems symptomatic of daytime's unwillingness to commit to a longterm story. Fans miss the actor and/or the actor's planned primetime career fails to materialize and the show decides to bring them back. The character is dead (or even recast), so they're now a mysterious lookalike. The point seems to be to get the actor back on the screen, not tell a great story."

INTERVIEW: Former soap star Hugo Napier
"I always thought of myself as in a manufacturing job, where I manufactured a show and I was part of a team. Rather like if you were on a production line in an automobile factory. We just churned out shows every day, but it was a lot of fun to do."

The story of Peter Simon and Courtney Sherman
Peter Simon and Courtney Sherman met on the set of SEARCH FOR TOMORROW in 1971 where he played Scott and she played Kathy.

In 1973, Scott had an affair with Jennifer Pace (played for four years by Morgan Fairchild). Jennifer killed Scott's father, Doug, and went to prison, where she discovered she was pregnant with Scott's child. When Kathy learned about the baby, she left Scott, who developed a drinking problem.

Off-screen, however, things were going much better for the actors for portrayed Scott and Kathy. Simon and Sherman married in 1975.

MALA BHATTACHARJEE: Tuesday's ATWT "awesome"
"How awesome were AS THE WORLD TURNS's Luke and Brian yesterday? Watching one of daytime's hottest young stars, Van Hansis, go head-to-head with seasoned daytime vet Laurence Lau was a true pleasure, especially since their scenes about Brian and Luke's controversial smooch were packed with honesty, emotion, and a palpable tension."