News Round-up

VIDEO: Hastings grad debuts on GL
As a student at Hastings High School she performed in many school plays. Friday she made her debut on national television on GUIDING LIGHT and watched the episode air from her apartment in New York City.

"Turned on the TV and knew it was coming, knew it was coming and then you see yourself on television. It is like oh my gosh. I remember doing that. I cannot believe I look like that. I cannot believe that is how I sound," said McQuillan.

HOLLYOAKS' Melissa Walton: I was daunted
Walton has admitted that filming her first HOLLYOAKS episode was a "daunting" experience. The 18-year-old turns up in the soap in February as sexy stripper Loretta, and admitted she was a bag of nerves when she shot her first scenes.

She said: "It was a bit daunting because I was wearing very little in my first episode, but I tried to make myself as relaxed as possible. I spent a couple of evenings in the place where we were shooting before we filmed, made friends with a few of the dancers, had a few lessons and spent the evening prancing about in my underwear."

John Thomson gets full-time role on CORONATION STREET
John Thomson will return to CORONATION STREET permanently in the spring. The COLD FEET actor, 39, played children's entertainer Jesse Chadwick in the soap last year. And he impressed bosses so much he's been given a full-time role.

"I knew I was coming back this time because they gave me a surname," says Thompson.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is the best show on TV
"This show is different. The acting is more real. The photography is similar to a style used in documentaries. The writing is real. There are no dramatic flourishes, jokes, or situations that feel contrived. As life, it just is."

FNL: Would You Let Your Kids Play for Coach Taylor?
"In the nonfiction book on which the show is based, author Buzz Bissinger writes of a player who wasn't examined thoroughly after a groin injury: 'He lost the testicle but he did make All-State.' There are also kids who play through broken arms, broken ankles, and broken hands and who pop painkillers or Valium. Across the country, high-school football is also associated with a frightening rate of concussions. Would you let Coach Taylor anywhere near your boys?"

New DEGRASSI soundtrack includes Epstein original
Actor Jake Epstein has played a musician on DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION for several years, but has never released an official recording -- until now. Epstein's own song, "My Window," originally performed during the season seven episode "Bust a Move: Part Two," now appears on a brand new "Degrassi" soundtrack.

The soundtrack includes the hit tracks "Misery Business" by Paramore, "Neighbors" by The Academy Is and the Johnny Vicious Radio Mix of Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine."

All the songs were featured prominently in the show's seventh season. Canadian rock outfit Jakalope, with their reworked version of the DEGRASSI theme song, is also included.