News Round-up

Fans meet soap stars at tour kickoff in Macon

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., about 100 fans who purchased pricey tickets, or won them, got to schmooze up close and personal with the TV celebrities during interactive sessions that included performing show scenes, snapping photos and digging for storyline secrets.

Judy Karp, vice president of Celebrity Events Groups, the Michigan-based agency that’s coordinating the tour, said Macon’s high daytime TV viewership – the highest-rated market for daytime television in the country – is why the tour started here.

And when it comes to soaps, locally, the CBS shows are huge, she said, explaining the tour’s lineup. As it travels to other cities, the actors will shift according to regional show popularity.

"This is a new concept, going into the towns of America,” Karp said of the debut tour.

She said a soap opera cruise featuring many of the same actors ended Jan. 26 and prevented much advance publicity for the tour.

“Next time, we’d like to see lots more fans,” she said.

“It’s amazing and it’s really very special for me because I’m a Louisiana boy and I’m getting a fresh taste of my roots,” B&B's Winsor Harmon said of being in town.

He said he and some of the actors had a night out Friday in Macon, dining at the Fish N’ Pig barbecue and seafood restaurant at Lake Tobesofkee and stopping by Whiskey River bar.

“We were mobbed at Whiskey River. It was insane,” he said. “Insane in a good way.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: My cousin owns the Whiskey River bar.

The Gabriel Project offers a chance to meet "soap" stars
A "Nighttime with the Daytime Stars" bus trip to benefit the Gabriel Project is scheduled for March 28 at Rex Manor in Brooklyn, N.Y. The event will feature a buffet dinner with an open bar, dancing and a chance to meet and have a photograph taken with a favorite soap opera star. Among the stars expected to attend are: Bobbi Eakes, who plays Krystle on ALL MY CHILDREN; Bree Williamson, who plays Jess and Tess on ONE LIFE TO LIVE; and Jeff Branson, who plays Shayne Lewis on GUIDING LIGHT. Tickets are $160.

Critic's Choice: Monday's GL
"Soap opera characters are impossible to kill. Take the case of Phillip Spaulding on GUIDING LIGHT. You would think that after his pop, Alan, drilled him with bullets five years ago and the town held a funeral for him that we would never see his likes again. Yeah, right. Grant Aleksander, who created the role, returns, rocking the entire town of Springfield. Turns out he was just taking a shower."

Friday the 13th is back; original was scripted by soap's Victor Miller
With the release of the new Friday the 13th film, there has been much talked lately about the original film. Scripted by soap opera veteran writer Victor Miller (ONE LIFE TO LIVE, GUIDING LIGHT, et al.) and an uncredited Ron Kurz, and featuring a young Kevin Bacon (GUIDING LIGHT) as a victim and veteran actress and game show regular Betsy Palmer as Jason’s mother, the original Friday the 13th is the "gift that keeps giving."

Miller appered on "Without Your Head" radio last month talking about the original Friday the 13th.

Miller says on his website about his daytime career: "Daytime TV can be really boring to those whose lives are not ruled by it. Writers are hired and fired regularly whenever the ratings go down. That would be a logical concept if the writers were totally responsible for what the audience sees on air. Instead, what happens all-too often is that network executives and producers (depending on the executive or the producer) make the ultimate decisions which the writers must carry out and be blamed for. Oftentimes stars on the various shows become so powerful that they have the power to accept or decline storylines. Most actors are not all that good at story decisions—which explains why so many good actors make so many horrific films."

Eva La Rue calls off wedding
Eva La Rue reveals that despite being featured on the winter issue of InStyle Weddings, her spring wedding has been cancelled.

The former ALL MY CHILDREN star told 104.3MYfm's Valentine in the Morning that commitment issues on the part of her fiancé, Joe Cappuccio, played a major role in the wedding being called off.

"I think our issues and our patterns just butted up against each other wrong, and some people are capable of breaking through those issues and patterns and learning and growing, and some people aren't," La Rue said.

The star acknowledged that she "got hurt" in the breakup, but said she still considers her ex "a good guy." She also joked to Valentine in the Morning: "I got a beautiful ring out of it."

INTERVIEW: AMC's Melissa Claire Egan (Annie)
“The whole switcharoo of her becoming manipulative and dangerous has been a lot of fun. It’s been nice switching it around, being the bad one and causing trouble for a change. It’s great fighting with Greenlee all the time. I love Rebecca, so being able to fight with her, and going back and forth with her, is always fun. It’s nice to have this different take on my character.”

Katie Price hopes for US soap role
Katie Price has vowed to secure a role in a US soap opera, according to a report. The model is said to be having private lessons with an acting tutor in Los Angeles in preparation for her assault on the American TV market.

A source told The People: "She is desperate to break into acting. She knows she isn't going to land a top movie but fancies a TV soap."

Price and her husband Peter Andre are spending three months in the States with their children as they film new episodes of their ITV2 reality series.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS had 4.2 millions viewers this week, up slightly from the past two weeks
At 9, a FLASHPOINT repeat delivered 9.6 million to CBS. Placing second was ABC's SUPERNANNY with 6.5 million. Fox's AMERICA'S MOST WANTED found 4.6 million fans on another night. NBC's excellent FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS delivered 4.2 million fans.

SAG leaders to meet today
The moderate majority of SAG leaders will attempt Sunday to put feature-primetime negotiations back on track by trying to defuse president Alan Rosenberg's extraordinary legal challenge.

In a message sent to supporters Saturday, the Unite For Strength faction said it plans to take the "procedural step" at a national board meeting Sunday to prevent further delays in the negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. SAG's feature-primetime contract expired June 30 and the last set of negotiations took place in November.