News Round-up: Bower, MELROSE, Chappell, Stepto

INTERVIEW: NEIGHBOURS executive producer Susan Bower
On being criticized for the lack of cultural diversity on the show: "I do still think it's an issue and we are continuing to work through that. However, I would like to say that having been interviewed about this and also my own point of view I have taken particular notice of advertisements like for some car insurance and a bank advertisement - there was not one character or background character in any of those ads that was not white, blonde or Caucasian. So I feel a bit angry that NEIGHBOURS is singled out."

A first look at the new MELROSE PLACE
The Futon Critic reviews the first episode and concludes: "Just below what you're probably expecting."

INTERVIEW: GL's Crystall Chappell (Olivia)
“I’ve only recently written a fan letter once and that was to Agnes Nixon, (the Creator of All My Children). I read an interview with her in Advertising Age— she was talking about the industry and all the pay cuts and she was quoted as saying that she took a pay cut years ago and then recently taken another. So, here’s a woman who’s created shows that are still on the air and she’s willing to change with the times. I thought that was so gracious and she was so with the ‘now’ and what needed to happen and wasn’t stuck in some ‘time warp’. And, I so appreciated her mind, so I wrote her a letter that said, ‘I read this article and I so loved this and I think you are the most extraordinary woman’.”

Amanda Stepto: From DEGRASSI to DJ booth
Stepto (Spike) is now DJing with former DEGRASSI co-star Stacie Mistysyn (ex-Caitlin).

"I think Stacie and I use the term DJ very loosely. Sometimes I like to say we're programmers," says Stepto, who nevertheless goes by the stage name DJ Demanda. "We select the songs and go with the vibe of the crowd to see what we play. But we don't invent songs, or do any mixing or scratching or anything like that."

INTERVIEW: Former soap actor Matt Cavenaugh talks with Out
“I inherited my dressing room at the Palace Theatre from Liza, and I still have the red carpet she left behind,” he laughs. “If Liza leaves you a present, you accept it graciously.”