News Round-up: Cougar Wedding, Audio Soap, HD

New online soap opera airs gang and knife culture
It is being hailed as the ARCHERS for young people. Monday sees the launch of an online audio soap opera, OUT OF THE GATE, created and made by eight young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Half are young offenders. In four weeks, they came up with the characters, storyline and script for the first five episodes of the soap, which was recorded on location in a pub in south London. The aim is to encourage debate among young people about knife crime and gang culture, and the difficulties young offenders face.

Bold and Beautiful cougar marriage
Jackie will marry the much-younger Owen Friday on THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL despite her son Nick's objections.

"Jackie has no idea Nick is even in Hawaii," says Lesley-Anne Down, who plays the "mature" bride. "Nick is also oblivious, thanks to Bridget."

The newlyweds enjoy a romantic wedding night, and then head back to L.A., where young Owen can't help gloating to Nick.

"He's his stepfather now," says Down with a laugh. "Call me Daddy! Nick's opinion of Owen has not changed. He doesn't think Owen married his mother for the right reasons."

Broadcasters' HD Squeeze Play
Local broadcasters are increasingly degrading their hi-def picture quality due to multicasting--transmitting digital subchannels alongside the primary HD stream within a station's 19.4 Mbps digital TV pipe.

Deep Soap: Make My Burger Medium Rare
Sara Bibel writes: "This year, I settled in to watch the opening episode with mixed emotions. I waited years for Phillip to return. I wanted to see him kicking ass, taking names, and wooing women. While his relationship with his children is wonderful, Phillip has not been the driving force that I expected. Killing him off when the show is ending is a depressing 'screw you' to the fans. This being a soap there is always the possibility of a miracle cure, but there will be weeks of depressing scenes in the meantime. I suppose it’s possible Phillip’s illness is a metaphor for the show’s demise, but it’s not entertaining."


Despite her modern outlook and lifestyle, Samira Atash, a first generation Afghan Muslim, has not forgotten her values and morals. In 2003, an agent wanted to sign Samira for a major role in GUIDING LIGHT for the role of a "vixen". Despite how important this was to her career, Samira refused, on the grounds that the audition included a kissing scene. She stated that "she would die" before her parents saw her making out with a man on TV.