NEWS: GLEE Novel, Indians on TV, Pittsburgh, Chrishell

Soap stars excited for Pittsburgh fan event
"Pittsburgh has it all ... great arts, music and sports," Justin Deas says. "One thing you can't do in Pittsburgh is diet, because they serve salads with french fries and sandwiches with slaw and french fries. Even some of the healthy food might not be so healthy."

"Events such as this are a way for the actors and actresses to say 'thank you' to the fans and to stay connected to the fans," says Carnegie Mellon University graduate Van Hansis, from AS THE WORLD TURNS. "Fans at this kind of an event are curious about the inner workings of a soap opera."

Chrishell Stause explains her name
"I was born in a hospital,” said Stause, “but my mother went into labor at a Shell station. Chris. Shell. Chrishell. Get it? It’s spelled just like the two words. My dad’s joke at holidays is, ‘It’s a good thing you weren’t almost born at a Texico or you’d be Chrisexico.’ Ha ha!"

GLEE Prequel Novel Approved for Publication, Called "Glee: The Beginning"
"Glee: The Beginning" will headline a series of book projects based on the show. These GLEE books will start hitting shelves this August, giving even more background and material about some of the main characters involved in the hit Fox show.

GLEE Tides You Over With "Superfan" Online Stuff
The new Superfan experience allows GLEEks to watch full-length episodes while concurrently monitoring the live GLEE Twitter feed, exploring the official Facebook page, playing interactive GLEE games and sharing video with fellow fans. At their fingertips, visitors have easy access to insider content relevant to the GLEE scenes they are watching, including links to download and purchase music. The Superfan experience also offers fans the opportunity to watch their favorite musical numbers, view behind-the-scenes videos with the cast and crew and catch up on what happened in the episodes through “Glee-winds.”

Why are there suddenly so many Indians on television?
Primetime TV now has about a dozen South Asians in regular or recurring roles. Meanwhile, a handful of new South Asian faces are waiting to make their debut next fall, and NBC is about to out-Indian everyone with its new sitcom OUTSOURCED, based on a low-budget 2006 film about an American novelty company whose call center gets relocated to India. Why are there so many Indians on TV all of a sudden?

Morgan Fairchild talks about starting out on soaps (SFT)
"For me it was really great because I had grown up in the theater. And even though I’d done commercials and movies, it was the first time I had done a three camera show. I really learned how to do close-ups and similar things. We would take our lunch when the show actually was on during the day, and so I would sit in the control room and watch it during the lunch break.

"One day a guy on the show who went to Julliard with my sister, who considered himself slumming, came in and said ‘what are you doing, why are you watching our show?’ in a put down manner. I told him I got married young and didn’t get to go to college. But had I gone to SMU or one of those good schools that teaches drama, they would have had video classes where they tape us and then tell us what we’re doing wrong. This show was paying me to do the same thing. [laughs] I was learning to act before a camera."

Freeman Michaels: 5 Behaviors That Make You Fat
Michaels, who played Drake Belson on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS in the mid-1990s has written a new book, "Weight Release: A Liberating Journey" which examines the possible pitfalls of why you may be gaining weight.