NEWS ROUNDUP: AFTRA Talks, Stage Appearances, Soap Morality, Duffy Does Dallas

AMC and OLTL cast members meet with AFTRA on Prospect Park move. AMC, ANOTHER WORLD, OLTL cast members in Ottowa community theater. A plea for greater morality (and less homophobia) in South African soaps. Patrick Duffy never thought he'd do DALLAS again. OLTL and GH villains in off-Broadway comedy, "You've Got Hate Mail."

AFTRA is in the process of scheduling meetings with OLTL and AMC cast members to address their concerns and advise them of their rights under the union’s Network Code agreement.

"AFTRA is in the process of scheduling meetings with cast members to address their concerns and advise them of their rights under the union’s Network Code agreement. No doubt plenty of AMC and OLTL actors will be eager to hear what AFTRA reps have to say at those meetings.

Since the Prospect Park deal was announced, observers have speculated that sizeable cost cuts will be needed in order to fit the show onto the Web—and that some of those cost cuts may come in the form of pay cuts for long-time cast members.As the Los Angeles Times noted recently, a typical daytime soap opera costs about $50 million per year to produce. That’s vastly more than web budgets."

Walt Willey, Kale Browne, Taylor Miller in Ottowa-based community theater production of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite"

"Ottawa High School drama teacher Mary Morgan plays opposite Kale Browne (Sam Rappaport from “ONE LIFE TO LIVE” and Michael Hudson from “Another World.”) in this scene, which brings the characters back to their honeymoon suite.

In Act Two, a Hollywood star (Walt Willey, also known as Jackson Montgomery from the daytime drama “ALL MY CHILDREN”) returns to his roots and tries to regain his soul by reconnecting with his high school girlfriend (Erica Quirk of Minooka).

Act Three is bursting with the drama and comedy surrounding a nervous bride who has locked herself in the bathroom and refuses to come out. Her parents, played by Johnson and Taylor Miller (Nina Cortlandt from ALL MY CHILDREN), attempt to salvage their daughter’s wedding."

South African gay rights activist asserts that soap operas don't have to reinforce negative stereotypes.

"It is estimated that around 4.9 million South Africans watch the famous soapie GENERATIONS every day. So what responsibility, if any, comes with attracting an audience of this size and should soap opera producers be obliged to present a responsible, fair, non-discriminatory version of society?

I think they should, which is why I recently complained to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) after I was offended at the portrayal of a gay character on Generations."

Patrick Duffy is surprised to be back on DALLAS.

"I actually did not think I would be playing Bobby Ewing again. And over the years, more and more, I thought I'd never do it again. Over the years, scripts were presented and people would say, 'Aw, we should do this again'. A script would be written and we would look at it and it would be atrocious."

Tonja Walker and Meg Bennet in Off-Broadway comedy "You've got Hate Mail."

"Tonja Walker, best known as "the woman you love to hate," Alex Olanov Hesser Buchanan, on ABC's OLTL, joins the cast on August 5. Meg Bennett, who soap opera fans will recognize as the villainous Allegra on GH, performs on August 12. "