NEWS ROUNDUP: Eva Longoria Praises Susan Lucci, Dark Shadows, Wilson Bethel Cries Over Bieber

Susan Lucci Plays for Laughs in DEVIOUS MAIDS
"She's hysterical — so amazing," raves producer Eva Longoria, who thinks Susan "missed her true calling. She's a strong comedic actress and the loveliest person you'd ever meet. Not at all the soap opera diva." Eva should know. Having worked on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS prior to being cast on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, Eva recalls not everyone being so warm and fuzzy.

Soccer Star With Soap Opera Roots Aims At Olympics
Indiana University soccer star Orianica Velasquez is on a mission — to get to the London Olympics with Colombia's women's soccer team. And she wants to send a message about the country where she was born.

The coach of the Colombian women's team, Ricardo Rozo, says he didn't discover Velasquez's raw athletic talent on the field — he discovered it on TV. She was playing a teen in a soap opera about soccer. The program, JUEGO LIMPIO (or Fair Play), embodies the spirit of soccer for many Colombian fans.

Former soap stars Robert Newman and Rosemary Prinz star in "She's of a Certain Age"
Currently in previews, the show opens Sunday, May 20th at the Beckett Theatre, Theatre Row, West 42nd Street, New York, NY.

Wilson Bethel ‘moved’ by Justin Bieber promo
It was reported that Wilson shed a few tears when he saw Justin's "Never Say Never" video and the 28-year-old star has light-heartedly defended himself.

"It certainly moved me!" he laughed to British magazine more! "I guess there's something about that story, 'the boy with a dream' that just spoke to me. It's pretty embarrassing really."

The Vampire Who Came Out in the Afternoon
In the context of late-’60s daytime drama these choices were, to put it mildly, counterintuitive. A few years later we would learn to call such desperate moves “jumping the shark,” but what DARK SHADOWS proved at the moment Barnabas’s cold, pale hand reached out of his coffin was that soap-opera narrative is in its essence an act of desperation, like the telling of bedtime stories by weary parents to wakeful kids: the stories just seem to go on and on and on, and the longer your audience stays with you, the more sharks, inevitably, will have to be jumped.

Johnny Depp shines bright in ‘Dark Shadows’
The funniest lines, the best moments, and highlights of this film all belong to Depp. It’s a dangerous game when the actor outshines the material. But he carries this movie.

'Dark Shadows' is lighter with Tim Burton
As he did in the TV series, Barnabas passes himself off as the family's strange relation from England _ although there are some who know the truth, most critically Angelique Bouchard (Green), Collinsport's leading citizen, seafood mogul, spurned lover and the witch who originally turned Barnabas into a vampire and buried him alive, two centuries earlier (which may contradict the TV show, but so it goes).

Nollywood loses another actress
The Nigerian movie industry, Nollywood, is mourning again as star actress, Cassandra Gabriel, is dead. Gabriel played one of the major roles in AK Media’s television drama, FACE-2-FACE.