NEWS ROUNDUP: John McCook On Stephanie's B&B Exit; POLITICAL ANIMALS Canceled; 90210-Old

Photo: Kevin Mulcahy Jr./We Love Soaps

THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL's John McCook on the Death of Stephanie and Exit of Susan Flannery
"It's a wild, crazy Irish celebration of her life. Eric goes out and hires the group Celtic Woman to entertain and we have these sweet Irish dancers who get us all up on our feet doing the Riverdance thing. It's fantastic! I don't think soaps, as a rule, do the death of characters well enough, or even when a big character is taken off the canvas, like with Ridge. There's a tendency to sweep it under the rug and talk about it later. But, in Stephanie's case, we are doing it right! The audience mourns for the loss of their characters and, unless the show mourns too, it's a lost opportunity. This show has always had a matriarch and patriarch and now our matriarch will be gone. I hope we'll handle that realistically and be mourning the loss for years."

Darnell Williams recurring on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
"Just spoke 2 Darnell. He informed me that Y&R decided to keep him on re-curing status, which means off contract.  He'll be staying on, but re-curing status. They took him off contract..."

POLITICAL ANIMALS canceled by USA Network
The ratings never matched the universal raves it garnered; the Washington D.C.-set saga averaged roughly 3.2 million viewers during its run. Still, there was hope that the undeniable cachet it brought to USA would lead to a Season 2 order.

Vincent Irizarry stars in Lifetime movie, Left To Die!
In the shocking true story, Irizarry plays Nick Kakeris, who travels to Ecuador on vacation with friend Sandra Chase, played by Barbara Hershey.

Shonda Rhimes: "What TV show should my TV characters watch? "
"Turns out, now there is actually going to BE a REAL tv show called American BakeOff on another network! I'm sure it is totally different from my BakeOff in EVERY way (maybe they don't bake things while we watch -- maybe they bake things in secret)."

SEINFELD has made $2.7 billion since it went off the air 12 years ago
SEINFELD made 180 episodes during its nine-year run -- which means that each half-hour episode has earned more than $14 million so far.

'9021-Old,' the Return of BEVERLY HILLS, 90210