NEWS: Ben Hardy, Mark Deklin, Georgia May Foote, Ron Raines, 'The Archers'

Is that really Peter Beale? 'EastEnders' actor Ben Hardy strips half-naked for magazine photo shoot
Hardy will grace the cover of Attitude magazine. Pictured in a variety of saucy shots, the 23-year-old got wet and wild and he posed seductively in and out of the swimming pool.

Witness in murder trial time-stamped alleged killer's arrival based on Y&R viewing
John Russell Giles is on trial in Crossville for murdering Kimberly Ann Batty. One key witness was 85-year-old Joy Miller of Bridgeport, WV, and a former resident and neighbor of Batty. She testified that she saw Giles drive up to the residence shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 7 in his white van. They briefly spoke — the first and only time they spoke — before Giles entered Batty’s house.

She was certain of the time because her favorite soap opera, The Young and the Restless, was on television from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. She walked to the mailbox after that day’s episode ended.

How 'The Archers' became a Shakespearean saga of fate, betrayal and family ambition
Radio soap opera The Archers is Shakespearean in its breadth and drama, according to the radio show's new editor, Sean O'Connor. In the middle of one of the most sensational storylines in its recent history, he is using Shakespeare as a template, with a few borrowings from Thomas Hardy and Henrik Ibsen thrown in.

"The story of the Archer family is like the Plantagenets. The model really is Shakespearean," said O'Connor, who has returned to the program he once produced via Channel 4's Hollyoaks and the BBC's EastEnders. "Unlike the other major soaps, EastEnders and Coronation Street, which are based on places, The Archers is about a family. Its social range is like Shakespeare's Henry IV plays too. It covers labourers, tenant farmers and land barons."

How 'Mad Men' became the most controversial show on TV
Assessing the series’ quality becomes an exercise in distinguishing where Mad Men is pandering to its audience versus where, if at all, it has anything of substance to say about the period and the people who populated it. And it's exactly this split personality — the desire to have it both ways, as dark antihero drama and glossy commodity — that has made the show so culturally divisive.

'Coronation Street' star Georgia May Foote to exit soap
The actress, who has played Katy Armstrong since 2010, will leave Weatherfield at the end of the year.

Malin Akerman is dating 'All My Children' alum Colin Egglesfield, and worries he's "too hot for her"
"They're taking it slow," a source tells Us.

Mark Deklin Is 'Devious Maids' Awesome New Mystery Man
"The main thing for Nicholas, there's so many secrets and lies that he's telling [that] I said to the producers, 'There are a few things I have to know. I have to in order to play it.' One is what really happened in the past. The other thing is am I really in love with Marisol or is that some sort of long con? And they said, 'No. That's the one thing that is true. You are madly in love with Marisol and she's madly in love with you.'"

'Guiding Light' alum and 'Beacon Hill' star Ron Raines stops by KETK
Texas native Ron Raines stopped by KETK with Richard Lee, the cCnductor of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra.