Ice Princess's Soap Rant

What Not to Wear

2012-01-27T21:29:00.000-05:00

Guest post from: Bruno Smith

Have you ever been out somewhere in public or maybe even at your place of work and seen someone who is just dying for a makeover? Maybe they are a mom who is just worn down and tired and doesn’t feel the need to put any effort in to making herself look nice anymore. Or maybe it is the younger girl who feels like less is more when it comes to clothing and she will wearing little to nothing in to the office and pretty much everywhere else too. I see this all the time and once I was even tempted to the point of just taking someone to the mall with me so that I could buy them some things that would make them see that they have potential and they can really look nice if they half way tried! I didn’t do that of course, I didn’t want to be offensive. Instead I watch TLC’s What Not To Wear. This gets my makeover fix in enough that I don’t feel the need to approach people in public. Check out http://www.satellitetv-hq.com/ to find out about getting TLC on your television.

One Life to Live Cross Over General Hospital

2012-01-09T16:28:00.005-05:00

"I can't believe this is goodbye" says Viki in a promo for the finale of One Life to Live. I can't believe it either.
The end of All My Children was sad, but it didn't impact me quite as much as the end of OLTL, since I was a relatively new viewer of AMC. I've watched OLTL ever since I can remember, 30+ years. The latest issue of Soap Opera Digest has a large tribute to One Life to Live. I'm probably not going to list it on my magazine back issues website though. I'm going to keep it for my private collection.
It is really too bad that Prospect Park's deal had to fall through. An internet video production of All My Children and One Life to Live would have been great for the tech savvy fans. Unfortunately, a lot of fans aren't tech savvy, which is why ABC is making a really huge mistake by cancelling our soaps. Did you see what is replacing One Life to Live? A "helpful" show called The Revolution. Not a show that I care to watch. I will definitely be switching over to whatever soap is on CBS at 2pm.
Unfortunately, I just took a quick look and there is no other soap on at 2pm in my uspstate New York Viewing area. My choices are Dr. Phil on NBC, The Talk on CBS and One Tree Hill on SoapNet. Guess I won't be watching any television at 2pm.
Maybe I will have to look into web video productions of soaps, such as the ones produced by Crystal Chappell or Martha Byrne. A lot of former soap stars appear on those. I don't understand why a couple of soap actresses can figure out how to run a business video production of a soap opera, but Prospect Park can't.
I had an idea the other day that maybe General Hospital should have cross-overs with All My Children and One Life to Live actors. Soaps, such as The Young and the Restless have brought on actors from other shows as new characters, like Maura West. The new characters just aren't cutting it. I want to see my favorite characters played by my favorite actors, not NEW characters played by my favorite actors. How about having one of General Hospital's stories consist of a six week story arc involving cross over characters? Let's bring Viki and/or Erika Kane to Port Charles for a few weeks to spar with Luke. A six week stint with either one would be really cool. How about bringing Adam from All My Children over to spar with Victor on The Young and the Restless for a few weeks? Just doing one cross-over story per show wouldn't detract from the main storylines. It might not be real stable for the actors who would be crossing over for just a few weeks, but it would be a little extra money and a way to keep our beloved characters alive. We have all of these very popular, talented soap stars unwillingly out of work. Let's be creative, pool them together with the soaps we do have left, give these actors some work, save our favorite characters, and please fans all at the same time. Now, if only the higher-ups at the soaps would agree.

UPDATE 1/11/12: Great news! Frank Valentini & Ron Carlivati already had the idea I posted about above. John McBain & Todd, Blair & Starr Manning will be crossing over to General Hospital as their One Life to Live characters!

Facebook Marketing

2012-01-03T10:45:00.003-05:00

It seems like a lot of soap stars have a job or business outside of their soap jobs. With the instability of the soap opera industry, a second job is a good idea.
Soap stars are using social media like Twitter or Facebook marketing to promote their business. Laura Wright is always talking on Twitter about the new wines at her winery Standing Sun. Jonathan Jackson also promotes his band's, Enation, new album on Twitter.
Carolyn Hinsey is a friend on Facebook. She wrote a book about soap operas called Afternoon Delight and was promoting it on Facebook.
On Facebook, I recently friended Maria Shaw, who is an astrologer. She uses social media to offer tips, promote her readings and merchandise. She has written several books and sells a yearly calendar.
I promote my blogs and magazine back issues website using Twitter. Making people aware of your website or business, is the first step to get visitors or customers. Once you have a visitor, there is a good chance that visitor might make you money. They might buy your product or even click on an advertisement gaining you a percentage.
I mainly advertise using Twitter. I keep my Facebook for personal use. However, Facebook has an advertising service. You create targeted ads for your service or business. Facebook then uses all the info in its user database to show the ad to relevant people. For example, a magazine subscription service ad might be targeted at a Facebook user who likes to read or "likes" a site such as People.com.
It is amazing how social media and the internet have transformed advertising. In addition to the old offline methods, such as advertising on the radio or in the newspaper, we now have online advertising methods. If you have a business to promote, a website is a must. You can then list your site with search engines and use social media to gain visitors, and then watch the revenue increase.

Jessica Collins

2012-01-02T10:44:00.001-05:00

Anyone remember Dinah Lee Mayberry from Loving? Her portrayer, Jessica Collins, now plays Avery on The Young and the Restless. Jessica also runs a cooking blog. I made her gingersnap cookies for Christmas. They were super good!

Like on Facebook

More Loving

Dick Clark New Years Eve Ball Drop

2012-01-01T12:47:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone is having a Happy New Years Day!
I'm a little tired today. I stayed up to watch Dick Clark's New Years Rockin Eve and the ball drop in Times Square. New Year's Eve is the only night of the year I stay up past 10, 10:30. Had a glass of red wine, cheese & crackers & watched while working on my oldest son's Star Wars puzzle.
The entertainment wasn't the greatest on Dick Clark's New Years Rockin Eve. I only watched from 10 - 11 and a few minutes after 12 though. The highlight of what I saw was Justin Bieber singing Let It Be and Santana. I've never heard any music by Justin Bieber, but I could see the attraction as he was singing Let It Be. He was actually really good.
Dick Clark made an appearance shortly before midnight to countdown. Always good to see him, but his skin color was way off, almost yellowish. His speech has greatly improved though. He had a stroke a few years ago. Regis Philbin filled in for him. Dick's wife was not there this year either. She has been there other years though.
It was the 40th anniversary of Dick Clark's New Years Rockin Eve. It was too bad they didn't do some sort of tribute to Dick and show clips from past years, unless that was done in the later part of the show I didn't watch. If it wasn't done, ABC definitely missed the ball on that, as usual.
According to Maria Shaw, the astrologer columnist in Soap Opera Digest, 2012 will be a year of change for just about everyone. Her predictions, for me, are pretty accurate.
Here's hoping 2012 will be a change for the good and much better than 2011.

Dr. Phil

2011-12-28T18:08:00.000-05:00

Written by Sonny Quinn

Do you guys ever watch Dr. Phil? I love that show so much. I’ve been having some marital problems as of late and I feel like watching the good Doctor make so much sense when he’s talking to people and couples about their issues. I got all these http://www.direc4u.com/ channels and it turns out the only one I watch with any regularity is CBS because that’s which one has Dr. Phil at my house. It actually reruns in the afternoons so if I miss it in the morning I can watch it later which is good because it’s almost always something that pertains to my life that I can use. I’ve never been to real therapy and I know my husband would never go but you know, at the end of the day I feel like watching Dr. Phil is pretty close when you think about it. I love his whole shtick and I think he makes some really good points and I’ve learned a lot about how to deal with my marriage from the show.

Play Online Bingo Games

2011-12-26T10:26:00.002-05:00

I am really glad Christmas is over. Hopefully now I can concentrate on work and relaxing a bit. I bought just about all of my Christmas gifts online. I have a four year old, so it's much easier to buy online than take him to a store, where he wants everything and throws a fit when he doesn't get it.
The boys got a ton of toys for Christmas. The big hit was Star Wars legos. They each received four packages. They mainly like the lego minifigures. My four year old doesn't put the lego sets together yet, but my oldest son does. Some of those sets are very complicated and require a lot of patience.
My youngest son also received a Chutes and Ladders game. It is a great learning game for young kids as they don't have to know how to read yet. It helps with learning to count and taking turns.
Board games are fun and can be educational. When I was a kid, I liked bingo, clue, chess, chinese checkers and yahtzee.
Gaming and the internet is a really big industry. These days you can play just about any game online. You can even play online bingo games, such as 75 ball bingo. You can play games on cell phones and through social networking sites, such as Facebook. You can also connect your xbox or wii to the internet and play against people you don't even know right in your own living room. That's pretty cool!
I recently read an article in the newspaper about a local guy who started playing Scrabble as a kid and is now a professional Scrabble player. He travels all over the world to Scrabble tournaments to play against other people. Being a professional Scrabble player sounds like a fun job!

Wine Club

2011-11-28T12:50:00.005-05:00

I'm on the Low Glycemic Mediterranean Diet due to high blood sugar and cholesterol. I'm not overweight, but I do have a sedentary job. I've been on the diet plan for two years and so far, so good. I have to be very careful to stick to it though. It doesn't take much for my blood sugar to start rising into the danger zone. The diet plan does have one perk: a glass of red wine per day is allowed.
Since having kids, I'm not much of a drinker, but I do like one beer on Saturday nights. Apparently, beer is the worst thing you could drink when you have blood sugar issues. The maltose beer is made from contains a glycemic index of 105. Sugar (sucrose) has a glycemic index of 68. Malt products, such as beer, raise your blood sugar higher than sugar. I was very shocked to read that in a book I bought, called The GI Mediterranean Diet. I had no idea beer was so bad for your blood sugar. My doctor never mentioned that. According to the book, if you are going to drink beer, it should be low carb. Red wine is best though.
I have been planning to join a Wine Club and have a class of red wine every night with dinner, but was going to wait a few years until the boys are a little bit older. I think I'm going to speed up that process and start looking for a wine club now, so that I can drink a glass of red wine on Saturday nights, instead of a beer.
Laura Wright, who plays Carly on General Hospital, and her husband John, operate a winery called Standing Sun. I will have to place an order from her sometime. Reviewers have said the wine is really good.
From what little research I've done so far on ordering wine, the shipping charges can get expensive. A website called Wine.com currently has a Cyber Monday penny shipping sale on orders over $49. That is an excellent deal. I may have to check it out.

Kimberly McCullough Leaving General Hospital 2011

2011-11-24T10:06:00.001-05:00

Hot on the heels of the announcement that Jonathan Jackson is leaving General Hospital, Kimberly McCullough has announced she too is leaving General Hospital. Add to that the announcement that Prospect Park is suspending it's plans to bring All My Children and One Life to Live to the Internet. Not good news for soap fans.
Kimberly is leaving GH to focus on her directing career. She will continue to air into early 2012. Apparently there will be a must watch exit storyline for Robin and Patrick.
In the November 22, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Digest Kimberly addressed rumors by saying:
"If I were to leave, it would be tough. I've grown up here, but I see it as something that would continue in my life. It's always been a part of my life."
Maybe sometime down the road she will come back, provided General Hospital is still on the air.
Kimberly also had this to say about the cancellation of soaps:
"The whole thing makes me sad. The networks are working so hard at all these other things to see what sticks, but they already have something that sticks and they're completely neglecting it. That doesn't make any sense to me."
She is totally right. It doesn't make any sense to soap fans either.

More Kimberly McCullough

Jonathan Jackson Leaving General Hospital 2011

2011-11-23T10:04:00.000-05:00

I just read in the Novemeber 29, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Digest that Jonathan Jackson is leaving General Hospital. He quit! Not good, surprising news. Too bad, especially with Luke back and I'm hoping the mystery lady at Windemere turns out to be Laura. Apparently he has already taped his last scenes. He decided to leave GH to focus on his music career. He is a member of a band called Enation. They have released a new album called My Ancient Rebellion. Speculation has it that the heavy, emotional workload also took its toll on Jonathan.
Jonathan has spent a lot of time playing Lucky in scenes at the hospital. Lots of crying with the deaths of Jake and Sioban. Now Elizabeth and Aydin are in the hospital. Hospitals aren't the most uplifting places. There's sickness all around. Doctors in their sterile http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/, nurses in their nursing uniform scrubs and white everywhere is depressing. A quote from Jonathan hints at the emotional toll the work takes:
"When you spend a day or six weeks or a year and a half doing some of these storylines at work, you have to open yourself up emotionally, and there are times when it becomes really exhausting and vulnerable, so to come home and be with your family, you just feel very grateful to connect with them, and that is so fulfilling."
Hopefully Jonathan gets some time to regroup and relax now.
No word yet if Lucky will be recast. Maybe they should bring back Greg Vaughan?

Whipping up some pumpkin pop tarts for my kids

2011-11-14T17:23:00.000-05:00

Guest post written by Martha Garrison

I'm the mother to two extremely picky children when it comes to food. It's kind of a little heart breaking because I'm a big foodie and always love to try one thing or another. My husband and I have always loved trying new restaurants and dishes at home. Those days aren't completely gone now but they're really few and far between.

However, I've found that sometimes I can sneak in some cool flavors into foods that will appeal to kids and get them to try things that way. Most recently I used our wireless internet Alexandria to look up things that have pumpkin in them because they hate the pie.

One recipe that I thought would be really neat for them to have on Thanksgiving while the rest of us are eating pumpkin pie is pumpkin pie pop tarts. I thought that the idea was so cute and they actually like to eat pop tarts for breakfast, so I think they actually may like these! But if they donÕt, I can always just let them have cookies and IÕll eat the homemade pop tarts.

Online Music Mixer Sage Audio

2011-11-03T11:48:00.002-04:00

A lot of soap stars are in the music business. Some soap stars, like Kassie Depaiva, Bobbie Eakes, Kathy Brier, are singers. Others are in a band. Scott Reeves used to be in a country band called Blue County. They were really good. Now, him and his General Hospital co-stars Steve Burton, Brandon Barash and Bradford Anderson are in a band called Port Chuck.
Ronn Moss of The Bold and the Beautiful plays in a band called Player. They had a big hit in the 70's called Baby Come Back.
Wally Kurth is in a band called Kurth & Taylor. Wally Kurth is a really good singer. It was great when he was on General Hospital and would sing when he was playing Eddie Maine.
I was just reading the other day in the September 20, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Digest that Patrick Muldoon is in a band called The Sleeping Masses.
A lot of people aspire to become singers and musicians. Tons of every day people show up for auditions to reality shows like American Idol, in the hopes of becoming the next big name. A few of the winners, like Carrie Underwood, actually succeed in the music business.
Some local bands in my area of upstate New York have put out cds and aren't too bad. Putting together a cd for release to the public when you are just a small town person is hard work.
There is a website, Sage Audio, from Nashville, Tennessee, which provides an online music mixer service. They make sure that an artist's music is fine tuned before it is released on a cd. All of the imperfections are removed, each song is level-balanced, and any other finishing touches are put on. All new clients of the online music mixer service receive a free preview with no obligation to buy. All mixing is done in a professional studio tuned to provide the best possible sound. The online music mixer procedure is to first create an account and upload your music. They will master the music and upload a preview. You review and approve it, and they will upload the full lossless masters. You can then download it or request a cd in the mail.
Pretty simple process to release the best possible cd.

Corel Photo Editing Software

2011-11-01T21:36:00.002-04:00

Christmas is a month and a half away. I have a little bit of shopping done. I hate shopping, so I order most of the gifts online. Amazon is my favorite store this time of year.
It's a tough time of year. On top of Christmas, my oldest son's birthday is early November, and my youngest son's birthday is early December.
With both of their birthdays around Christmas, I have an annual photo taken of them and make it into Christmas cards. A few times I've taken the photo myself, and a few times I've taken them to Olan Mills to get their pictures taken. I get the lowest priced package that contains the cd with the photo's from the session. It usually costs around $100, which is kind of expensive. Olan Mills does a nice job though. I use a picture I have taken, or from the cd, and have Walmart print up the Christmas cards. The Christmas cards themselves are very inexpensive.
When my oldest son was a year old, I took him to Walmart's photography studio. It wasn't a good experience. The photographer never showed up. They finally sent a backup photographer. It was a long wait, but we got the package for free. When he was two, the photographer just couldn't get a good shot of him. I ended up taking the picture myself. When he was three, I took the picture of him and his newborn brother myself. When he was four, I took the boys to Olan Mills. The photographer was great, and the pictures came out great; much better than Walmart. I'll never have pictures taken at Walmart again. When he was five, I took the photos myself again. Last year, when he was six, we went back to Olan Mills. This year I'm debating if I want to go back to Olan Mills, or take the pictures myself.
Taking the pictures myself is much less expensive. The pictures from the years I took the photos myself came out really cute too. Getting the right shot was very difficult though. They both have a certain smile I look for that is natural and reaches from their mouths to their eyes. It's not a forced say cheese smile like you sometimes see.
I followed my son around with a camera for about two weeks. Then I examined every shot and cropped the ones I liked using my photo editing software. The shot I ended up using was pure luck. At two, he was running around full of energy as I was snapping away. At one point I handed him a snowman decoration, and just as he was running towards me, I snapped the picture. Once I cropped it with my photo editing software the picture was perfect. I just happened to snap the picture at the right second to get the right smile I was looking for.
The year when he was three and I took the picture, I had him sit on the couch holding his newborn brother. Getting the right picture of two little ones is even harder. The oldest kept looking at the tv or tipping his head sideways. The newborn either wasn't looking at me or had his eyes closed. On top of that I was trying to get that certain natural, happy smile from the oldest. I just kept snapping away and once I cropped the photos with my photo editing software, I realized I had gotten the perfect shot. My oldest had his head tipped sideways, but he had the smile I was looking for and his newborn brother had his eyes closed, so it looked like he was sleeping. It was so cute! I got lots of complements on that photo.
With Christmas almost upon us, I will have to finalize my decision to get pictures taken at Olan Mills, or do them myself, very soon.

Catherine Hickland Returns One Life to Live

2011-10-24T11:47:00.002-04:00

Good news!
Catherine Hickland tweeted on October 17 that she will be back as Lindsay before One Life to Live goes off the air in January.

"Ok, are you sitting down? OLTL has asked me to bring Miss Lindsay Rappaport to the dance B4 the end. I said YES"

It will be good to see Catherine/Lindsay onscreen again. I've watched her ever since she was on Loving and The City. She also starred on older soaps Capitol and Texas.

Off the show, Catherine keeps very busy.
She is a hypnotist. According to the January 20, 2009 issue of Soap Opera Digest, she is certified in advanced clinical hypnosis. She performs hypnosis to help people get "rid of things in their life that don't serve them at all". She has an hour and a half show where she hypnotizes audience participants for 20 minutes and also mixes in a bit of comedy. Sounds pretty cool!
Catherine is the author of a book, "The 30-Day Heartbreak Cure: Getting Over Him and Back Out There One Month from Today"
, which is based on the principles of hypnosis and is geared towards giving the "brokenhearted 30 days of exercises and wisdom to undo some of the damaging habits, fears or ideas that prevent them from moving on".
Catherine also has a relationship radio show on Sunday nights at www.blogtalkradio.com/catherinehickland.
Maybe Catherine could hypnotize the execs at ABC and get them to keep One Life to Live on the air.

More Catherine Hickland

Test

2011-10-20T15:05:00.003-04:00

A diesel attends into the vintage.

One Life to Live Actors Join Prospect Park Mindless Behavior

2011-10-18T13:17:00.001-04:00

I can't believe there are only 2 months left before the end of One Life to Live. The end of All My Children was bad enough, but I'm a fairly new fan, so it's demise wasn't that bad for me. One Life to Live is different though. I've watched since I was about 5. That's over 30 years. I only started watching because my mother watched. I was sick a lot when I was young, so soap operas were a good way to pass the time. We only received two channels and it was before VCR and DVD players, so I didn't have a lot of television viewing options.
All those years of watching soap operas stuck with me though. Some of my earliest memories involve soap opera characters. Sad, but true. lol. I remember Rob & Cassie, Herb Callison, Max & Gabrielle, Marco, Jenny & Brad, Larry Woleck. I'm pretty sure I was watching when Judith Light played Karen Woleck, but I don't remember it. I remember Asa & his many wives, the original Clint, Erin Torpey started playing Jessica when she was very young, Wanda, Renee, Carlo Hesser, Max's brother Steve, Antonio & Andy, the eterna & wild west storylines. Wow, lots of different characters over the years.
In recent years, One Life to Live has had popular bands play. Those performances have been pretty cool. A couple include Snoop Dogg and The Black Eyed Peas. I came across a band called Mindless Behavior that might be a good group to have on One Life to Live before it's end. They are an R&B boy band formed in 2008 consisting of Princeton, Ray Ray, Roc Royal and Prodigy. They were formed by well known music producer Walter Millsap. In 2010, Mindless Behavior released a single called "My Girl". It's a song about texting. They have opened for The Backstreet Boys, Justin Bieber and Janet Jackson. On September 20, 2011, Mindless Behavior released it's first highly anticipated album called #1 Girl. They perform the type of music which One Life to Live has been having performed on the show.
I hope One Life to Live has a few more performances before the end. They provide a nice distraction and it's something the other soaps don't do very often.
I do wonder how One Life to Live will end, but the Prospect Park deal sounds like it will be a good alternative to no One Life to Live. Ron Carlivati & Frank Valentini are both on board. Ron was actually going to jump ship to General Hospital and then reconsidered when offered a Prospect Park deal, so that's good news. One Life to Live actors signed up so far, pending union agreements, include Jerry verDorn (Clint), Melissa Archer (Natalie), Kelley Missal (Dani), Andrew Trischitta (Jack). Also on board are Ted King (Tomas), Sean Ringgold (Shaun), Michael Easton (John), Erika Slezak (Viki) and Kassie DePaiva (Blair).
I hope the Prospect Park deal works out and I hope the shows are broadcast on Verizon's VCast, so I don't have to increase my internet's mobile broadband plan. lol. BTW, E's Dirty Soap reality show is on Verizon's VCast, which I will post about another time. Dirty Soap is highly recommended!

TV Guide Jeers ABC's The Chew - All My Children Replacement

2011-10-18T12:26:00.000-04:00

I got a good laugh when I was reading the October 10 - 16, 2011 issue of TV Guide. On the Cheers & Jeers page, The Chew, that cooking show which replaced long running All My Children, received a Jeers. The Jeers said:

"Jeers to ABC for biting off more than it can swallow with The Chew. The All My Children-killing culinary chat show needs to trim the fat from its overstuffed cast, cut back on the corny, forced merriment and throw fewer ingredients into the proverbial pot."

Great job ABC. Maybe ABC should pull a David Hayward and bring All My Children back from the dead.

More All My Children

Melody Thomas Scott Back The Young and the Restless Cash For Gold

2011-10-13T15:39:00.002-04:00

The October 18, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Digest has a nice interview with Melody Thomas Scott, who plays Nikki on The Young and the Restless. Back in April, Nikki was sent off to rehab. Melody taped her last day and that was it. She didn't hear anything from show exec's. She posted on Twitter, http://twitter.com/MelodyThomasSco, what was going on, which was that she thought she was let go from the show. Her tweets caused quite a commotion. She was new to Twitter and didn't really know that so many people would read her tweets. It turned out to be a good way for her to let fans know the truth about what was going on though.
Apparently taping your last day and not hearing anything from a show for a week or two is normal in the acting business. As time went on, with still no contact, Melody figured that was the end. She even cleaned out her dressing room.
Adding to the confusion of the situation, exec producer/head writer Maria Arena Bell made comments that Nikki was coming back and was an important part of Y&R. The show had even told Melody the show was getting back to core families and Nikki was "the coriest of the core".
Yet, no one bothered to call Melody and tell her the leave was just temporary. You would think someone would have. It's called common courtesy. Y&R is lucky she didn't go off and find another job.
During her time away, Melody was in contact with just a few of her co-stars that she trusted. She even attended the Daytime Emmy's, but only to support her husband Ed Scott who is producer of Bold & Beautiful. She was even treated better than usual.
As it turned out, she could have taken a six month trip without being missed, but in the end it was only temporary. Melody's worries are finally over. She has signed a three year contract and will start airing in late November.
It will be great to see Nikki back on the air. She will be just out of rehab, so it'll be interesting to see what's in store for her. Maybe it will be a fresh start. She will definitely need a new wardrobe, and maybe she can trade in cash for gold jewelry. Gold is selling pretty high these days. She could even trade her old jewelry and get cash for gold. Once she uses that cash for gold, she could go buy some new jewelry and go after Victor. Reuniting those two would make fans happy. They did have some great scenes before Nikki went off to rehab.
Whatever the storyline is, it will be great to see Melody Thomas Scott/Nikki back on The Young and the Restless.

Fur Jackets For Sale Fur Vests ML Furs

2011-10-10T11:40:00.002-04:00

It's fall here in upstate New York. With fresh apples, pumpkins, cooler temperatures and changing leaves, fall is definitely my favorite season.
I'm not much of a winter fan though. I don't mind snow in general. It's really pretty. I just don't like driving in it. I don't like the cold weather either.
General Hospital's Port Charles is located in upstate New York too, so they have a winter. I can remember Tracy Quartermaine wearing a fur jacket in winter scenes. I think Tiffany Hill used to wear a fur jacket too. I don't remember any other characters wearing fur jackets. I can't think of any current characters either. Maybe Kate?
Fur jackets were pretty popular back in the 80's, so it's only a matter of time before they come back in style. Fur jackets are really soft and pretty looking. They are very warm too. They can also be very expensive, so it pays to shop around.
There is a retailer in Denver, Colorado called ML Furs. They have been in business since 1951. They have a website which offers fur jackets for sale. They also sell fur vests. They offer a large variety of styles and fur types, such as mink, red fox, beaver and lynx. They also offer shearling jackets and outerwear with fur trim.
ML Furs offers services such as storage of your fur jacket in a secure vault, cleaning, restyling, repairing and appraisals. They also accept trade-ins if you want to upgrade your old fur jacket for something newer.
If you are looking for fur vests or fur jackets for sale, ML Furs is a great place to consider. They have a lot of experience and knowledge to help you make just the right choice for your new fur jacket.

Social Media Soap Opera Fans Stars WPromote

2011-10-03T12:33:00.006-04:00

Via: Wpromote

The internet is a great way for soap fans to connect. I first connected with other General Hospital fans on the GH forum at about.com. It was nice to talk with other people who enjoy the same show I do.
Nowadays there are blogs and sites devoted to all the latest news and scoops. Soap actors even have their own websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. It's really cool to be able to follow your favorite soap actor on a site like Twitter. It's a great way for fans to connect with the actors themselves. Soap actors use social media a lot for making comments on their contract status, when they sign on to a new show, story lines, get married, have a baby, etc. Some actors post updates all the time on just random things, like Nancy Lee Grahn. Greg Vaughn announced on Twitter when he was having a baby. Shows, like Dirty Soap, have their own social media accounts to promote themselves.
Twitter helped soap fans gather together when All My Children and One Life to Live were cancelled. Social media users had a large influence on Hoover pulling their ads on ABC when they cancelled All My Children and One Life to Live. Fans also gathered on Twitter for the last episode of All My Children.
It's also a great way for soap actors to promote side businesses. For instance, Laura Wright and her husband run a winery, Standing Sun, in California. She's always tweeting about the wine and current specials.
To get a brand new website up and running with lots of visitors can be a difficult job, especially in a competitive field. Search engine optimization is a great way to get visitors from internet search sites, such as Google.com or Bing.com, but ranking at the top of the search results can be tough when there are millions of other sites on your topic. There are tons of wine sites out there on the web, so using social media to attract visitors is a good idea that Laura and her husband are taking advantage of.
Rick Herbst uses social media to promote a 90 day health challenge.
Carolyn Hennesy was promoting a book she wrote.
I use Twitter to promote my website and blogs. Search engine optimization can only do so much, so multiple techniques to get visitors is a good idea. To get a visitor using search engines and search engine optimization, a person has to specifically search for what your website is about. That helps get targeted traffic. If a Twitter follower buys wine from Laura's Standing Sun winery just because they are a fan of hers and know her from daytime, Standing Sun might make a sale they might otherwise have not made. The customer might not normally search for winery sites or even buy wine. The Standing Sun website might not be on one of the first few results pages of a search. Either way, social media helped make that customer aware of the winery, leading to a sale.
Social media is a very powerful tool in promoting a website, or just helping you connect with people you wouldn't ordinarily meet in real life.

Days of Our Lives Relaunch Airsoft Stores General Hospital

2011-09-28T12:36:00.000-04:00

The only good thing to come out of the cancellation of All My Children, is that I can now watch Days of Our Lives on SoapNet. It airs at 8pm in All My Children's former time slot. That's how I became an All My Children fan to begin with. 8 - 9pm is my free time. The boys are in bed and I'm picking up the day's mess. I turn on SoapNet to catch what's on, since the boys rule the tv during the day. I grew up with Days of Our Lives, but have hardly watched it in the 8 years I've lived here. See, I get DirectTV, but no local NBC channel due to the switch to all digital channels. I live in a valley between 2 large hills, so no service. I tried signing up to get NBC through DirectTV's distant network service, but the local NBC affiliate station would not approve it.
I was able to watch the Days of Our Lives relaunch that started a few days ago thanks to SoapNet. It's been really nice to watch a soap opera episode that's filled with joy, romance, relationships and comedy, and not violence. So nice to see Jack Devereaux, John & Marlena, and Carrie & Austin, played by Patrick Muldoon back. It's funny to watch Jack lurking in the shadows, instead of a mystery gunman, watching Jennifer and Daniel. It was great to see Julie & Doug. This was the first time, ever, that they have sung together on the show. Horton Square is really impressive too. Love how the memory of Tom & Alice is being kept alive.
General Hospital, on the other hand, still has a ways to go before it is filled with joy, romance, relationships and comedy, and not violence. Granted, Sam & Jason's reception was nice. The fortune cookies were pretty funny, especially Alexis's fortune cookie reading "love is behind you" and her turning around to Mac standing behind her. "I'm not ready" she sputtered and ran away, leaving Mac dumbfounded. lol. On the downside, Franco was lurking around with his deadly plan and Dante was shot, again, for the millionth time. Instead of a nice romance story with Dante & Lulu celebrating their engagement, we get Lulu thinking he stood her up and Dante lying in a pool of blood. Dante, Johnny and Anthony were all running around with guns in Sonny's warehouse. Wonder if there are Airsoft Stores in Port Charles? If there were, I'm sure the Airsoft Stores would be pretty busy with the mob and all the thugs in town.
NuKate & Sonny are busy making eyes at each other. I'm not liking NuKate though. I don't know what was wrong with Megan Ward's Kate. They should have brought her back instead.
I wonder, though, what's up with all the mentioning of Laura lately? Lucky & Ethan were talking about her while Lucky was having a stare down with pills. Then there was the mystery figure with a painting of Laura. The last I knew, Genie Francis was still on The Young and the Restless with Robert Scorpio. I wish Genie would come back to General Hospital, but she wants to play a strong woman now, not a doormat. Making Laura come back as a strong woman would definitely make sense. It would be great if she came back and put everyone back in line. Her family seems to be falling apart again and could probably use her back as a strong woman that they could turn to. She could even stop at one of those Airsoft Stores, start packing a gun and go kick Helena's butt. lol. Now, that would be funny.

HP MediaSmart Webcam Image Software

2011-09-27T17:27:00.000-04:00

I bought my latest laptop about 6 months ago. It's an HP Pavilion 14.5" screen. It's small, light and very portable. Great for sitting in front of the tv every now and then while soaps are on. The screen on my old Dell stopped staying up, so now I can only use it with something propped up behind it. Kind of a pain while you are trying to sit on the couch.
One feature my new laptop has that my Dell didn't have is a webcam. I always thought about buying an external webcam, but I didn't think I would use it much. For the longest time, I didn't know how to operate my new webcam. I could never find any pre-installed software to help me turn the webcam on. I never made the time to really dig around or go online to look for free webcam software.
Well, one day I finally did make the time and guess what? My HP laptop did come pre-installed with webcam software. It's called HP MediaSmart Webcam software. It's really cool. Kind of strange seeing myself on the screen. The software also lets you take still photos. That feature is very handy. Now I can update my social network profile pics without having to send a picture to my computer from a digital camera or phone. You can do a little minor editing if need be, which is good to know in case of a Photoshop Fail. It's always good to have a backup.
The webcam software has an option to add effects to the webcam image. It's kind of silly. Some of the effects are flames over the head, smoke coming out of the ears, rain clouds, nurses hat like Jesse Brewer on General Hospital used to wear, witches hat, dog face, duckface, panda face, and a few other assorted masks.
The webcam software doesn't seem to let you add captions or text to the images though. Probably a good thing, since a lot of software has a funny autocorrect feature which tries to guess what you are saying and automatically fills it in. I'm sure some of the guesses can be funny, but it would annoy me.

Breaking Bad

2011-09-19T12:08:00.000-04:00

Content by Mauricio Benson

My mom had been telling me about Breaking Bad on AMC for so long and to be honest, I’d just gotten sick of hearing it! I grew up in Albuquerque and I knew it was set there but she kept telling me how much fun it was to watch them roam around the old neighborhoods on TV so I finally relented and got cable tv advisor Comcast HD so I could have AMC. I have to admit, and don’t anyone go telling my mom, it’s a really great show. I think this is the second to last season of it but it’s really suspenseful and the main characters, Walt and Jesse, are just really well acted. I don’t usually like stories about drugs and violence but this one has really stuck with me because there’s such a human element to the whole thing it’s hard not to feel for them. I guess I should admit that mom’s usually right and I should listen to her more but that would just go straight to her head!

Cell Phones Samsung Smartphones

2011-09-15T17:21:00.001-04:00

One day while watching General Hospital, I realized it seems like everyone on soap operas uses cell phones. Jason is always on his cell phone. Characters do a lot of text messaging too. Watching old episodes, you can really see how technology has changed. Back in the early days, there were no cell phones. Characters used those big rotary dial phones. Then they moved on to cordless phones. Then there were huge clunky cell phones that were carried around in a bag. Then there were big, clunky cell phones that didn't need to be carried in a bag. Now there are small cell phones, you can just stick in your pocket that do just about anything you want: camera, video camera, internet, texting, gps, music, tons of various applications, etc. Makes you wonder what cell phones will be like in 25 years.
I got my first cell phone when I was 18. It was a big clunky Motorola flip phone. It was way before Verizon took over. I think it was something like Frontier Cellular. Then there were a couple more takeovers of that company and finally it became Verizon.
I remember the guy I used to babysit for had the big clunky in a bag phone. My next two cell phones were similar to the first, but were progressively smaller Motorola flip phones. They lasted me for years and always had great service. They were all analog phones. When Verizon's service went digital, I switched over to LG flip phones that were pretty small. I had never paid attention to the latest in cell phones and never really felt the need to constantly upgrade. When I finally did upgrade to the LG, I was shocked at how small it was. Service was never as good on those cell phones though as it was on my old Motorola flip phones. Two years ago, I got the Samsung Alias 2. It's a flip phone where the keyboard changes into qwerty, numerical and symbol keypads. It's pretty cool. It has mobile internet, so I can access my email, Facebook or Twitter and various mobile websites. I don't really use it much for the internet, but sometimes I use it as backup since it loads web pages faster than my computer's internet connection.
In a few months, I'm eligible for a cell phone upgrade. I think I'm going to give a non-flip phone, smartphone a try. Mainly just to have a fully functional backup internet source. I'm probably going with a cell phone that has an Android operating system. I'm not sure which model phone yet though. Some of these smartphones get really expensive, as in a couple hundred dollars. That's definitely out of my budget. Samsung has a few models which are way more reasonable as in free or less than 50 - 100 dollars. Samsung seems to produce pretty good cell phones. I really like my Samsung Alias 2 and cell phone ratings give various Samsung models high ratings. I'm probably going to have to go with a phone that has an actual keyboard though. I'm not so sure I'll like the all touch screen keyboard. I may go to Verizon and have them give me a demo before I make a final decision.

Celebrity Gossip

2011-09-13T16:59:00.002-04:00

When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to send over celebrity gossip magazines to my parent's house when she was done reading them. The magazines she would send over included The National Enquirer, Star, The Globe and The Sun. I would usually sneak a peek at them. I'd mostly look at the pictures, but then as I got older and learned how to read, I would read the articles too. I still remember reading about Liberace when he passed away and the alternative health methods Michael Landon supposedly used when he was battling cancer. Some of the articles were pretty outrageous and the majority of them were probably untrue, but for some unknown reason, the lives of celebrities always interested me. Probably because I lived in a small town where not much out of the ordinary ever happened.
I was sick a lot when I was young, so reading and watching television were my main activities.
Keeping up on celebrity gossip helped pass the time. It also gave me things to talk about with my grandmother. Before she got sick, one of the last few conversations I had with her on her front porch was around the time fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered. I remember reading about this guy, Andrew Cunanan, who was wanted for murdering several people in different states. There were articles in all the magazines about him. Then suddenly Gianni Versace was murdered outside of his home. There were articles in all the magazines about his murder. Then it turned out that Andrew Cunanan was the one who murdered Gianni Versace. It was really interesting that I'd been reading about this unknown guy and his killing sprees, and then, suddenly, he ends up killing a world famous fashion designer. Very strange, eerie case.
Anyways, my interest in celebrity gossip continues to this day. These days I visit celebrity gossip websites and subscribe to People, Ok, US Weekly, Vanity Fair, Esquire and Soap Opera Digest. I've even turned my hobby of reading celebrity magazines into a small business, by selling the magazines when I'm done reading them. One of these days, I may even share all my useless celebrity gossip knowledge by starting a celebrity gossip blog.

Simple, Green Medical Billing Forms

2011-09-09T16:23:00.001-04:00

My six year old just started first grade, and on the first day, he brought home a whole packet of forms for me to fill out. Every time my sons' or I go for our annual checkups, there are always a bunch of forms to fill out. In this day and age you'd think all that information could be stored on a computer and updated as needed. Filling out paperwork is very time consuming, especially when the information doesn't change very often.
I'm just the patient having to fill out forms once a year. Can you imagine all the paperwork a doctor has to fill out? Every patient, multiple forms, every day. That's a lot of work, and paper.
Finally, there is a company to help speed up the form filling process for doctors. They create software called ub-04 software, to help doctors in the filling out of medical insurance forms.
The software helps you create templates with pre-filled information, so you don't have to retype it every time.
You also don't have to print out each form after it's filled out. The software uses electronic billing to submit claims. It's a very simple process. Fill out the ub04 claim form(s) and select the ones you would like to submit. The software creates a single file in a special EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) format. It contains all of the selected forms in one file, which can then be sent to a clearinghouse for electronic billing.
The ub-04 software saves doctors time that they can now spend with patients. It is a very green method of filling out medical billing forms. It saves on trees as there is less paper and envelopes used. It also saves money, since stamps are no longer needed to mail out the forms.

Days of Our Lives Relaunch New Set

2011-08-18T15:54:00.001-04:00

According to the August 23, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Digest, Days of Our Lives is relaunching September 26. Days has new writers and is trying to get back to how soap operas used to be by focusing on core families and values.
John and Marlena are coming back and so are Carrie, Austin and Jack Devereaux! Austin will even be played by the original Austin, Patrick Muldoon. I'm looking forward to seeing him. A few stars have been dropped to make room for their returns though. Vivian, Carly, and Chloe are a couple I've read have been cut.
Characters coming and going so frequently is all part of daytime shows these days. I don't mind as long as long running characters are not being replaced by newbies. Replacing long running characters with former long running characters isn't so bad. It kind of mixes things up and keeps a character from getting boring.
With Days's relaunch, they are even getting a new set. Apparently, it's like a theater set, which folds into different things. It takes up half a stage, is permanent and folds to different sets, which have interiors and can become a second set. The floor even reverses. It's an exterior set with 12 different sets, including the town square, Brady Pub and a sidewalk cafe. It currently has a day spa being added to it. It sounds pretty cool, and cost effective in the long run.
It's a standing set and has everything in it needed to tell a story. No other sets have to be taken down and a new one brought in.
It'll probably make it easier to tell weather related stories too. The set is designed, so the camera can move, and it just follows someone through. When in one part of the set, looking out, the same weather conditions are seen even if you are in a different part of the set. When they want to go from the Brady Pub to the day spa, the set doesn't need to be taken down and the weather scene recreated.
If Days ever did a flood disaster, like Search for Tomorrow did, shooting it would probably be much easier. Of course though, they might have to build a new set after a flood disaster.
Floods can do a lot of damage. If they were in Texas, maybe they could bring in professionals like The Steam Team to restore the set, like in real life: http://www.thesteamteam.com/austin-restoration-services/water-extraction.shtml. The Steam Team is a water damage restoration company austin. The set is green, and The Steam Team also offer a green service.
Anyways, the set sounds like a very innovative, but simple idea. Strange that it's never been used in soaps before. I wouldn't be surprised if other soaps pick up on the idea. I can't wait to see the new set and am really looking forward to the relaunch. Families and values are what soap operas are all about. It's about time they got back to their roots.

Soaps Online Prospect Park Uniforms Scrubs

2011-08-14T21:02:00.001-04:00

According to the August 16, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Digest, Prospect Park, the company who is saving our soaps by moving them online, issued a statement about what they have planned for One Life to Live and All My Children. Apparently, there are legal issues they must work through first, before they can start making offers to cast members. Prospect Park representatives did meet with AMC actors and said they would be launching their online site in December or January. AMC goes off the air in September.
Daytime Confidential has also reported that Prospect Park has secured the rights to General Hospital, which could end its run September 2012. Supposedly, GH may be replaced by Katie Couric's new talk show. Jill Farren Phelps, GH's Executive Producer, hopes to keep GH alive for it's 50th anniversary in 2013 and even it's 55th anniversary. Let's hope. I can't imagine a world without General Hospital.
If this whole soaps online plan does happen, One Life to Live will have to find a new studio, since it will lose it's current studio when it ends. Rumors say Katie Couric's talk show will be taped in that studio. One possibility for a new One Life to Live Studio is the JC Studios in Brooklyn, which is where Another World and As the World Turns taped.
One more month until All My Children ends. Apparently, there are three different finales in the works. Which one gets chosen probably depends on if the online plan really happens.
There are also rumors that Prospect Park has been talking with cable channels to air One Life to Live and All My Children after they have been broadcast online. That would be great, because I'd be spending some serious money on bandwidth to be able to watch soaps online everyday.
With Bob Guza out, and Garrin Wolf in at GH, the hospital & the Quartermaine's are also going to be moved to the front. Less mob & more Q's sounds good to me. Just having Monica back has been a huge treat. I really miss the days of seeing Monica & Bobbie in their uniforms hanging out gossiping at the hospital. http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/ have come a long way since then. You can get them in all sorts of different patterns and colors. Very modern and fashionable.
I grew up on soaps, so it's really sad to see them being cancelled. All good things must come to an end I guess. Hopefully online soaps work out, but it just won't be the same as broadcast television.

Fast Forwarding

2011-07-21T10:03:00.000-04:00

The Author of this post is Darius Boone

I think my favorite part about satellite is the fact that I get to fast forward through commercials. I’m not even kidding you that the only commercials I ever watch anymore happen when I go to the movie theatre and they play them before the movies. This really bugs me, by the way, and I’m not sure why they think they can play commercials at the movies! Don’t they make enough money off of us poor people who pay twelve bucks for the seat in the crowded theatre and then eight dollars for a small popcorn and drink? I actually got so irritated at the lack of previews and plethora of commercials the last time I went to the theater that I vowed to only buy movies off of ShowTime thorough my Satellite- http://www.tvbydirect.com from now on. You might think I’m kidding, but I really am tired of getting scammed everywhere I go, and bombarded with commercials to buy something else at every corner. You can seriously mark my words—no more theatres for me!

Destructive Acts Of Nature

2011-06-13T21:19:00.000-04:00

The weather this year has been really awful all across the US. An article in Newsweek the other day had a map of the US, and depending on where you live, you either have hurricanes, floods, fires or earthquakes.
I'm in upstate New York. About two months ago a tornado hit up the road and around the corner from my house at 5 in the morning. I was sleeping, but this big roaring noise woke me up. I hunkered down under the covers and went back to sleep. I'm glad we weren't in the tornadoes path, or we would have been blown away. On the drive to take my son to school, we were amazed at the damage that was done just up the road. A row of pine trees was snapped in half and a patio atop a garage was gone. Really scary stuff. That was only minor too, so I can't imagine when a tornado wipes out a whole town, like in Joplin, MO.
Flooding has been pretty frequent in nearby areas too. A trailer park was completely wiped out. Many homes have had their basements flooded. When I think of flooding, I can't help but remember Search for Tomorrow towards the end of it's run when they had that big flood. The whole town was wiped out. I can picture one of the female characters hanging on to a log floating down the river. I think I was about 11 when that aired.
Anyways, last year we felt the effects of an earthquake that originated in Canada.
No wild fires in this area yet.
If your home is lucky enough to survive these destructive acts of nature, then the work of cleaning things up begins. If damage is minor, you might be able to go it alone in cleaning things up. If there's major damage though, you are probably going to want to call in a professional.
If you are in the Austin, Texas area, there is a company called the Steam Team that would be helpful. If your home or business suffers fire damage, they have smoke and fire restoration services: http://www.thesteamteam.com/austin-restoration-services/smoke-fire.shtml.
If your home has been damaged by a hurricane or tornado, the Steam Team also offers hurricane water damage austin restoration services.
Here's to hoping these crazy weather patterns calm down soon.

The Demise of Soap Operas Nursing Scrubs

2011-06-10T18:25:00.000-04:00

I really don't think the full reality of All My Children and One Life to Live going off the air in a few short months has sunk in yet.
I haven't been watching much soaps lately. Been kinda busy and the boys don't like to share the television with me, so that I can watch my shows. However, I did manage to catch a few minutes of One Life to Live and it's getting good. I'm really excited that Roger Howarth is back and can't wait to see how the story of the two Todd's plays out. I caught a little bit when Niki Smith was back too. I always enjoyed Niki. She's always good for some comic relief.
I'm really not looking forward to the days of never seeing Viki/Niki, Todd, Bo & Nora, Starr, Dorian, etc. again. Daytime characters are the best. Prime time characters don't even come close. After watching for years, they become family.
I've only been watching All My Children a few years, so I'm not as diehard of an All My Children fan as I am of One Life to Live and General Hospital. I've been watching those two ever since I can remember, over thirty years. I'll still miss All My Children though. It's going to be hard to not have a world with Erika Kane in it. She's like the icon of all daytime soaps. I'm really glad Dixie's back. Too bad it's only for a few months.
It's really sad. Those shows have so much history. Life without them will be really hard. Soaps are all I watch. There's not really anything else on television that compares. I was sick a lot as a kid, so I have lots of flashbacks of soap opera scenes. On General Hospital I can still picture Amy Vining and Jesse Brewer, in her nursing scrubs with that little hat lol, behind the nurses station. It would be funny to see today's nurses in those http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/.
How times have changed. We're down to four soaps left. It's going to be a really, really sad day when there are none left. What's crazy is everything that used to be popular and fades away seems to get revived at some point. Maybe, with any luck, this demise in soaps will just be temporary and someday some person, who's not even born yet, will get the idea to bring them back. Too bad today's soaps have to end in order for people to realize how important they are.

Big Box Sites

2011-05-20T18:07:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the post, Kathy Shelton

I thought getting wireless internet would really help me find a new apartment for rent. I didn’t want to go to the trouble of finding a realtor or dealing with leasing offices just yet, so I wanted to spend some time online just checking out rentals in my area. When I first started my search I focused on places that I found on apartment search sites. They were good felt a little sterile and I didn’t get to see pictures of the actual unit I’d be renting. I decided i! nstead to focus my efforts on big sites like Craigslist and I soon had a lot more luck. I found units available nearby and was able to directly contact the renters, so it worked well with my schedule. After only a couple weeks of searching I found the perfect apartment for me, and it was less than my current rent! I worked directly with the owner to rent it out and I’ve been living happily here for months now. It was the best decision I’ve made yet!

Hoover Pulls ABC Ads Boycott Save Our Soaps AMC OLTL

2011-04-19T09:55:00.004-04:00

Big news today: Ya know Hoover, the vacuum cleaner company? Well, they are pulling ALL advertising from ABC! AND they are organizing a campaign to get fans to help save All My Children and One Life to Live after being cancelled! How awesome is that!!!! Hoover ads are on all the time on ABC during the day. My 3 year old loves the dog ones. We were at Carbone for an oil change one day & he was uncontrollably laughing at one of them. Very cute!
I love my Hoover F5914 steam cleaner too! It works wonders on my couch that the boys get all yucky.
Hoover's launching a huge campaign on Facebook. Here's the post they put up on Facebook:

To all the loyal ABC soap fans,

I want you to know from me personally that we hear you loud and clear. My wife and mother are both passionate viewers of All My Children and One Life to Live, as are many of my colleagues here at Hoover. We were and are as disappointed with this news as you are.

In fact, we will discontinue our advertising with ABC this Friday, 4/22. We're making every attempt to pull our spots from these programs sooner.

Because we feel that’s not enough, we also want to help get your voice heard with ABC. So, we’ve set up a special email address, SaveTheSoaps@Hoover.com, to help pull together the mass emotional outpouring of support for our beloved ABC soaps and get it to our contacts at ABC. Please, send your emails to us at SaveTheSoaps@Hoover.com, and we’ll get every, single last one of them to ABC.

We’re 150% committed to doing what matters most to you – so if there’s anything else we can do to help or you have any ideas, please email this address, and we will respond to you personally.

Thank you for standing up for what matters to you! We need more of that in this world.

Brian Kirkendall
Vice President of Marketing
Hoover

You can also follow Hoover on Twitter at @hooverclean

Michael Logan of TV Guide.com was contacted by an ABC executive, who wished to remain nameless with the following statement:
"Usually advertisers stop advertising when they want to cancel a show, not the other way around," states the suit. "We've said that the cancellation of AMC and OLTL was about money and ratings, so [the Hoover boycott] is just counterintuitive. You don't save something by taking money away."

Got this whole thread from Carolyn Hinsey's facebook page who said
"HOOVER, DAMN! All I can say is, if ABC is spinning this to Michael Logan on a Monday night, they are SCARED. Keep spreading the word - you guys rock!"

She is totally right!! Fans saved Rebecca Herbst. Maybe saving All My Children and One Life to Live is possible.

GO HOOVER!!! So who's going to join them next to SAVE OUR SOAPS?

BTW, fans are boycotting all ABC shows except All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital.

More Hoover

More Soap Operas

All My Children One Life to Live Cancelled

2011-04-14T14:53:00.006-04:00

Just got done with lunch and checked my twitter feed. Saw some awful, awful news: All My Children and One Life to Live have officially been cancelled! Yup, craziness! So much for fan support.
All My Children goes off the air in September and One Life to Live is off the air in January.
They are being replaced by health and cooking shows: The Revolution and The Chew. Tell ya what: I won't be watching either one of those. I guarantee they won't last long. If you've seen one health or cooking show, you've seen them all. I've been watching soaps for over 30 years, and nothing will replace them.
With SoapNet going and now these two going, it won't be long and I won't even need a tv anymore.
All that will be left to watch will be new soaps on the internet like the one run by Crystal Chappell, Venice. Lots of former and current soap stars are in these. The casts are really diverse too. Downside is I'll have to upgrade my internet plan to accommodate the extra bandwidth.
Sad the next generation will never know what soaps are except for old clips. Things that go out always seem to make a comeback though. Maybe one day, years from now, the soap opera era will be revived, once networks figure out that cooking/health/talk shows just don't cut it.

Here's the official announcement from ABC regarding their very bad decision to cancel All My Children and One Life to Live.

For anyone on Twitter: Carolyn Hinsey came up with a great idea: Have Oprah take on All My Children and One Life to Live, so "Tweet this and make it trend: Oprah should take AMC and OLTL. She GETS the connection & 3 million people a day per show would be a huge hit for OWN! #SAVESOAPSOPRAH"

There's also a petition fans can sign to save All My Children and One Life to Live.

Here's a link to another save All My Children and One Life to Live petition.

UPDATE: Hoover is pulling all ads from ABC!

More Soap Opera Info

Genie Francis Young and the Restless

2011-04-03T17:46:00.002-04:00

Good news for Genie Francis fans: She's coming back to daytime! Unfortunately, it's not to General Hospital. The Young & the Restless has snagged her up as Cane's mother. She's set to air as a regular at the end of May.
General Hospital sure missed the boat on that one. Genie said on Oprah that she didn't want to play the victim anymore, so now would be a great time to bring Laura back fully recovered and ready to help her family get through the Jake storyline. Every single one of them seems to need her at the moment. Too bad. It would have been great story.
GH's loss is Y&R's gain. Now they have Laura & Robert, maybe Sean & Tiff will be next.

More Genie Francis

More The Young & the Restless

More General Hospital

Baking with Julia

2011-03-27T12:36:00.000-04:00

Content by Mitch Osborne

Baking with Julia featuring legendary home cook, Julia Child, is a show I got hooked on while in college back in '96 to '00. It was one of those shows that you watch in college killing time and whatnot. I was sad to see it end in '01 and I was again saddened to hear of her passing in '04. After I'd finally bought my own place and moved away from my mom, I recalled how simple those recipes were compared to the cooking shows you find these days and I thought to myself that it would have been nice to have taped those shows. Then one night while perusing through the guide channel, my eyes lit up. Apparently I could watch Baking with Julia thanks to Direct.TV carrying some obscure channel (CreateTV) that happened to be airing the show.

The thing I loved about Baking with Julia was that her guests were always among America's most renowned pastry chefs, culinary teachers, cookbook authors and bakers. Each episode has one of these experts visiting Julia in her studio kitchen to demonstrate how to make his or her signature creation. They also provide tips and go over proper technique. My favorite episodes all involve recipes for breads and desserts. I've tried most of the recipes and they don't disappoint. Definitely a classic baking show.

Bob Guza Out At General Hospital? Rumor

2011-03-18T12:26:00.005-04:00

I only like posting facts, but there's some unconfirmed General Hospital news floating around. If true, it would be a biggie.
Apparently, rumor has it head writer Bob Guza is on his way out the door! According to Soap Opera Digest, ABC doesn't comment on rumors, but an insider says: "there's a good chance it's true."
What's that mean for GH? I guess it depends on who his replacement is. Lots of fans didn't like him. He brought Brenda back though & married off Sonny & Brenda, so gotta give him some credit for that.
The big story he has coming up for Liz though, I'm not a fan of and I'm not going to be able to watch. Don't want to give any details away, but if you had a kid a couple years ago & were pregnant when Liz was, you'll know why.

UPDATE: Soaps In Depth latest tweet says it is just a rumor.

UPDATE: Soap Opera Digest has just tweeted Guza out is not true:
"UPDATE: A GENERAL HOSPITAL spokesperson reports that Guza is not exiting the show."

UPDATE: 5/24/11: This rumor is now TRUE!! Yup, Guza's out the door. He's being replaced by Garin Wolf. Not sure if this is good news or not. Garin wrote for GH during the writers strike. What I want to see with GH: less mob/shooting stories. More character driven stories. Like back in the old days at the brownstone. Bring back some of the old vets like Bobbie, Monica, Laura - too late on that though, Felicia, Sean & Tiff, Audrey, etc. More gossipy hospital centered romance stories.

Rebecca Herbst, Ingo Rademacher General Hospital

2011-03-10T17:18:00.000-05:00

So Rebecca Herbst will be staying on General Hospital thanks to the massive uproar by fans over her firing. It's about time the fans were listened to, especially with the soap world being on such shaky ground these days. After all, we are the ones who determine the ratings. Becky is one of the top Favorite GH Actresses in Soap Opera Digest's polls. I'm really glad TPTB listened to the fans and are keeping her on. Finally a good job! GH released this statement:

"Rebecca Herbst will continue on General Hospital as ELizabeth Webber. THe show is thrilled she will remain on the canvas to portray the beloved character in many more poignant and emotional stories. Fans will be pleased to see Rebecca continue the role she created."

On the other hand, Ingo Rademacher seems to be on his way out the door. There is no official confirmation from GH that Ingo has been dropped to recurring, but he tweeted the following on February 22:

"Dont expect to c me much on GH. once a week seems to the norm for me if that. I must have peed in the pool and was fresh out of chlorine :-)"
"I'll be on the air for the next week or 2 a bit. But after that a lot less. Sorry guys. I don't know what to tell u. Its Not my call."

BTW, you can follow Ingo on twitter at: http://twitter.com/ingorademacher

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Nursing Scrubs

2011-03-09T17:50:00.000-05:00

In a recent issue of Soap Opera Digest, there was a tribute to General Hospital stars who have passed away. The article and pictures brought back lots of memories. As a kid, I was sick A LOT, so I never did much other than read and watch television. General Hospital was and still is my favorite soap opera.
The article had a picture of Jesse Brewer, played by Emily McLaughlin. Remember her? Remember the nurses station and the nursing scrubs she wore. That little hat the nurses wore as part of their nurses uniform? Funny.
There was also a tribute to Amy Vining, played by Shell Kepler. I always liked her because we share the same first name. lol. She was always gossiping about something. Her and Bobbie, Audrey, Jesse.
Another tribute was to Steve Hardy, played by John Beradino. He would always dress up as Santa and read to the kids at Christmas time.
Those were the good old days of General Hospital. When the action was actually centered around the hospital, not the mobcentric storylines of today. Storylines back then were relevant to the show name and were centered on relationships and romance with a bit of action.
I used to subscribe to a magazine called Episodes that ABC put out that had all the scoop on the ABC soaps. ABC would advertise soap opera merchandise in it. I remember I bought a General Hospital scrubs top they had for sale. It was really cool. It was a greenish color with a v-neck and had the words General Hospital on it on the right side. I'm pretty sure I still have it someplace. I think I'll go look for it...

Rebecca Herbst Fired General Hospital

2011-01-19T18:10:00.002-05:00

Some unexpected news yesterday: Rebecca Herbst, who plays Elizabeth Webber on General Hospital, was fired. I don't know how TIIC can possibly fire Becky. She's a member of a core family, been on forever, since August 2007. Oh wait. TIIC killed Alan and Emily Quartermaine, core family members who were on forever. I guess no one is safe from the ax at General Hospital.
Soaps are on shaky ground these days. TIIC really shouldn't be getting rid of fan faves. Buzz on the web is that fans are not happy about this.
No word on how Elizabeth will be written out other than it will be in a 'not-to-miss' story. It better be a REALLY GREAT story. Let's just hope Elizabeth is not killed off. Becky will last air sometime in March according to SoapCentral.
Granted Elizabeth hasn't had much to do lately, but firing Becky is a little extreme. Especially now that Jonathan Jackson is back as Lucky Spencer, Elizabeth's first love. There's also the big secret that Elizabeth's littlest one was fathered by Lucky, not Nicholas. Liz/Becky have large fan bases and has been part of popular pairings with Lucky, Jason and Nicholas. Lots of potential for the character of Elizabeth. Apparently TIIC disagree. They must have writers block.
The firing took Becky and her costars by surprise, along with fans.
Steve Burton tweeted: "Hello everyone, most of you have heard the horrible and awful news about Becky. My heart breaks as I even have to tweet this. One of the best and most beautiful actresses that has been on this show. Beside that, she's a friend and that hurts. Some show will be lucky to have her. May god bless them through this transition. Much luv to Michael and Becky."
Lisa LoCicero tweeted: "Really shocked...will miss her gorgeous smile! Becky will be snapped up by another show in no time. No doubt about it."
Kelly Monaco tweeted: "So sad and devastated by the loss of Becky, an amazingly talented woman, from the GH cast. It makes me worry about the future of Daytime."
Becky is married to former General Hospital actor Michael Saucedo, who played Juan. They have 3 children: Ethan, Ella and Emerson.

An added blow to Becky's firing is the news that Erin Chambers, who plays newbie Siobhan on General Hospital, has signed a contract. Siobhan is part of the Balkan storyline and is in a romance with Lucky. How about keep Elizabeth and do a Lucky/Siobhan/Elizabeth triangle? That would be too easy and fan pleasing I guess.

UPDATE: TPTB have listened to the fans, and Becky has been reinstated!

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A Christmas Story Marathon: My Modern Family Tradition

2011-01-18T15:27:00.000-05:00

I appreciate the guest post, Emerson Moses

A Christmas Story tells the amusing tales of tidings and tribulations experienced by an irresistibly realistic American family in depression-era Indiana as Christmas Day approaches. Watching a marathon of The Parkers on Christmas is a wonderful staple in my family. The story of nine-year-old Ralph "Ralphie" Parker and his determined Christmas wish for an “"Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Model Air Rifle” became an instant tradition for my family when released in 1983.

Even as a child I remembered finding such hilarity in Mr. and Mrs. Parker's heated debate over the fishnet leg lamp and Ralphie's persistently met obstacle of the words “You'll shoot your eye out,” in regard to his precious Red Ryder BB Gun. My brothers and I would laugh hysterically when the infamous “triple-dog-dare” scene of Flick's frozen tongue would come on, and to this day we still do. We used to watch it on a little TV with an old fashioned 14 station dial. Back then, it aired at once at 9am and again at 8pm.

My Brothers and I still watch A Christmas Story every year on Christmas Day. Lucky us, they started running marathons of this Americana classic on TBS for 24 hours starting on Christmas Eve at 8pm. The Christmas film we once enjoyed on a small fuzzy screen is now watched on satellite television in high definition from http://www.direct.tv/direct-tv-dvr.html!

Regis Philbin is Retiring

2011-01-18T12:45:00.000-05:00

Oh man, got some terrible news this morning when I was checking Twitter. Regis Philbin is retiring from Live with Regis and Kelly at the end of this year! I've been a fan of his for 21 years, ever since I was 15. I stumbled across his show by accident. Woke up early one morning, which was very unusual, channel surfed the 2 channels I got and came across Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. I was hooked. I liked the live format; and they were funny. Host chat was great. Regis reminded me of my great uncle.
I watched Regis faithfully every morning for years. If I wasn't around to watch, I'd tape it and watch when I had time. I think I still have the Halloween episode where Regis and Kathie Lee dressed up as each other on tape somewhere. A classic.
Once the kids came along and took over the television I stopped making the time to watch. Once in a while when I remember I'll turn it on.
Anyways, here's what Regis said this morning according to Live with Regis and Kelly's facebook page:

As Philbin stated to the viewers this morning, "This will be my last year on this show. It's been a long time, it's been 28 years since I've been here...There is a time that everything must come to an end..." Referring to his remaining time on the show he added, "We'll have a lot of fun between now and then." Click this link http://bit.ly/dhHG3u to send Regis a message.

Morning television just won't be the same without Uncle Regis, as I call him. lol Good luck Regis! We'll miss you!

Regis Philbin Memorabilia

Game Shows

2011-01-17T10:07:00.000-05:00

Contributed by Vickie Tyson

I have loved to watch games shows every since I was a kid. In my house these were always on. When wheel of Fortune came on in the evening, it was a family affair. We would all gather around the old floor model TV in the living room to watch and guess the phrase. Now that I am grown with my own family, not much has changed. We still gather in the family room at night to watch the show. It is like a family tradition that we have kept for all this time. I guess it will never change.

There are a few things that are a bit different. We now use satellite TV from tvbydirect.com to watch our favorite show and we always watch on our new HD TV. This is a major experience compared to the TV that I watched growing up. It is almost like you are right there in the audience along with everyone else. We all love it and it is just a family thing that we will always enjoy together.

Real Drama From The Real Housewives From New Jersey

2011-01-13T10:21:00.000-05:00

The article written by Geraldo Russo

I always love watching HD programming on my directv. My favorite show to watch has to be the Real Housewives of New Jersey. This show is filled with drama, insanity, and crazy antics that will keep all viewers glued to their screen. The ridiculous drama along with outrageous spending on this show equates to a great show.

The series follows five different housewives. There are sisters Dina and Caroline Manzo, their sister-in-law, Jacqueline Laurita, family friend Teresa Giudice, the very unstable and unpredictable Danielle Staub. Cameras follow these women around as they interact with each other and also their families. You will be able to see them gossiping with each other about each other and also see their more personal and touching moments with their children. The cameras also capture the crazy over-the-top behavior from each of these women. Everything is done in "Jersey Style," from the bling to the fighting. There is no other show that has showcased a grown woman throwing a dinner table in a rage! It is quite a sight to watch.

You will never be bored when you watch this show. It contains all the elements to be an entertaining program. For those reality tv junkies, this is a great show to get hooked on!

Where is Chad Brannon General Hospital

2011-01-07T10:38:00.000-05:00

Remember Chad Brannon who played Zander on General Hospital? He's featured in the Where Are They Now? section of the January 11, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
He's enjoying life with wife Carly, who he's been married to since 2006, and their 2 sons, Hudson who's 3 and Ford who's 1.
He's been doing voiceovers. He's the promo announcer for Fox's The Simpsons and Family Guy on Sundays and is doing announcing work for the syndicated versions of Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Body Of Proof.
He's also in post-production on his first short film. Alexa Havins, real Babe from All My Children, was also in it.
Chad played Zander from 2000 - 2004 and made an appearance in 2009. He won the Daytime Emmy Award for Younger Actor in 2004. The voiceover work he does takes up most of his time, so he doesn't know if he'd ever come back for a longer run, but does have fond memories of working with Amber Tamblyn, who played Emily Quartermaine. He does want to do more prime-time and film work.
BTW, you can follow Chad on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/chadbrannon

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New Years Rockin Eve

2011-01-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

Contributed by Milford Woods

It would not be New Years without New Years Rockin Eve! This year of course we will be watching on satellite TV from www.BestChoiceTV.com but the years I remember were largely spent in front of my parents huge console TV, listening to my mom complain about “that awful noise those rockers made. Awful noise is translated as electric guitar, drums and lots of incredible vocals from people like Alice Cooper, Three Dog Night, KC and the Sunshine Band and other hot looking guys from my time.

In the seventies we had to switch back and forth between the totally cool program, with Dick Clark, and the boring one with that old guy at least thats how I thought of it at the time. Of course that old guy’s name was Guy Lombardo a band leader but it was a totally different kind of band, and he wasnt much of a lead singer. I was as repulsed by the big band sound as my mom was by rock and roll, so we had to share, and part of that was taking turns complaining about the horrible music.

As I scan down the list of rockers this year, I have to admit there are a lot of unfamiliar names. Are these people rockers? Personally, Id like to see a hard rock metal type line up, but theyd never do that. I havent really kept up with music in the past few years, but I assume Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails are still around, or what about that modern day Alice Cooper known as Marilyn Manson? Thats what Id like to see, but still its up to Ryan Seacrest. I guess Ill still watch and give these new people a chance. I hope I dont end up complaining like my mom used to.

Good old classic Christmas cookies

2010-12-23T09:51:00.000-05:00

Guest post written by Patricia Laws

I remember that after opening up presents, of course, the most exciting part of Christmas when I was a little girl was when I baked Christmas cookies with my mom. As I got older I actually started helping her through the mixing and the baking part instead of just getting in the way and prolonging the process. I also got a whole lot better at decorating the cookies too, which was good because I would always give them to my teachers as gifts.

Well, I was feeling pretty nostalgic the other day and decided that I would make some cookies with my boyfriend. So I went online to try and find the same recipe that my mom would always use, which wasn't that hard because sugar cookies are a pretty basic recipe. As I was looking for that stuff online I came across the website http://www.cleartvbundle.com and ended up ordering one of the packages for my home internet from it.

Well our classic Christmas cookies turned out pretty well. I was really excited about them and we decorated some of them too, well the ones that actually lasted long enough to cool down and for me to whip up some different colors of icing.

Crowd Control At Fan Events

2010-12-15T20:37:00.000-05:00

I really hate crowds. Back in 2004, we went to the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee. A lot of soap stars go to it nowadays. I didn't see any when we went though. The CMA Music Festival was great, but it was so hot and I was pregnant with my oldest. I was extremely tired and nauseous. I took a nap through Rascal Flatts. That's how crappy I felt. It wasn't the greatest trip.
Fan events just draw so many people. Autograph lines are crazy. Crowd control products to keep people in an orderly line is a definite necessity. Many of the lines we were in used stanchions to keep people from straying. There are many different types of stanchions: velvet ropes, retractable belts, etc. More stanchion types are being developed all the time. Some of the belts even have printing on them.
Driving in Nashville wasn't too bad though. We stayed at a Holiday Inn on the main drag just up the street from the Cumberland River where the main events were. The only time we drove was when we went over to the Grand Ole Opry to see Lorrie Morgan perform. She was excellent! Sammy Kershaw even joined her at the end for a duet.
When we did drive, barricades were a pretty common site. The ones we saw were for traffic control, but barricades are also used for security and privacy. There are different types of barricades: fence barricades, traffic cones, pipe and drape walls, etc.
Maybe when the little ones are older, I'll make it back to the CMA Music Festival, so that I can actually enjoy it. It's definitely on the bucket list of trips I would like to take.

Bergen Williams General Hospital

2010-12-10T15:28:00.001-05:00

I've been on a health kick the past year, ever since it was discovered I was on the verge of diabetes and had high cholesterol. I'm not overweight, mid 30's, so just bad luck I guess. Articles on healthy living tend to pop out at me these days.
Bergen Williams, who plays Alice on General Hospital, beat cancer and lost 100 pounds all by eating a vegan diet. I say that's AWESOME! Way better than feeding into the pharmaceutical industry for treatments which only make you sicker.
The October 27, 2009 back issue of Soap Opera Digest has an interview with Bergen where she gives a couple of recipes: black bean soup, cookies, and a salad. She also highly recommends a book called The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long Term Health by Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II, which you can buy on Amazon.com. In fact, after reading the reviews, I just added it to my Amazon cart. One reviewer said his triglycerides, which is my problem, went from 200's to 64. My triglycerides were 758 a year ago, but with the low glycemic diet changes made so far they are low 100's. Always room for improvement though.
You can find Bergen on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/bergenw.
Bergen has also just launched a website called EatMeCookies.com where she sells healthy, organic cookies. YUM!

My Healthy Living Naturally Blog

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Medical Uniforms

2010-12-07T21:28:00.000-05:00

The other day I mentioned that my little 3 year old lets me watch General Hospital. Now he's suddenly refusing to let me watch it thanks to the LeapFrog dvd's he got for his birthday. All day long that's what he wants to watch. It's educational and it's helping his speech, but still. All I want is 1 hour for General Hospital.
Today I did manage to watch yesterday's show on the television upstairs.
Steven Webber was on and I was thinking about his scrubs, aka doctors medical uniforms. He had on the standard white long lab coat, then the medical scrub top, and it looked like that was it. The scrub shirt was a deep v-neck, so a lot of skin was showing. I don't mind at all. Scott Reeves is hot! lol. It just doesn't look very flattering. Maybe if he had a necklace on, it would look better. Definitely a t-shirt underneath would be more flattering.
We are getting hit with cold and snow, so my boys and I are doing lots of layering. Maybe that's what has me thinking about how he needs to layer that scrub shirt with something underneath to keep that hot chest from getting cold.

Directv SoapNet Sonny Brenda General Hospital

2010-12-02T17:53:00.000-05:00

I am loving Sonny and Brenda on General Hospital!!! Thanks to SoapNet and my direct tv package, I watch General Hospital the next morning after it has originally aired. Better late than never. I have no idea what I'm going to do when SoapNet goes off the air. I'm thinking about getting a smartphone, so maybe I can watch it on that at abc.com. It just won't be the same watching it on a tiny phone screen. My internet is just dialup, so it's way too slow for watching television shows. There's no hope of getting a faster internet connection anytime soon.
I have been trying to get my boys hooked on General Hospital. Forget it with the six year old. He's too stubborn. He refuses to let me even watch the tv. The three year old I might stand a chance getting him interested. He at least lets me watch tv and General Hospital. He will probably let me watch it at 3pm when it's on. I get ABC out of New York City. For some reason directv doesn't have the local ABC in its lineup.
DirectTV is pretty good though. Quite a variety of channels. There are several different directv packages at varying prices. They add new channels quite frequently too. We came across a channel called Hub the other day. There was a cute little cartoon called Pound Puppies on that my dog loving three year old enjoyed.
Anyways, back to Sonny and Brenda. That scene with them at Sonny's old apartment was so great. That first reunion kiss was HOT!!! I think my television had smoke coming out of it! Strange that Sonny took Brenda to Jax's restaurant for their first date though. Funny when Jax joined them. I missed today's episode on SoapNet, so maybe there was a reason. Still, Sonny should have taken Brenda to a nice, dimly lit corner booth someplace romantic. I can't wait to see more of Sonny and Brenda. Thank you Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo for coming back to General Hospital! Thank you to TPTB at General Hospital for bring a hot romance back to daytime television!

Terri Columbino Austin Peck

2010-11-30T17:44:00.000-05:00

A little soap opera going on in real life with a couple of soap stars.
According to Soap Opera Digest, the 12/07/10 issue, Terri Columbino just divorced her husband of 8 years. They separated in 2009. Terri is dating her former costar Austin Peck.
I was surprised at that. I thought Austin was married. I did some googling and found out he has been divorced since 2009. Around the time he was let go from As The World Turns, speculation was he was let go because he was having an affair with a costar. Other cast members weren't happy because they really liked the costar's husband.
Not sure how I missed all that, but I guess the rumors were true.
BTW, Terri will soon be airing on One Life To Live.

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Corbin Bernsen Snow Globes

2010-11-23T18:52:00.001-05:00

I was reading the November 8, 2010 issue of TV Guide the other day and came across an interesting article about Corbin Bernsen, son of Jeanne Cooper who plays Katherine on The Young & the Restless. He has a huge collection of snow globes. I love snow globes! I just have a couple holiday ones but Corbin owns over 7500 snow globes! He has been collecting them since the 1980's when he was LA Law. He would even place anonymous ads looking to buy them. He stores his collection in a garage next to his office and hopes to someday open a museum. Corbin's snow globe collection focuses on historical figures, 1930's - 1940's advertising and travel locales.
Corbin portrayed Carly's father on General Hospital. Unfortunately, his character, John Durant, was killed off. He aired from September 2004 until May 2006.
He currently stars in Psych on USA Network.
You can find Corbin on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/corbinbernsen.

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My Favorite Romantic Suspense Novel

2010-11-20T20:39:00.000-05:00

Guest post written by my buddy Orville Lynn

I am a self-proclaimed book fanatic. I enjoy most types of fiction but tend to avoid any of the super scary stuff. I do not like to have nightmares! My favorite tends to be romantic suspense novels. Linda Howard is one of my favorite authors. I love her book Drop Dead Gorgeous. The female lead character Blair Mallory is funny, brave, witty and a real girls girl.

This is actually the second book featuring the crazy antics of Blair Mallory. In this book, she is on a mission to have the best wedding possible which of course includes numerous shopping trips. Unfortunately, for Blair someone has their hat set on killing her. The attempts on her life are always very close with scenes that will make you rush through to find out if Blair gets through the latest attempt unscathed. Of course, her big, strong police lieutenant boyfriend Wyatt Bloodsworth is always there to rescue her. As the plot unfolds, Blair and Wyatts relationship is pushed to the limits when Blair discovers Wyatt has been married before.

Although I absolutely love reading, sometimes I like to kick back and watch the drama unfold in a movie on my satellite television from Directstartv.com where I can actually see the action happening.

Criminal Minds Is My Favorite Crime Show

2010-11-18T16:38:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Lemuel Craft

My favorite crime show on TV is Criminal Minds; I find it intriguing the way the FBI behavioral department figures out who is committing crimes. They assist police departments when it is decided that a serial killer is at work. The team travels all over the country to find the bad guys. Most episodes follow a pattern of the team working to figure out who the killer is.

The man in charge is Hodge; he is very good at issuing orders and keeping control of his team. JJ often brings cases to the team and also handles the media. Garcia is great she is a professional computer hacker who flirts shamelessly with all the handsome members of the team; she is very good at her job and helps the team find the killers. Dr. Reid has an eidetic memory that is the ability to remember everything word for word as its read or said. Derek Morgan is a strong member of the team who often captures the bad guy and is the first to respond. Emily Prentiss works hard and is a good addition who offers insights the others don't.

I DVR this show so that I never miss it and our family always watches on our direc4u TV, it offers the best picture and with the DVR option we can watch at our convenience.

Eden Riegel Pregnant, Soap Star Break Ups

2010-11-16T17:41:00.000-05:00

Just got my latest issue of Soap Opera Digest, 11/23/10. Lots of stars breaking up with their mates.
Here's the run down:

Vincent Irizarry & his wife Avalon are divorcing. They were married 13 years and have two kids: Aria is 13 and Elias is 9.

Aiden Turner & his wife Megan are divorcing. They were married 5 years and have a daughter: Ceilla is 1.

Molly Burnett & Casey Jon Diedrick have split.

Some exciting news though:
Eden Riegel and her husband Andrew Miller are excpecting their first child. Eden made the announcement via Twitter on November 2nd:
"Wanted to share the great news: I'm pregnant!!! Baby Miller's due in early May. No word on what he/she's got going on down south just yet!".
You can find her on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/edenriegel.

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My love for The Doctor

2010-11-14T11:14:00.003-05:00

Guest post written by Karen Olive

When it comes to stuff that I like in pop culture, there really is no real pattern for it because I love stuff all across the board. I'll watch a show like Mad Men and then turn around and watch Jersey Shore, which are probably on the opposite ends of the spectrum as far as intelligence and deep thought go. So I'm pretty open to a lot of different things when it comes to movies and TV shows.

One of my friends had been ranting and raving about the show Doctor Who for a long time so I finally got around to borrowing his DVD sets from him. When I was looking some stuff up about some of the actors on IMDB with my clear internet, I saw that the guy who played The Doctor for a bunch of the seasons actually played Barty Crouch Jr. in one of the Harry Potter movies.

Then once I did a little more researching, I found out that the guy who plays The New Doctor used to be a rising soccer (or football in England) star before an injury caused him to quit and pursue acting instead.

Filling out my book collection

2010-11-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Guest post written by Harry Summers

Now that I finally have my own place and have moved out of my parents house, I'm busy working on decorating my first apartment and want it to look better than my room that I shared with two of my frat brothers in our frat house at college. That place was a dump, but it definitely lived up to the decorating standards of fraternity life outside of the formal entertaining areas.

I thought that something that I would really need is a library to put in my living room that includes more stuff than just all the books I read in high school English classes. So I talked to my older brother with my CLEAR Internet 4g phone to get some suggestions from him. He said that I should stock up on some Chuck Palhanuik books.

So I did some research on some Chuck Palahniuk books and found out that he wrote the book Fight Club. So IÕm ordering a few of his other books to read and keep in my library.

Dexter's Laboratory

2010-10-30T11:03:00.000-04:00

Authored by Greg Fletcher

Cartoon Network used to have a show called Dexter's Laboratory and when I was a kid it was something I watched almost religiously. The one thing I learned from this cartoon is how to spell "Laboratory" because Dexter had a thick German accent and always pronounced it "laBORatory", so I never forgot the "o" when I spelled it out.

Aside from my little lesson in spelling, Dexter's Laboratory was just an all-around entertaining show. It's not on anymore but I believe it is still possible to watch it on satellite TV from http://www.directstartv.com/compare_directv/directv_cut_cable.html. Like I said, Dexter has a thick German accent, but he is a young boy-genius. He is probably about 11 years old in the show if I had to guess and he has his own secret lab hidden behind a wall in his bedroom. It is an extremely high-tech laboratory and very unrealistic, but entertaining nonetheless.

Dexter's antagonist was his own sister, DeeDee, who was an annoying tween who was always messing things up for Dexter. Anytime Dexter tried to get one of his new inventions out there, DeeDee would do something to destroy his plans.

If I am not mistaken, Dexter's Laboratory was created by the same guy who made Johnny Bravo, American Dad and Family Guy. Yes, Mr. Seth MacFarlane. It's crazy to think he used to make kids shows.

A Great Children's Show: Little Einsteins

2010-10-28T14:40:00.001-04:00

This guest post from Edgardo Rosa

"Little Einsteins" is one of the greatest programs ever created for children. As a person with a love for music and passion for classical music in particular, I think that "Little Einsteins" is a great show that can encourage a deep appreciation of classical music in children. "Little Einsteins" is a show that teaches children the basics of music composition and exposes them to music created by some of the world's greatest artists, such as Bach and Beethoven.
When I once had to baby-sit for a young boy, I would always have him watch this show before bedtime. I found that it was a great show that calmed children a lot. The five year old boy loved this show and would immediately fall asleep anytime he watched it. This is the type of show that can be great for loud or excited children that simply need a bit of rest time or to be calmed down.
In addition to being a great tool for calming children down, this show is a great educational tool. When I babysat that little boy, it was fascinating to see his interest in music grow after watching the program. He even ended up taking piano lessons, simply because he loved hearing the piano music in this program so much! Overall, this program is a great show to watch on satellite tv from www.directstartv.com with your kids.

Derk Cheetwood Has Baby Girl

2010-10-15T21:51:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Derk Cheetwood and his wife Cari on the birth of their second child born October 14, 2010, a girl named Audrey.
Derk and Cari also have a 2 year old girl named Kylie.
Derk plays Max on General Hospital. He works for Sonny and is half of the awesome, comical couple Max & Diane. Diane is played by the great Carolyn Hennesy.
BTW, Derk & Carolyn are both on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/derkcheetwood
http://twitter.com/carolynhennesy

I'm on Twitter too, feel free to give a follow: http://twitter.com/ice_princess_81

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Jonathan Jackson Baby Boy

2010-10-10T17:48:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Jonathan Jackson & his wife Lisa Vultaggio on the birth of their son, Titus Gabriel, born October 7, 2010 at 1:11 pm. Titus weighed in at 7lbs. 1oz.
Jonathan plays Lucky on General Hospital which is where he met his wife. Lisa played Hannah, one of Sonny's love interests.
BTW, Jonathan is on Twitter. You can follow him at: http://twitter.com/JSJacksonWrites.

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Brandon Buddy One Life to Live Leslie Charleson General Hospital

2010-09-10T15:38:00.000-04:00

A couple of surprising tidbits in the comings and goings section of the September 14, 2010 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
First, Brandon Buddy, who plays Cole Thornhart on One Life to Live, is leaving the show later this year. Apparently a hacker posted on his Twitter page back in June that he was leaving. He said no, but now he really is leaving. Good young actor.
Second, Leslie Charleson, who plays Monica Quartermaine on General Hospital, has been put on recurring status. Leslie joined GH in 1977 and is the shows longest running contract player. Monica isn't on much anymore, so putting Leslie on recurring probably saves the show money. What they should do is give Monica a new man now that Alan is gone. It's too bad the vets get shoved to the backburner instead of being used. Vets are the ones viewers want to see, not newbies, and then TIIC wonder why soap opera ratings keep slipping.
Oh, and I am so mad. Last Friday, I saw General Hospital where Sonny & Brenda see each other. This week I've missed every show. Just caught a few minutes of todays show & see Sonny is back in Port Charles. Ugh. I missed the whole Sonny and Brenda reunion. Soooooo mad.

Vincent Irrizary All My Children, Jonathan Jackson General Hospital, Vanessa Marcil-Giovinazzo

2010-09-03T16:06:00.002-04:00

Vincent Irrizary has been fired from All My Children! Yup that's the news coming out of the SudsReport. A big murder mystery has been advertised on AMC and turns out David is the one who gets offed. Too bad. Longtime vet and the shows main villain. Probably not the best move. Wish him well! I'm sure another soap will snag him up in no time. He will be appearing on an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles.
Other news: Jonathan Jackson is going to be playing a dual role. Anything having to do with more airtime for JJ is a plus in my book! He's going to be playing Ronan O’Reilly, who is an assassin for the Balkan mobster trying to kill Brenda.
BTW, I'm loving having Vanessa Marcil-Giovinazzo back. Not sure yet about the storyline, but CANNOT WAIT until her and Sonny reunite. Never a fan of Brenda and Jax or Brenda and Jason, but HUGE fan of Brenda and Sonny. It's like the tv is on fire when they are onscreen together. So HOT!!! The flashbacks and reminiscing are a nice bonus for longtime fans.
In case anyone is interested, I've started a new blog called Ice Princess's Healthy Living Naturally. It's all about how I now have to live a healthy lifestyle and all the tips and interesting info I'm learning.

Soap Opera Digest Back Issues

LocalTV-Satellite's Directv Deal

2010-08-31T10:31:00.001-04:00

About 5 years ago I was on maternity leave and I got really tired of rabbit ears and static when trying to watch my soaps. We live in a rural area, so cable's not an option. Thank goodness for satellite dishes. I did some research and ended up going with Directv. Soaps crystal clear! It's so great! Amazing how you can see little wrinkles in some of the actors faces when the picture is so clear. I lived and breathed SOAPnet round the clock through all of my new babies feedings. Back then SOAPnet was my favorite channel. Unfortunately, every time I turn it on these days, all that's ever on is Beverly Hills 90210 or One Tree Hill. It's hard to find a true soap on. Apparently SOAPnet will be no more in 2012. It's being replaced by a Disney channel. Not good news, but they took a different direction after the demise of Soap Talk. If they would only get their act together and go back to true soap opera programming, maybe SOAPnet could save themselves.
Anyways, there is a company called LocalTV-Satellite who has a really great Directv deal going on. You get free HD for life and free Directv service for five months. All you have to do is sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket and a Choice Xtra or Premier package at localtv-satellite.com. I don't have the HD because it costs more per month, but I wish I did have it. It makes the picture even more clear. Free HD for life is a pretty good deal even if you don't really want NFL Sunday Ticket. It sounds like that signup would pay for itself with the free HD and free five months of service.
Directv has many different channels. You get news, sports, weather, soap operas, local channels when available, music, home improvement, movies and more. HBO, Cinemax, Starz, and Showtime are also available. I have Starz, which has a set of channels where each one has movies of a different category, ex: drama, comedy, romance, western etc. Every Saturday night is a new box office movie.
Directv reception is pretty good. We live in a valley between a couple of large hills and never have a problem with reception, unless it's raining very hard. When that happens, reception goes out, but once the hard rain passes after a few minutes, reception comes back.
Now with the big conversion to digital tv, it's even harder to get good channel reception. Local channels aren't even available to me now. All I get is a black screen. Luckily I can get ABC through Directv, so I can still watch General Hospital, One Life to Live and All My Children.
If the digital conversion ruined your channel reception, signing up with Directv through LocalTV-Satellite might be a great idea.

Home Security

2010-08-28T16:15:00.000-04:00

We built our house about eight years ago. About two weeks after we moved in, we were robbed. Nothing major was taken, just small stuff like a dvd player, cds, and playstation games. A few hundred dollars worth of stuff. Luckily they didn't grab our samsung 65 inch tv. I would have been very upset if that had been taken. We reported the robbery to the troopers, but of course the robbers were never caught.
After the incident, I immediately had a security system installed along with two outdoor tv enclosures, which are available at become.com, for the security cameras. Outdoor security cameras are pretty cool. Now we can see who comes and goes when we are not home. We also have signs up all over the place that we have a security system installed. Fortunately, that was the only break in so far, just a few false alarms thanks to the cats. lol.
We also have a series of outdoor lights set up, which are solar powered lights that stick in the ground. We have a tiki torch placed near each entranceway too. The lighting helps when you are inside at night. You can look out and see the yard pretty well. The lighting is also great for when we come home at night. We don't want to miss any shadows lurking in the bushes.
Hopefully the security setup we have will deter any further burglaries.

Michael Sutton Returns to General Hospital

2010-08-18T14:15:00.001-04:00

Michael Sutton is returning to General Hospital as Stone Cates!!!!! Whoo Hoo!! Had a major crush on him back in the day. Apparently he's coming back for 2 days starting September 28 to give Robin spiritual guidance and the strength to live. AWESOME!!!!
Robin and Stone had a red hot romance back in the early 90s until he developed AIDS and passed away. Their relationship is how Robin became HIV positive. Stone was Robin's first love. It was a very ground breaking storyline. I can still picture Stone right before he died saying "Robin I can see you" and then he was gone. It was very sad.
Since leaving General Hospital Michael Sutton has made a big name for himself in Los Angeles as a club owner.
WOW! I can't believe Michael/Stone is returning to General Hospital. Can't wait!!!!

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Kim Zimmer Joins One Life to Live

2010-08-17T14:15:00.000-04:00

Kim Zimmer is joining One Life to Live!!!! WOW!!! How huge is that news!! Awesome!
Kim will be reprising her role of Echo DiSavoy, which she played in 1983. Back then Echo had an affair with Clint, who was married to Vicki at the time.
Up until it's cancellation Kim played Reva Shayne on Guiding Light, which won her four Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress.
Kim was also on One Life to Live in 1978 where she played Bonnie Harmon.
No word on Kim's first airdate yet, other than it will be in the fall.
I can't wait. Hopefully it will be a much needed ratings boost for One Life to Live too.

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Robin Christopher General Hospital Returns

2010-02-23T15:01:00.004-05:00

Wow! Robin Christopher is reprising her role as Skye Chandler Quartermaine on General Hospital. That's great news. Great actress. Love it when Skye is sparring with Tracy. Adds a bit of humor to the show, which is a welcome change from Sonny & the mob.
I'm glad to see the numer of Quartermaine's increasing. Just too bad they had to kill off AJ, Emily & Alan though.
Robin's first air date is set for March 31.

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Frances Reid Passes Away

2010-02-04T10:20:00.006-05:00

Very sad Days of Our Lives news: Frances Reid, who played Alice Horton, passed away February 3 at 95. She was the Horton matriarch and always reminded me of my grandmother. Just loved her. So sad, the end of an era. She was in failing health the past few years and was unable to attend this past year or so's Christmas show. You will be missed Frances/Mrs. Horton. RIP Frances.

Tributes to Frances Reid

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James Mitchell Passes Away All My Children

2010-01-28T13:25:00.001-05:00

Sad All My Children news: James Mitchell who played Palmer Cortlandt passed away January 22 of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, complicated by pneumonia. He was 89. He last appeared on AMC January 5th for the show's 40th anniversary. He joined the show in 1979. In September 2008, James retired and relocated to California. AMC is planning a tribute, but it probably won't air until spring.
I was just reading an article in the December 29, 2009 issue of Soap Opera Digest with Jill Larson, who plays Opal, and she was talking about how she's good friends with James and keeps in close touch with him. RIP James.

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Amelia Heinle Has Baby Girl 2009

2009-12-23T11:57:00.004-05:00

Congratulations to Amelia Heinle and Thad Luckinbill, Victoria & JT on The Young and the Restless, on the birth of their daughter, Georgia March, on December 17.
Amelia and Thad also have a 2 year old son, Rowe.
Amelia has another son. 13 year old August whose father is Amelia's former Loving costar Michael Weatherly.

Alicia Minshew Has Baby Girl

2009-11-04T09:54:00.006-05:00

Congratulations to Alicia Minshew of All My Children and her husband Richie on the birth of her daughter! She was due around Thanksgiving, but Willow Lenora Herschenfeld arrived November 4, 2009 at 6:42am. Her middle name is a tribute to Alicia's mother Lenore.
That's nice. Can't wait to see pics.

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Scott Reeves General Hospital

2009-10-22T14:57:00.004-04:00

WOW! According to Michael Saucedo's twitter, Scott Reeves is joining General Hospital as Elizabeth's brother, Steven Lars Weber. COOL!! Will be nice to have another hot guy on the show.:) lol
Scott was on The Young and the Restless for 10 years and currently lives in Nashville, Tennesse. Scott is also a musician and is half of the country duo Blue County, who are very good. The role is recurring.

Here's a link to the original article from TV Guide magazine: http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/soaps/exclusive-scott-reeves-joins-general-hospital-2919.html.

Michael is the former Juan on General Hospital and the husband of General Hospital's Rebecca Herbst who plays Elizabeth.
BTW, Scott is also on Twitter and he is the husband of Melissa Reeves who played Jennifer Horton on Days of Our Lives. She is also on Twitter.

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Kelly Ripa Mark Consuelos All My Children

2009-10-16T10:18:00.005-04:00

So this morning Kelly Ripa, of Live with Regis and Kelly, said she had a BIG, BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.
Turns out her and hubby Mark Consuelos will be reprising their roles of Hayley and Mateo by returning to All My Children for 2 episodes to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary in January.
Nice! I love it when former soap stars who've really made a name for themselves return to their old roles.

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James Franco Joins General Hospital

2009-10-01T13:18:00.004-04:00

WOW!!!!!!!! James Franco is joining General Hospital. I can't believe that. I've loved him ever since he was on Freaks and Geeks. Great actor, very good looking. Been in many movies including Pineapple Express, Spiderman and a James Dean biography. Pretty high caliber casting for a soap. Good job GH.
Apparently he will first appear in late November and then off and on for two months. Not many details on his role other than he will be playing a character who is Jason's "worst nightmare".
Sweet. Definitely looking forward to that.

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All My Children Los Angeles Cast Moves

2009-09-30T13:04:00.006-04:00

So All My Children has announced which cast members are moving to Los Angeles.
They include the majority of the cast:
Susan Lucci, who will not be moving her family to LA, David Canary, Debbi Morgan, Darnell Williams, Michael E. Knight, Vincent Irizzary who will also commute from the East Coast, Jacob Young, Brittany Allen, Melissa Claire Egan, Stephanie Gatschet, Ricky Paull Goldin, Bobbie Eakes, Jamie Luner, Adam Mayfield, JR Martinez, Cameron Mathison, Denise Vasi.

All My Children cast members not moving to Los Angeles include:
Thorsten Kaye, Ray McDonnell who plays Dr. Joe Martin is retiring.
Alicia Minshew will be on maternity leave, but is planning on returning to the show after her maternity leave.

It was previously announced that Beth Ehlers, Aiden Turner and Brianne Moncrief, who plays Colby, are leaving the show.

I'm glad the majority of the cast will be staying with the show. TIIC really lucked out with that considering how they just made the decision to move the show to the west coast without giving any indication to the cast & crew that the idea was even being considered. Time will tell if this move is a good thing though.

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Greg Vaughan Fired General Hospital

2009-09-28T20:59:00.006-04:00

WHAT??????????? Oh no. Greg Vaughan has been fired from General Hospital according to his latest tweet:
As of today, with sad regrets, I will no longer be apart of what has been a big part of me and my families life. GH and TPTB have...
..choosen to take a new direction. I THANK ALL of YOU, for the many memories we've shared and new ones to come!!! ALL MY LOVE, & BIG HUGS...
...to YOU the FANS!!! I LOVE YOU ALL MORE!!!! GV

Man, that sucks. He was the best Lucky outside of Jonathan Jackson, the original Lucky. Wow, I wonder what the new direction is.
Well, good luck to Greg. He's a good catch. I'm sure another soap will snag him up.

Update: Whoa, check this out, Jonathan Jackson is returning to General Hospital as Lucky. His first airdate is October 27. Jonathan been away for 10 years and has not kept up on Lucky during that time according to the 10/27/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest, so it will be interesting to see what he does with the character.

Also check out the 10/27/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest for an interview with Greg. Apparently Greg was called into Executive Producer Jill Farren Phelp's and told he was being fired and that he had already taped his last episode. Greg was in shock.
Interesting, since according to Jonathan's interview, his team was contacted by ABC and told Greg was moving on to do other things and the role was opening up, so they wondered if Jonathan was interested in coming back. Guess they forgot to mention Greg was not intentionally moving on.
Sounds like an attempt by ABC to boost ratings by bringing back the original Lucky, similar to the big campaign awhile back touting Rebecca Budig as the real Greenlee when she replaced Sabine Singh. Only difference is Sabine was relatively new, while Greg has been at GH for 6 1/2 years. Pretty rotten.

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Winnit.com Review

2009-09-27T18:13:00.001-04:00

I was reading the 10/5/09 issue of Us Weekly and came across an interesting article with Nick Lachey. Apparently he is co-owner of a reverse auction website called Winnit.com. Users bid on high dollar items, such as ipods, computers, tvs, sports cars, vacations, etc. and the user with the lowest unique bid wins. The majority of items are selling for less than $2.00. Very cool! You sign up and automatically get $5.00 added to your account, so you can start bidding right away. Each time a bid is placed, a fee amount of $1 - $4 is deducted from your account balance. That kind of sucks, but I guess that's how the site makes money. After you place a bid, you can see right away whether your bid is the lowest unique bid for that item. If it is not the lowest unique bid, you are given a hint as to what the lowest unique bid amount is. You can also place a serial bid, which is a low and high bid. However, serial bids are charged an extra fee.
Each month, a portion of the proceeds are donated to charity. For September, the charity is Feeding America.
Winnit.com also has a referral program. You get $5.00 for every person you refer.
Winnit.com is a very new site. It was just launched September 16, 2009. It's totally legit, so sign up, get your free $5.00 and start bidding at Winnit.com.

Us Weekly Back Issues

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Gina Tognoni Returns One Life to Live Kelly Cramer

2009-09-24T17:21:00.007-04:00

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! Gina Tognoni is coming back to One Life To Live to reprise her role as Kelly Cramer!! Woohoo! Always loved her as Kelly. Heather Tom was ok, but to me Gina was Kelly.
Gina played Kelly Cramer from 1995 - 2001 and briefly in 2002. She was great back then and after being on Guiding Light, she has really grown as an actress, so it's great to see her coming back to OLTL.
Gina begins taping in January.
When last seen, Kelly had married Kevin Buchanan and was living with him in London. Dan Gauthier is scheduled to be returning for a short time this fall to reprise his role as Kevin. Unfortunately, he won't be appearing at the same time as Gina. Too bad. Dan's one of the better Kevin's. I don't believe he was on OLTL when Gina was, so it would be interesting to see them together.

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Sarah Brown leaving General Hospital?

2009-09-16T15:13:00.008-04:00

Oooh, a cryptic tweet from Sarah Brown, Claudia Zacchara, General Hospital: "All the news that is fit to print. Claudia Zacchara has been a wild ride, every ride stops when the music ends. The Music stops mid Oct."

Sounds like no more Claudia come mid October. Too bad. I'm not real thrilled with the character of Claudia, but I liked having Sarah Brown back at GH.

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Who Dies General Hospital Carnival

2009-09-08T19:59:00.001-04:00

General Hospital is going all out with it's September 2009 carnival storyline. According to the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest, they have turned the studio parking lot into a real live carnival. Sounds pretty cool. However, disaster does strike and someone dies and someone gets hurt pretty bad. If you are spoiler free, read no further because I'm about to spill who dies on General Hospital at the carnival.
That someone is
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Andrea played by Martha Byrne. Yup, she finds out Edward saw her at the hotel where Brianna died. Andrea drugs Edward. He has a heart attack while driving and crashes into the carnival, striking Andrea. Dante pushes Morgan out of the way and he is also hit, pretty badly. Sounds like his paternity is about to come out as a result of the accident.
Sounds exciting!

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Michelle Stafford Expecting Baby

2009-09-08T09:32:00.008-04:00

Whoa!!! Just got my daily email from People magazine with the news that Michelle Stafford, Phyllis of The Young & the Restless, is expecting a baby girl in December through a surrogate.
Apparently it has been quite a struggle. For three years, she has had fertility treatments and surgeries with no luck and finally decided on a surrogate. She had tried artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and looked into adoption before deciding on surrogacy. Michelle plans on being in the delivery room when her baby is born and is looking forward to a baby shower at Kirstie Alley's home.
Michelle is single and says this has been very difficult to do on her own. Michelle is 43.
Wow, good for her. Congratulations Michelle!!

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2009 Daytime Emmy Winners

2009-08-31T09:54:00.010-04:00

So I missed the Daytime Emmy's last night. Not by choice though. I live in a rural area of upstate New York and don't receive the channel, CW, it was broadcast on. I get Directv, but no CW.
Anyways, a few of the winners:

Outstanding Drama Series: "The Bold and the Beautiful". I was hoping for Days.

Outstanding Lead Actor: Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin on "The Young and the Restless"). I was rooting for Tony Geary or Peter Reckell, but Christian is a good choice.

Outstanding Lead Actress: Susan Haskell (Marty Saybrooke on "One Life to Live"). Love Susan, but am surprised she won. She was up against heavy hitters: Susan Flannery, Jeanne Cooper, Debbi Morgan and Maura West. Susan does a great job though.

Outstanding Supporting Actor: Vincent Irizarry (David Hayward on "All My Children") and Jeff Branson (Shayne Lewis on "Guiding Light.") tied. Good for Vincent. Am surprised at the tie.

Outstanding Supporting Actress: Tamara Braun (Ava Vitali on "Days of our Lives"). Go Tamara! Love Tamara, but since this was just a short term role, I would have preferred to see one of the other actresses win, since they are longer running roles, namely Bree Williamson or Alicia Minshew.

Outstanding Younger Actor: Darin Brooks (Max Brady on "Days of our Lives"). Darin's great, very hot, great actor, good job!

Outstanding Younger Actress: Julie Marie Berman (Lulu Spencer on "General Hospital"). Was hoping Kristen Storms would win, but at least Julie is from GH.

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series: "General Hospital"

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series: "One Life to Live"

Congratulations to all of the winners!!!

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Soap Opera Shirts

2009-08-20T14:14:00.005-04:00

I was reading the Q&A section of the 8/25/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest last night and came across an interesting question that I thought I would relay. It was a question about a T-shirt which has a couple of sentences using the titles of several soap operas to complete a statement about life. I'd never heard of it, but now that I have, I really like it, so I will pass it on. Here it is:

"When the world was Young & Restless and we were worried about The Days of Our Lives, God said, 'You are All My Children. Let me be your Guiding Light and I will take you to Another World.'"

Apparently there are a few new and vintage versions of this shirt on ebay.

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Austin Peck As the World Turns

2009-08-18T21:14:00.000-04:00

Austin Peck has been let go from As The World Turns! Wow! I can't believe that. That's the twitter message I received from Soap Opera Digest. I don't watch ATWT, but from reading interviews and articles, I thought he was doing well. It always sounded like he enjoyed working there too.
Apparently, his role of Brad will not be recast and will end in a "shocking fashion". Guess he will be killed off. Too bad, but maybe Days of Our Lives can snag him back as Austin?

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Lindsay Hartley Days of Our Lives Scoop

2009-08-12T14:43:00.009-04:00

The 8/18/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest has the inside scoop on Lindsay Hartley taking over the role of Arianna from Felisha Terrell on Days of Our Lives.
According to Ken Corday "Felisha did her very best work", but there was a chance to cast upwards with Lindsay and they decided to do it before the story progressed any further. Lindsay was available and the deal was done in about 24 hours.
That's pretty degrading towards Felisha. Granted she's a newbie, but saying "casting upwards" is kind of rude. They should have just cast Lindsay in the first place, but apparently it was an afterthought. Probably it's an attempt to boost ratings.
Anyways, the timing is good for Lindsay, since her daughter, Isabella will be starting kindergarten already in September, seems like she was just born. Lindsay's husband, Justin, who played Fox on Passions, is also working a lot in Vancouver on Smallville. She has lots of alone time and jumped at the chance to work at Days, especially since she will be working with former Passions costars Galen Gering and Eric Martsolf. Ironically, she will be playing Galen's sister and Eric's love interest on Days and she also played Galen's sister and Eric's love interest on Passions. Guess Days is trying to cash in on their Passion's popularity.

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Susan Lucci Discusses Move To Los Angeles

2009-08-07T09:40:00.003-04:00

I just caught Susan Lucci's interview on Live with Regis and Kelly discussing All My Children's move to Los Angeles. The cast only found out the night before last and everyone is just in shock. Susan just loves New York and honestly doesn't know what she is going to do. It is a lot to think about. Susan starts vacation tomorrow, so she will have some downtime to think about her decision. In January, Susan will celebrate 40 years with All My Children.
Well, it's a very tough decision to make and I just don't think this relocation is a good thing. Sure it's a bigger set, great for production, but personally for everyone involved, this decision is shocking and sometimes your personal life has to come first. Not too many people can just pick up their lives and relocate across the country. I do expect some of the actors to commute across country. Many on other shows do this, but how long can a person handle doing that? Especially with all of the paycuts actors are being asked to take.

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Susan Lucci Live with Regis and Kelly

2009-08-06T11:58:00.007-04:00

Hey, check out Susan Lucci on Live With Regis and Kelly tomorrow, 8/7/09, 9am EST. Kelly said she's going to try to get the scoop on what's going on with All My Children's move to Los Angeles.

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Michael Sutton Interview

2009-08-05T15:31:00.009-04:00

There is a great article in the 8/11/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest with Michael Sutton. Remember him? He played Robin's first love Stone Cates from 1993 to 1995, who died of AIDS, on General Hospital. I had a major crush on him. He was a hottie, and based on the picture in Soap Opera Digest, he still is.
He is out in Los Angeles and is the owner of a bar/lounge called Guys & Dolls. He has made quite a name for himself as a club promoter/owner. He recently sold off four restaurants and dissolved a few partnerships. Now he's out on his own.
Right now he's very busy, but said that when he is older, he would be open to going back to soaps. Let's hope. I'd love to see him back in daytime.
For now, Michael would like to get into real estate, get married and start a family.
Nice. Sounds like he's doing great, good for him.

Update: Michael will be reprising his role as Stone Cates when Stone visits Robin in a spiritual form to guide her. Airdate is September 28, 2010.

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All My Children Moves To Los Angeles

2009-08-05T09:50:00.005-04:00

All My Children is moving it's production to Los Angeles beginning in January, and One Life To Live will be moving into the vacant AMC studio. Whoa! Who knows how that will affect cast and crew. Geez, that's a huge move. Imagine you've been at your job for 25,30,35+ years, built your life in one location for all those years and then all of a sudden you're told your job is moving across the country. That's totally crazy. Susan Lucci, Cameron Mathison, Thorsten Kaye who's wife, Susan Haskell, is now back at One Life To Live as Marty, Jacob Young, who just had a baby, Alicia Minshew, who is pregnant and who's husband is a New York restaurant owner, David Canary, Michael E. Knight, all the crew members. Well, good luck to everyone, but I think this move is going to turn into a disaster. I could be wrong, but LA is a whole different world from NYC.

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Steve Burton Leslie Charleson Contracts General Hospital

2009-08-04T14:38:00.005-04:00

Steve Burton has confirmed he is staying at General Hospital according to his twitter post.
Personally, I'm glad Steve is staying. General Hospital is dark and full of the mob, but Jason is still a Quartmaine, a core family. Would hate to lose another Q.
Speaking of which, some great news: Leslie Charleson has re-signed. Now if she would only get a storyline. Now that Alan is over in Oakdale, maybe Monica needs a romance. That would be great and then bring back Bobbie for a triangle.

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Michael Sabatino Louise Sorel Return To Days of Our Lives

2009-08-01T12:52:00.005-04:00

Michael Sabatino and Louise Sorel are returning to Days of Our Lives, which means Lawrence and Vivian Alamain are returning to Salem! Whoohoo!! Definitely looking forward to that, especially with the return of Crystal Chappell as Carly Manning.
I've missed Vivian. She was always so funny and devious at the same time.
Crystal will be returning in August. Louise will be returning in late September and has signed a one year contract. Cool! Apparently they wanted her for a really long contract, but she just wanted to commit for a year and see what happens. Here's a link to a great interview she just did with Soaps.com.
Michael and Crystal were married in 1997 and have two sons together, Jacob born in 2001 and Dylan born in 2003.

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Lindsay Hartley Joins Days of Our Lives

2009-07-31T18:11:00.000-04:00

Days Of Our Lives has recast the character of Arianna, played by Felisha Terrell, with Lindsay Hartley. Wow, I was surprised to read that in the 8/11/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest. Arianna is currently in a romance with Brady, played by Eric Martsolf. Eric and Lindsay were both previously on Passions. I was never a Passions fan, but I do believe Eric and Lindsay were a popular couple. Eric played Ethan and Lindsay played Theresa. Perhaps Days is trying to cash in on the popularity of their former characters?
Lindsay started taping July 23.

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Alicia Minshew is Pregnant

2009-07-24T12:38:00.004-04:00

Alicia Minshew is pregnant! Yup, according to the 8/4/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest, Alicia, who plays Kendall on All My Children, and hubby Richie Herschenfeld are expecting their first child, a girl, in November. Very exciting!!
Alicia and her husband were married October 26, 2008. Richie owns a restaurant in New York City and is friends with Thorsten Kaye. Thorsten introduced them.
Congratulations Alicia & Richie!!

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UPDATE: Alicia has a baby girl!

Daniel Cosgrove as One Life To Live's Joey Buchanan

2009-07-23T13:09:00.007-04:00

Rumor has it Daniel Cosgrove may be joining One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan. Wish they could grab Nathan Fillion permanently, but he has moved on to primetime. Daniel may be a good substitute though. I remember him from his Beverly Hills 90210 days where he played Matt Dunning.
Apparently a deal has not been confirmed yet, but Daniel is assumed to start taping in early August after his current role as Guiding Light's Bill wraps.
Daniel married his wife Marie in October 1997 and they have 4 children:
Lily born in 2000, Esme Rose born in 2003, Ruby Willow born in 2005, and Finnian Jack born in 2009.

UPDATE: Apparently Daniel Cosgrove will not be joining One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan, despite all of the rumors. Too bad.

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Amelia Heinle pregnant 2009

2009-07-22T12:42:00.001-04:00

Amelia Heinle and Thad Luckinbill are expecting baby number 2 according to the 7/28/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest! No word on the due date, but they are expecting a girl this time around. They have a 1 1/2 year old son name Thaddeus Rowe. Amelia has a 13 year old son, August, from her former Loving costar Michael Weatherly.
This is a bit of surprising news since the Father's Day 6/23/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest had an interview with Thad and he said they were good for now as far as trying for more children. It's a nice article with a picture of Rowe.
The Father's Day issue also has interviews with Bryan R. Dattilo and Greg Vaughan.
Bryan discusses his son, Gabe's, autism. Very interesting article. Fortunately, Gabe is doing great now and Bryan sounds like a great dad.
Also a nice interview with Greg. His son Jathan is just adorable. Apparently he's a daredevil just like his dad.

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Big changes in soaps

2009-07-04T09:59:00.004-04:00

WOW! Some big names coming back to daytime. Unfortunately, they are big losses for General Hospital. First, the one I am most excited about is Lynn Herring's return to daytime. She's coming to As the World Turns as Henry's mother. I'm glad Lynn will be back in daytime, but I really wish GH had snagged her to return as Lucy Coe. Can you imagine Lucy hitting Jake's with Diane and Alexis? That would be a total riot. Oh well.
Lynn will be reuniting with quite a few of her former Port Charles costars: Jon Lindstrom, Marie Wilson and Julie Pinson. Lynn will also be commuting from the west coast.
General Hospital's other loss is Wally Kurth. Yup, he's returning to Days of Our Lives as Justin Kiriakis. Am looking forward to that. Now let's hope Judi Evans returns as Adrienne. Probably not likely though since she has just signed up for a role on As the World Turns.
Rick Hearst is leaving General Hospital to reprise his role as Whip on The Bold & the Beautiful. Apparently, his character on General Hospital gets on an elevator and that's the last we see of him.
At least General Hospital grabbed powerhouse Martha Byrne.
Also coming to Days of Our Lives is Crystal Chappell. She will be reprising her role as Carly Manning. She was famous for the buried alive storyline back in the 90's. Good for Crystal as she would otherwise be out of a job once Guiding Light ends. Apparently Days approached her first.
In other news: Arianne Zucker and Kyle Lowder are expecting their first child. Congratulations to them!

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Martha Byrne is coming to General Hospital

2009-05-21T15:50:00.008-04:00

Great news! Martha Byrne is returning to daytime! Yup, according to the 5/19/09 issue of Soap Opera Digest, Martha has an open ended recurring role on General Hospital, as Mayor Garrett Floyd's wife. She will be involved in a political scandal that involves the hospital. Apparently Martha has just started working with the great Michael Bruno and was on Facebook talking to her GH friend Lisa about it. Lisa talked to Bob Guza and three days later the deal was done.
Martha will be commuting from the East Coast for now.
Her first tape date is May 14.

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Another Star is leaving Days of Our Lives

2009-02-15T18:19:00.007-05:00

Days of Our Lives is going to be short one more cast member. Yup, Rachel Melvin, Chelsea, has opted not to renew her contract. Kind of surprising since Chelsea and Max are reviving their romance. A romance with Darin Brooks would keep me interested. Apparently the role of Chelsea is not being recast and the door is being left open for Rachel to return. Max will also be found another love interest. No word on Rachel's last air date, but her contract ends in the spring.

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