Oh, those crazy folks at As the World Turns! For months, they ran scared of anti-gay Christian groups outraged by the romance of Luke (Van Hansis) and Noah (Jake Silbermann) — so scared that the boys went 211 days between kisses! Now, in a wild, what-the-hell reversal, ATWT will throw a gay pride dance party on the July 3 episode, complete with Cyndi Lauper singing her GLBT power anthem "True Colors". Lauper rang us from her current 24-city U.S. tour to tell us about her World turn. — Michael Logan TVGuide.com: Did you know you were stepping into such a controversial story line?Cyndi Lauper: Yeah, but why is true love controversial? Those so-called "Jesus people" are so confused, so disconnected from their hearts. They don’t speak for Jesus. He would be horrified at their beliefs! What CBS has done here is groundbreaking and very courageous. Also smart, because a lot of gay people watch soaps. I'm honored to be a little part of it. TVGuide.com: Luke and...read more
Why won't As the World Turns let gay teens Noah (Jake Silbermann) and Luke (Van Hansis) kiss on screen, much less have sex? Are execs at the CBS Procter & Gamble soap homophobic? Are they running scared of antigay Christian groups? Or is this a brilliantly masterminded tease guaranteed to make salivating Nuke fans tune in tomorrow?Whatever the case, this is the biggest controversy to hit soaps in years. Legions of pissed-off Nuke-anistas — a lot of them straight — have spammed the media with complaints about bias against the duo, and many are calling for a viewer boycott. Meanwhile, the right-wing American Family Association reportedly wants the teens dropped from the soap and has asked P&G to make it happen. P&G has banned ATWT executive producer Chris Goutman from speaking to the press about Nuke, so I contacted CBS daytime chief Barbara Bloom to get her POV."I can assure you there is no homophobia on the part of the network, nor are we pandering to any group...read more
This just in from ABC:"All My Children stars Rebecca Budig (Greenlee) and Cameron Mathison (Ryan), Farah Fath (Gigi) and John-Paul Lavoisier (Rex) of One Life to Live, Marcy Rylan (Lizzie) from Guiding Light and Van Hansis (Luke) of As the World Turns will join Bryan Dattilo (Lucas) and Alison Sweeney (Sami) from Days of our Lives as The View hosts the live nomination ceremony for the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, Wednesday, April 30."ABC will broadcast this year's Daytime Emmys live on Friday, June 20, from 8 to 11 pm/ET sharp, from Hollywood’s Kodak Theater.read more