Chad Allen by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
Chad Allen, who is known to TV viewers from his run on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and once famously claimed that he had been blacklisted by Hollywood after he "came out" in 1996, has signed on for General Hospital: Night Shift in a guest-starring role.Over the course of three episodes, the first airing Sept. 23, Allen will play Eric, a patient in need of a liver transplant, and who develops a relationship with first-year resident Kyle (played by Adam Grimes) while undergoing treatment."We're delighted to have Chad join our show because not only is he a remarkable actor, he's an amazing activist," says NS head writer Sri Rao. "I welcome the honesty authenticity that he will bring to our show."Allen's other TV credits include guest gigs on Criminal Minds, Charmed and NYPD Blue. — Matt MitovichMore soaps news:• Days Taps Gary Tomlin to Replace Ed Scott• All My Children Looks for a Few Good Men• Have Soaps Finally Gone Color-blind?
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Days of Our Lives
This just in from NBC: Corday Productions has announced that Gary Tomlin has joined Days of Our Lives as co-executive producer."I have decided that it's in the best interest of the show's future to make this change in order to improve Days both visually and emotionally," says exec producer Ken Corday. "We at Days are grateful to Ed Scott for all of his contributions and amazing energy over the past year. Gary Tomlin brings a long successful history of being an actor's producer and a writer's producer to our cast and crew and I know the viewers will see the immediate results of this change for the better." Says Tomlin, "I’m very happy to be back at Days, where I began behind the scenes in the early '80s. It’s wonderful to be given the opportunity to work with Ken Corday."Tomlin’s daytime career began in 1973, when he was cast on Search for Tomorrow as Bruce Carson. He collaborated with Corday for the first time as Days' co-headwriter in 1980-1981 and has since served...
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ABC's Emmy-winning soap All My Children has launched a nationwide search for a veteran of the Iraq War to join the cast in a new role. The open casting call is looking to cast the role of Brot, an injured veteran who plays the believed-dead love interest of Beth Ehlers' Lt. Taylor Thompson, who comes to Pine Valley to deliver service medals to Dr. Frankie Hubbard. When she finds out Brot is alive, the couple reunites, revealing their individual back stories along the way.Exec producer Julie Hanan Carruthers said in a release that casting a real-life veteran "will give this character an authentic and specific personal perspective, combined with a unique sensibility." Carruthers also said the show will partner with USA Cares, an organization that supports 9/11 veterans and their families to "ensure that we tell this story honestly and accurately.”While the interested veterans don't have to be injured, the writers are open to working in the real-life injuries and circumstances int...
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Jacqueline MacInnes Wood and Texas Battle courtesy CBS
Stephen Colbert claims he doesn't see race. Is the same true for today's soap scribes? The Bold and the Beautiful recently revealed that blonde bimbo Donna Logan secretly gave birth to a mixed-race child back in high school. Now grown up, hunky Marcus has moved to L.A. to find his mom — thereby outing her to everyone — and is already busy romancing young white heiress Steffy Forrester. Nobody, including Donna's snoopy sisters and in-laws, seems to notice — much less mention — that the kid is black.B&B message boards are abuzz over the situation, with many fans applauding the soap for not playing the race card, while others claim that modern society isn't that progressive and ignoring the color of Marcus' skin — they're calling it "the elephant in the room" — is unrealistic and ridiculous."It doesn't matter and shouldn't matter that Marcus is black," says B&B chief Brad Bell. "We don't mention it because we're not in the business of telling our v...
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Julie Berman by Michael Bezjian/WireImage.com
Julie Berman — the 24-year-old actress who plays Luke and Laura's daughter, Lulu, on General Hospital — on Friday tied the knot with real estate broker Michael Grady, her rep tells People. Berman wed Grady, 27, in a Roman Catholic ceremony in the Sacred Heart Chapel at Loyola Marymount University. "Mike is my best friend, and ultimately he is my soul mate," she tells the mag. "He's the guy I want to do everything with... the guy I want to be with when he's old and wrinkly."
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Laurence Lau by Steve Fenn/ABC
Lau of Attraction: Former All My Children idol Laurence Lau (who can forget Greg and Jenny?) joins As the World Turns Aug. 18 as Brian Wheatley, who'll run Oakdale's new foundation for sick kids. Cougar alert: Look for granny Lucinda to get the hots for him. Beth in Show: Beth Maitland, the incandescent actress who brought The Young and the Restless its very first acting Emmy (back in 1985), returns to the soap Aug. 13. Her character, Traci Abbott, shows up at a Jabot board meeting where they're choosing the next CEO. Her ex-hubby Brad wants the job but doesn't get it.The Billy Club: Billy Miller, brilliant but way too evil to stay in AMC's Pine Valley as psycho Richie Novak, will be the new Billy Abbott on Y&R. The character's previous portrayers include Ryan Brown and Emmy winner David Tom. — Michael Logan
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Juliet Mills by John Paschal/JPI/NBC Universal
Zany witchcraft. Sordid violence. Cheese-tastic monsters. Gratuitously naked men. Has there ever been a show like Passions? Created in 1999 by the certifiably insane suds legend James E. Reilly, the NBC-DirecTV soap signs off this week (Thursday at 2 pm/ET, DirecTV channel 101). Here's a look back at its most twisted plots. — Michael LoganTo Di For: Passions rewrote history — and p.o.'d Princess Diana fans — when it revealed that Diana and Dodi had been on their way to see socialite Sheridan Crane (McKenzie Westmore) when they crashed in that Paris tunnel. Later, Di contacted Sheridan from heaven.Whole Lotta Shakin': The quaint little town of Harmony survived countless disasters — earthquakes, a tsunami, an avalanche, a volcano eruption, even an asteroid. Then there was the real-estate crisis: The Bennett home started oozing blood and sank into the bowels of hell. Dynamic Duo: Let's raise a Martimmy glass to Juliet Mills and Josh Ryan Evans, the wildest couple in...
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Michael Gross by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
One of the great patriarchs of '80s TV, Family Ties star Michael Gross, will join The Young and the Restless on Aug. 15. He'll once again be seen as an antiestablishment, hippie dad — only this one is radically different.On his beloved sitcom, Gross played Steven Keaton, a former '60s peacenik holding onto his flower-power principles while trying to raise a family in Reagan's America. On Y&R, he's River Baldwin, a former Vietnam-era activist who was connected to a group of student terrorists.So far, viewers have been led to believe that River — the long missing dad of Genoa City attorney Michael Baldwin (Christian Jules LeBlanc) — was a drifter, druggie and draft dodger who abandoned Michael and his mother, Gloria (Judith Chapman), and fled to Canada. He was also wanted for murder after his participation in a bank bombing."But the truth is not so black and white," says Y&R head writer Maria Arena Bell. "In trying to track down his father, Michael fears he's go...
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Danny Trejo by John Sciulli/ WireImage.com, Vincent Pastore by Jason Kempin/ WireImage.com
Two "top" soaps are turning to proven baddies to add some ferocity to their canvases.The Young and the Restless has tapped no less than Danny Trejo — you know him and have been intimidated by him in any number of big-screen thrillers (The Devil's Rejects, From Dusk 'Til Dawn, Con Air...) — to play a bartender who lends Victor his ear when the tycoon passes through Mexico. Trejo first airs Aug. 11. At General Hospital, Vincent Pastore — who is perhaps best known as The Sopranos' Big "Kitty" (sorry, had to work around the blog's language filter) — is coming on board this October as doctor lawyer business tycoon firefighter philanthropist WSB agent mobster Maximus Giambetti, aka Max and Milo's pop. Pastore is also a part of a new promotional campaign touting daytime television's "unlikely" fans. — Matt MitovichSoaps-related primetime news:• Exclusive: Private Practice Landos Night Shift's Billy Dee• Exclusive: Ugly Betty Taps Pretty Hunky Mark Consuelos
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Tamara Braun by Mitchell Haaseth/NBC
Tune In Tamara: Say goodbye to Tamara Braun. The impossibly sublime actress will exit Days of Our Lives August 4 when it looks like her character, Ava, will stand trial for causing that pesky plane crash. But, before skipping town, she has one more sex romp with her brainwashed Robo-John.Storm Warning: The Bold and the Beautiful takes a dark turn August 5–6 when Storm Logan (William deVry), who killed himself last spring, returns in a fantasy sequence. His sister Katie, who is distraught over an unexpected pregnancy, will see him rise naked from the sea and urge her to join him in death. When she dives underwater after him, he morphs into a demon.Seeing the Light: Montel Williams steps into the role of Clayton Boudreau on Guiding Light for a two-day stint (August 1 and 5). Word is, the author-talk show host so impressed execs with his acting chops that they want him back. Now for the bad news: Clayton's return involves a heartbreaking tragedy, so have a hanky ready. — Mich...
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