Hey! I'm Michelle Stafford and I play Phyllis Summers Newman on CBS' The Young and the Restless. This is my first entry for my new TVGuide.com blog. TV Guide soap-opera guru Daniel Coleridge invited me to write this, so here it is.... My body is very tired because I've been crying for the last three days on the show. I’ve been working with Christian [LeBlanc, Michael on The Young and the Restless], and he’s out of his mind. When Christian and I rehearse, I like to walk around The Grove (great shopping center, right next door to where we tape at CBS Television City) and run our lines, and go to my favorite Brazilian restaurant at the Farmers Market (adjacent to The Grove). Even if we’re two hours away from shooting, Christian is hesitant to leave the studio. Christian likes to run, and run, and run the lines. I like to run the lines a few times. Peter [Bergman, who plays Jack] likes to run the lines a few times too. Josh [Morrow, who plays Nick] doesn’t like to ru...
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Question: I realize that soap operas are not your regular beat, so I understand if you don't respond to my question. I'm curious, though: Do you have any thoughts on NBC's cancellation of Passions to add another hour of Today, and on the talk that its other soap, Days of our Lives, will be canceled once the network's contract with the show expires in 2009? I figure the motives for these moves are similar to NBC's earlier announcement that they were giving up the 8 pm prime-time slot to inexpensive shows. I read how you feel about the prime-time decision. Do you feel similarly about the daytime decision? I know that soaps have had a rough time of it in the last decade or so, and it's my understanding that NBC has historically been less patient and more aggressive with their daytime lineup. Is the situation with soap operas that bad? Do you think NBC is setting a precedent that the others will follow?
Answer: Kelly, you're right that daytime soaps are absolutely not my beat, but this does
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Genoa City’s Bitter SecretWhen you hear the word “SOAP” what do you think of? A cleansing compound made of natural oils and fats? An obnoxious, but admittedly catchy television jingle? (Zestfully clean, zestfully clean! You’re not fully clean unless you’re zestfully clean!) How about an attractive girl in full cosmetic glory drawing in air while posing seductively with a bar of Lever 2000? (How do they do that without getting soap in their eyes?)Whatever you “visualize,” go far enough and an image of a desperate woman scorned, a ruggedly handsome man lying breathlessly in a hospital bed, or TWINS -- one evil, one virtuous -- is bound to pop up.The serialized drama or soap has been an American television mainstay since the 1940s. (The Guiding Light started as a radio drama in 1937.) Synonymous with soaps is The Young & The Restless.I don’t care if you have never turned on the award winning show even once. (Seriously, I have no financial inc...
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I figured right away that Id like this episode after I heard Hot Child in the City by Nick Gilder a song Ive performed at several karaoke joints here in LA being played at the strip club that Christian was frequenting Oh Christian Brooke Shields suggested he might be gay last week so of course he heads to the strippers We all knew that as soon as Blu Mondae former Playboy playmate Angela Little found out Christian was a plastic surgeon theyd be in bed together and poof cut to them doin the nasty Great line No pro bono for boning a pro Kudos to writers Lyn Greene and Richard Levine That was the other indication that Id like the show tonight since as Ive mentioned before I admire their workAdding to Christians frustration was young stud-muffin Mitchell Skinner effectively played by Thad Luckinbill from The Young and the Restless coming onto him after Christian gave him money just to tide him over Im not gay screamed Christian I tend to bel
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Michelle Stafford and Marisa Ramirez, The Young and the Restless
Scoop! The Young and the Restless redhead Michelle Stafford (Phyllis) recently shot a Fox pilot in Memphis. It's an hourlong drama whose working title is Southern Comfort.
"You have the exclusive on that, my friend!" Stafford tells TVGuide.com. "The leading lady is Madeleine Stowe. She plays Charlotte, a Southern belle whose husband is in the Mafia, unbeknownst to her. He gets caught and she basically becomes a Mafia princess. I play her perky, happy best friend, Susan, and I have a twangy accent!"
Other celebs appearing in the pilot include Eric Roberts and Calvin Klein model Travis Fimmel, who briefly starred in WB's Tarzan.
Stafford left Y&R once before, back in 1997, to star in Aaron Spelling's superfun but short-lived nighttime sudser Pacific Palisades. But the Daytime Emmy winner's fans need not fret just yet about the
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Former General Hospital star Marisa Ramirez has joined The Young and the Restless in a new contract role. "I play Carmen Mesta, a powerful PR woman from New York," she tells TVGuide.com. "I'm there to help save Jabot Cosmetics during the company's crisis with tainted moisturizer. That's all I know so far, but I think a little bit of Latin flavor will be good for the show!"
Ramirez makes her
Restless debut on May 8. The Los Angeles native played bitchy supermodel Gia Campbell on
GH from 2000 to 2002. She has also dabbled in the horror/fantasy genre, appearing in the indie thriller
All Souls Day and costarring with
Skeet Ulrich in ABC's supernatural drama
Miracles.
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Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria (ex-Isabella, Young and the Restless) will serve as host and producer of the 2006 ALMA Awards, which air June 5 on ABC. The awardsfest celebrates Latino artistic achievement in TV, film and music, as well as positive Latino images in Hollywood. FYI, the muy caliente nominees for outstanding performance in a daytime drama are All My Children's Eva La Rue (ex-Maria) and One Life to Live's Kamar de Los Reyes (Antonio) and Melissa Gallo (Adriana). "I'm glad my performances on AMC before I left still fall within the eligibility period," La Rue enthuses. "This is such an honor."
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Ever since The Young and the Restless wrapped the Tom Fisher murder case, Ted Shackelford — aka Genoa City prosecutor Will Bardwell — has been MIA. No worries, though. The Knots Landing grad returns when Will is needed to tackle legal issues that arise from Jabot Cosmetics selling tainted moisturizer.
Side note: Since
Y&R and
The Bold and the Beautiful both tape at L.A.'s CBS Television City, Shackelford is sure to run into
Patrick Duffy, who played his brother on
Dallas. It's Gary and Bobby, together again! (Just to refresh your memory, Duffy has been
cast as Brooke's father on
B&B.)
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Two of daytime's most bland, boring characters have been cut from their soaps. General Hospital's Matt Marraccini — who plays policeboy Jesse — exits Port Charles in early April. And The Young and the Restless has axed Rachel Kimsey, the third actress to play Kay Chancellor's granddaughter, Mac. Neither role is being recast. Hey, it's nothing personal against the actors, but every time they appear on screen, I just... zzzzzzz... huh? Wait, what was I saying?
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Young and the Restless star Lauralee Bell has been cast in a Lifetime movie.... Criminal Minds star Shemar Moore is not returning to Y&R as Malcolm.... SoapNet will begin airing same-day reruns of Y&R on April 24.
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