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A Nifty '50s Wedding for The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless will go 1950s retro for the September 8 wedding of Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle) and Billy Abbott (recent Emmy winner Billy Miller). The star-crossed lovers, both of whom suffer from major daddy issues, ironically cemented their relationship last July while watching a Father Knows Best marathon on TV...

Michael Logan

The Young and the Restlesswill go 1950s retro for the September 8 wedding of Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle) and Billy Abbott (recent Emmy winner Billy Miller). The star-crossed lovers, both of whom suffer from major daddy issues, ironically cemented their relationship last July while watching a Father Knows Bestmarathon on TV. To commemorate that, the soap has hired one of the stars from the beloved sitcom — Elinor Donahue, who played teenager Betty Anderson — to officiate the ceremony. Appropriately, Donahue will play a character named Judge Anderson.

"Relationship and romance is partly about trying to achieve a retro-fantasy of better, simpler times — bringing Elinor on amps up that homage to the perfect family," says Y&R co-head writer Scott Hamner. "We have great admiration for Elinor. She's an iconic part of our collective psyche and it seemed like we couldn't do it without her. We love her!" (Cool trivia: Hamner's dad, Earl Hamner Jr., created The Waltons, one of the greatest family series ever).

The nuptials were shot outdoors in a quaint, picket-fence neighborhood on the CBS Studio Center lot, once the home of such wholesome shows as My Three Sonsand Leave It To Beaver. For another vintage touch, Victoria's dress is inspired by a gown worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 film Funny Face.

This isn't Donahue's first dip in the suds — she was memorably menacing as Nurse Honeycutt on Days of Our Lives— and nor is she the only baby-boomer fave coming to Genoa City. On September 1, Susan Olsen, best known as Cindy Brady on The Brady Bunch, will play the owner of a pre-school attended by Victoria and Billy's kids.

In other Y&R stunt-casting news, Eric Roberts has interrupted his run as lawyer Vance Abrams to join Celebrity Rehab, but he will not be replaced in the role. Roberts' wife, Eliza, revealed on E! that her hubby smokes too much of the wacky weed (he has a legal prescription) and needed help from Dr. Drew to get over his habit. Y&R exec producer Maria Bell is fine with that. "We support Eric Roberts in his decision and it does not affect his continuing on Y&R," says Bell in a statement. "We are thrilled to have him in this role."

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