HAPPY NEW YEAR!

ATWT and GL will be pre-empted on Monday, December 31 and Tuesday, January 1.

We'll see you all in 2008!

A HUNT HUNT

Knowing my oblique sense of humor, my husband got me a DVD set of Steve Martin movies for Christmas (earlier, he got me Steve Martin's new book for Hanukkah; I think it was a December 2007 theme).

We watched The Lonely Guy last night. And who should appear about halfway through in a blink-and-you-miss it role but Hunt Block (ex-Craig, ATWT; ex-Ben, GL)!

He was in profile most of the time, and with longish hair, so it was hard to be sure (the voice gave it away more than the face), but I checked the credits and yup, sure enough, Hunt Block!

Can you think of other soap actors who pop up in surprising places?

GOOD SONS

I have two sons, ages 8 and 4.

Their father is not a minister, their uncle is not evil, and no one is heir to the throne of a small, island nation.

And yet, I find Guiding Light's RJ and Will story to be the most realistic tale currently being told on daytime.

Make of that what you will.

(Random yet confusing fact: GL's RJ is played by actor Miles Williams. In the early 1980s, Y&R's little Brooks Prentiss was played by RJ Williams. Then he was played by Andre Gower. Then the entire Brooks family was written out of Genoa City to make way for the Abbotts.)

DUST(Y) BUSTER

When the fourth episode of FOX's new series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, airs sometime in February of next year, ATWT fans will see a familiar face: Brian Bloom as the evil Terminator Carter.

Bloom played Dusty Donovan on As The World Turns from 1983 to 1988. Above, enjoy pictures of Bloom with Martha Byrne (Lily), Jennifer Asche (ex-Meg) and today.

GUEST COLUMN: MARIANN AALDA (DIDI; EDGE OF NIGHT)

MARIANN’S MIDLIFE MAYHEM & MISCELLANY:
A Word of Caution to Co-Dependents

Okay, here’s Part Two of my holiday message to close out 2007 with a bang!

My presents (just a few) are all wrapped, and the cookies (again, just a few) are all baked, but I’m still going to keep it short and sweet because, I don’t know about you, but right now I could use a nap! I wanted to make sure I shared this with you because, for me, it was a lesson that was really hard-learned. Maybe you’ve learned it already. But if you haven’t, this might save you a little time, angst and more-than-a-little guilt.

The first lesson in “Mental Health 101” is not to make anyone else responsible for your happiness. When you do, you’re turning your power over to them.

That’s a pretty easy lesson to grasp, but the next one may not be as obvious, especially to “Nice Guys/Girls”: Never make yourself responsible for anybody else’s happiness.

It’s hard to watch people – especially the ones you love – going through "stuff." And it’s natural to want to help, but just because you feel you have happiness to spare, that doesn’t mean you should always be giving it away. When you do, it deprives your loved ones of an opportunity to develop resources for creating happiness on their own. And it short-changes you on energy needed to pursue your own “happy-making” goals and dreams.

Besides, when you finally get tired of being on call as “The 24-Hour, Good-Time Fairy,” and suggest to your loved ones that, perhaps, they should start bearing more of their own load, these same people are going to be really, really ticked off…especially if their happiness-building muscles have gotten flabby and weak from lack of use…and they’re seeing green with envy over your happiness.

But they won’t be able to recognize it as their problem. The only thing they’ll be consciously aware of is that you used to make them happy…and now you don’t.

Have a Happy!

Mariann

www.mariannaalda.com

Watch The Edge of Night on the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel!

SEND IN THE CLONES!

December 2003: When someone went a little crazy with the Springfield Santa "Clones" machine.

See who you can recognize under the fluffy white beards!

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

ATWT's Snyders welcome baby Natalie on December 24, 2002. (My, Luke and Faith, how you've grown...)

SOAPS IN STRANGE PLACES

Hai Clay is in the process of becoming a U.S. Army officer. Not so unusual until you discover that as a child 35 years ago he was playing marbles in the streets in Vietnam....

Clay's father was killed during the war, and his mother remarried an American soldier. He moved the family to the United States when Hai was about 6 years old. "I would have nightmares when I left." he remembers. "I dreamed of a UFO coming out of the sky to pick up people. Actually my mom said it was a helicopter that came to get us."

Things were rocky at first when they moved to Florida. Hai's stepfather was black and they lived in a predominately black neighborhood. "I never really saw myself as different until I got into junior high school. "There was name calling because I was not black." It was made even harder because the three Clay children spoke only Vietnamese.

Hai, who was the middle son, adapted quickly, however. His first words were "Edge of Night" from the soap opera he used to watch.

Read the entire story, here. (And watch The Edge of Night on the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel, here.)

ACTOR APPEARANCE: LAURA BELL BUNDY (EX-MARAH; GL)

Laura Bell Bundy, who currently plays Elle Woods in the Broadway musical Legally Blonde, will perform a free concert in Manhattan Dec. 21.

The 4 PM concert, which is open to the public, will be held at the SKY360° Delta Lounge on West 57th Street. Bundy will perform Christmas carols from her CD "I'll Be Home for Christmas."

Details, here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: BILLY DEE WILLIAMS (EX-JIM; GL)

Legendary film star Billy Dee Williams (The Empire Strikes Back , Return of the Jedi, Batman, The Ladies Man) is receiving the 2008 Hoboken International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. Williams will be joined at the press conference (and at the 2008 HIFF Gala Awards Ceremony) by numerous film and TV stars, including many from his newest movie, iMurders. Some of the press conference attendees will include iMurders cast members: Gabrielle Anwar (Scent of a Woman, The Three Musketeers, Body Snatchers); William Forsythe ( Deuce Bigalow, The Devil's Rejects, The Rock, City By The Sea); Charles Durning (Tootsie, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Home for the Holidays, Dog Day Afternoon ); Margaret Colin (The Devil's Own, First Daughter, Independence Day); Tony Todd (Candy Man, Final Destination); Wilson Jermaine Heredia (Rent); Justin Deas (6-time Emmy winner, Guiding Light); Dan Grimaldi (The Sopranos) and Eileen Fulton (Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: As The World Turns).

Entire story, here.

LONG STORY

Twenty-nine minutes into the 150th episode of Texas, a whirlwind by the name of Ashley Linden blows through the Top of the World Club. Wielding a soft Southern accent and a hard-as-nails ambition, she lays on the charm for Ryan, kisses up to Iris and annoys an exiting Terry. The actress's name is Pamela K. Long. She is Miss Alabama of 1974. Texas is her television debut.

Cut to a year later: Pamela K. Long is Texas' headwriter (while continuing to play Ashley) for six months before the show goes off the air December 31, 1982. (A pregnant Ashley, who had been missing for weeks, returns in time to dramatically give birth to baby daughter Katherine at Christmas-time. While, for some reason, wrapped in white, Bedouin-style robes. )

In 1983, Long took over Headwriting duties for Guiding Light. Save for a brief break 1986-1987, she stayed in the post until 1990. Among her most memorable creations were Reva Shayne, the Four Musketeers, Alexandra Spaulding, Lujak, the Barbados mystery, the Fishing Trip photo, Sonni/Solita, Harley Davidson Cooper, Blake Lindsey, Fletcher Reade (played by Long's former Texas co-star and sometimes she says he was/sometimes she says he wasn't husband, Jay Hammer) and the Bouncing Baby Ben story.

Though its cancellation was more or less a done deal by 1993, Pamela Long was given six months to turn NBC's Santa Barbara around. (Its ratings, which fluctuated between a high of 4.9 to a low of 3.4, left the show perennially mired at the bottom of the ratings. Contrast that to today's #1 ranked soap, Y&R, which, these days, averages around a 4.0). During her reign, Long marginalized SB's previous core family, the Capwells, and brought on the Walkers, played by Kim Zimmer (on her initial GL break), Sydney Penny (her daytime debut after a childhood of primetime gigs like The Thorn Birds), and Eric Close (now starring on Without a Trace). The show's last episode, on January 15, 1993 featured Penny's character marrying Jack Wagner, while another GL alum, Krista Tesreau (ex-Mindy), aimed a gun at the celebrating crowd.

In 1998, Long took on her final daytime headwriting role, with OLTL, where her primary legacy seems to be having really annoyed the Todd and Tea fans. (I'm not familiar with her tenure there, perhaps a OLTL fan could chime in.)

Sixteen years is a pretty good run in daytime. To check out Pamela Long's first day in our favorite genre, check out the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel's broadcast of Texas, now!

CLOSET CASE

Combine a native New Yorker with a biology, real estate, acting, and production business background and you get Mark Avena, a Portsmouth resident with a closet business that grossed over $2.2 million in sales in 2007. Avena's business is called Coast Closets.... Avena's acting credits include "Spin City" and "Guiding Light," and currently he is a day player on "As the World Turns" as Detective Vitale, a part he plays a few times a year after a big, juicy crime has taken place.

More, here.

FYI: ATWT AT MIT

Ever wish soaps were taken more seriously in the "real" world?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sam Ford has written a Comparative Media Studies Master's Thesis, As The World Turns in a Convergence Culture.

From the school that brought you strobe lights, Bose speakers, and Clocky, check the entire thing out (and ponder your favorite soap from a totally new angle), here.

ACTOR APPEARANCE: RON RAINES (ALAN; GL)

Ron Raines will perform with the Boston Pops in a series of concerts beginning on Friday, December 28 and culminating in a New Year's Eve gala concert on Monday, December 31 at the Boston Symphony Hall located at 301 Massachusetts Ave, in Boston, MA.

Tickets and more information are available at www.bostonpops.org or by calling SymphonyCharge at 617-266-1200.

GUEST COLUMN: MARIANN AALDA (DIDI; THE EDGE OF NIGHT)

IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS: A DEFENSE OF “CO-DEPENDENTS”

Okay, for the past week, I’ve been thinking about writing something befitting the “old school” Christmas season. “Old school” in accordance with the true meaning of Christmas -- as opposed to Christmas as a commercialized exchange of gifts. I wanted it to be heart-warming as well as thought-provoking…but not too long, because I still have my shopping to do :-).

This is what I came up with, and what I’d like to share with you:
Will somebody please explain to me when, in our society, the word “enabler” became a euphemism for “nice person?”

And why is this nice person then responsible for “enabling” another person to take advantage of him/her?

So what, then, does the person taking advantage of the nice person ultimately have to do in order to be held accountable for his/her exploitation of the nice person? Or does he/she get a free-pass on personal responsibility because the nice person was “too nice” to be able to appreciate a self-serving butthead when he/she saw one, thereby making it his/her own fault for being taken advantage of?!

I think it’s time for us to re-evaluate the prevailing psychology of trying to “cure” people from being “too nice.” Personally, I like nice people; there have been rough patches in my life when their kindness “enabled” me to get through it. And their kindness also made me want to be a nicer person, myself.

The thing about nice people, though, is that they think everybody operates out of that sense of integrity…that it’s genetically encoded into our humanity…that it’s what separates us from the rest of the animal world…that, in fact, not being nice is the dysfunction!

Instead of trying to reform “nice guys,” I think we should be putting more energy into making buttheads more accountable, instead of (for example) fawning over them and making them tabloid fodder and reality TV stars…and really bad role models for our kids. Who knows, maybe being held accountable might get the buttheads to view their behavior in a way that might motivate them to become nicer guys (or gals), too.

Now what a great Christmas present that would be!

Happy Holidays!
Mariann
www.mariannaalda.com

To watch vintage episodes of The Edge of Night, go to the AOL/PGP Classic Soaps Channel!

ONE OF THESE SOAPS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER

In a piece by no less than long-time Headwriter Henry Slesar, MysteryNet.com ruminates on what made The Edge of Night a stand-out among soap operas.

To watch classic episodes of the series, click here.

READ AND BEAR IT

Eighty New York City school children from P.S. 197 and P. S 92 joined actresses Molly Ringwald ("Pretty In Pink"); Laura Bell Bundy (Broadway's "Legally Blonde"); Beth Ehlers (CBS-TV's daytime drama "The Guiding Light") and television news personality Vivian Lee, of WNBC-TV News to help children's book creator Christian Hainsworth, president of Winning Kids Inc., introduce his innovative 14-book series of Traveling Bear.com™ .

Read the entire story, here.

(Ed. note: Laura Bell Bundy is also a GL vet, having played the first teen-aged Marah)

NEW NAME, SAME GIRL

In March of 1998, she landed a nine-episode stint on the daytime drama “Guiding Light,” as Reva Shayne's teenaged clone. Her performance as the spunky and vulnerable clone earned her raves from viewers and critics alike. In 1999, while still appearing on the show, she was cast as Rose Cronin in “Mary and Rhoda,” playing the daughter of Mary Tyler Moore's character in the TV movie based on the popular 1970s TV show. After two successful years on the soap opera, Galeotti headed to the West Coast and into prime time.

She's Bethany Joy Galeotti now, but we all first knew her as Joi Lenz, the Michelle Bauer who met, wed (and wed and wed) Danny Santos.

Read the entire interview with the GL alum, here.

FROM HERE TO PATERNITY

In the episodes of Another World currently airing on the AOL/PGP Classic Soaps Channel, Mitch Blake is suing Rachel and Mac Cory for custody of his biological son, Matthew.

What makes this more than just your average soap opera custody battle is that Matthew was conceived because Rachel slept with Mitch to prevent Mitch's girlfriend, Janice, from killing Mac. As Rachel told Mac on a recent episode, the boy only exists because of Rachel's love for Mac. (Has Sami Brady over on DOOL tried this line with Lucas? Because her rape by EJ and conception of little John Roman was pretty similar).

Under the circumstances, does Mitch deserve custody of Matthew? (And we're not even counting the hell he put Rachel through when she was wrongly convicted of his "murder.")

Other soap parents with dubious custody claims have included OLTL's Todd Manning. Sure Margaret raped him to become pregnant with Tommy (bet ATWT's Jack can relate). But Todd did try to kill both her and the baby by choking Margaret while she was carrying his child. Perhaps that makes him a less fit parent than Tommy's adoptive folks Marci and Michael McBain who... didn't.

The one custody dispute that I never got was Denise versus Holden and Lily on As The World Turns. Holden and Lily's real daughter, Faith, was switched at birth with little Hope. The Snyders raised her for almost a year before learning the truth. Though they got Faith back, both felt equally attached to Hope and wanted to keep her. However, Hope's biological mother, Denise, demanded the baby back. Which would have been fine, dandy and justified, if Hope had been kidnapped from Denise in the same manner as Faith had been from Lily and Holden. But Denise sold Hope. Voluntarily. To a nut-case like David Stenbeck. Why exactly did she deserve to get her child back?

I had similar (though less extreme issues) with ATWT's Molly. She claimed she should be allowed to keep her late husband, Jake's, daughters, Bridget and Michelle, because she'd been a mother to them for several months before Jake died, and love was more important than blood. At the same time, Molly was making a claim to keep her biological daughter, Abigail, despite the teen having lived with her adoptive parents for a good fifteen years. Because biology was more important than love? The inconsistency seemed a bit jarring.

Do you have a favorite daytime custody injustice? Let us know in the Comments below!

TIS THE SEASON

The spirit of the holiday season brings members of the cast of "Guiding Light" to Baltimore Tuesday night. Kathryn Brown explains how some daytime stars are giving back to Charm City.

Story and video, here.

AN OFFER FOR ATWT FANS

Van Hansis (Luke) is currently doing double duty by starring in Charles Busch's acclaimed comedy-thriller DIE MOMMIE DIE! while continuing his work on As The World Turns.

Van will appear in this Off-Broadway show for a 20-week limited engagement at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street) in New York City through Sunday, February 17, 2008. The show runs 90 minutes and is recommended for ages 16 and up.

Don't miss your chance to see Van on stage with this exclusive offer for As The World Turns fans - Save 15% on tickets to see Van in DIE MOMMIE DIE! in two easy ways: Go to www.BroadwayOffers.com and enter code DMDSCX3 or call 212-239-6200 and mention code DMDSCX3.

Offers not available for premium seats. Subject to availability. Blackout dates may apply.

HABLA LOANS?

Jealousy and romance aren't the typical words used in home buyer education, but they aptly describe an educational and entertaining telenovela that is currently used in Albuquerque to teach individuals about buying a home. Several local organizations are using DVDs of the Spanish-language TV mini series, Nuestro Barrio, which was funded by Freddie Mac. The show is about Hispanic life in the United States.... The 13-episode series, where hot storylines are combined with meaningful messages, subtly educates viewers on important financial issues including money management, credit, homeownership, predatory lending and foreclosure prevention. These storylines are played out against the traditional novela (soap opera) themes of romance, jealousy, greed and conflict.

Entire story, here.

So what do you all think? Should soaps be used to educated people about mundane, real-life issues, or should they be pure escapist fantasy?

Let us know in the Comments section below!

CHRISTMAS HANDS

John Driscoll (Coop), Crystal Chappell (Olivia) and Ricky Paull Goldin (Gus) traveled to Baltimore, MD on Tuesday, December 11 to work with the Hands On Network affiliate, Baltimore Volunteer Central, to help sort and package thousands of toys and clothing to be distributed to children through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program.

Immediately following the Guiding Light air show on Wednesday, December 19, Thursday, December 20 and Friday, December 21, tune in to see special video packages, highlighting the journey and efforts in Baltimore.

GUEST COLUMN: MARIANN AALDA (DIDI; THE EDGE OF NIGHT)

“WELCOME BACK!” TO A New York STATE OF MIND

Okay, so after twenty years of living in Los Angeles as a “freeway culture isolationist,” buffered by my car from the regulation of mass transit schedules as well as any unwanted up-close and personal interaction with humanity, I have been back in New York City since June...having moved here to help care-take my ninety year old mother; re-ignite my post-divorce love-life, and resuscitate my acting career with a midlife reinvention and remodel.

On all fronts, stand-up comedy seemed to offer a promise of "salvation." It would provide a respite from my daytime care-taking responsibilities; it’s heavily male-dominated, and “back in the day,” before EON, I was a company member of NYC’s Off-Centre Theatre sketch comedy troupe (which is where funny guy John Leguizamo got his start) and toured with the improv group, The Proposition, (which launched the comedy career of Jane Curtin). So I figured, I’d “start over” by going back to my live-comedy “roots.”

After the end of the first session of my stand-up class at the Manhattan Comedy School, even though the subway pulled up the moment I reached the platform, I missed connecting to the train home to Long Island by two minutes. The next week, I boogied out of class as soon as it was over instead of dawdling to network and chat…and ended up missing the train by three minutes (?)

Over the course of the next hour spent “lounging” in the Penn Station waiting room, I was accosted by a drunk named Jimmy (slurringly pronounced “Zhhheee-meee”) who plopped down in the seat next to me and started hitting on me in Spanish. When I tried to curtail him with “No habla,” he took that as an indication that obviously I spoke some Spanish and kept up with his advances, blathering “Zhhoo lookee Spanee” as if the way I looked was some sort of language decoder, and that if he continued saying it, the decoder would eventually activate.

I considered moving, but even at this late hour, seating was at a premium and I was in no mood for standing. Besides, “Zhhheee-mee” seemed like a “happy” drunk -- all-in-all, relatively harmless and seemingly a pretty nice guy. (No “love connection,” however!) Finally, the train to Freeport was announced and he left…but not before several attempts at getting me to kiss him good-by using the international “index-finger-tap-to-the-cheek” symbol.

I politely blew him an air kiss and waved good-by.

Immediately, his place was taken by some kid screaming into a cell phone: “This is Doctor (yeah, right!) Michaels…Well when is she going to be home, then? Listen, I was just robbed at gunpoint and have no credit cards and no money…I reported it to the police but they say they can’t do anything and a cab ride to get up there is going to be at least seventeen dollars!” Fortunately, my train was announced before he could hit me up for the seventeen bucks.

Weary from the long day of taking care of my mother; the postpartum of the adrenalin rush from class, and the toll taken by my anxious, waiting-room vigilance, I nodded out on the train…only to wake up as it was pulling away from my stop.

It was after midnight when I got off at the next station, and I was irked to discover that I had just missed the train going back in the other direction, and it would be forty-five minutes till the next one.

This might be a good time to mention that I’d driven over my cell phone with my car – which I now used mostly to drive back and forth to the train station – the day before, and had yet to replace it, so I had no means of calling my sister to come pick me up. Nor would it have made any difference if I could have found a pay-phone, because the moment I’d programmed her unlisted number into my cell, I promptly forgot it!

When the only two other people waiting on the platform got into a shouting match that looked like it might erupt into violence, I decided to take a cab. Cautiously, I walked around the station, ready to scream at the top of my lungs and “run like the wind” if I came across any trouble. There was not a taxi to be found. Fortunately, there wasn't any trouble, either.

Sighting a 24-hr Dunkin’ Doughnuts, I decided to go in and wait out the interminable twenty-five minutes left till the next train, when suddenly (thankfully) four taxis appeared… probably returning from dropping off passengers of the train I’d just been on. I leaped into the first one. The driver was a kid working the late shift to put himself through college. He listened patiently to my “what-a-crappy-day” saga and sympathetically opined, “I sure hope things get better for you,” when he dropped me off.

When I got inside the house, my sister was asleep on the couch. Totally whipped, I went upstairs and straight to bed. About half an hour later, she knocked on the bedroom door and walked in with my newly purchased, ten-ride train commuter ticket (with nine rides remaining on it), in her hand. The ticket had fallen out of my wallet when I paid the taxi driver. I was his last fare for the night before turning his cab in, and when he found it in the back seat and saw that it was for “Woodbury to Penn Station,” he figured that it was probably mine. Instead of turning it in to the lost-and-found, he’d driven all the way back to return it to me before going home.

Hey, things were getting’ better already!

Just when I’d started to feel that my glass was half-empty and life was passing out straws…“the kindness of strangers” came along and filled the glass back up, again. Along with the taxi driver, a man I’d just met and hardly knew – upon hearing of my cell phone fiasco – graciously compiled information and links to websites on the latest cellular services and equipment he thought I might want to take a look at before making my purchase.

But, then…my techno-savvy son, who uses the same wireless carrier and gets a new cell phone every year to stay current with the latest gadgets, offered to buy me a new one (!) or said I could have his old one – which, for me, is still an upgrade from my old one…and which was the offer I decided to take him up on. When it arrives, I just need to drop in my old phone's undamaged SIM card (they seem to be indestructible) into the replacement and my wireless phone-book will be magically restored!

However, “just in case,” I've also bought an old-fashioned, spiral, cardboard-cover, address book to make a back-up hard-copy. Additionally, I’ve acknowledged to myself that if I want to make my train on-time, I’m going to have to haul my butt out of class at least ten minutes earlier from now on.

“Laid-back California Girl” doesn't live here anymore. I've come to understand that if I want to fully participate in life, I should expect it to be messy, frenetic, imperfect and unpredictable, and just roll with it…learning to laugh at and appreciate the quirkiness of “inconvenient” occurrences, along with being grateful for the gift of those that are unexpectedly kind.

It's taken awhile for me to make the adjustment, but I've finally got my “Feisty, New York City Woman” chops back. And as any New Yorker will tell you, “Hey, sometimes $%*&!! (bleep) happens …but that doesn't mean it has to stick.”

I (Heart) New York .

BTW – For those in the New York area, the "New Talent Showcase" for my stand-up class will be Sunday, Dec.16, 2007, 4:30 pm, at Caroline's Comedy Club in NYC...in case you're interested. Michael O’Leary, Rick from Guiding Light is in the class, as well, and will also be performing. For information and tickets, call Caroline’s Box Office: 212-757-4100

Love you madly! :-)

Mariann

www.mariannaalda.com

A SITE FOR YOUR EYES

Have you checked out the two official show sites, yet?

www.AsTheWorldTurns.net and www.GuidingLight.net.

New content is added regularly. You don't want to miss a thing!

LOOK FOR: MILES WILLIAMS (RJ; GL)

Filmmakers Tom Mattera and Dave Mazzoni will be on hand to introduce and discuss their film, “The 4th Dimension,” at 7 p.m. Monday at the County Theater in Doylestown and at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ambler Theater in Ambler.

The Temple University graduates directed the darkly surreal meditation on the complexity of time: Jack is a loner working in an antiques shop. When a mysterious woman presents him with a broken antique clock, inexplicable events begin to occur. Variety has called the inventive film “an Alice-like rabbit hole of suppressed memories.”

Ten-year-old Miles Williams of Doylestown Township, a fourth-grade student at Kutz Elementary School — who was about 8 when the film was shot — is one of its centerpieces, playing Young Jack.

Miles is a regular as RJ on the NBC (sic) soap opera “The Guiding Light,” and his screen credits already include “CSI: New York,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Late Night with Conan O'Brien” and “Saturday Night Live” (a skit with Robert De Niro).

Details, here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: BAILEY CHASE (EX-CHRIS; ATWT)

Now, in addition to trading lines with his Oscar-winning "Grace" costar, Chase enjoys recurring status as lothario Becks Scott on ABC's smash sitcom "Ugly Betty." And last month for two episodes of the CBS drama "Criminal Minds," he played a seemingly harmless fellow who literally blows away a key cast member. Previously best known -- if known at all -- for stints on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and daytime's "As the World Turns," the amiable 35-year-old is savoring this spate of strong roles.

Complete interview, here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: MITCH LONGLEY (BYRON; ANOTHER WORLD)

That’s why Mr. Longley, who suffered a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the waist down in a car accident during his senior year at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, decided to come back to Connecticut to record a CD, “Songs for the Cell,” to benefit stem cell research.

“If we can get beyond the politics and the controversy — much of which is based on ignorance — there’s a really good chance that stem cell science will restore some of the functions I’ve lost, and maybe have me walking again,” Mr. Longley said.

Mr. Longley was discovered by the photographer Bruce Weber after the accident and went on to became a Ralph Lauren model and an actor, first on the daytime soap operas “Another World” and “Port Charles,” and then the CBS series “Judging Amy” and “Joan of Arcadia.”

Entire story, here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: PAUL LEYDEN (EX-SIMON; ATWT)

John Cusack has signed on to star in "The Factory," a psychological thriller for Dark Castle to be distributed by Warner Bros. Morgan O'Neill, a winner of the Australian "Project Greenlight," co-wrote the script and is directing the feature, which is being produced by Dark Castle's Joel Silver, Susan Downey and David Gambino.... O'Neill wrote "Factory" with Paul Leyden, an Australian actor who starred in "As the World Turns" and "LAX."

Entire story, here.

ACTOR APPEARANCE: LAWRENCE SAINT VICTOR (REMY; GL)

Lawrence Saint Victor (Remy) attended the 26 ^th Annual Vivian Robinson Audelco Recognition Awards on Monday, November 16.

He and his fellow cast and crew (above) received 5 Awards including Best Ensemble and Best Dramatic production for their show, Blackman Rising.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARISA TOMEI (EX-MARCY; ATWT)

The Brooklyn Eagle commemorates the local girl makes good, here.

BALLOT TROUBLE

CBS 2 News This Morning co-anchor Kate Sullivan will appear on Guiding Light as herself on Tuesday, December 11 as she reports on the Springfield election results.

Will it be Buzz or Doris as mayor of Springfield? And what role will Ashlee play in ultimately determining who gets the prize?

Tune in to GL and see!

CASEY IN POINT

As announced earlier, Casey is coming back to As The World Turns in the form of daytime newcomer Billy Magnussen.

His first air date will be Tuesday, January 29, 2008. The character, previously portrayed by Zach Roerig, was last seen on May 2, 2007, as Casey went off to jail for stealing savings bonds from Will and jumping bail.

Margo and Tom's only biological child together was born in 1991. He spent the majority of his childhood either kidnapped or "upstairs." It wasn't until he was aged to 16 years old in 2004, that the character took his rightful place on the front-burner as a true Hughes.

GUEST COLUMN:
Coming Back From The Edge: Midlife Mayhem & Miscellany with Mariann Aalda

Edge of Night head writer, Henry Slesar, once said to me, “I love making you suffer, because you suffer so well.”

And suffer I did, as the feisty young attorney, “DiDi Bannister,” which I played on that soap opera from 1981 to 1985 (airing on ABC), till it went off the air. In those 3 ½ years, “DiDi” endured the tribulations of being involved in a torrid love triangle involving police detective “Calvin Stoner” & his wife, “Starr”… being brainwashed and carted off to an insane asylum in a straight-jacket… being held hostage at knife-point by a crazed, irate client… reuniting with an estranged brother -- only to then have to help him beat a murder rap… and on and on…and on.

So how does “art” compare with my real life?

Well, for starters, one of my co-workers was charged with murder, in what became known as “the trial of the century,” * and another one suffered a fatal heart attack on the job, right in front of me.** On a gig not long after that, I endured a severe allergic reaction in a work-related situation which forced me to take steroids if I wanted to keep my job.***

Then, my career got “downsized” due to a case of early-onset ageism (which hits most women in Hollywood when they turn forty) and I lost my health insurance because I hadn’t earned enough to qualify. At which point, I also became an “empty-nester” when my last kid went off to college and my husband flew the coop! Along the way, my dad died and my mother was diagnosed with cancer and suffered a stroke, and I moved two thousand miles across-country to become her caregiver.

Sound like a soap opera? Or -- even though some of the particulars in the melodrama might be different -- does it sound a little like stuff you might be going through?!

One of the reasons soap operas are so popular is that they help take our minds off some of our own problems…and allow us to role-play, coming up with different solutions for them. Vicariously, we also get to celebrate, grieve, be forgiven and become inspired.

That’s what this column is going to be about. I see it as kind of a “Guiding Light” for exploring how to live a great life past midlife by taking control of given circumstances and: resetting goals; reprioritizing priorities and recommitting to our dreams.

The reason I wanted to launch this column at the end of the year was to give readers a chance to think about the changes you might want to make in your own lives.

Then, starting in January, we’ll set out together on accomplishing our New Year’s resolutions.

I promise to give you updates on all my setbacks as well as my successes; to fill you in on some of the silly stuff that happens along the way, and to report on unpredictable little “miracles” that somehow seem to always show up just in the nick of time.

It should be quite a year. I’m hoping that some of you will be willing to share on how you’re doing, as well!

For the record, I happen to have a credential in “advice-giving,” as a Certified Hypnotherapist, but I don’t plan on doling out too much advice…preferring to lead by example instead.

To give you a little background… When I started my practice as a hypnotherapist in 2003, I saw a pattern of mid-life depression experienced by women who had been “hypnotized” by the media into believing that they lost value as they got older. Truth be told, I’d started buying into that myth too! But when I began working with my clients and giving them positive subconscious suggestions to combat these negative thought patterns, my own beliefs began to change as well -- so much so that it made it impossible for me to continue “talking the talk” without “walking my walk!”

As a result, I discontinued my practice and resumed my acting and writing career with a renewed enthusiasm and purpose… writing, producing and performing in projects for the theater and cabaret, and occasionally guest-starring on television.

My primary goal for the next year is to consistently work in television, again …the specifics of which might include (but are not exclusive to), becoming a regular or recurring character on a soap or a sitcom -- but I definitely want to have my Screen Actors Guild health benefits re-instated! In the soap world, Guiding Light’s Kim Zimmer and Susan Lucci of All My Children are my role models…still sassy and sexy at damn near sixty! In primetime, I’ve got to go with Vanessa Williams. At forty-five, she’s a little younger, but you have to admit that girlfriend is kicking some serious “boo-tay” as a mature but-still-vampy villainess on Ugly Betty.

As for relationship stuff, I don’t have any goals for that yet, but I promise to keep you in-the-loop on any “interesting” midlife dating escapades! :-) I’ll also keep you posted on how my naughty, “seasoned woman” theater project with cohort, Iona Morris, (ex-Fiona Griffin, As the World Turns) is progressing in our goal of bringing the show to New York. **** (Details, here)

Since so many other baby boomers are facing the dilemma of dealing with elderly parents starting to “slow down,” I’ll also share with you some of my day-to-day challenges in being the primary caregiver to my ninety year-old mom. And from time-to-time, I’ll also have updates on some of my former Edge cast-mates on how they’re progressing through mid-life…along with occasional “Hollywood Dish” from some of my other showbiz friends.

Sound like a plan? Okay, so now give some thought to your plan, and get ready so we can embark on this year-long adventure together…I’m looking forward to it!

Love you madly :-)
Mariann
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* Playing opposite O.J. Simpson for three seasons as his wife on the HBO series First & 10.
** On the CBS sitcom, The Royal Family, playing opposite Redd Foxx as his daughter.
*** As “the tragically disfigured Lena Hart” on the NBC soap opera, Sunset Beach, having to endure a 2 ½ hour make-up job for each appearance to create the facial disfiguration of the fictitious malady, “Martin’s Syndrome” -- which was proclaimed by Soap Opera Weekly as “The Best Bad Storyline of 1998!”
**** The first co-production (with a third partner) met with great critical and commercial success in a 2-year LA run (www.3BlacqueChix.com). The bar’s been set even higher for the new show!

To watch vintage episodes of The Edge of Night, go to the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel, today!

BEFORE THEY HAD ONE LIFE

In 1986, OLTL's Clint received that ever-popular, long-running character shock -- a long-lost son, complete with his long-lost mother.

For Clint, the son was Cord (John Loprieno) and the mother was Maria (Barbara Luna). Complications ensued.

John Loprieno went on to briefly play Brad on As The World Turns. But his first daytime role, in 1985, was as Danny on Search For Tomorrow.

In episode #8721, up now on the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel, Danny takes T.R. (Jane Krakowski) to the circus.

And who should be performing among the horses, jugglers and clowns, but Anna, played by none other than Barbara Luna!

On SFT, Anna is, ironically, the mother of Ryder (Adam Storke), Danny's rival for TR's affections. (And if you want a real blast from the past, check out whom she's caught making out with in the last part of the episode. It's yet another member of the P&G soap family!)

In this episode, Ryder is wearing a sequined bolero jacket, Anna is draped in feathers and Danny has on a pink shirt and a Member's Only leather jacket.

You really can't miss it.

SOAP FANS IN THE ODDEST PLACES

Hip-hopper Beanie Sigel answers a question for BallerStatus.com with the following:

The world is different. As the world turns, we got one life to live. I ain't trying to lay up in no general hospital with all my children... The world is different, so my music is different. My outlook is different. I'm growing and becoming more mature.

Somebody a soap fan in between rhymes?

HOW IS THIS HELPFUL?

According to Tennessean.com:

Tired of seeing so many suspended students on the streets, Harper, D-Nashville, introduced a bill that would force kids to stay in school, even if behavior problems got them thrown out.

"We started asking questions about what we could do and how we could make things better," she said. "These kids should not be at home watching As the World Turns."

Oh, I beg to differ.

There are all sorts of things to gain from watching ATWT. One firm pep talk from Nancy or a "kiddo" from Kim, and that kid will be on the straight and narrow forever!