SUMMER LOVIN' WITH KATIE

ATWT's Katie (Terri Colombino) sure is a popular girl during the warm weather months.

Check out our photos above -- in order -- of Katie during the summers of 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007!

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: CRYSTAL HUNT (EX-LIZZIE; GL)

She delighted afternoon TV soap watchers of the show Guiding Light with her portrayal of evil teen, Lizzie Spaulding since her debut on the popular CBS soap opera in 2003. She fulfilled a perfect role, able to act angelic one moment and turn devilish when needed.

In 2005, she received her first Daytime Emmy Nomination, in the Outstanding Younger Actress category. She also earned Soap Opera Digest's "Best Villainess" Award and was named one of the magazine's "Hottest Newcomers". Her other film credits include From Earth to Moon, Homeless Children, and the feature film The Derby Stallion, where she played Zac Efron's love interest, Jill Overton.

Read more, here.

GL: HOME VISIT

Nineteen-year-old resident Maria Fatibene, a "Guiding Light" fan for nearly a decade, knew she had won a visit from the show’s golden Emmy statue and a producer, but had no idea one of the show’s stars, Caitlin Van Zandt, was coming to see her Wednesday, too. Van Zandt, who portrays the character Ashlee, gave Fatibene a Guiding Light mug, hat, magnet, keychain, bracelet and T-shirts. Fatibene got to hold the Emmy statue, and her guests, who also included Maria Macina, a show producer, presented her with a bouquet.

Read the complete story, here.

ATWT: WHERE ARE THEY NOW

Jennifer Ferrin (ex-Jennifer).

Emmy Rossum (ex-Abigail).

THREE'S COMPANY

Dinah (Gina Tognoni) has a plan. It involves Matt (Kurt McKinney). It is bound to make Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead) unhappy.

And it's a pretty big deal. Guiding Light had new photos taken of all three actors in support of it.

Enjoy!

NEXT BEST THING

Thanks to everyone who responded to my provocative posts, Baby Love and Baby Love II.

Since I can't help you out by providing a Willen baby on the spot, here's the next best thing: new photos of Will (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Gwen (Jennifer Landon).

Maybe you can use some software to morph their faces and see what a biological baby of theirs would look like.

If you do, make sure you provide us with a link to the results!

FYI GL BTS

DePauw University reports:

A communication major at DePauw, Feld's television career began when a University internship landed him at the CBS daytime serial, As the World Turns. Upon graduation, John returned to New York and began a 4-year stint working for another CBS soap opera, Guiding Light.

And from NJ.com:

Penn's Landing will continue its 10th year of "Smooth Jazz Summer Nights" on the Philadelphia waterfront 7:30 p.m. with a performance by guitarist Chieli Minucci and Special EFX....The band includes Minucci on guitars, keyboards, vocals and programming; bassist Jerry Brooks; drummer Lionel Cordew; Jay Rowe on keyboards; Philip Hamilton on percussion and vocals; and David Mann on saxophone and flute. Minucci won a Daytime Emmy this year for composing music for CBS' "Guiding Light."

BABY LOVE: PART II

In response to my Baby Love post below, several viewers responded with a passionate request for ATWT's Gwen and Will to have a baby of their own. And, they stressed, a biological baby of their own.

In a medium where some of the most emotionally intense (outside of Barbara Ryan) parent/child attachments have been between adoptive parent and child (ATWT's Lucinda and Lily -- and, more recently, Dusty and Johnny; GL's Alan and Phillip and, say what you will about the health of their relationship, the Jonathan/Alfred bond was pretty intense, too), where Rosanna literally went to hell (also known as James Stenbeck) and back to protect little Cabot, where Carly put her life in danger to save JJ, where Holden went head to head with Damian over Luke, and where Tom raised Adam and Hal raised Jennifer as their own for years, is biology really that important?

One of ATWT's earliest stories was Ellen Lowell fighting David and Betty Stewart for custody of her son, Dan, whom they'd adopted. The Stewarts won. On GL, Alan-Michael tried to court his new wife, Harley's, favor, by kidnapping her daughter, Daisy, from the little girl's adoptive parents. Harley was incensed and returned her. A few year's later, Vanessa fought Bridget for custody of Peter, the baby boy she'd adopted. In the end, the two women decided that Peter needed them both and agreed to raise him as co-parents.

Soaps have always valued the adoptive parent/child bond and frequently portray it as a positive experience. And yet, there is the common fan demand for a biological baby "of their own."

Why is that, do you think?

Let me know in the Comments section!

GEOMETRY: ATWT STYLE!

For all the glaring in each other's direction that they do, and all the posturing about how they're nothing alike, Paul and Craig sure do have similar tastes in women, don't they?

There's Meg, there's Rosanna, there's Emily, there's even, in a sick sort of way, Barbara.

With Paul, Rosanna and Craig scheduled to go head to head on today's episode, we thought we'd take a look back at the happy couples they once were (Roger Howarth as Paul, Cady McClain as Rosanna and Hunt Block as then-Craig) on their wedding day(s), and ask you: which pair should be headed for Happily Ever After?

Let us know!

NICHOLAS ART (ZACH; GL)

In his own words (with a little help from Mom), in The Connecticut Post.

OUR LITTLE MOVIE STAR!

Nicholas Art, currently Zach on Guiding Light, hits the big screen today with the release of The Nanny Diaries.

The New York Sun writes in its review:

Reacting to the selfishness and neglect of his self-involved parents, young Grayer X is prone to tantrums, manipulation, and crying jags. Nicholas Art is not always convincing in his portrayal of this confused but loving tyke, but he relies less on his innate cuteness than does his adult costar.

From The Birmingham News:

Johansson really seems to click with her young co-star, newcomer Nicholas Reese Art, who manages to prevent cute from devolving to cloying.

Catholic Online:

Young Nicholas Reese Art has quite a range himself, and can kick Annie's shins or win her heart with equal skill.

The News & Observer:

The other man in Annie's hectic life: 4-year old Grayer (a cute and extremely self-assured Nicholas Reese Art).

Reuters:

Nicholas Reese Art plays the young son with adorable precociousness, but he has no real character. He's a brat for a while and then, in a remarkable transformation a real-life nanny can only dream about, becomes a little angel.

As more proof (see the Bailey Chase item below) of the media either not bothering to check details or just making stuff up because it's easier, click through the reviews for this movie and note how little Grayer's age is given as, alternately, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Has anyone seen the movie yet? What did you think of Nicholas?

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

From NaplesNews.com:

He had a 15-episode run on “As the World Turns,” which, despite the breakneck shooting schedule, allowed him live in New York City, something he’d always wanted to do.

“My hat’s off to (soap opera actors),” he says. “The biggest difference between (soaps and prime-time TV) is the pace. Daytime shoots about 70 pages a day where as we’re only shooting about seven for prime time.”

15 episodes??? Someone either misheard, misresearched or misunderstood. Bailey played Chris for two years, from January 2003-2005.

BABY LOVE

Currently, on the official PGP/ATWT Board, a user has put up a poll: Do you like baby storylines?

As of this writing, almost twice as many people have voted "no," as "yes."

Now, personally, I happen to like baby and kid stories. I like babies, I like kids. My 1980 intro to watching daytime may have been (cliche alert) Luke and Laura, but I still remember the Monica/Alan/Rick/Alan Jr. story that was running concurrently just as vividly.

Over the years I've enjoys James and Barbara's battle over Paul ATWT), the friendship of pre-teens Michelle, Bill and Ben (GL), Edmund, Maria and Kelsey's struggle over little Sam (AMC), the four L-named (Leslie, Lance, Lori, Lucas) parents of Brooks Prentiss (Y&R), the Mary Vernon/Mary Karr baby-switch of OLTL, among others. (About the only kid story I could never stomach was GH's Robin, and that was because every character on the canvas was so busy showering her with love, adoration and disproportionate worship, I figured she didn't need me).

But there is a subset of baby/kid storylines that I can not watch anymore. The Dead Baby subset.

Don't get me wrong: I loved BJ's heart (GH), Edmund's fire (Ryan's Hope), and the three dead tot Johnnys of ATWT, AMC and Loving (note to self: don't name baby Johnny, it doesn't seem to end well).

But that was all before I had kids of my own.

My oldest son was born at roughly the same time as Jessica lost little Megan on OLTL and Amber her unnamed son on B&B. And suddenly, watching a mother grieve for her child just wasn't my definition of That's Entertainment.

Since then, no matter how well done they may have been, I haven't been able to bring myself to view parents lose their child, be it real: Emily and Gwen on ATWT, Cassie on GL, or presumed: Rosanna and Jennifer on ATWT, Lizzie on GL, Bianca on AMC. (A few years ago, my husband told me he was saving DVDs of Anna and David on AMC mourning Leora because they were good and I would want to watch them someday. I haven't yet).

Daytime's most coveted demographic is women 18-34. Many of those women, I presume, have children.

So my question to you today is: Do you like dead baby stories? Are you a mother yourself? Did you find your opinion changed when you had children? And if you don't have children, how do you feel about those stories?

Let me know in the Comments below!

LONG LIVE THE PRINCE!

By now, Guiding Light fans know that David Andrew MacDonald is returning to his role as Prince Edmund Winslow.

Here are some more details, exclusively from the PGP Classic Soaps Blog:

David's stay is open-ended (as of now, he's been written into at least a month's worth of story), with no definite departure date.

The Prince is out of the San Cristobel jail we last saw him in, and has returned to Springfield.

Does he still carry a torch for sister-in-law turned wife turned ex-wife, Cassie?

And, more importantly, does Cassie's new husband, Josh, believe that Edmund still carries that torch?

Will Edmund's feelings for the latest Mrs. Lewis prove her salvation, or her downfall? Or, to put it less cryptically, will Edmund spill her secrets or help Cassie bury them?

Find out, only this fall, only on GL!

HE'S BAAAACK....

After a year and a bit hiatus, John Driscoll (Coop; GL) is back to the blog. Check out his latest entry at http://jdriscoll01.blogspot.com/.

And bookmark it! This time, he super-duper promises regular updates!

A KISS IS JUST A KISS?

As a result of ATWT's historical Nuke kiss on Friday, I've received several e-mails and private messages from viewers who don't like the Luke/Noah pairing but are afraid to say so for fear of being called homophobic on message boards for their opinion. According to these viewers, it's not the homosexual aspect of the Nuke pairing that they don't like, but simply that the characters involved are... uninvolving.

So I put the question to you: Is homophobia the only possible reason to dislike this story, or can you dislike Noah and Luke not because they're gay, but in spite of it? (For instance, some people dislike all teen stories, some people dislike all Snyders).

To that end, if you were indifferent to Ben and Jessica a few years back, was racism the reason, or could Ben and Jessica have simply been dull? (For the record, I thought Marshall Travers was much more interesting then Ben. Then again, I thought Marshall was more interesting than half the male cast at the time).

Over on GL, if you're rooting for Beth and Rick over Rick and Mel (or if you loathed ATWT's DJ and Margo flirtation), are you against interracial pairings or do you just think Rick and Margo belong with the original loves of their lives? If you shuddered at Lizzie and Remy's near hook-up a few weeks back was it because he's a big, hulking Black man and she's a tiny, blonde, or because they were on a dirty bathroom floor?

Are Matt/Vanessa detractors secretly ageist? Did people who preferred Mike with Katie instead of Pilar have it in for Hispanics? And all those anti-Simon Carjack fans -- obviously Australia haters!

But seriously: Is it possible to dislike -- or, for that matter, like -- a character outside of their dominant, politically correct trait?

Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section below!

HOME SWEET HOME

Michael Corbett bought his first investment home at the age of 19 after his acting career in daytime soaps provided him with a little extra cash.

"I had a $10,000 check from my first soap opera when I was on Ryan's Hope and I thought what better a place to invest it than in buying a house. So I bought it and I fixed it up and then I put it back on the market and I made a lot of money," says Corbett.

That experience encouraged him to found Highland Properties -- a company that has bought, restored, and sold dozens of homes and apartment buildings. Corbett juggled his soap opera acting jobs on soaps such as Ryan's Hope, Search for Tomorrow, and The Young and the Restless all while growing his real estate career. Today, he is the Real Estate and Lifestyle expert for NBC's number-one TV news magazine show, Extra. He also hosts and produces Extra's hour-long weekend TV show, Mansions & Millionaires.

To read more about Search for Tomorrow's ex-Warren, click here. To watch Corbet in daytime action, check out the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel's broadcast of SFT, here.

Plus, reminiscences from Michael's co-stars, Louise Shaffer (Rae; RH/Stephanie; SFT) and Lisa Peluso (Wendy; SFT).

HE AIN'T HEAVY, HE'S MY BROTHER

Vanessa Simmons, star of the MTV hit Run’s House and daughter of former Run DMC front man Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons, will appear as Lola, a woman with an eye for Remy (Lawrence Saint-Victor) beginning on Tuesday, August 21.

But, this being a soap and all, don't expect everything to go smoothly. Remy's sister, Mel (Yvonna Wright), isn't telling what she knows about the young woman.

(Fun and irrelevant fact, actress Yvonna Wright has a pre-school age daughter named Lola).

GL: ACTOR APPEARANCE

St. Louis native Gina Tognoni, Mandy Bruno and Murray Bartlett, all of CBS' "Guiding Light," will be in town today and tomorrow to volunteer with 100 of their fans to help renovate St. Louis' Des Peres School, 450 Des Peres Avenue. Today, the group plans to visit the Arch, the Zoo and Soldiers Memorial, where there is a statue that was created by Tognoni's grandfather.

Details, here.

If you're in the area, make sure to come out and say hello!

ATWT: GRIN AND BEAR IT

Rix’s bears have appeared in the HBO series "The Sopranos," as well as the daytime soap opera "As the World Turns." The bears also were featured for six months in a commercial for Lanacane, a line of skin-care products.

Full story, here.

MY BOY BILL

Daniel Cosgrove will be returning to the role of Guiding Light's Bill Lewis, which the actor last played almost two years ago, in October of 2005.

Harlan Billy Lewis III was born in November of 1984. At the time, he was believed to be the first child of Vanessa Chamberlain (she would later reveal having given birth to Dinah at 17 and surrendered her up for adoption) and her husband, Billy Lewis (who already had a grown daughter, Mindy, and would later learn he also had an almost-grown son with Reva, Dylan). The baby was called Little Billy.

Unlike most soap tots, Little Billy was neither kidnapped, nor suffered from a bone-marrow requiring disease. Perhaps this was because Vanessa became obsessed with her child and, also unlike most soap mothers, actually hovered over and took care of him, instead of leaving her son perennially "upstairs." However, no good deed goes unpunished, and Vanessa's diligent parenting was rewarded with an addiction to tranquilizers (taking care of an infant is stressful; especially if you're someone who cares about doing it correctly) that caused a strung-out Vanessa to mow down a pregnant Reva with her car. Reva lost the baby and Vanessa got some help.

When next we saw Little Bill, he was around eight years old (four years after he was born) and so pissed off about Billy and Vanessa's divorce and Billy's drinking that he insisted on being called "Bill," to differentiate himself from his father.

Growing up in Springfield, Bill's best friends in the world were Michelle Bauer and Ben Reade. When Michelle ran away from home, it was all the way to Bill's closet. Later, the pre-teens went on their first date together and shared their first kiss. Both Michelle and Ben were there for Bill when he dealt with his father's marriage to Nadine, his mother's relationship with Matt, and his own accidental setting of a fire on 5th Street which caused major damage.

Bryan Buffinton played the role from 1989 to 1998 and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1995. He won a Young Artist Award in 1993.

Ryan Brown (son of best-selling novelist Sandra Brown) took Bill through his late teen years, complete with a doomed crush on Michelle and a relationship with her sister-in-law, Pilar, that ended soon after the pair left Springfield together.

Bill returned to town in 2002 for his uncle Josh's third wedding to Reva and decided to stick around when he saw Beth -- whom he'd had an affair with during her amnesia, Lorelei Hills period. That relationship went nowhere due to Beth's jealousy of Bill's friendship with Michelle (and, one presumes, because a relationship began when one person isn't themselves is kind of hard to maintain when they... are again).

Though Bill and Michelle did attempt to revive their childish flirtation, her heart was with Danny. Together, the old friends mourned the death of a seriously emotionally disturbed Ben, who'd turned into a serial killer before committing suicide.

A relationship with Gus' sister, Eden, ended when she entered the witness protection program, but a business partnership with Olivia to bring down the Spauldings turned to romance. They wed and he even adopted her daughter, Emma.

But when Olivia pushed Billy off the wagon in order to advance her husband's career (which he didn't even want in the first place), Bill told his wife he was leaving town and, later, sent divorce papers.

This Fall, Bill returns to Springfield in a much darker place than the usually happy go lucky Lewis is used to. He'll cross paths with his parents and, of course, with his ex-wife, but another woman (already on the canvas) will also enter his life in a surprising way, and lead to a confrontation Bill never expected.

Watch to see what this son of Springfield does next, only on Guiding Light!

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

When shooting wraps up in Melbourne for Nine's 2008 psycho-drama Canal Road, its star Paul Leyden will head back to LA to his other job, Hollywood scriptwriter.

The 34-year-old NIDA graduate has a pilot, New Jacks, about rookie cops in the Bronx, in the making for 20th Century Fox.

More here. (Scroll about halfway down the page).

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: CATHERINE HICKLAND (COURTNEY; TEXAS)

Catherine Hickland, once Courtney on Texas, later a vet of Capitol, Loving, The City and now OLTL, has sold a book proposal entitled THE 30-DAY HEARTBREAK BUSTER, a one-month plan toward healing romantic heartache for all ages/situations, to Simon Spotlight Entertainment.

I can only guess that some mention will be made of her recent split from husband Michael E. Knight (Tad; AMC). No publication date is yet listed.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to see how Texas' Courtney Marshall handled heartbreak in her very first soap role (I'll give you a clue -- not very well; more here), check out the current episodes of Another World's 1980s spin-off, airing on the AOL/PGP Classic Soaps Channel.

THINK GRIGGS

Darnell Williams returns as Griggs on Tuesday, August 21 to reveal a shocking new plot in connection with another Springfield heavyweight.

Plus, his presence doesn't exactly do wonders for Dinah's (Gina Tognoni) already fragile state of mind.

Will Griggs' comeback drive her over the edge? And who is Griggs' current, secret partner in crime?

Find out next week, only on Guiding Light.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Kassie DePaiva (ex-Chelsea, GL; now Blair on OLTL) will be advising AMC on their story about Baby Spike's deafness and cochlear implant.

According to an ABC press release:

"One Life to Live" star Kassie DePaiva has been consulting with "All My Children," sharing her real life experiences raising her son, James Quentin ("JQ"), who was born profoundly deaf. At the age of 18 months, JQ received his first Cochlear implant, and received a second implant at the age of eight. JQ is now 10 years old and attends mainstream schooling. As a part of "All My Children's" ongoing commitment to this topic, JQ will guest star in episodes featuring Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) talk show, "New Beginnings," which will be dedicated to the theme of deaf children. These episodes are set to air on September 20, 21 and 24. The show will also produce episodes featuring support groups for parents with deaf children. Deaf actors and actors who have received Cochlear implants will be cast in all applicable roles. The show will be consulting with the League for the Hard of Hearing and will air PSAs is support of the organization.

This isn't the first time daytime has handled deafness. Last year on Y&R, Devon dealt with it, as well. And by dealt with it, I mean he got sick, went deaf, spent a few weeks shouting at people and gesticulating wildly with his arms, then received a cochlear implant and returned to the back burner (albeit now with an Emmy Award).

Considering that Devon had spent his entire life as a hearing person, there was hardly a lot of controversy about his being returned to such a state.

Almost a decade earlier, Guiding Light tackled the cochlear implant issue under different circumstances. Rick's wife, Abby, who'd been deaf her entire life, opted to get the implant as an adult. The story was based on Abby's portrayer, actress Amy Englund, who had done the same thing. (Read her story, here). However, like Devon, Abby too was an adult and capable of making her own decisions.

In the deaf community, there is a great deal of controversy about cochlear implants, especially when it comes to hearing parents making choices for their deaf children. The argument is that parents are choosing to remove their children from a deaf culture that hearing parents can't possibly understand and thus unfairly judge to be inferior. (Details, here).

In the ABC press release, AMC Executive Producer Julie Hanan Carruters assures that "This storyline gives us the opportunity to explore the emotional challenges and real-life decisions facing the parents of a child who has been permanently injured. We will go on a heart wrenching journey with our characters as they learn about the current medical options and obstacles facing their child who has become deaf."

But considering that actors who have received Cochlear implants will be cast in all applicable roles, not to mention Kassie DePaiva and the League for the Hard of Hearing's involvement.... It seems like the decision as to whether or not to get an implant for Spike has already been made.

ATWT: WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

Last summer around this time, Meg (Marie Wilson) was madly in love with Paul (Roger Howarth), even to the point of making nice with his, shall we say overly-involved, mother, Barbara (Colleen Zenk Pinter).

This year, Meg watched her new husband, Craig (Scott Bryce) -- yes, it was a faked marriage done with Paul waiting in the wings/church vestibule; but it was a marriage all the same -- contribute to Paul's swan dive off a cliff. And she and Craig are still together. Kind of. Well, they're not apart.

Ah, daytime.... Anything can happen at any time. And usually does.

A PLAY FOR PELPHREY!

Guiding Light star Tom Pelphrey has joined the cast of Kevin Mandel's new play, A New Television Arrives, Finally, wherein he will play a charismatic man who introduces himself as a television set to a young American couple.

Full story, here.

GL: HERE COMES THE BRIDE...

All dressed in white... With a stripe of black.

If, over time, the white wedding dress has come to connote happiness (it once meant wealth, virginity, innocence, all sorts of things), then should we assume the black stripe stands for... Reva?

Find out if Cassie (Nicole Forester) gets her happily ever after, only next week, only on Guiding Light.

OAKDALE IN STRANGE PLACES

After his schoolboy acting, (Mike) Marino came up through New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts, moonlighting to do more than 100 commercials and soap operas. On "As the World Turns," he worked with Meg Ryan and Marisa Tomei. "They got Oscars," he says, "and I'm working stand-up in Secaucus."

Entire story, here.

VOW, VOW, VOW

For all those who wrote wondering whether Guiding Light's Josh (Robert Newman) and Cassie's (Nicole Forester) wedding will actually go off next week, I offer you the above photo for further speculation... Enjoy!

PRETTY AS A PICTURE

(With apologies to Rodgers, Hammerstein, and Carousel)

Stone cutters cut it on stone/ Woodpeckers peck it on wood/ Pretty people/ Make pretty couples....

Enjoy some new photos, above of ATWT's Luke (Van Hansis) and Noah (Jake Silbermann).

And for all the folks who've been e-mailing to express their fears that ATWT is backing away from "Nuke" as a couple because Noah is currently dating Maddie.... Come on! It's a soap! It's not supposed to be easy.

Think of all the supercouples who didn't connect right away. Luke's mom and dad, Holden and Lily, were obviously destined to be together for all time -- but she still slept with Dusty first (not to mention married Luke's biological father, Damian, in between Holdens).

Kim may have loved Bob from the first moment she saw -- and slept with -- him (while he was still married to her sister, no less), but even she had two other loves of her life, Dan and Nick, prior to their happily ever after.

Tom and Margo each took their share of wrong turns with other people only to end up back together in the end. And Jack and Carly... what's there to say about Jack and Carly? Except that everyone knows they're each other's soul mate, for better or for worse.

So for all those people who want Luke and Noah to be treated as normally as any other soap couple -- how about letting them be treated as normally as any other soap couple? Asking for them to be treated with kid gloves, without the complications everyone else gets, just suggests they aren't the same as any other pair. And that's the exact opposite of what this story is trying to do, isn't it?

(To play devil's advocate for a minute, sometimes a soap thinks their money couple is one pair of characters, but then the short-term third party spoiler turns out to have better chemistry than the leads. GH's Luke and Laura are the most famous example. Luke was supposed to be a minor irritation for Laura/Scotty. Oops. A similar thing happened on AMC when Maria was supposed to briefly get between Brooke and Edmund. It didn't quite work out that way. Even Holden and Lily were originally supposed to be Lily and Dusty. Daytime is a perennially evolving medium. That's why fans are so passionate about it. Unlike a movie or a novel, daytime fans know that their opinions can actually affect story. That's the nature of the beast, as well....)

ATWT: ROSANNA COMA (RO-CO?)

Some photos to compare and contrast Rosanna's July '05 coma vs. August '07.

Good to know her hair didn't lose any of its bounce and luster while she slumbered.

Two years later, Rosanna Cabot may look the same on the outside. But you'll be surprised by the changes that have taken place on the inside.

It won't be the same old Ro coming back to Oakdale. Tune in to As The World Turns to find out what -- and who -- she'll be going after now.

GL: BEHIND THE BOOKS

Julia London, Jonathan's Story co-writer, describes, in her own words: How I Ended Up Writing a Tie-In Book for a Soap Opera.

It’s not what some people seem to think: I did not decide on my own to write a book about the popular character of Jonathan Randall. This was a classic “work for hire” situation: the Guiding Light crew wanted a book with a specific story, and they needed an author to write the book. I was approached about writing the book by my publisher, who had a detailed plot the Guiding Light folks had developed, and one that would tie in to their show. They flattered me immensely by asking me to write the book. How fun was that?

Read the entire essay, here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: DAVID CANARY (STEVE; ANOTHER WORLD)

Short answer: Winning a boatload of Emmys for playing Adam and Stuart Chandler on AMC.

Longer Answer: Canary will appear as Fagin, leader of a troupe of pickpockets in the musical directed by William Roudebush, PAI’s musical theater production director.

“What the PAI students learn from David Canary is professionalism and a high level of preparation,’’ said Roudebush. “Soap opera actors are some of the most astute actors in the business and have the ability to adapt themselves to an ever-changing creative environment. These PAI students will be on stage with a true professional.’’

Complete story, here.

And to see him Before He Was Adam, check out the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel's current broadcast of Another World. Steve Frame is almost ready to make his return from the dead. But he has to wait for the right time. As of today's episode, his former wife, Rachel (Victoria Wyndham) is unhappy. She's in jail, falsely convicted of killing her lover, Mitch, while ex-husband, Mac, does everything he can to clear Rachel's name. Steve couldn't come back now. He has to wait until all of Rachel's troubles seem to be over....

PHOTO PREVIEW: GL

Cassie's getting married! All she needs is something old (old friend, Blake), something new (a new dress for the ceremony), something borrowed (daughter Tammy, on loan from Heaven; where apparently they also get new outfits for every occasion)... but will any of these items ultimately make her blue?

Find out, only next week, only on Guiding Light.