LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...

Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Snyder!

ACTOR APPEARANCE: RON RAINES (ALAN; GL)

Ron Raines will perform at the Chicago Humanities Festival on Monday, November 3, 2008.

For more information and to buy tickets, go to www.chfestival.org or call the box at (312) 494-9509.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Brian Delate, a Trenton native who has vacationed in Avalon, was on the ground in the Soho district of New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, when he saw the first plane crash into the World Trade Center about a quarter of a mile away.

He also was in combat in the Vietnam War. Then, in 1992 he watched his father—a World War II veteran—pass away.

These experiences contributed to his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can occur after a person has been through a traumatic event.

Consequently, actor-director Delate—a decorated Vietnam veteran—knows all about PTSD. So much, in fact, that he will show his award-winning film about the subject to veterans, military person-nel, and the general public on Saturday night, Sept. 27, during the second an-nual Wildwood By The Sea Film Festival....

Delate, who has appeared in the soap operas,” All My Children” and “As The World Turns,” also has performed in the movies with some of today’s big name actors, including Jodie Foster, Al Pacino, Jim Carrey, and Tim Robbins.

Also appearing in the film are two other well-known soap opera actors James Kiberd, the only daytime star to be cited as one of the top 15 fan favor-ites of the 1990s, and Cady McClain, a two-time Emmy Award nominee.

Kiberd and McClain are attempting to readjust their busy TV film schedule to join Delate at the festival, according to Paul Russo, festival producer.

(Ed. note: Delate played Gerald McLane on ATWT in 2007. James Kiberd appeared as Vietnam Vet Mike Donovan on Loving and as Trevor Dillon on AMC. He is married to his former leading lady, Susan Keith. Cady McClain was ATWT's Rosanna Cabot and AMC's Dixie Martin. She is a two-time Emmy winner.)

Get details on the film festival, here.

JIZZIE... TOGETHER AGAIN!

Guiding Light's Marcy Rylan (Lizzie) and Tom Pelphrey (ex-Jonathan) will perform a play reading (play TBD) and host a meet & greet to benefit The Apothecary Theatre Company on Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

The event takes place at Helen Mills: 137-139 West 26th Street.

$40.00 per person - payable in cash at the door (includes one free drink).

For reservations: Call Shawn - 732-491-3012 and leave a message with full name, phone number and the number of people attending. For more information on the Apothecary Theatre Company go to: www.apothecarytheatrecompany.org

WIG OUT!

Tom Wiggin comes to Guiding Light as hot shot corporate mogul Mr. Decker beginning Monday, September 15.

Daytime fans will recognize Tom from his portrayal of Kirk Anderson on As The World Turns from 1988 to 1998. While in Oakdale, the Walsh Enterprises exec dated Lily's biological mom, Iva -- and her adoptive mom, Lucinda, married Lily's aunt Ellie and then her aunt Samantha and was godfather to Lily's half brother, Matthew John Dixon. Before coming to town, Kirk had abandoned his wife, Leonore, the daughter of Lily's biological grandfather, Jared Carpenter.

Kirk had two children with Leonore, Linda Ann and Stephen. For a few days in 1995, Stephen was played by a young actor named James Van Der Beek, who, three years later, would go on to play the titular role in Dawson's Creek.

But before he was a Wall Street barracuda on As The World Turns, Wiggin played Kirk's polar opposite, sweet cowboy Joe Foster on Texas in 1981, and Gil Fenton on Another World in 1983. (Both shows are currently available on the AOL/PGP Classic Soaps Channel.)

Wiggin has worked as a scriptwriter for Another World and As The World Turns and, in 1999, appeared as Sam Kershaw on Guiding Light.

DADDY ISSUES



In the episodes of Texas currently running on the AOL/PGP Classic Soaps Channel, Elliot (Daniel Davis) is slowly but surely finding himself falling in love with Paige (Lisby Larson) -- his son Dennis' ex-wife. (Technically, Dennis isn't Elliot's son. Mom Iris told a little fib. But considering that Elliot raised Dennis his entire life -- even when Mom Iris wasn't around -- Dennis is Elliot's son. Moving on.)

It's a triangle that Guiding Light tackled when Reva married HB Lewis, even though she still pined for his son, Josh. Reva ended up falling in love with her husband and even conceiving a child with him (she miscarried after a high Vanessa hit Reva with he car), but never to the point of forgetting Josh.

Similarly, GL's Frank had feelings for Oliva even though she'd shared a night of passion with his dad, Buzz.

But, in both cases, it wasn't a sincere case of a father unable to resist his feelings for a woman his son had once loved and moved on from. With Reva, HB knew she still loved Josh, while Buzz actually shared a connection with Olivia before Frank did.

Alan marrying and falling for Beth after she and Phillip had shared a lifelong, star-crossed romance and two children was closer to the Elliot/Paige/Dennis situation, except, in that case, it was initially merely a ploy to bring Phillip out of hiding. (Besides, Alan and Phillip had already shared Blake, India and Olivia. It was kind of a father and son bonding thing with them. Not to mention proof that, just like with Elliot and Dennis, taste in women is obviously a case of nurture, not nature.)

On OLTL, Becky Lee slept with Bo and discovered she was pregnant just as Bo reconciled with his wife, Delilah. Bo's pa, Asa, married Becky Lee so he could keep control of his grandson, Drew, but the couple ended up falling in love and, for a while, were actually very happy together. But then Asa screwed it up. Which he usually does.

B&B's Brooke married Eric in between her back and forth love affairs with his son, Ridge. Then again, Brooke also married two of Ridge's brothers and had an affair with her own son-in-law, so we have to assume she just isn't aware that one can date outside a single gene pool.

Do you have a favorite father/son soap opera triangle? Tell us below!

And, in the meantime, check out Texas on the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel, here!

SOAPS IN STRANGE PLACES

After years of standing in the shadows as harmony singer, Derrick "Duckie" Simpson will be the lead vocalist on As The World Turns, the new black Uhuru album, scheduled to be released in October.... Simpson and No Joke Entertainment produced some of the songs on As The World Turns, which is Uhuru's first album since Dynasty, which was released by RAS Records in 2001.

Guess the guys are soap fans!

Read the entire article, here.

Also...

The WGA Strike caused 24 to be pushed all the way to 2009, and then the producers, in their infinite wisdom, decided to take a page out of the Guiding Light handbook and bring a major character back from the dead (Carlos Bernard's beloved Tony Almeida.)

See? Everybody wants to do soaps!

Entire article, here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: DAVID ANDREW MACDONALD

If you are a soap opera fan, you surely recognize the hunky face as that of David Andrew Macdonald, who plays Edmund Winslow, the conniving, vicious villain who has a recurring role on "Guiding Light." Macdonald, 47, also has appeared on "Law & Order," "Sex and the City" and other soap operas, including "Another World" and "One Life To Live."

But he's taking a break from daytime drama to get on stage, as in Hartford Stage, where he is playing dual roles as Oberon and Theseus in the theater's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The husband and father who attended private school in Newport, R.I., and graduated from Juilliard took time out from rehearsals and visits with friends from Glastonbury recently to "Spill the Beans" with Java.

Read David's interview, here!

HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES

While the Coopers kick back with a friendly family poker game...



The Lewises pose for a portrait...



And the Spauldings do... whatever it is extremely rich people do to have fun.



There's something for everyone on Guiding Light!

OAKDALE WEDDING DAY!

We've got a cake.



We've got a gazebo.



We've got a ring bearer.



And love is obviously in the air.





But... uhm... where are the bride and groom?

Find out only this week, only on As The World Turns!

WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE?

The vintage episode of Search for Tomorrow currently up on the AOL/PGP Classic Soaps Channel features three things no soap fan can resist: A juicy paternity reveal/back from the dead/revolution in a fictional banana republic trifecta.

Growing up, Steve Kendall always wondered why dad Lloyd seemed to like him least. Turns out (as any soap fan could have told him), dad Lloyd wasn't really dad Lloyd. Steve's real dad is Martin Tourner (John Aniston; which makes Steve Jennifer's brother once removed).

Steve's late mom, Estelle, had an affair with Martin, then died in a plane crash when Steve was a little boy.

Except wait! She's not really dead, after all!

She's living in San Marcos, a vaguely South American, revolution plagued nation (perhaps adjacent to Montega), where the corrupt local government likes to beat up interlopers like Bragg (Viggo Mortensen). But don't worry, the only serious damage done is to his clothing, requiring the taciturn tourist to appear shirtless for a majority of his scenes.



Not shirtless in this episode, but, don't worry, its coming, is Steve Lundquist, who plays the newly mothered and fathered Steve Kendeall. In his previous life, Steve was a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist in swimming, a multiple world-record holder and, according to People Magazine of 1985, had the best celebrity chest in Hollywood.

So check it out, here!

GL: PHOTO PREVIEW

Will Grady at long last pay for his crimes?







Find out next week, only on Guiding Light!

ATWT FLASHBACK

Eileen Fulton (Lisa), Don Hastings (Bob) and Kathryn Hays (Kim) recall the beginnings of their characters in All My Afternoons by Annie Gilbert:



Eileen Fulton - When the part of Lisa was offered to me, I was told she was to be a temporary character, a mere foil for the young Bob Hughes, who had just entered college. The Lisa the writers had created was made of sugar and spice and everything nice. I wanted the part. It would be a good break for me, but inwardly I was repelled by the character. She was me and I was sick of her. Sweetness and goodness had been shoved down my throat all my life and, at that time, I was rebelling against everything I had been taught. So at every opportunity to make her just a least bit conniving, I played it to the hilt.





Don Hastings - When I came in Irna Phillips wanted to make Bob a doctor. So I went to medical school in September, and in October I was at work in a hospital. It was a quick education. No wonder I lose so many patients. Actually, there's a lot of Bob in me and a lot of me in Bob. You have to do it that way. You take what the writer creates and you round it out. Bob Hughes has become a person to many people. I have a friend who is a doctor and he tells me that I'm a better doctor than he is. He has great respect for me because he could not communicate with one of his patients, and one day when he walked in she was watching the show I was on and she told him, "Now there's a real doctor."



Kathryn Hays - Kim tends to show her strength more in moral courage than in animal courage. Sometimes the audience finds that annoying. They want her to stand up for herself and not let her own feelings go by the wayside in order to protect other people. I wish she could be stronger myself sometimes too.



All My Afternoons by Annie Gilbert is currently out of print.

TWINSIES?

The Chicago Sun-Times (via US Magazine) compares Lindsay Lohan to Hayden Panettiere:

SOAP TRAINING

Lindsay: In 1996, she played Ali Fowler on "Another World."

(Ed. note: Lindsay is second from the left, alongside AW co-stars Chris Marquette, who later co-starred in Joan of Arcadia; Spencer Treat Clark, future star of Gladiator, Unbreakable and Mystic River; and Sean Rademacher, who was the first Jonathan on Guiding Light... long, long, long before Tom Pelphrey took over the role.)

Hayden: Was cast on "One Life to Live" at age 4.

(Ed. note: After playing Sarah on OLTL, Hayden moved on to the role of GL's Lizzie Spaulding. Lizzie, of course, went on to have a daughter named Sarah with Jonathan. Ooooh, what do all these coincidences mean? I'm thinking... nothing.)

Read the rest of the article, here!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

September 3, 1951 marked the debut of PGP Classic Soap Search for Tomorrow. It was a fifteen minute, black and white segment that cost $8,073 dollars a week to produce.



Mary Stuart played Joanne "Jo" Barron, a young wife and mother who was widowed six weeks into the show's run and left to raise her five years old daughter, Patti, on her own.

SFT's creator, Roy Winsor, saw Jo as a modern-day Stella Dallas. She was meant to be an exemplary woman with whom millions of Americans could identify with. He described her as "the sort of woman who cared about her neighbor's problems, who would offer help to others, and who could face her own problems with personal dignity."

Casting Mary Stuart in the role came about as a result of a fortuitous meeting. The actress had just returned to New York after a stint in Hollywood, under contract to MGM. Despite appearing in twenty movies, she decides the Los Angeles life-style was not for her.

One afternoon, she found herself in the awkward position of making small talk with Winsor as both waited for a mutual friend to join them for lunch. Knowing that he was involved in television production, Mary challenged him with the observation that "Women are too perfect on radio and television. Other women can't see themselves in these characters. Their needs aren't satisfied. Why can't television do something for them?"

Several months later, when he created the role of Jo, Winson sent a production assistant to track Mary down and offer her the role. Her starting salary would be $500 a week. The exact same amount that young Mary Stuart from Tulsa, OK once read was the salary for a serial actress. It was the exact amount that prompted her to become an actress in the first place.

Though she would go through numerous husbands over the years (including future soap Soap star Robert Mandan and future Jennifer dad John Aniston), Jo's most steadfast relationship was with best friend, Stu (Larry Haines).



When Mary was pregnant with her son, Jeffrey, in 1956, the pregnancy was written into the storyline for Jo and when she gave birth to son Duncan Erik, it was Jeffrey who played the part on-screen. A few years later, the show decided to have the boy run into the street, get hit by a car and die. Mary was violently against the development, telling Afternoon TV Magazine, "It was my own child. It had been a complicated pregnancy for me, and playing the death of the child was just too horrible to even consider. The show's ratings had been dropping, and I knew they were killing the child just to have something dramatic to boost the ratings. I played those scenes all right, but I made them so horrifying that nobody could watch. Not even the make-up girl. She wouldn't even look at the monitor to see whether my make-up was right, it was too awful to watch. And nobody out in television-land watched either. It didn't help the ratings. In my own mind, I was remembering the morning my own father died. My mother just could never accept it. She'd walk around with a hopeful smile, in a daze, saying, "He's going to get better..." That's the way I played it. I destroyed them."

In 1976, as SFT celebrated their 25th anniversary, making it, at the time, the longest-running show in television industry history, Mary was in a more positive mood about the program.

At a gala held in New York's Plaza Hotel, she reminisced, "Twenty-five years ago, I turned a corner and came upon an empty space... Three wise men, Charles Irving, Roy Winsor, and Bill Craig, coming from three separate directions, turned corners in their own lives at almost the same moment and came upon that same space. They had an idea. Where there had been nothing, we built a town. People came to live there; they married and had children. They built businesses; kids went to school and grew up. People moved there from other towns and it grew into a city... Oh, you can't find it on a map, and at night the houses and the shops come apart and are stored in scenery docks, but it is real. If you don't believe me, ask millions of people all over the country, and they will tell you its real. Maybe a special kind of real that is a little gentler. It is a place to share a fantasy, an idea, a friend or emotion. The emotions are not play-pretend; we all know that and so do they. If that is not reality, I don't know what is."

To read more about Search for Tomorrow, click here, here, and here.

And to watch it on the AOL/PGP Classic Soaps Channel, go here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

She is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the longest-running "item" on television.



Helen Wagner (Nancy; ATWT) turns 90 today!

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME...

GL's Reva and Jeffery both thought they knew that life was hardly a walk (or a picnic) in the park.



But that was before they got hit with their latest curve-ball.

It's literally a question of life or death.

Which one will they choose?

Find out, only on Guiding Light.

WORLD VIEW

How Emily Stewart sees the world:



It's Emily... versus everyone else. And now she even has the photo to prove it!

What brought Emily to such a state? Find out this week, only on As The World Turns.

BEFORE SHE WAS...



Ten years after Beverly Hills 90210 went off the air, 90210 (no city name this time; they figure if you don't know where the zip code is by now, you never will) premiers on the CW Network.



Along with the returning and now all grown up Brenda and Kelly, the show features actress Lori Loughlin as the token, wholesome mom, Debbie Wilson.



Though she first came to the attention of primetime viewers as the girl who married another ex-daytime star, John Stamos, on the sitcom Full House, Loughlin made her TV debut in 1980 as Jody Travis on The Edge of Night.

The teenage, dark-haired Jody was promptly paired up with the blond, mop-topped Kelly (Allen Fawcett) as EON attempted to emulate that summer's huge movie hit, The Blue Lagoon, as well as a certain other curly-haired soap sensation from their own network.



Can't wait to tune into 90210 tonight? Get the party started by checking out Lori Loughlin on the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel, first!