SUDSIEST QUOTES OF THE WEEKEND
“I'd work with Susan Lucci from All My Children ... I've met everybody from Meryl Streep to Daniel Day-Lewis. I'd be blown away to meet Susan Lucci. She's sort of hot!”
—Precious director Lee Daniels on who he’d like to work with next to Canada’s own George Stroumboulopoulos on his late night talk show The Hour
Translation: Maybe I can teach her how to act.
WEEKEND SUDS FLASHES
Reid Update! Byrne’s CBS Early Morning appearance!
• Martha Byrne had quite the week. The Emmy winner appeared on CBS’s Early Morning, as well as various Fashion Week events, eliciting a mention in New York Magazine when she was a guest at Nicole Miller’s fashion show. Don’t forget to check out Gotham’s new episode tonight!
• Former GH/GL hunk Stephen Martines is taking a bite out of The Vampire Diaries in a recurring role as a "bad-ass" vampire Frederick, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Martines was last seen on The Closer.
• We Love Soaps is reporting Days of our Lives has cast Heist actor Erik David in an upcoming episode. Reportedly, he will be involved in Stephanie and Nathan's storyline.
• DAYS executive producer Ken Corday has finally explained how the show will deal with the death of its matriarch, Frances Reid. He told soapoperadigest.com, “We'll most likely have an internal memorial service for her sometime in the next month. The way we're going to deal with her death onscreen is we're not going to one day walk downstairs, as it was with Mickey, and say, ‘Oh, Grandma's dead' and then have a day or two where everyone comes to the show and we have a funeral and you cut to Marie for one line and Doug and Julie for one line and it really becomes 'lip service' to such a great character.”
He continues, "So, what we've decided to do is we will play her as being ill and the end is coming and one by one, characters who loved her dearly or are related to her, from the past, will come to the show and 'visit' with her. You can start to imagine the list. I don't know what we're going to do with Bill Horton, because the last person who played him was not Ed Mallory, it was Chris Stone, who is gone, too, so that will be a little tricky. We're working that out. And unfortunately, because we're so far ahead into writing the show, it won't air really until the end of May Sweeps. But I believe it's far better to do it that way then to just have a day or two of she's gone, here's the funeral and on we go. It's too important and there are too many individual relationships that needed to be remembered and have flashbacks as opposed to a flashback show. I think it's an honest and sensitive way to deal with something like this. It will give the audience time to prepare, even though many of our fans know this has happened. We will put a bumper up at the end of the show on Feb. 18 or 19 with a picture and her dates, but it's impossible to stop the machine now, write a show or two in the next week and bring everyone in. It was just not the right thing to do."
For once, I agree with Ken Corday. Smart move!
• So close, yet so far away! Imaginary Bitches creator Andrew Miller, a.k.a. Mr. Eden Riegel, sold a show idea to The CW network, but in the end, CBS passed on it. Miller tells Soapgeist, “It was based on the Canadian movie Ginger Snaps, which was produced by the people who are producing the Imaginary Bitches movie. I wrote the pilot throughout the holidays. It’s a huge drag. Because I would have shot the pilot in Toronto.”
• GH's Steve Burton told fans at a Chicago fan event that Scott Reeves signed a four-year contract!
THE ROGER NEWCOMB RATINGS
We Love Soaps recently counted down the 50 Best Soap Actresses in Daytime History. TV Guide Canada, along with other journalists/media pundits, weighed in —and here are the final results. Y&R’s Jess Walton tells Suds that it was an honour to be apart of this extraordinary group of women. Next Up? Actors!
50. Jacklyn Zeman
49. Suzanne Rogers
48. Mary Beth Evans
47. Heather Tom
46. Helen Wagner
45. Nancy Addison
44. Vanessa Marcil
43. Denise Alexander
42. Sharon Gabet
41. Louise Sorel
40. Melody Thomas Scott
39. Patricia Pease
38. Kate Mulgrew
37. Susan Seaforth Hayes
36. Sarah Felder
35. Victoria Rowell
34. Anne Heche
33. Cynthia Watros
32. Julia Barr
31. Lisa Brown
30. Vicky Wyndham
29. Maura West
28. Mary Kay Adams
27. Eileen Davidson
26. Marcy Walker
25. Deidre Hall
24. Jess Walton
23. Constance Ford
22. Charita Bauer
21. Ilene Kristen
20. Susan Lucci
19. Nancy Lee Grahn
18. Maureen Garrett
17. Michelle Stafford
16. Genie Francis
15. Elizabeth Hubbard
14. Linda Dano
13. Mary Stuart
12, Jane Elliot
11. Debbi Morgan
10. Helen Gallagher
9. Sarah Brown
8. Crystal Chappell
7. Jeanne Cooper
6. Judith Light
5. Robin Strasser
4. Beverlee McKinsey
3. Erika Slezak
2. Kim Zimmer
1. Susan Flannery
SUDS POLL
Which soap characters should run The Amazing Race? Click here to vote.
—Luke and Noah, World Turns
—Sharon and Phyllis, Y&R
—Kyle and Fish, One Life
—EJ and Rafe, DAYS
—Maxie and Spinelli, GH
—Carly and Molly, World Turns
—Carly and Bo, DAYS
—Brooke and Taylor, B&B
—Sonny and Jason, GH
—Todd and Tea, One Life
Editor’s Note — Some readers are having trouble accessing our polls on Firefox, so use Safari instead.
SAVE ONE LIFE CAMPAIGN
Write ABC — let your voices be heard!
Brian Scott Frons, Daytime President
Anne Sweeney, ABC President
President, Daytime Disney-ABC Television Group, ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521-4551
Phone numbers: (818) 560-1000 or (212) 456-7777
PICTURE OF THE WEEK
Y&R’s Victoria Rowell’s Official Book Club |
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THE NELSON RATINGS
Can’t watch all the soaps this week? No worries — here’s a cheat sheet!
Top 3 Soaps to Watch:
1. One Life To Live, ABC
2. Days of our Lives, NBC/Global
3. General Hospital, ABC
Top 3 Storylines to Watch:
1. Daddy Dearest, DAYS
2. Frozen River, One Life
3. Erica kidnaps David, AMC
Top 5 Actresses to Watch:
1. Amanda Setton (Kim, One Life)
2. Crystal Chappell (Carly, DAYS)
3. Gina Tognoni (Kelly, One Life)
4. Melissa Fumero (Bitchy Bangs, One Life)
5. Farah Fath (Gigi, One Life)
Top 5 Actors to Watch:
1. Stephen Nichols (Tucker, Y&R)
2. Jonathan Jackson (Lucky, GH)
3. Dominic Zamprogna (Dominic/Dante, GH)
4. James Scott (EJ, DAYS)
5. Michael Muhney (Adam, Y&R)
Top 3 Most Entertaining Performers:
1. Amanda Setton (Kim, One Life)
2. Louise Sorel (Vivian, DAYS)
3. Constance Towers (Helena, GH)
Top 5 Duos to Watch:
1. Fish and Kyle, One Life
2. Lulu and Dante, GH
3. Jack and Erica, AMC
4. Stefano and Kate, DAYS
—tie — Vivian and Victor, DAYS
Top 3 Dream Couples:
1. Sonny and Jason, GH
2. EJ and Anna, DAYS
3. Bill and Taylor, B&B
Top 3 Rivals:
1. Phyllis VS.Adam, Y&R
2. Erica VS. David, AMC
2. Vivian VS. Carly, DAYS
Top 3 Triangles to Watch:
1. Lucky/Liz/Nikolas, GH
2. Hope/Bo/Carly, DAYS
3. EJ/Sami/Rafe, DAYS
Top 3 Guilty Pleasures:
1. Stacy’s death, One Life
2. Carly shoots her daughter, DAYS
3. Mick takes Oakhell hostage, World Turns
Top 3 Families To Watch:
1. The Cramers, One Life
2. The Kiriakises, DAYS
3. The Buchanans, One Life
Top 4 New Duos To Watch:
1. Clint and Kim, One Life
2. Holden and Molly, World Turns
3. John and Natalie, One Life
4. Eli and Blair, One Life
Top 4 Duos To Avoid Like the Plague:
1. Mick and Alison, World Turns
2. Bill and Steffy, B&B
3. Daisy and anyone, Y&R
—tie— John and Marty, One Life
Top 3 Young Actors:
1. Shenell Edmonds (Destiny, One Life)
2. Drew Garrett (Michael, GH)
3. Kelley Missal (Danielle, One Life)
Top 3 Biggest Wastes of Talent:
1. Renee Jones (Lexie, DAYS)
2. James Reynolds (Abe, DAYS)
3. Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki, Y&R)
Top 3 Hair Models:
1. Denise Vasi (Randi, AMC)
2. Texas Battle (Marcus, B&B)
3. Jackie MacInnes Wood (Steffy, B&B)
Top 3 Soap Magazine Covers (based on art direction):
1. CBS Soap In Depth — Y&R’s Phyllis/Nick/Adam
2. Soap Opera Weekly — DAYS Drama!
3. Soap Opera Digest — ABC Preview
Top 3 Best Reads/Buys at the Newsstand:
1. Soap Opera Digest
2. Soap Opera Weekly
3. CBS Soaps In Depth
Top 3 Soap Moments To Watch:
1. Tuesday: Stacy dies on One Life! Don’t let the iceberg hit you on the way out, you tramp!
2. Thursday: Taylor and Stephanie walk in on the Logans’ Goddess photo shoot on B&B. “Who let the ugly witches in,” cracks Brooke.
3. Monday: Marty interrupts a kiss between John and Natalie on One Life. “Good — now John can bore you to death, Natalie,” yells Marty.
Want to dish the soaps with Nelson Branco? Join The Suds Report discussion group today on Facebook.
Nelson Branco is a Toronto freelance entertainment journalist, who regularly contributes to Hello! Canada, The National Post, The Los Angeles Times' theenvelope.com, TV Guide USA, tvguide.com, Inside Entertainment, OUT, and fab magazine, along with spearheading the soap coverage for TVGuide.ca's popular daytime TV hub. After graduating from Ryerson University in 1997, he moved from Toronto to New York in 1998 to take on the roles as senior news editor at Soap Opera Update. Branco first freelanced for Soap Opera Weekly as an intern in 1994, and after leaving Soap Update to help create and launch Bauer Publishing's In Touch Weekly in 2003, Branco continued to freelance occasionally for its sister publication, Soaps In Depth. Most recently, he helped create and launch Canada's first celebrity magazine, Weekly Scoop in 2005 as its news and entertainment director. Branco is also a contributor to a new TV show titled Planet Soap to air in Canada and America.
