Flashback: Last Year's Emmy Predictions

1 CBS sweep of Emmy noms causes a lather The 35th Annual Daytime Emmy nominations were announced Wednesday - and they were chock-full of surprises. The biggest? A virtual CBS sweep of the soap categories, including all five actresses up for Outstanding Lead Actress. "I'm totally honored, but I'm bummed out Nancy Lee Grahn [Alexis, GENERAL HOSPITAL] isn't there," says Michelle Stafford from THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, nominated for the seventh time (she's won twice). "Nancy is always phenomenal." Not a single ABC actress was nominated in any category, which some in the industry question. The new nominating system of submitting three actors from every show meant the judges had to watch up to 27 tapes. Speculation is that not all the judges watched all the tapes, but simply voted for their network. "It's the luck of the tapes," Stafford says. "Some years you have a lot of story, but it doesn't necessarily work on your Emmy reel. I'm not a big fan of submitting crying stuff for myself, but a lot of people did that this year. When [a judge] gets 21 CDs of crying, screaming women, they might go with something opposite." AUDIO: Daytime Confidential #235: 2008 Emmy Nominations, WTH? The 2008 Daytime Emmy Nominations were announced on April 30th and Daytime Confidential's Luke, Tina, Jamey and special guest TV Guide Canada's Nelson Branco are discussing the controversies surrounding who was snubbed and who is deserving. From Younger Actress to Lead Actor there is so much to talk about and so little time to cover everything. Branco also talks about his recent visit to the GLAAD awards and the reaction to the Nuke controversy by those in primetime and movies as well as a couple of online rumors. One about ONE LIFE TO LIVE return and another about the possible return of a former daytime Co-Headwriter to daytime. Soap star's passion is for Wings It's a typical seduction scene in a soap opera. OK, maybe it's not quite typical, because the characters are actually married to one another. But there's actress Alicia Minshew a few weeks ago, playing Kendall Hart on ALL MY CHILDREN, and from behind, you see that she's dropped her robe. "What do you think?" she purrs, and the camera turns to her husband, casino baron Zach Slater, as played by Thorsten Kaye. "Oh, that's beautiful," he says, clearly awestruck. Then the focus returns to Minshew, and the audience on ABC sees what made Kaye swoon: A Detroit Red Wings jersey. Kaye, 42, has made Slater's passion for the Red Wings a defining part of the character. Thanks to him, viewers who don't know a hockey puck from a rubber duck recognize the winged wheel. AFA should get a grip Those hand wringing Christian fundamentalists at the American Family Association, led by Don Wildmon, are urging their sheep, er, members to write to AS THE WORLD TURNS because the show’s owner, Procter & Gamble, "promotes explicit open-mouth homosexual kissing." What this really means: The soap let the two gay men on the show, Luke and Noah, finally share a series of smooches during its April 23 episode, after a grassroots campaign by fans who noted it had been more than 200 days since the guys’ last lip lock. The group links to a YouTube video of the scene between Luke and Noah, but warns that "content is repulsive." Maybe they should use their hands for something other than wringing so they can get a grip on reality. DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES unveils its newest bad girl Eleven-year-old Rachel Fox has a nickname around the set of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. "Eeeevil," Fox told the Daily News. "Every time I walk onto the set and get into the makeup chair, everyone calls me 'eeeevil.' I love it. I love playing evil. I feel like I can do more with the character than just playing the nice girl." Fox plays Kayla Huntington, daughter of Tom Scavo and one-night stand Nora Huntington, and the stepdaughter of Lynette Scavo on the popular ABC Sunday-night soap. After seven years it was time to leave HOLLYOAKS, reveals Kevin Sacre Walking out of a potting shed with just a plant pot hiding your modesty would be embarrassing enough ...but what if it's beamed around Tesco? And you're in the store just as it is shown. That's just what happened to a red-faced Kevin Sacre, star of Channel 4 soap HOLLYOAKS. In two weeks, Kevin will be leaving the sexy show after playing Jake Dean for seven years. And the 30-year-old remembers the good times and the bad. He said: "I will never forget that for as long as I live. Just as I walked into Tesco, the episode with me naked but for a plant pot popped up on screens all around the store. I was mortified and then caught the eye of this old woman who looked at me, then at the screen and back again. Her face was a picture." EASTENDERS - Janine is back for good Charlie Brooks is returning to EASTENDERS. The 26-year-old actress is set to reprise her role as scheming ex-prostitute Janine Butcher in the autumn after reportedly signing a £100,000 deal to return to the show, four years after she left. Negotiations for her comeback have been underway since Charlie made a one-off appearance for her screen dad, Frank Butcher's, funeral last month. Charlie said: "I loved coming back for Frank's funeral. It gave me a taste for playing Janine again. And I'm excited to see what Janine will be getting up to now."

Today's Soap Star Birthdays

Susan Brown (ex-Gail, PORT CHARLES; ex-Dorothy, SANTA BARBARA; ex-Nancy, THE EDGE OF NIGHT) - 76 Matt Crane (ex-Ross, GENERAL HOSPITAL; ex-Matt, ANOTHER WORLD) - 41

Out on the Town - May 3, 2008

1 ALL MY CHILDREN star Rebecca Budig and her husband Bob Guiney attended the 134th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

Flashback: The Edge of Night 1980

Episode #6282 - On Monday, June 16, 1980, THE EDGE OF NIGHT introduced its fourth title sequence. Since fictional Monticello had obviously mushroomed from an "average-sized city" to a bustling metropolis, the producers eliminated the trusty Cincinnati skyline, replacing it with an up-to-date shot of Los Angeles. The opening title began with an upwardly moving shot of skyscrapers then dissolved into an extended series of original still-shots of the cast. The final castmember still-shot then segued into the LA skyline, the show's logo moved to the top of the screen from behind the city, and the skyline darkened to night.

News Brief

Kenneth Franklin (ex-Dallas, AS THE WORLD TURNS) - 26 Johnny Grimaldi (Marty, SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES) - 4

CBS News on Logo: Hansis & Silbermann

CBS dominates Daytime Emmys Emmy-watchers wonder: Is the Tiffany network guilty of bloc voting? CBS dramas reaped 51 nominations compared to only 27 for ABC shows and 10 for NBC series. Soap writer Tom Casiello analyzes the Emmy races "I’ve had twenty-four hours to sit and mull over these Emmy nominations - what can I say, other than 'Be careful what you wish for'? We’ve been saying for years we wanted to see different names up there, other than the usual suspects - and we got our wish (although frankly, these weren’t the names most of us expected to see). What really disturbs me is that there are no blue ribbon panels this year - the winners are already known and sealed away based on the nomination process. Which means everyone who was submitted as a pre-nomination is actually a nominee. And these five were the top five scores. It’s a shame - I wonder how many people voting in the pre-nominations were aware they were actually voting for the winner." BLOG: DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Rachel Melvin "So now, I've been nominated. HOLY CRAP!! I still can't stop saying it. That first day was just a flood of congrats and compliments which I am AWFUL at taking, let alone with grace and class, but boy I hope I passed with flying colors. I know I'm an actress and I'm supposed to enjoy the spotlight, but I am really uncomfortable with all the attention. I appreciate it but this is all SOOOO overwhelming. I can't begin to describe how I feel. I am flattered, relieved, stunned, stoked, excited, moved, AH! HOLY CRAP! It's so much more of a big deal than I initially thought being nominated would. It's surreal. And not even because of the nomination itself, but because of what it represents, and to me that's just that I am an employed actress in Hollywood making a living at my greatest love in life aside of course from my family. I know I booked the job three years ago already, but it never hit me, and it has ALL hit me now at once. I don't think I've ever been so quietly pleased and excited in my life. To the point where every time I think about it I want to cry." AUDIO: Interview with GH's Hennesy Carolyn Hennesy (Diane, GENERAL HOSPITAL) appeared on Friday night's episode of "Buzzworthy Radio" where she spoke about her GH role and her career in the theater. ATWT's Dillon is CT Congressman's son House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk (CT), experiences plenty of daytime drama during debates at the Capitol. But he took a brief break from legislative business yesterday to tune in to his son's live acting debut on a fictional soap opera. Christopher Cafero, 19, who honed his acting talents at Brien McMahon High School, began his run yesterday in the first of six planned episodes of CBS' AS THE WORLD TURNS. "I can't tell you what a feeling it is to see your kid" on television, a beaming Cafero said after taking time at 2 p.m. to watch the show with colleagues and staff. Cafero said he knows little about his son's fledgling career, which began with some commercials. "My wife and I know nothing about this," Cafero said. "It's not like coaching your kid in Little League . . . To turn on the TV - It's like 'Holy Cow.' " Cafero said his son plays the new character of Dillon. "He will potentially be the boyfriend of the new character Liberty," Cafero said. Marj Dusay has a knack for sports Even if you have no clue what Marj Dusay does, or has done for a living, and what she might do for fun, you could venture an educated guess when you first meet her. Her presence may give you the idea that she knows how to face a camera, which would be true, since she has starred in plays, commercials, movies and television shows, most notably as Alexandra Spaulding on GUIDING LIGHT. And her attitude could lend you to picture her indulging in the occasional drink, which is fact as well, like when she celebrated her Kansas Jayhawks' national basketball title last month with a bottle of cabernet. But even if you knew those things and other tidbits of Dusay's life, which brought her to be a part of the 81st Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, it is unlikely you would have randomly uncovered her crowning athletic achievement — she once shot a round of golf 2-under par. Buffett embraces Erica Kane, mocks mortgage mess It's part of Warren Buffett's job not just to answer questions from many of the 31,000 people at the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. He also has to entertain. Especially if the entertainment involves Susan Lucci, one of America's best-known soap opera stars. Part of the roughly one-hour movie preceding this year's meeting, produced by Buffett's daughter Susie, showed a clip of Buffett's recent cameo on the soap opera ALL MY CHILDREN. Buffett, who plays himself, visits Erica Kane, portrayed by Lucci, who is in prison on an insider trading charge. The movie included faux news reports about his leaving Berkshire, which the 77-year-old has run since 1965, to swap jobs with Lucci. So at the start of the meeting, instead of Buffett emerging with Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, Lucci came out. And she promised change. "The first thing we need to change is our dividend policy," she said. "I have never heard of anything so cheap and so unfair to our shareholders." Berkshire hasn't paid a cash dividend since 1967. VIDEO: Episode #1 of IMAGINARY BITCHES BLOG: DAYS star Alison Sweeney "Hello to the Lumi's! Thanks so much for the very clever gifts. I'm so glad you sent me that cd of My Boyfriend's Back, because it has been stuck in my head ever since my now infamous blog of last week. Also, the doll is so sweet. I put it up in my dressing room. Very cool outfit! I appreciate your note Thanks for your support, through thick and thin. Please know - I appreciate all the loyal, awesome, supportive fans out there, no matter what fan base you're from. So please know, that the obnoxious, rude voices of the unhappy few do not distract me from the overwhelming support and postive feedback of the many. I will continue to blog, and post, and share my experiences for all of you fabulous people (you know who you are! ) I will try not to waste my time and energy dwelling on the unhappy people who only spout negativity, and I encourage you all to do the same! hugs and kisses!!!"

Out on the Town - May 1, 2008

1 Former AS THE WORLD TURNS star Marisa Tomei displayed her Drama Desk Award nomination certificate at the The Official Drama Desk Cocktail Reception at the Art Cafe in New York City. Former DAY OF OUR LIVES actress and SOAP TALK host Lisa Rinna attended TV Guide's Sexiest Stars Party at Katsuya in Los Angeles with husband Harry Hamlin.

B&B: : In Celebration Of 20 Years On Television - Limited Edition Signed Copy

1 A select few copies of this book have been signed by the cast. Signatures include all four original cast memebers: Susan Flannery, Ronn Moss, Katherine Kelly Lang and John McCook. Many additional autographs, including: William deVry, Winsor Harmon, Patrick Duffy, Hearther Tom, Jennifer Gareis and Ashley Jones. A "must read" for all B&B fans, this book has been prefaced by celebrated television pioneer and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL co-creator, Lee Phillip Bell. An informative and fun photographic essay that explores the richly layered history of the long-running, award winning, and the world's most watched daily drama series, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. A select few copies of this book have been signed by all of your favorites from THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. Buy it now

William DeVry in Hello Magazine

1 Nelson Branco interviews THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL star William DeVry in this week's issue of Hello. "I love everyone I’ve worked with on the show. B&B has one of the most talented casts in daytime television."