January-December 2024

 Archives

08/04/2024

Photos : AF/CR/Lisa O'Connor/Steven Bergman/MEGA

06/10/2024

Sydney Penny (ex-B.J. Walker) adds a new string to her bow : she is now officially a writer !
The actress has just published her first novel, A Place to Stay.
The book is available for the moment only in English.

06/10/2024

A Martinez (ex-Cruz Castillo) did not indeed win this Friday the Daytime Emmy award for best supporting actor for which he was nominated (see the News of 04/22).
But he didn't leave empty-handed : he was given a Daytime Emmy Gold Circle, a special award celebrating his more than 50 years in the television industry.
Besides, he shared this honor with Jerome Dobson, creator of Santa Barbara and whose wife Bridget died in early January (see the News of 01/11), who was given the same distinction.
Congratulations are therefore really obligatory !

06/04/2024

Born Donna Mae Tjaden in 1922, Janis Paige just left us on June 02 at 101 years old.
In 1990, she joined Santa Barbara in the part of Minx Lockridge, taking up until the final episode the character created for Dame Judith Anderson six years earlier.
But Minx Lockridge is far from being her only role ! In more than 50 years of career in theater, music hall, cinema and television, Janis Paige has played dozens of characters, and rubbed shoulders with the greatest actors and directors.
In 2012, to celebrate her 90th birthday, she was back on stage for a unique performance in San Francisco (see the News du 07/26/2012). And in 2020, she published her autobiography, Reading Between the Lines : A Memoir (see the News of 04/02/2020).
Nicolas Coster (ex-Lionel Lockridge) wrote of her in his autobiography : "Her legs, which were entwined under a table were still noticeably shapely. She was much too alluring to be my mother for God's sake... She was only 11 years older than I. Days with Janis were a joy from start to finish."
Twice divorced and widowed since 1976, Janis Paige died without an heir in her home in Los Angeles.

Read also : a 1990 press article, Make room for daytime, and Extracts of her autobiography, Reading Between the Lines : A Memoir.

05/24/2024

05/01/2024

This is the surprise announcement of the day : Nancy Lee Grahn (ex-Julia Wainwright) and Lane Davies (ex-Mason Capwell) will be reunited again in General Hospital !
Lane Davies will indeed join the soap around May 22 in the role of Fergus Byrne, a lawyer who is going to cross the path of Alexis Davis, played since 1996 by Nancy Lee Grahn !
The former star couple of Santa Barbara had already been reunited in the same soap from late 2002 (see the News of November 2002 and December 2002) to early 2004 (see the News of January 2004). Lane was then playing Dr. Cameron Lewis.
A reunion not to be missed !

05/01/2024

Since April 07, A Martinez (ex-Cruz Castillo) is back in a regular role in a new show, Blue Ridge: The Series.
Aired on the platform The Cowboy Channel, the series tells the adventures of the sheriff of a small mountain town in the western United States. A Martinez plays the character of Connor McGrath.
The first season has six episodes, running until May 12.

04/22/2024

The family of Meg Bennett has just announced her death on April 11, from cancer.
In Santa Barbara, she was in 1989 Megan Richardson, writer and former lover of C.C., mother of their illegitimate son, Greg. In 1991, she made her comeback in the show, but this time as a writer, writing the script of many episodes until the end of the show.
Born Helen Bennett in October 1948, Meg Bennett began her career as an actress in 1975 in the soap Search For Tomorrow. In 1980, she joined The Young and the Restless, as an actress and a writer until 1986. Subsequently, she wrote for many soaps, from The Bold and The Beautiful to Sunset Beach, including Generations and General Hospital.
In 2004, she married Robert Guza Jr., also a Santa Barbara writer between 1989 and 1991.
We have a thought here of her husband and her relatives.

04/22/2024

The nominations for the upcoming Daytime Emmy awards have been announced.
And this year, nice surprise : A Martinez (ex-Cruz Castillo) is nominated in the category supporting actor for his character Nardo Ramos in The Bay ! The broadcast of the show on Peacock, NBC's platform, allows it to no longer compete in the web-series category, but in the one of the traditional television series.

The 51st Daytime Emmy awards will be held on Friday, June 07 and will air on the platform Paramount+.
Good luck to A !

04/22/2024

And now a cookbook ! Thaao Penghlis (ex-Dr. Micah DeAngelis) has just published Seducing Celebrities, One Meal at a Time, a book in which he tells his best culinary encounters with celebrities.
From Jacqueline Kennedy to George Clooney, including Shirley Maclaine, Elizabeth Taylor or Omar Sharif, Thaao has spent time with nice people and cooked for everyone !
This is the actor's second book, after Places : The Journey of My Days, My Lives, published in July 2014 (see the News of 07/16/2014), in which he talked about his career, his acting partners and his many journeys worldwide, letting appreciate even more his personality.
To read now at Brick Tower Press publishings.

03/25/2024

Eva LaRue (ex-Margot Collins) joined a new soap-opera last month : since February 26, she plays Natalia Rogers-Ramirez in General Hospital.
The actress is especially popular in the United States for her role of Dr. Maria Santos Grey in All My Children, whom she played from 1993 to 2011 (see the News of 06/10/2011). After several seasons in the cop show C.S.I. : Miami (see the News of 09/06/2012), she had more recently joined The Young and the Restless for a few months in 2019 (see the News of 08/03/2019).
Her participation in General Hospital is scheduled to run for a few weeks only.

03/25/2024

On February 06, the first novel by Jon Lindstrom (ex-Dr. Mark McCormick) was published in the United States.
Hollywood Hustle is a thriller full of twists and turns whose story is based in Hollywood's ruthless film industry.
The book is available in all good bookshops, for the moment only in English.

01/11/2024

It is with sadness that we learned of the death on January 03, at the age of 85, of Bridget Dobson, co-creator of Santa Barbara. Co-creator, but also writer and executive producer from 1984 to 1987, then from 1991 to 1993. Together with her husband since 1961, Jerome Dobson, Bridget was the designer of the show, the one who gave it this tone, this energy, this audacity, this humor, creating many characters and storylines in her image.
Born on August 31, 1938, Bridget had no better role model to launch herself in the business than her parents, Doris and Frank Hursley, creators of General Hospital. In 1969, she began writing scripts for this soap-opera. Jerome follows her, and both continue their common professional adventure on Guiding Light in 1975, before continuing with As the World Turns in 1979.
In 1984, NBC gives its chance to the couple with the creation of their own soap-opera, Santa Barbara. We know the rest : four years of critical success, before being thanked by NBC and New World Television for trying to fire Anne Howard Bailey without their consent. Following a lengthy legal battle, Bridget and Jerome Dobson took over the lead of the show in 1991, although the arrival of a new executive producer, Paul Rauch, moves them away again from full control of the show until its end in January 1993.
In addition to her television work and paintings in which she has excelled in recent years, Bridget leaves behind her husband Jerome and her two children, Mary and Andy. Her last public appearance was in December 2021 in Moscow, for the inauguration of the project Santa Barbara, a Living Sculpture (see the News of 12/13/2021).
It is a part of Santa Barbara's soul which has just flown away...

Read also : The creators . How was born the fight between the Capwells and the Lockridges . Battle of the daytime executives . Can Santa Barbara be saved ? . Can the Dobsons save Santa Barbara ? . Soap opera's 25 most intriguing people : Jerome and Bridget Dobson, creators / head writers

01/05/2024

The American specialized magazine Soap Opera Digest ceases publication. The last issue was published November.
Created in 1975, the magazine had since remained the reference on soap-operas in the United States.
The announcement of the disappearance of Soap Opera Digest is the latest in a long series after Soap Opera Weekly in 2012 (see the News du 04/16/2012) and ABC Soaps in Depth and CBS Soaps in Depth in 2020 (see the News du 04/25/2020).