Soapy in mourning: Diamont out at Y&R

Anyone who knows me knows how it pains me to type this one. Soap Opera Digest is reporting that Y&R's Don Diamont has been ousted from daytime's No. 1 soap. Details of his exit are said to be very "hush hush" at this time.

Diamont has been with the sudser for over 20 years. He first aired in 1985, after a two-year run on DAYS. He stayed with the show until 1996, returning in 1998 through now. During his tenure, Diamont has amassed 25 Soaphunks.net Award nominations and eight wins. In addition, in a 2005 poll at this site, he was named the Sexiest Soap Hunk of All Time.

If you didn't already know it, Diamont is personally my all-time favorite soap hunk, and the primary reason I created soaphunks.net a decade ago was to share and collect pictures of him.

Sigh.

Egglesfield back in at AMC

Just months after being unceremoniously bumped to recurring status, AMC's Colin Egglesfield appears to now be headed back to the soap. It's unclear whether this puts the 2006 Hunkiest Newcomer Soaphunks.net Award winner back on contract, but regardless, Egglesfield will certainly be onscreen a lot more often into 2009.

The polls are open!

It's December 1st, so voting for the 10th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards officially started at midnight ET. You can access the ballot at soaphunks.net/vote.

As has been the case the last few years, we have bent over backwards to provide evidence for each nomination to help make you a more informed voter. "Review the Evidence" links are all over the ballot. Click them before voting!

And as usual, in the top category of Best Hunk, we have For Your Consideration videos of all of the five nominees' hunkitude from 2008. Behold the beauty, then go vote!

365 days of Marcus Patrick

If there's one soap hunk who never minds stripping off his clothes, it's DAYS and AMC alum Marcus Patrick. And now you can experience this ripped stud's body all year long as the actor is offering a pin-up calendar for 2009, filled with hunky shots of his fine physique. Other items will be up for sale soon. You can check it all out at marcuspatrickexposed.com, and tell them soaphunks.net sent ya!

Stuffing Marcel's turkey

I know this isn't soap-related, but this one was too cute not to post. Who can resist Marcel in his undies? If you haven't checked out Score Underwear, please do. I own eight pairs myself. :)

10th Annual Soaphunks.net Award Nominations Announced!

OLTL newcomer Mark Lawson scored a record-tying eight nods Wednesday as the 10th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations were unveiled at soaphunks.net. 80 nominations were announced covering 16 categories.

Lawson's eight nominations include the top category, Best Hunk, and tie him with Mark Collier's record-setting number of mentions from 2004.

Also up for Best Hunk and scoring four nominations each were B&B's Brandon Beemer, DAYS' Shawn Christian, OLTL's John-Paul Lavoisier, and PASSIONS' Eric Martsolf, who helped that now-cancelled soap to its final haul of eight total nominations, for a series total of 96 nominations.

Christian's nod marks the first time in awards history that a contender for Best Hunk Over 40 also landed in the overall top category. Beemer, Lavoisier, and Martsolf each have one
previous Best Hunk nomination, though none of them has ever won it. Beemer is the only nominee to have also been in the top category last year.

DAYS' James Scott, who won Best Hunk in 2006 and 2007, in addition to summertime Adonis titles both years, was left out of the race this year, though he did score three other mentions,
including Best Chest and Most Shamefully Clothed. (His relative lack of onscreen shirtlessness in 2008 was to blame.)

A total of 42 soap hunks received nominations this year, five more than in 2006 or 2007. With 20 nominations, OLTL led all shows for the first time in history, helping ABC lead the
networks with 33 nominations. (ABC was in last place in 2007 on that count.) CBS scored 28 nods, and NBC nabbed 11. DirecTV's network The 101, which aired the final season of
PASSIONS after it left NBC, got credit for that show's eight nominations in 2008.

Other points of interest:

• B&B had its best year ever in the nominations, thanks to strong showings by Beemer and newcomer Texas Battle. The show managed seven nominations.


• ATWT's Jon Prescott scored a Hunkiest Newcomer nomination, despite the fact that he has already been released from the sudser. Perhaps even more noteworthy was the strong showing of his former co-star, Dylan Bruce. He has also been let go from the soap, but managed four total nominations, tying him for second place this year.


• The two nominations for Y&R's Thad Luckinbill (Best Hair & Most Shamefully Clothed) extend his unfortunate lead in the no-wins race, with 16 career nominations but no trophies.


• GL crashed and burned this year, scoring a worst-ever single nomination (Murray Bartlett for Best Voice).
  
• Like it or not, the absence of James Scott (and GH's Greg Vaughan) in the Best Hunk category sets up the most unpredictable Best Hunk race in years.

The entire list of nominations can be streamed online, while the text version is also available. Complete year-by-year history of the awards is also available online.

As always, voting begins December 1 at soaphunks.net.

Ouch! Metcalfe falls on his award-winning butt

PAS alum and three-time Soaphunks.net Award winner Jesse Metcalfe's good luck almost ran out last week. According to US Magazine, the hottie recently was partying at a World Music Awards after-party in Monaco when he fell 40 feet off of a balcony and was knocked unconscious. He is currently in a wheelchair, and can barely walk. Ouch! Metcalfe is expected to recover--slowly.

I'll take mine with fries

Here's a cute blast from the past: check out DAYS' James Scott before he was an Adonis, and his hunky former castmate, Marcus Patrick, both getting pulses racing in this classic McDonald's commercial. When they look like this, we're all lovin' it!

More sands in the hourglass: DAYS renewed, though Johnson apparently out

After months of speculation, NBC and Sony Pictures TV have reached a deal to keep DAYS on the air, possibly through Sept. 2011. That's good news for Soaphunks.net visitors, as DAYS has won the award for Hunkiest Soap five out of the eight years that the award has been given. Keep growing studs like James Scott and Shawn Christian for as long as you can, Salem!

The downside of DAYS' remaining on the network is that the show has announced that it will be making some "onscreen changes," which include asking its talent to take a pay cut. Sadly, contract negotiations between the soap and hunk Jay Kenneth Johnson have broken down, and the actor has cleared out his dressing room. DAYS is looking to recast the role.

Johnson recently finished in ninth place in the Adonis 2008 contest.

Light's on for Aleksander

GL fans who have been missing the popular character of Phillip Spaulding can rest easy. Word has it that four-time Soaphunks.net Award nominee Grant Aleksander will soon be returning to heat things up in Springfield.

As the Cookie Crumbles

If you like cookies almost as much as you like soap hunks, you might get a kick out of this new online soap spoof, "As the Cookie Crumbles," which a Canadian ad agency has put online to promote Kraft Canada's Peek Frans Lifestyle Selections cookies. Check it out online at asthecookiecrumbles.ca.

Enjoy, and eat up!

Michael Fairman interviews the hunks...and gives us a shout-out

Even though I thought you guys should have beeen checking out Michael Fairman's great soap interview site already, now I really do! :)

In the past couple of weeks, Fairman has debuted interviews with two of daytime's hottest current hunks: two-time Adonis winner James Scott from DAYS and five-time Soaphunks.net Award winner Brandon Beemer of B&B.

In addition to being great reads on regular soap level, Fairman also pumps Beemer for workout info and generally asks all about what it's like being so damned hunky. And in Scott's interview, hear why he hates having his photo taken (sacrilege!) and look for Fairman's shout-out to soaphunks.net...thanks, Michael!

• Michael Fairman's Interview with James Scott
• Michael Fairman's Interview with Brandon Beemer

Passions hunks headed to DAYS

DAYS has scored a double-sided casting coup, scooping up two of the most popular hunks from the now-cancelled PASSIONS.

Daytime Confidential is reporting that Soaphunks.net Award winner and Adonis 2006 Eric Martsolf has been named as the recast for Brady Black, a role that was made famous by Kyle Lowder, now on B&B.

Also nabbed for a Salem stint was four-time Soaphunks.net Award winner Galen Gering. Less information is available about Gering's character at this time, although he is slated to play an FBI agent who has involvement with Nicole (Arianne Zucker).

Both of these actors are known, of course, for extreme bouts of shirtlessness.

Okay DAYS, this is really good news. Now just scoop up Adrian Bellani and complete the trifecta!

Shamefully influence the nominations!

Nominations for the 10th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards will be announced in mid-November, and now's your chance to corrupt the system by sending me your suggestions for who should--and shouldn't--make this year's list of nominees.

Of course, the final decision comes from yours truly, but I am interested in hearing what you guys are thinking in each of the categories. Feel free to e-mail me with suggestions of whom you feel is a must-have in a certain category...or someone who had better not be there.

You have pretty much free reign to say whatever you want, but one thing: please do not write me demanding "John Doe in every category!!!!!" I am looking for thoughtful suggestions across all soaps and multiple soap hunks, not just top-to-bottom fanwanking for one guy.

The categories will be the same this year, and should reflect the Hunk Factor for 2008 only. If your guy hasn't paraded around shirtless since 1997, they probably aren't the best suggestion to make.

A quick run-down:

• Best Hunk: The top award. The nominees in this category must have an at least decent track record of losing that shirt onscreen in 2008. This isn't Favorite Actor; it's Best Soap Hunk.
• Hunkiest Soap: Tell me what soap you think had both the widest array of hunks in the cast, and/or what soap had the most shirtlessness per capita in '08.
• Best Hunk Over 40: You can consult my site's actor pages for many birthdates. As long as he turns 40 by November, he's eligible.
• Most Missed Soap Hunk: Which former soap hunk would you give up your first-born to have return to daytime? They can be recent exits, or long-ago departures.
• Hunkiest Newcomer: Which newbies caught your eye in 2008? To be eligible, freshmen had to have their first major appearance in 2008, or the tail end of 2007.
• Most Shamefully Clothed: Also known as the Steve Burton Unremovable Shirt Award. Who needs to be shirtless all the time, but never is?
• Best Chest: This is everything from the neck to the hips. Sort of like Best Pecs + Best Abs = Best Chest.
• Best Pecs: Just the manboobs.
• Best Abs: Can you do laundry on this man's six pack?
• Best Butt: Can be evidenced in non-soap pictures/videos, if available.
• Best Arms: Got your tickets for the gun show?
• Best Voice: Whose voice alone could melt butter? Not necessarily reserved for guys with accents, but those are often hard to top. I will pay particular attention to American suggestions here, though.
• Best Face/Best Eyes/Best Smile/Best Hair: These should be pretty self-explanatory.

I look forward to hearing everyone's suggestions. Submit them to me by the end of October 2008, and thanks!

~~soapy

John Black: Speedo White

Here's a blast from the past: during his early acting days, DAYS legend Drake Hogestyn (John Black) had a small role in the 1984 TV movie, Glitter, in which he played a cocky contestant in a male beauty pageant. And I quote, "I'm Jack Shephard, 190 pounds of total perfection!" (This as he slathers himself with oil, prior to showing Phyllis Diller how he looks in a white speedo.)

A ridiculous--although admittedly diverting--clip. Enjoy!



Kudos to site visitor MstrBlaster for the heads-up on this one!

Own a piece of 'Passions'

Passions, the supernatural sudser that had a small but devoted following and which showcased its hunks unlike any other soap, will have its official last airing on Aug. 11 on DirecTV.

In sort of a fire sale mentality, more than 750 costumes and props from the series will be auctioned off online on Aug. 9, via icollector.com, eBay, and Premiere Props. Items up for sale include several shirts worn by Adonis 2006 winner Eric Martsolf, although I don't recall ever seeing the stud wear a shirt during his entire run in Harmony. Check out the entire list of items here, and get registered to buy here.

Passions, we'll miss you here at soaphunks.net. For those keeping score, the former NBC sudser amassed 88 Soaphunks.net Award nominations and 22 wins during its run. (And, yes, it is still eligible for more during the 2008 awards this December.)

Egglesfield bumped at AMC

Bummer. The character of Joshua Madden, for which AMC concocted one of the biggest ret-cons in soap opera history, has been backburnered so badly that the soap has bumped his portrayer to recurring status.

That means that the hunkalicious Colin Egglesfield is, for all intents and purposes, off of AMC. What a waste!

Egglesfield was an immediate hit with soap hunk watchers, amassing seven Soaphunks.net Award nominations and winning the 2005 prize for Hunkiest Newcomer. That award may be starting to become a curse: of the seven hunks to win it, only two (OLTL's John-Paul Lavoisier and ATWT's Jake Silbermann) are still with their respective soaps.

McCouch back to ATWT; Prescott out

In a surprising development, fan favorite and Soaphunks.net Award winner Grayson McCouch is set to return to ATWT on Sept. 24, less than a year after being killed off the sudser. No word yet on how McCouch's Dusty Donovan will be able to turn up very much alive.

McCouch is known for a very loyal online fan base, who helped him to strong finishes in the Adonis 2004, 2005, and 2006 contests.

In other ATWT soap hunks news, the latest recast for Mike Kasnoff (Jon Prescott) has been axed from the soap for "budgetary reasons." Prescott took over the role earlier this year, following the tremendously popular Shawn Christian and Mark Collier. Soap hunk fans will surely note that while Prescott was in the role, Mike--one of the most frequently shirtless characters in daytime history--went topless a total of zero times.