Hunky Baldoni cast on B&B

Yum!!!

B&B further heightened its hunk factor with Friday's announcement of the casting of the ripped Justin Baldoni in the role of fashion photographer Graham Darros.

The hunkalicious Baldoni is best known to viewers of Everwood, Heroes, and CSI: Miami. His first airdate is Jan. 15th...just in time to qualify for a 2010 Soaphunks.net Award nomination as Hunkiest Newcomer. :)

11th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards announced!

With six nods each, DAYS' Shawn Christian and OLTL's Mark Lawson led all nominees Wednesday as the 11th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations were announced live at soaphunks.net. 80 nominations were announced covering 16 categories.

Both Christian and Lawson placed in the top category, Best Hunk, along with B&B's Brandon Beemer, OLTL's David Fumero, and Y&R's Daniel Goddard.

Lawson won Best Hunk last year, while Fumero won in both 2001 & 2002. Beemer is now only the third person to be nominated for the top award in three consecutive years. This is Christian's second career Best Hunk nod, and Goddard's debut appearance here marks Y&R's first inclusion in the top category since 2005.

A total of 39 soap hunks received nominations this year, a tie for the second-most ever. With 18 nominations, OLTL led all shows for the second consecutive year, helping ABC lead the
networks with 33 nominations. CBS scored 28 nods, and NBC nabbed 19.

Other points of interest:

• The good news for CBS: B&B once again broke its own record for nominations, with nine nods spread amongst Beemer, Don Diamont (scoring his 26th career mention), Texas Battle, and Rick Hearst. Similarly, sister soap Y&R had its second-best year ever, with 14 nominations. (The CBS flagship soap received 17 nominations in 2000.)


• The bad news for CBS: ATWT posted its worst showing in six years, scoring only three nominations. What's worse: the de-hunkified sudser saw all three of those nods (Van Hansis, Billy Magnussen, & Jake Silbermann) in the Most Shamefully Clothed Category. Memo to ATWT's powers-that-be: Shirts! Off! More!

• The nominations for Murray Bartlett and Lawrence St. Victor mark the final nods for GL, bringing its series total to 28 nominations...and no wins.

• Will you guys ever give the boy a trophy? The Soaphunks.net Susan Lucci, Y&R's Thad Luckinbill, is back with two more nominations, extending his unfortunate lead in the no-wins race, with 18 career nominations but no wins.


• AMC's Cameron Mathison, suddenly finding himself eligible for Best Hunk Over 40 honors, picked up two more nominations this year, widening his lead as the most nominated soap hunk ever, with 37 career nominations.

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.

Diamont's B&B debut: A hairy situation

Now that Don Diamont's B&B debut as Bill Spencer Jr. is upon us (hallelujah!), it's nice that the soap media is squarely focused on this square-jawed dreamboat again. Ladies & gents, here's your All Things Diamont Update:

First up, the great Michael Fairman just did an insightful interview with B&B's newest resident at his Web site. Check out that interview (including audio!) here.

Next, several soap blogs are abuzz over the surprising facial hair that Diamont's sporting with his new character. As his cheeks remained smooth for 23 years on Y&R as Brad Carlton, this new look is quite stunning for many Diamont watchers. One of those, in fact, is so anti-beard that they've started up a renegade site at BillJrMustShave.com, which chronicles in pictures and videos Don's good ol' days of being stubble-free. It's a fun site to reminisce on even if you don't agree with its premise...

...which I don't! Any longtime visitor of soaphunks.net knows that Diamont is my favorite soap hunk of all time, so I definitely have an opinion on this pressing issue. First of all, I can't blame Diamont for wanting to bring a new look to his new role, after being so closely associated with Brad Carlton for so long (on B&B's sister soap, no less). So there's that...but in my opinion, the beard looks GREAT on him! I'm generally not even a fan of facial hair on my soap hunks, but on Diamont, it just works. Sexy sexy sexy. So there! :)

May I suggest that if we really want to start a Web campaign to convince B&B to remove something from Diamont's body, that it be not his facial hair but instead his shirt? Y&R kept him clothed way too often towards the end, and make no mistake, Diamont still has an Adonis-level body. I just checked and BillJrMustStrip.com is available. Any takers?

Hallelujah! Don Diamont back, joining B&B

This just in from the Dreams Do Come True department: legendary soap hunk and your Webmaster's Numero Uno, Don Diamont, has just announced plans to join B&B in April as Bill Spencer, Jr. This comes less than a month after the 22-year vet's character of Brad Carlton was killed off of Y&R.

I think now everyone can agree that all is right once again in the world.

(Special note to B&B head writer Bradley Bell: The shirt off. And often!)

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

Beemer beams to B&B

The rumors are true, and recent DAYS cast-off Brandon Beemer is set to join B&B later this month in an as-yet-unnamed role. Whispers had been circulating online ever since the actor's DAYS departure that he might be headed to either B&B or OLTL. The length of Beemer's stay is also unclear at this time.

Beemer has been a very popular feature at soaphunks.net since his debut, racking up 9 Soaphunks.net Award nominations and 5 wins, plus a 6th place finish in Adonis 2007.