Dimples on The Strip

Check out People.com's latest video feature, which combines two of my favorite things: Las Vegas and SUBE/Y&R alum Eddie Cibrian's fine physique! On a shirtless photo shoot atop the Palms hotel, Eddie looks as hot as ever. The steamy footage is here.

If this is what People magazine is featuring these days, sign me up for a subscription!

Meet your new Malcolm

The geniuses in the Y&R casting department have found a replacement for the character of Malcolm Winters: former Family Matters star Darius McCrary!

Malcolm was previously played for the better part of a decade by hunkalicious Shemar Moore, who won an Emmy as well as making hearts flutter with some of the hunkiest moments in daytime television history. (Moore is nominated in this year's Soaphunks.net Awards as Most Missed Soap Hunk.)

I'll just say that McCrary may be a fine, talented actor, but whoever made this casting decision clearly doesn't know that there is an entire other dynamic that the audience expects from this character. Epic fail.

(To be honest, the only possible acceptable replacement I could have envisioned for Moore would have been Marcus Patrick.)

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.

GH nabs Scott Reeves for daytime return

Woohoo! One of soaps' most stunningly handsome hunks is headed back to daytime. GH has wooed Scott Reeves (a two-time Emmy nominee) into a recurring role as a recast of Steven Lars Webber.

Reeves is, of course, best known as Y&R's Ryan McNeil, a role he left to focus full-time on his country band, Blue County. During his Y&R run, the abs-tastic Reeves scored 8 Soaphunks.net Award nominations, including one win.

You got to strip dowwwwn to do the Lambada!

From my Youtube channel:

Here's a fun (and ridiculous) clip from Y&R in 1990. Drucilla has been introduced as the soap version of "ghetto," and then she proceeds to insult my Brad's perfect body. This did not put her high on my like list back in 1990! But we get to see Don Diamont in his requisite Speedo, so who cares! (Classic line: "You got to strip dowwwwn to do the Lambada!") Plus, what she's teaching him is hardly the Lambada!

GL's Driscoll Genoa City-bound

From Soap Opera Source:

Daytime Confidential is reporting that former GL star John Driscoll will join Y&R as Phillip Chancellor IV. Driscoll spent 5 years playing Coop Bradshaw on GL before he was written out in early 2009.

Phillip is the son of Nina Webster (Tricia Cast) and the late Phillip Chancellor III (Thom Bierdz). Phillip is also the grandson of Jill Foster Abbott (Jess Walton). The character's name has been dropped a couple of times over the past few months. During Katherine's "funeral," Nina revealed Phillip was fighting in the Iraq war.

According to DC's source, Driscoll will heavily interact with Adrienne Frantz (Amber), Christel Khalil (Lily) and Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe). Also interesting will bethe dynamic between Phillip and Cane (Daniel Goddard), seeing as how Cane turned out to be the "real" Phillip. During Katherine's "funeral," Nina looked at Cane and said "He's no Phillip." Was Y&R foreshadowing a story for the fans? It seems the writers have forgotten the DNA test between Jill and Cane did not match, yet she accepted Cane as her son anyway. It seems the writers have also forgotten the mysterious phone calls Cane made shortly after Jill accepted him as her son. Hmmmmmm….

The last time Phillip graced Genoa City with his presence was in 2001, when he was played by current Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley. Current Sarah Connor Chronicles star Thomas Dekker played the role back in 1993.

No first airdate has been given.

Engen stalled; Driscoll done

The economic woes of the country continue to have trickle down to daytime television, and apparently CBS isn’t quite finished tightening its purse strings. Hot on the heels of the ouster of Y&R's legendary soap hunk Don Diamont comes word that the ratings leader is also letting 2008 Hunkiest Newcomer nominee Chris Engen go, along with Vail Bloom and Michael Gross.

Over at GL, sexy John Driscoll, nominated for Hunkiest Newcomer in 2004, has reportedly been given the pink slip. The exit is rumored to be permanent for his character, “Coop” Bradshaw. E.J. Bonilla and Kane Manera are also out, along with Bonnie Dennison and Caitlin Van Zant.

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.