Setton Departs; Ollian in America?

If you've read my recent Kish posts, you know what a fan I've become of Amanda Setton, who has played Kim on One Life to Live since last June.

I just read the news that, in spite of being offered a contract and a pay raise, Setton has decided to leave the show and head to California for pilot season. She's reportedly filmed her final episode already.

I'm sure that she'll land a great role in L.A. (and, by the way, who knew she'd been in Gossip Girl for a whole season?), but she's leaving behind some big boots to be filled by whoever they recast in the role of Kim. It's just not going to be the same without Setton's unique take on the character.

Since Kim is presumably going to be at least somewhat involved in Sierra Rose's life, this will affect the Kish storyline to some degree.

Hopefully it will also wake the powers that be at One Life to Live up to the dangers of having these great actors and actresses working without a contract! You'll recall that Scott Evans has never been on contract with the show either and if a better offer came along, there would be nothing to keep him in the role of Oliver Fish. Scary thought for Kish fans!

Speaking of gay soap characters, it has been a long time since I've mentioned the German soap Verbotene Liebe, which features the fantastic gay couple Christian and Olli (dubbed Ollian by their fans). If you haven't ever seen this wonderful soap couple, you can follow their entire story from the beginning on YouTube, with English subtitles.

The reason I'm mentioning this now is that an American producer, Sam Martin, has purchased the rights to Christian and Olli's storyline and intends to make an American version of it!

It's funny to think of someone buying just one storyline from a soap opera to make into a series. Imagine if the British, for example, decided that Fish and Kyle would make a great series all on their own, with none of the connecting characters or stories included!

Okay, that would actually be pretty cool, and I think the idea of an American version of Christian and Olli could be great if it's done right. Verbotene Liebe has never held back on having Olli and Christian showing affection, including scenes of the two of them in bed together. They're a very romantic couple. Will the American version be so true to the characters?

I suppose it's possible, especially since HBO has the right to first refusal. Still, it's impossible to imagine anyone but Jo Weil and Thore Scholermann as these two characters, so the show is going to be very different no matter how they do it. It will be interesting to see what develops from all of this. In the meantime, check out the originals on Youtube!

AfterElton's Hot 100

AfterElton's Hot 100 has finally been revealed! I've been anticipating this ever since I submitted my own choices for this year's list and now that I've seen the full list, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. A lot of my favorite guys made the list this year, far too many to mention all of them here, in fact. But I will call out a few that I was particularly happy about.

First of all, of course, is Adam Lambert. I think out of everyone I voted for, I was most interested to see if/where he'd place on the list. As it turned out, he did very well, coming in at number 16! An excellent showing for a guy who not very many people had even heard of just a few months ago. Cutie Kris Allen was the only other American Idol contestant to make the list, at number 98.

Another guy I was interested in was Van Hansis. Last year, he was number 7 on the list, but this year he fell to number 20! I blame the As the World Turns writers for this, mostly because I think they're responsible for all the world's ills. Still, no other American soap star made it any higher on the list. In fact, the only other American soap star on the list at all was Van's costar Jake Silbermann, who came in at number 22.

The German soaps stars, hottie Thore Scholermann and his adorable costar Jo Weil from Verboten Liebe, did better than their American counterparts, coming in at numbers 19 and 17 respectively.

Back in December, I made a list of my own, highlighting my picks for Top Five Out Hotties. I must have good taste, because all five made the AfterElton list: My pick for number five, Randy Harrison, came in at 33; My number four, Chad Allen, came in at 25; Luke MacFarlane, my number 3, came in at... number 3! Cheyenne Jackson, my number 2, was at 7; and my number one pick, Neil Patrick Harris, knocked Jake Gyllenhaal out of his two year reign at the top and came in at number one in this year's AfterElton Hot 100!

Check out the whole list, if for no other reason than to see 100 hot pictures of some very good looking men!

Obviously there are a lot of hot guys who were left off this year, but the most glaring absence for me is Ed Westwick from Gossip Girl. I truly think he's one of the hottest guys out there, especially with his British accent. His costar and roommate Chace Crawford made the list, but there apparently just wasn't enough love for Ed, even though he practically snogged a guy court side at a basketball game this year. What more does the man have to do?! Maybe a sex tape would help.

I'll be back later tonight for a look at today's Nuke scenes on As the World Turns.

Soap Update

Well, after two long weeks offscreen, Luke was back on As the World Turns today, though Noah was no where in sight. Instead, Luke was doing what people in happy relationships on soaps typically spend their time doing: getting involved in other people's storylines.

Today, Luke was there to listen to his cousin Jade's feelings about her newly discovered father who wants nothing to do with her, and her lack of direction in life. He even played career counselor, getting her to check Craig's List for job openings.

Once Jade was off to her instant job interview, Luke found the time to go catch up with his friend Alison and to try and play matchmaker for her & Casey, just as they did for him & Noah a few weeks back. Of course, Jade's new job: keeping Alison & Casey apart, for which she's being paid by Alison's sister Emily, who is also Casey's ex. Nice work if you can get it! Why do none of my job interviews end with people paying me to seduce hunky men away from their potential love interests?!

So, that just about sums it up for Luke today. I was really glad to see him being happy and relaxed for a change after seeing him in so much misery for so long. I'm not too worried about the lack of story, either, because I know there is more coming up for him & Noah in the near future.

I avoid spoilers like the plague, but I do know that Luke's biological father Damian is coming back to town in March. Considering how things were left between them after the last time Damian was in town, there's certainly a lot of drama to be mined between the two of them, especially when you throw Noah into the mix. Damian had enough trouble with his son being gay before there was a boyfriend in the picture to make it even more of a reality.

As for Guiding Light's potential LGBT story, I'm still not sure if it's really going anywhere. In the time since I wrote last, Olivia has found out that her physical therapist also assumed that she & Natalia were a couple and while reassuring the therapist that she was very happy that Natalia was dating a guy, Olivia sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than anyone else.

When Alan Spaulding, the paternal Grandfather of Olivia's daughter Emma, saw the My Two Mommies school report online, he began to make noise about what kind of environment his grandchild was growing up in. Because, God forbid a child have a home with two loving parental figures if they're both the same gender!

Natalia worried that Alan could try and take Emma from Olivia and suggested that maybe she should move out for Emma's sake, but Olivia was furious at the idea and shot it down.

Alan came to check on his granddaughter in person and then told the two women that since he knows the two of them (which he should: in addition to being the mother of his granddaughter, Olivia is also one of his ex-wives and Natalia is apparently the mother of his grandson! Only on soaps!) he knows they're not together, but other people who don't know them will talk and be cruel and he feels it would be better for Emma if they stopped living together.

Olivia & Natalia rejected the request and then had one of those ominous soap moments afterwards when they basically tempted fate by saying the fall out from the My Two Mommies thing is behind them.

Since I'm really not sure if the show is going to go anywhere with these two, I probably won't be mentioning them again unless/until something more conclusive happens between them.

I'm still way behind and trying to catch up on All My Children's Bianca & Reese, so I don't have anything to say about them. Hopefully there will be time this weekend to get caught up on YouTube.

Speaking of YouTube, I practically did a happy dance yesterday when I got to see Olli return to Verboten Liebe after two long months away! His portrayer, Jo Weil, was off doing a play during that time, so the show sent Olli to Ibiza on a working vacation while his lonely boyfriend Christian remained behind in Dusseldorf, listening to the relationship woes of their roommate Judith and trying to help his brother Gregor through an early midlife crisis.

Olli's return was celebrated by all their friends and family and it was just really great to see him and Christian reunited, kissing and dancing and hanging out at the welcome home party just long enough to not be rude before slipping away to be alone together.

The two of them have such incredible chemistry! I hope the show has a good story planned out for them now that Olli is back.

The Germans Just Do it Better

AfterElton has an interview with Jo Weil (better known as Olli on Verboten Liebe) up in the latest installment of Gays of Our Lives, their weekly look at the goings on of gay soap characters worldwide.

Despite having expressed my preference for his co-star Thore Scholermann, I still think Jo is very sexy, and he has the most adorable smile. He & Thore are both very talented actors who really make Christian and Olli come alive onscreen.

Jo sounds like a really cool person, too. Here's part of the interview, but be sure to go to AfterElton and read the whole thing!

AfterElton.com: How do you feel about the way Christian and Olli’s story has been told?
JW: I’m very happy that I’m part of this wonderful love story. When I first heard [about it], I never imagined that Ollian/Chrolli would be accepted by so many of our fans. I’m very proud of that. I have received so many wonderful letters and e-mails from fans that I’m now aware of this fictitious couple’s meaning for so many people from all around the world. It gives them courage, strength and hope and makes them believe in love (again). The fact that I and my colleagues can cause something so wonderful with our work, hey, that makes me damn happy!

AE: What was your favorite moment or scene from this past year?
JW: There are many scenes that I liked – not only those that dealt with special problems, but also those that showed the couple’s everyday life: those moments in which the viewer can simply see that the two men are in love, without using too many words. One of my favorite scenes still is the one when Christian finally confesses his love to Olli. Director Nicole Deppé drew attention to these three minutes in a very nice way.

Another highlight for me is the outing in the boxing ring and the following kiss in front of the cheering crowd; that was very exciting to shoot and resulted in a really good scene.

Speaking of Verboten Liebe, I think I've mentioned that I've also been following an earlier gay love story from the same show on YouTube, one that aired back at the end of 1999 and into 2000, between the characters of Tom & Ulli. In the latest chapter of the story that has been uploaded with English subtitles, Tom & Ulli made love for the first time and I have to say that I was incredibly impressed with how beautiful, romantic, and downright sexy the scenes were! This was nine years ago, and yet here in America our soaps are still dithering about having Luke & Noah finally make love at all.

Someone should make the As the World Turns writers sit down, watch Tom & Ullie (or Christian and Olli) and take notes!