Ryan Phillippe

Justin Harltey

Her Passions character Gwen Hotchkiss may not have been lucky in love and life, but the same definitely can't be said for Gwen's lovely portrayer Liza Huber. According to Soap Opera Weekly, the child of Susan Lucci's heart (Remember when Erica called Bianca that?) and her hubby Alex Hesterberg are expecting their second child. Son Royce was born in 2006. Congrats to all!

Tabitha and Timmy

Ethan and Theresa

Sheridan and Luis

Sam and Grace

Charity and Miguel

Julian and Rebecca

Sam and Ivy

Luis and Fancy

Julian and Eve

Eve and TC

Chad and Vincent

Fox and Theresa

Ethan and Gwen

Sheridan and Antonio

Tabitha and Julian

There is a new addition to the Young Family arriving!  Jacob Young (JR, AMC; ex-Lucky, GH) and his wife are expecting their first child together, a boy.  According to Soap Opera Digest, the couple plans on naming their son Luke Wayne Young and no, it's not after Jacob's former onscreen father Luke Spencer.   The newest Young arrives this November.

In other AMC Baby news.... Susan Lucci (Erica Kane) is becoming a grandmother again.  Her daughter, Liza Huber (Gwen, Passions) is expecting her second child.

Her turn at bat. Comedienne Marla Gibbs, who shot to fame as Florence Johnston, George Jefferson's jive talking maid on The Jeffersons and later the sass-a-licious Mary on 227, will guest star on ABC Family's sleeper hit Lincoln Heights next season, according to an Essence.com Q&A.

Gibbs, who according to the the interview, has been recovering from an anyuerism and stroke in recent years, is also known to fans of the wacky, soon-to-be defunct DirecTV soap Passions as mean-spirited homophobe Aunt Irma. Glad to hear Marla is still doing her thang!

From the stars who brought us Hope & Regret comes a new web based series, Brawn and Glamour. That's right folks, Smallville's Justin Hartley and Passions' Lindsey Harltey are back! Check out the trailer above and then visit You Tube to comment and subscribe.

Word has it that Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Passions' star Kim Johnston Urlich (Ivy) joined the project and will be appearing on the show.

WARNING: If watching at work you may want to turn down the volume or plug in an ear phone. The Brawn and Glamour trailer includes swearing.

Thanks to LondonMami for the tip!

The 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards has just added Trya Banks, Jimmy Kimmel, Susan Lucci, Barbara Walters and Montel Williams to its list of presenters.

ETOnline is reporting that "Kimmel has been asked to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Regis Philbin, who is being recognized for his 40 years in television on shows such as Live with Regis and Kelly, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Million Dollar Password."

Here are the presenters from your favorite soaps.

All My Children: Darnell Williams, Debbi Morgan and Cornelius Smith
As the World Turns: Jake Silbermann and Van Hansis
Bold and Beautiful: Jack Wagner and Heather Tom
Days of Our Lives: Alison Sweeney, Arianne Zucker and Nadia Bjorlin
General Hospital: Anthony Geary, Sarah Brown, Laura Wright, Kirsten Storms, Jason Cook and Bradford Anderson
Guiding Light: Daniel Cosgrove and Marcy Rylan
One Life to Live: Susan Haskell, Michael Easton, Kassie DePavia, Farah Fath and John-Paul Lavoisier
Young and Restless: Melody Thomas Scott, Doug Davidson and Don Diamont.

As we reported previously, daytime's equivalent of Ryan Seacrest, All My Children's Cameron Mathison and The View's Sherri Shepherd will be hosting this year's award show. 

On today's episode of Daytime Confidential Jamey and Luke visit with Sam Ford, project manager for the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium who wrote his Master's thesis on the daytime soap opera As The World Turns and currently teaches a course on the American Soap Opera at MIT.

We discuss his thoughts on the daytime industry and what it is like as a longtime soap fan to teach a class on the American Soap Opera to students who may not be familiar with the genre. He tells us who his student's favorite characters are and how his work with the Convergence Culture Consortium impacts his perception of the daytime industry.

Be sure to visit his MIT Soaps Blog and the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium.

the Daytime Confidential Player at the bottom of this post or Download us for FREE via iTunes. Vote for us on Podcast Alley. Add us as a Friend on MySpace. Drop by our sister site TV Fan Online and visit with other soap fans in the TV Fan Online Forums.

After reading all the latest news here at Daytime Confidential during your lunch break be sure to check out these great links.

Nelson Ratings - TV Guide Canada
Eva Longoria pregnant? - New York Daily News
"We are young, and we are restless, and we’re not gonna take it anymore!!!" - Tom Casiello Blog
Dressed for a winning role - Boston.com

AfterElton.com just published it's Hot 100 list and at least eight current and former soap hunks have made the list. Justin Hartley, Josh Duhamel, Eddie Cibrian, Mario Lopez, Ryan Phillipe, Jake Silbermann, Jensen Ackels and Van Hansis.

For those of you interested in the stats former Passions star Justin Hartley debuted at #88. As the World Turns' Jake Silberman debuted at #20 but it was his onscreen partner Van Hansis who was only one of two stars to debut within the top 10. Hansis debuted at #7 while Brothers & Sisters star Luke MacFarlane debuted at #3.

Former Days of Our Lives star Jensen Ackles was the only soap hunk on the list who climbed in the rankings  from his previous spot last year. He moved up to #13 from #35.

Josh Duhamel (#68), Eddi Cibrian (#58), Mario Lopez (#37), and Ryan Phillippe (#21) all lost ground on this year's Hot 100 list.

This is not the first time that Van Hansis has topped one of AfterElton's lists as the highest ranked soap star. Back in November AfterElton had him at #6 on their Top 25 Gay Characters in TV History. Daytime Confidential ranked him at #1 on our Top 10 Actors of 2007 list.