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“Days of our Lives” stars Freddie Smith (Sonny Kiriakis) and Shawn Christian (Daniel Jonas) have a lot to celebrate. In addition to surpassing their Kickstarter page donation goal for their new web comedy project, “Addicts Anonymous,” a new star has joined the cast: “Full House” alum, Lori Loughlin!

Loughlin, who’s also known for her roles on “The Edge of Night,” “Summerland,” and the new “90210,” will play Smith’s character’s mother (opposite Christian, who will portray Smith’s character’s dad) if the project is made.

Check out the “Addicts Anonymous” Kickstarter page for more information and to find out how you can help create the potential web series, which also stars comedy veterans Matt Walsh (“Veep,” “Ted,” “The Hangover,” “Old School”) and Jerry Lambert (“Shameless,” Family Guy,” “Bad Teacher”), and former “DAYS” beauty Molly Burnett (ex-Melanie Kiriakis).

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ABC has consistently brought soap-worthy programming to primetime (“Desperate Housewives” and “Revenge,” to name but two), and the schedule for this fall is no different: Intermixing with popular mainstay shows like “The Middle,” “Modern Family,” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” come thirteen brand new shows, a few of which may spur “General Hospital” and other daytime soaps to come to mind! And Wendy Moniz (ex-Mayor Finn, “One Life to Live,” ex-Dinah Marler, “Guiding Light”) strengthens the soap/primetime connection with a role in the new drama, “Betrayal.” Read on to get the exciting details!

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Maria Arena Bell, who was let go as Executive Producer and Head Writer of CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” earlier this year, was honored on Wednesday, December 12 with a Humanitarian Award for her dedication to arts advocacy during the 14th Annual Women’s Image Network (WIN) Awards, which recognizes and honors exemplary men and women in the entertainment industry including those from the television, film and advertising worlds.

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Photo Credit: Pacific Coast News.

Deadline is reporting Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte is scheduled to make his series television debut when he makes a cameo appearance on the CW’s “90210.” 

Last week Lochte made it known that he’d like to take a stab at television by either competing in an upcoming season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” or possibly finding love on the networks “The Bachelor.”

Lochte’s “90210″ episode is scheduled to air on Monday, October 29.

Photo Credit: ABC

Jason Thompson (Patrick Drake, “General Hospital“) announced via Twitter late last week that he would be appearing on The CW’s “90210,” which returns for its fifth season in October.

“Anyone a “90210” fan? Doing a guest spot tomorrow and Monday..looking forward to it,” Thompson’s tweet said.

“90210” moves to Mondays at 8:00 PM ET/7:00 PM CT on The CW Television Network.

IMDb

According to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” has cast actor Blake Hood in the contract role of Kyle Jenkins Abbott, the son of Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and Diane Jenkins (last played by Maura West). The character left the canvas shortly after  the murder of his mother last year in the soaps yearly whodunit storyline.

In its reporting, The Hollywood Reporter stated “Kyle was originally believed to be the child of Victor Newman (Eric Braeden), but once the truth came out that he was Jack’s son, a custody battle ensued. After the death of his mother, Kyle struggled with anger toward his father and eventually departed for boarding school. It’s unclear which family he’ll return home to when he arrives in Genoa City.” In actuality Kyle and his father left on good terms, but it is likely that the show has changed the storyline around in order to accomodate the SORASing of the character (Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome to soap fans wondering) who is now inline with the age of Abby Newman (Marcy Rylan).

Hood, best known for his portrayal of Mark Driscoll during the second season of the CW’s “90210,” recently appeared in an episode of CBS’ “2 Broke Girls.” The actor has also appeared in ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” FOX’s “‘Til Death,” and NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” In 2010, he appeared as Kennedy Peters-Booth in the box-office hit “Easy A” starring Emma Stone.

Hood is scheduled to mark his “Y&R” debut on Friday, April 27.

Disney/ABC Television Group

After a number of years being relegated to the 11:00 PM time slot (outside of the primetime hours of 8:00 to 11:00 PM), SOAPnet’s same day re-airings of NBC’s “Days of our Lives” are about to replace ABC’s canceled “All My Children” in the 8:00 PM ET/PT slot after the latter soap goes off the air on Friday, September 23.

SOAPnet, which has aired “AMC” in the time period since the networks inception in January 2000, also announced a restructuring of its full lineup that includes the removal of “Ryan’s Hope,” the addition of “Brothers & Sisters” and classic episodes of “All My Children,” “One Life to Live” and “General Hospital.”

According to Soap Opera Digest, the weekend preceding “All My Children’s” final week on television, SOAPnet will air ten “Best of AMC’” hours, which includes five hours on Saturday, September 17 (7:00 PM ET/PT to midnight) and five hours on Sunday, September 18 (7:00 PM ET/PT to midnight).

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Soap Opera Network

(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — On Thursday, June 23, “Days of our Lives” fans finally got their first glimpse of actor Freddie Smith and his character Sonny Kiriakis, despite the NBC drama series keeping mum on the actors casting for more than two months. On Sunday, June 19, on the red carpet at the “38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards,” Smith opened up about what it was like keeping such a big secret, portraying the shows first gay character and whether or not his character will be hooking up with Will Horton (Chandler Massey) as rumored.

“Sometimes I’ll go into ‘Days of our Lives’ and work three hours, where like ‘90210‘ you work 15 hours. So it’s two different sides of the spectrum, but they’re both great though,” said Smith about the differences of working on a daily serial compared to working on a weekly primetime hour-long series. But what about the rumors of who Sonny will be hooking up with (Will being the most talked about)? “There’s been so many rumors and I don’t know. I’ve been filming for two months…I have no idea yet. I’m like waiting to see.”

For more from Smith, watch his Soap Opera Network: On the Red Carpet interview below.

Yolanda Perez/ABC

Will Aiden Turner dance away with your votes on Season 10 of “Dancing With The Stars?”

The Season 10 cast of “Dancing With The Stars” was announced during this evenings airing of “The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love.” In an interesting casting move, ABC’s hit Primetime reality competition series has tapped former “All My Children” hottie Aiden Turner as one of its eleven celebrity dancers this season. The casting is surprising due to the fact that the former ABC Daytime actor (and new father) was fired from “AMC” after being given the opportunity to decide whether he’d move with production of the soap to Los Angeles from New York – and deciding to make the move - last fall. The 32-year old Turner, who relocated his family to L.A. on his own dime following his firing, debuted on “AMC” in June 2002 in the role of Aidan Devane. He last aired in the role in December 2009. Before joining “AMC,” the model and Emmy-nominated actor (2003) appeared on popular British soap operas “Eastenders” and “Crossroads.” Turner will be paired with professional dancer Edytha Sliwinska, who has yet to not compete on a season of “DWTS” since its premiere. (3/2/10)

Turner is the third “AMC” star to compete on “DWTS.” The series, which tapes in Los Angeles, that debuted in June 2005 pairs professional dancers with celebrities (actors, comedians, politicians, musicians, athletes, reality series stars, etc.) that have fallen off the A and B lists, or who haven’t quite made it there yet, in an approximately 10-week long dance competition. In Season 5, “AMC” star, as well as “Good Morning America” and “Extra” correspondent, Cameron Mathison was paired with Sliwinska. Mathison finished the competition in fifth place in a season with twelve competitors. Daytime’s biggest star Susan Lucci, who plays the legendary Erica Kane on “AMC,” was paired with Tony Dovolani in Season 7. Lucci finished the competition in sixth place in a season with fourteen competitors. Of course, it was a “General Hospital” star that started the dance competitions love affair with ABC Daytime. Kelly Monaco of “General Hospital” won the inaugural season of “DWTS” with partner Alec Mazo.

The tenth season of “DWTS” premieres on March 22, 2010 on ABC. The celebrities Turner will be competing against this season include (1) model and actress Pamela Anderson (starred on “Baywatch” which was at one time the most viewed television series in the world; Playboy pin-up), (2) reality-star Kate Gosselin (mother of eight; reality star of TLC’s future reality series “Kate Plus 8” and prior to a messy divorce co-star of the canceled TLC reality series “Jon and Kate Plus 8“), (3) athlete Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson (wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals football team), (4) actress Shannen Doherty (rose to fame on the original “Beverly Hills, 90210” series), (5) singer Nicole Scherzinger (lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls), (6) comedian and correspondent Niecy Nash (starred on “Reno 911!”; corresponds on CBS’s ”The Insider”), (7) athlete Evan Lysacek (2010 Winter Olympic Gold Medalist in Men’s Figure Skating), (8) astronaut Buzz Aldrin (landed on the moon with Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and was the second man to walk on the moon), (9) broadcaster Erin Andrews (sideline reporter on ESPN; recently in the spotlight when nude video was taken of her through a hotel peephole without her consent), and (10) “The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love” star Jake Pavelka.

The stars professional partners will be announced on Tuesday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“All My Children” airs Weekdays on ABC. Weeknights on SOAPnet. Check local listings. “AMC” now also airs online at ABC.com and can be accessed 24/7.

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(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — While many fans are sure to be mourning the loss of Chad Michael Murray (ex-Lucas Scott) and Hilarie Burton (ex-Peyton Sawyer Scott), “One Tree Hill” is not about to let them go without a fight.

Best known for his roles on MyNetworkTV’s “Fashion House” and NBC’s “Lipstick Jungle,” Robert Buckley has signed on as a series regular beginning this fall when “Tree Hill” returns for its seventh season on the The CW.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Buckley will be portraying the role of Clayton – “a brash young sports agent who represents Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) and has become a close friend, ally, business partner and advisor to him while also enjoying the spoils that come from being a wealthy, handsome single guy.” Originally, the role of Clayton was meant for Brian Austin Green (ex-David Silver, “Beverly Hills, 90210“), but a deal could not be hashed out with the actor.

It is being reported that the show will once again jump ahead into the future to advance storylines, this time by one year. In addition to his work on “House” and “Jungle,” Buckley has also made guest appearances on “Ghost Whisper” and on the CW’s “Privileged.” In 2008, he starred in “Flirting with Forty” along-side soap vixen Heather Locklear (“Melrose Place” and “Dynasty“).

“One Tree Hill” airs Mondays at 9:00 ET/PT on The CW. Check local listings.