The campiest, kookiest party in soap opera history is under way in the latest episode of Empire. Ponzi schemer Irving Reed (Harlan J. Strauss) has gathered the Havens, Reeds and their various friends and foes for a celebration they won't soon forget, and I can't stop laughing!

Empire truly is delicious, soap spoof fun. Strauss chews so much scenery in this installment, he'd make several former One Life to Live villains bow at his feet. Watch the latest episode of Empire after the jump!
 

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 Former As the World Turns and One Life to Live costars Austin Peck and Terri Conn are expecting their first child as a couple. Peck broke the news on his Facebook page saying, "It's official! We [are] having a baby girl!!" The bundle of joy will be Peck’s third and Conn’s second. Congrats to the couple!

The Lying Game, which stars As the World Turns grad Alexandra Chando and features former General Hospital favorite Tyler Christopher, has cast 90210 star Ryan Rottman, according to TV Guide. Reportedly, “He'll play Jordan, a handsome, athletic, confident teen from Beverly Hills who's new in town and has a secret agenda.”

Photo by PR Photos

 

The legendary Susan Lucci moderated a tribute to her iconic character Erica Kane, as well as several of daytime's recently cancelled soap operas, including All My Children, One Life to Live, As The World Turns and Guiding Light. To help her along, she invited OLTL's leading lady Erika Slezak and her former AMC scene partner Cameron Mathison on stage. While it was nice to see the soaps we've lost honored, it would have been cool if their had been video montages from those sudsers! Watch the tribute below.
 

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Former As the World Turns star Jon Hensley will be reprising the role of Dr. Meade on The Bold and the Beautiful, according to Soaps in Depth. Look for the actor to appear on July 19. 

Daytime vet Brian Gaskill recently held an event for a good cause.  This past May, he was named the director of Garden State Players’ (a non-profit theater company in New Jersey) inaugural summer theater camp.  Celebrating his new spoken word poetry album, Make It Real, Gaskill held an intimate reading at Keyport’s luxe Trinty Resturant, a staple of the quaint Bayshore town.  Proceeds from this night of poetry went to help fund the company’s production of  Footloose.  The musical’s profits will then go towards benefitting a local children’s hospital.  
 
I chatted with the Models, Inc., All My Children, Port Charles, Guiding Light, As The World Turns and The Bold and the Beautiful alum before he took the stage to perform the material in front of an audience for the first time. Gaskill shared the details of his new gig, as well as what he thinks about the current state of television, and the fan efforts to resurrect daytime soaps.
 
Daytime Confidential:  How did you become involved with Garden State Players?
 
Brian Gaskill:  Lauren [Raad], who runs it, is somebody I went to high school with.  She was actually a freshman when I was a senior at the performing arts school at Red Bank. I had started posting stuff on Facebook of these pamphlets that I made up in trying to pursue teaching.  ‘Cause I’ve done it at Red Bank Regional, and other places; I’ve had other workshops at places. When she saw this thing in this organized fashion, and I started to put it up there, she said, “Hey why don’t you come back home to New Jersey and teach for the summer?  We want to start a school for the theater company,” and I was just excited about it.  I wasn’t sure I was going to come at first, but then I decided that [I could] continue [to] do what I’m doing, and could pursue my career, but also broaden my life.  In the sense that when I’m waiting for other jobs, I don’t want to be a waiter, who’s you know, it’s okay to do that, but I’m 42 and I have other things to offer the world, and I love working with kids. I just always wanted to make it [teaching] a part of my life.  Even when I just did it—showing up and helping places, being there for kids, especially for high school—it is something that I’ve always been drawn to.  So, it’s just being part of an artistic community, and starting with her company at the ground floor and helping build it up to do more.  Right now they’re doing Footloose, but then in the future to do more original productions, and make it a real theater company, and help be a part of it. 
 
DC:  You grew up around here, right?
 
BG:  I did.  I grew up in Neptune and Ocean Grove, and I was bussed to Red Bank.  READ MORE