We all know former General Hospital, Melrose Place and The Bold and the Beautiful star Antonio Sabato Jr.  is hot, but now he’s going to be Hot in Cleveland too. According to Soaps in Depth, Sabato will appear on the July 20th episode of the TV Land comedy and shares scenes with Wendie Malick’s Victoria.

Photo Credit: General Hospital: Night Shift

We Love Soaps’ Damon L. Jacobs caught up with former General Hospital executive producer Wendy Riche to talk about her time at the show. In the must-read interview Riche shares how she came about casting Antonio Sabato Jr., Steve Burton and Vanessa Marcil in their popular roles.

We Love Soaps: Despite the turbulence we’ve described, you made some inspired casting choices. You chose unknown actors such as Anthony Sabato Jr, Vanessa Marcil, Steve Burton, all of whom made indelible imprints on the show. What was the key to finding and casting these young actors that would find such success on and off GENERAL HOSPITAL?

Wendy Riche: It starts with a vision of character. I would talk to the headwriter and with [Consulting Producer] Shelly Curtis. It starts with characters and archetypes of characters. Good girl / bad girl, but multi-leveled. Then there was the supposed bad guy who comes in with a good heart. We saw this when Jagger’s friends were going to steal from Kelly’s, and go after Ruby. It was designed so that we had a window into Jagger's heart because in his stopping the violence, we knew he wasn't all bad. We knew he was worth saving. From that moment on he was endearing to the audience and everyone wanted to save him, as did Karen and Brenda. So we designed the dynamic, and then I would sit down with Mark Teschner, because you need a brilliant casting director to work with to capture your vision. Casting is a very unique process. You cannot cast by committee. There has to be a clear vision, and Mark found this great talent. He knew what I was looking for and he found them. READ MORE

My Antonio and former General Hospital: Night Shift star Antonio Sabato, Jr. brought daughter Mina Sabato and friends Amanda and Kylie and  to the launch of Millions of Milkshakes, his new store in West Hollywood. See more pictures and watch video after the jump. READ MORE

Antonio Sabato Jr. is looking for love and his quest to find hat "special someone" will unfold on My Antonio, a VH1 show premiering August 16th.

The 10-episode series begins with Antonio's sexy swim ashore to meet the 13 beauties vying for his attention. Within the first few moments, Antonio makes a shocking elimination, leading the women to realize that anything can happen when Antonio is in charge.

"I've been with some of the most amazing women in the world," says Sabato, "and at the age of 36, I'm finally ready to settle down. I really hope to meet that special someone. For me this is not a game. This is real. This is my life."

Okay you knew it was coming. Now that the Idiots In Charge of The-Soap-Opera-Formerly-Known-as-Days-of-Our-Lives have let the phenomenal Blake Berris go, I decided to start out doing a Wishful Casting about where Berris should end up, but it turned into more of an analysis of which soaps are managing to set things up for their next generation the right way, and which ones are getting it wrong, dead wrong.

Much of the daytime industry is experiencing a serious drought in terms of talented, young stars who can actually, you know, act. Save for The Young and the Restless, One Life to Live and General Hospital, the under 30 set at most soaps is pretty much comprised of rejects from the Pamela Anderson School of Acting and Pantomime.  I'll start with the soaps in most need of help and work my way up. READ MORE

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