He's been called the literary love-child of Sidney Sheldon and Jackie Collins. On today's episode of Pop Confidential, Jamey Giddens and Luke Kerr welcome author JJ Salem, whose steamy new novel The Strip drops Nov. 8 from St. Martin's Press. The Strip, a companion novel to Salem's USA Today Best Sellling novel Tan Lines, brings back troubled rock goddess Billie Shelton, who has been reformed at the hands of a controlling husband and now sells out casino showrooms in Las Vegas. Billie's best friend is Kristen Fox, a popular chick lit novelist, who has a series on HBO based on one of her raunchy reads. Then there's the two womens' therapist, Jennifer Payne, a marriage and family counseling expert, trapped in her own loveless marriage. When high-priced male gigolo Cam Lawford enters their orbit, these three women find their lives forever altered.

When Salem isn't dishing his new novel, he's talking with the PC guys about the recent TV development boom for classic pot boiler novels, with ABC planning an adaptation of Judith Krantz's Scruples and NBC rebooting The Valley of The Dolls. Could Salem possibly be working on a primetime sudser of his own? You'll have to download the interview to find out.

The talented writer also dishes about the current crop of primetime soaps he's enjoying, from ABC's Revenge to The CW's Ringer. He also shares his love for classic primetime soaps like Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing, all of which he writes about on his own fun blog Bonkbuster Diaries. Any fan of glossy soaps and/or raunchy beach reads should get a kick out of this interview!

Follow JJ Salem on Twitter and visit his official website for more on his must read books.

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While TV audiences are loving every minute of Amanda Clarke/Emily Thorne's (Emily VanCamp) deliciously-wicked plot to avenge her father on ABC's smash Wednesday night sudser Revenge, Em's antics are far from groundbreaking. The seemingly-sweet, yet deadly-as-a-pitbull socialite hails from a long line of primetime drama queens who knew all-too-well that revenge is a dish best served after dark.

10.) Amanda Clarke/Emily Thorne, Revenge

Hell hath no fury like a cherubic little girl, whose idyllic life was turned upside down. When Amanda Clarke's (Emily VanCamp) father was hauled out of their magical, Hamptons beach house and framed for a crime he didn't commit, she lost everything. Flash forward to Amanda learning the truth—that her late father's mistress Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) had conspired with her husband Conrad (Henry Cznery), and their treacherous inner circle of vipers, to make the world believe Amanda's dad David Clarke (James Tupper) had betrayed his country by funding terrorists—and it's easy to see why this particular East Coast heiress has more on her mind than Spring Fashion Week.

Now all grown up and going by a new name, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth socialite Emily Thorne is determined to pay back all of her father's enemies one-by-one on ABC's Revenge. Whether it's drugging one of her target's soup, in order to out his extramarital indiscretions with his wife's best friend, or getting her oddball, tech wunderkind minion Nolan (Gabriel Mann) to literally computer hack apart the lives of those who cross her, Emily is proving she will stop at nothing to get justice for her father.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see if falling in love with childhood crush Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler), a townie in financial trouble;  or Daniel (Joshua Bowman), the Grayson's dreamboat scion (Or both!) will be enough to derail Emily's plans. Let's hope not, because we're having entirely too much fun watching the mega rich and misbehaving get what's coming to 'em! 

Photo credit: ABC

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A quick scroll up and down your TV's schedule finder and you could easily get the feeling it's Old Home Week. With reboots of Hawaii Five-0, 90210 and Charlie's Angels currently in rotation on the broadcast networks, a Dallas continuation coming to cable next summer and a limited run Arrested Development follow-up reportedly causing a bidding war, everything old is definitely new again. With that in mind, I decided to do a little Wishful Casting for my dream reboot of one of American's favorite primetime soaps, Dynasty!

If the CBS mega hit Dallas was the show that personified Reagan era greed, ABC's Dynasty was Dallas on acid and with much bigger shoulder pads. Created by Esther and Richard Shapiro and produced by the late Aaron Spelling, a showrunner so prolific it was once joked ABC stood for "Aaron's Broadcast Company," Dynasty was the campy saga of the warring Carringtons and Colbys, two Denver-based oil dynasties headed up by Blake Carrington (the late John Forsythe) and his ex-wife, the unforgettable Alexis Carrington Colby (Joan Collins).

With sultry primetime soaps making a slight comeback, as both ABC's Revenge and The CW's Ringer are doing solid business, I'd say Dynasty is a primetime franchise ripe for a reboot. I know the creators are planning to take the characters of Blake and Alexis to the big screen in a prequel, but I have to admit, I think these characters play out much better in our living rooms—or on our laptops, as the case may be—than they would in a crowded theater.

The CW has been trying to target more than just tweens and teens in recent years, and could prove the perfect hub for Dynasty 2.0, especially with the netlet's glossiest sudser, Gossip Girl, getting a little long in the porcelain veneer. A Dynasty sequel would be a series The CW's core audience, who grew up on sudsers like The O.C. or Melrose Place could watch with their moms, who came of age while Alexis was catching couture-clad beat downs from Krystal (Linda Evans).

I'd reboot Dynasty: The Next Generation with the show centered on striking, twentysomething heiress Krystina Carrington, daughter of Blake and Krystal, as the female protagonist. The show could launch against the backdrop of Blake Carrington's demise, as the various Carrington children and grandchildren return to Colorado to see just how Blake divided the spoils of his epic oil wars with Alexis, Cecil (the late Lloyd Bochner) and Jason Colby (the late Charleton Heston).

 Who wouldn't want to see Pamela Sue Martin reprise the role of Blake's vampy, eldest daughter Fallon Carrington Colby, now a couragious matriarch and CEO of Denver Carrington? Sorry, I was never a big fan of Emma Samms in the role! Fallon is determined to get what she feels rightfully belongs to her and her children, the now adult Little Blake and Lauren Colby.

Fallon's former sister-in-law and bitter rival, the scheming Sammy Jo Dean (Heather Locklear) would also be skulking around to see if her ex-father-in-law left her anything in his will. When the will is read, it reveals Blake left his shares of Denver Carrington in equal distribution to Krystina, L.B., Lauren and Danny (son of Sammy Jo and Blake's gay son Steven),  thus setting off an epic power struggle between the next generation of Carringtons and Colbys.

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Everywhere you look these days, popular stars from primetime and film are turning up on daytime soaps. I say it's high time Jack Wagner convinced his ladylove (and according to People, new fiancée) Heather Locklear to make an appearance on his CBS Daytime sudser The Bold and The Beautiful. I know the perfect role to facilitate my dream Melrose Place reunion — Locklear could play Eric and Stephanie Forrester's (John McCook and Susan Flannery) ice princess daughter Kristen! READ MORE

Talk about suffering for fashion. According to The New York Post, Joan Collins was rushed to the hospital from the Vanity Fair Oscar party because her gown was too tight! 
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Grab your chinchilla coats! E! Online is reporting a prequel to uber camp-tastic, 80's soap Dynasty could be heading for the big screen! Set in the 60's, the movie will center around Blake learning he is the heir to the Carrington fortune and his romance with Alexis. Dynasty creator Richard Shapiro stated: READ MORE

"We've given thought to the movie before and we've been approached by a lot of companies, but no one seemed to have a proper fix on it. Then suddenly we said, 'Let's do it [ourselves]!'—and we're the ones to do it."