News Round-up

Oscar presenters have soap experience
This year Oscar telecast producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon are going for something with more possibilities, deliberately casting experienced actors -- and one model -- as trophy presenters to bring a little more personality to the job.

The blond, Brad Pitt-esque Trevor Donovan grew wide-eyed as she spoke. "You talking like that just made me nervous," said the former pro-snowboarder turned DAYS OF OUR LIVES (ex-Jeremy) regular.

"I was a little hesitant to audition [for the Oscar job], as an actor," said the chiseled Christopher McDaniel, 28, a native of Bennett, N.C., who has had roles on NBC's DAYS OF OUR LIVES and the new 90210. "I always heard it was bad news to touch an Oscar and then ever expect to get one."

Julia Fowler, who had a stint on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and now teaches Pilates, has recently been trying to get a film project off the ground. She joked that her efforts to manifest this dream by visualizing it, à la "The Secret," may have misfired. A friend of hers told her she needed to focus. "You're at the Oscars," she recalled him saying, "but you're not getting an Oscar."

FCC Preparing Rules for Second Phase Of DTV Switch
he FCC was working Friday on rules to implement the balance of the DTV transition date-move bill. That's according to Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein in an interview for C-SPAN's series, The Communicators. 641 stations have made the move to digital as of Feb. 17, but over a thousand have not. He said that the FCC expects most of those will wait until June 12, but the commission needs to come up with a plan for those that want to move earlier, beginning March 14, which is the next date on which stations can start to pull the plug on analog.

SOAPnet’s Latest Non Soap Programming
Sara A. Bibel blogs: "Thursday night SOAPnet’s new drama BEING ERICA premiered. Another Canadian import that is being presented as a SOAPnet original, BE tells the story of a woman who hasn’t lived up to her personal or professional potential. In short, it’s a pleasant diversion. What it is not, in any shape or form, is a soap opera"

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Soap vet H.H. Chandler
Chandler, author of "Running Naked," (www.runningnaked.net) knows the real story of the wheeling and dealing that led up to our current financial crisis, running with the likes of guys like John DeLorean as they hustled together for investor money back when investors juggled millions of dollars like the clowns at a circus. As a business partner, friend and confidant, Chandler logged more Truth-Is-Stranger-Than-Fiction miles with DeLorean than Hunter Thompson on a three state bender.

“It was like the wild west,” he said. “We should have been wearing cowboy hats and boots, the way we worked,” Chandler said. “A lot of times, we’d be making it up as we went along, all the while dodging creditors or collection agents. The irony was that we had to look like we were successful, even though most of the time we didn’t have two nickels to rub together. In order to look the part, we had to live way beyond our means, with the idea that just one big deal would take care of all the back bills. The only problem was, the goal posts kept moving back every time we got close to a score.”

Chandler spent seven years on playing Detective Sam Fountain on THE EDGE OF NIGHT, Dr. Rico Bellini on THE DOCTORS, Ben Harper on LOVE OF LIVE, Max Decker on TEXAS, an Blue Nobles on ANOTHER LIFE.

Former DAYS actress Camilla Scott (ex-Melissa) has a new business
Scohe has taken on the beauty biz as distributor of the Swiss skin care line, Arbonne. It's available at camillascott.myarbonne.ca.

"The products are 100 per cent pure, balanced, safe and anti- aging," she says. "I'm going to be 50 (in due time; she turns 49 on July 12). I've only been doing it for four months and it teaches your skin to produce collagen. My friend Amy Sky told me about it."

TV cameras cause a stir in Northfield, Birmingham
Residents performed a double-take as dramatic scenes unfolded outside their Birmingham homes. But all the fuss on Shenley Hill, in Northfield, was pure drama caused by cast and crew from the Birmingham-shot BBC soap opera DOCTORS. Locals were surprised to see police turn up at the filming session, but a spokesman for the BBC said police had just stopped “for a chat”.

Lisa Rinna reveals details of her Playboy shoot
"This was really hard for me because being 45 years old and posing for Playboy, you want to amp it up," Rinna told PEOPLE at Tuesday's Room 23 book launch hosted by Diana Jenkins and Neuro Brands.

Rinna explains she received direct orders from Playboy photographer Deborah Anderson, who also shot Rinna for the Room 23 book, which was created by Malibu businesswoman and activist Diana Jenkins to benefit the UCLA Sanela Diana Jenkins International Justice Clinic.

"She said, 'I do not want you long and sinewy and angular and muscular. I want you soft,' " says Rinna.