Kimberlin Brown and Antonio Sabato Jr. Come Up Short in Congressional Bids

Kimberlin Brown Pelzer, best known her for portrayal of the evil Sheila Carter on The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless, came up short in her bid to unseat Congressman Raul Ruiz in California's 36th district. Brown Pelzer received 44,416 votes (43.6%) during Tuesday's midterm election against the Democratic incumbent. Meanwhile, former General Hospital and Bold and the Beautiful actor Antonio Sabato Jr. garnered 65,894 votes (40.6%) but lost handily to Rep. Julia Brownley, who was seeking another term in the House.

During the campaign Brown Pelzer accused Ruiz of using a "partisan playbook," calling him a D.C. insider with close ties to special interest groups. She repeated the message of her most recent television advertisement, calling Ruiz the “lap dog” of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Meanwhile, Sabato Jr. was a vocal supporter of President Trump on the campaign trail. He rose to political prominent when he spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Former 'General Hospital' Star Antonio Sabato Jr. Advances in California House Race (CA-26)

Former General Hospital and Bold and the Beautiful actor Antonio Sabato Jr. has clinched second place in the race for a congressional seat to represent most of Ventura County. The top two vote-getters face off in November, regardless of party.

Sabato, a vocal supporter of President Trump who spoke at the 2016 GOP national convention, was leading fellow Republican Jeffrey Burum by more than 2,000 votes Wednesday morning when the Associated Press called the California District 26 race.

Sabato, who appeared on the ballot simply as Antonio Sabato, will face incumbent Democrat Julia Brownley, who had more than double Sabato's vote tally in the primary as of Wednesday morning.

Earlier this year, Burum, a retired Air Force major, had called on Sabato to end his campaign, saying movies where Sabato simulated sex with a man and appeared nude were “pornography” that made him unfit to represent the GOP in Congress.

Christian Soap Opera 'Hilton Head Island' Premieres November 10 on PureFlix

PureFlix.com, a Christian entertainment company, is making a faith-based soap opera set in the Lowcountry. Hilton Head Island will run for 22 episodes on the company's PureFlix digital platform.

The series, which was not filmed on Hilton Head beyond the exterior, interior and environmental shots, revolves around the lives of the fictional Trisk family, who own the fictional ISLE Television Network and fictionally live in the very real beautiful home of a very real couple who really live in Sea Pines.

Hilton Head Island stars Antonio Sabato Jr. (ex-Jagger, General Hospital) as Jude Trisk, Donna Mills (ex-Abby, Knots Landing) as Victoria Trisk, Michael Swan (ex-Duncan, As the World Turns) as Daniel Trisk, Crystal Hunt (ex-Lizzie, Guiding Light), as Elisha Trisk, and renowned game show host Wink Martindale as Pastor Simon Matthews.

The first eight episodes will post on the streaming video site on November 10 that specializes in family-friendly content. Two other seven-episode blocks will be presented in subsequent weeks. PureFlix, like Netflix, requires a subscription, but offers a free one-month trial.

Watch the trailer below.

Soap Opera Alum Antonio Sabato Jr. Is Running For Congress

Actor Antonio Sabato Jr. (ex-Jagger, General Hospital; ex-Dante, The Bold and the Beautiful; ex-Jack, Melrose Place) rose in political prominence after he spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last year. Next he will be running for Congress in California, according to the Republican operative who will act as his top fundraiser in the 2018 race.

Sabato, who filed documents with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, was inspired to run for office during President Donald Trump's 2016 run. Charles Moran, his top fundraiser, told CNN on Monday, and will likely use his connections with the Trump administration -- and the President himself -- to differentiate himself with other Republicans in the district and the seat's current Democratic occupant, Rep. Julia Brownley.

"Brownley is a very junior member in the minority party," Moran said. "Contrast that against ... Antonio Sabato Jr. ... you have somebody who is a member of the majority party who has good relations with the Trump administration."

Sabato's congressional campaign was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Moran noted that Sabato "knows" the President and is close with one of his sons.

While the RNC catapulted Sabato to prominence, it also landed him in hot water, when he incorrectly told ABC News that former President Barack Obama was a Muslim.

"We had a Muslim president for 7 1/2 years," Sabato said. "I don't believe he is" a Christian.
Brownley has represented the 26th congressional district since 2013. She was previously a member of the California State Assembly.

Below are five other controversial Sabato Jr. quotes following the speech:

NEWS, Kimberly McCullough, Antonio Sabato Jr., Rachel Melvin, Katherine Kelly Lang, Eric Braeden, Tika Sumpter

Kimberly McCullough

General Hospital star Kimberly McCullough creates pitch for new series, Hey Day
In her pitch video, McCullough (Robin on GH) recounts General Hospital's rise to fame in the ‘80s and how as a child, she was brought in to play the daughter of international super-spies Anna Devane and Robert Scorpio. There’s tons of classic clips from the soap as well as interviews with Jay Leno, Regis Philbin, and Oprah Winfrey.

Growing up on camera and having to hide her family’s Mexican heritage because an agent once told her as a child that she looked “too ethnic” inspired McCullough to write Hey Day, a fictionalized look at a daytime soap in the '80s.

Soap Opera Stars Kimberlin Brown and Antonio Sabato Jr. Speaking at Republican National Convention Next Week

Kimberlin Brown and Antonio Sabato Jr.

A list of people who will speak when Donald Trump is nominated for president at the Republican National Convention next week has been released, and it includes former soap opera stars Kimberlin Brown and Antonio Sabato Jr. Brown is best known for portraying villain Sheila Carter on both The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. Sabato Jr. played Jagger Cates on General Hospital and Dante Damiano on B&B.

“As a small business person we can’t afford any longer to provide health insurance,” Brown told the Women in Business for Trump coalition in May. She told the crowd that while her business used to provide it, that they no longer afford to do so. Brown also told the audience how badly the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has “sold out Hollywood.” She continued, “how about ‘American lives matter’? NAFTA truly affected the entertainment industry.” Brown added that “the drug cartels are using the farming industry to smuggle drugs.”

Below is a list of convention speakers:

Pastor Mark Burns
Phil Ruffin
Congressman Ryan Zinke
Pat Smith
Mark Geist
John Tiegen
Congressman Michael McCaul
Sheriff David Clarke
Congressman Sean Duffy
Darryl Glenn
Senator Tom Cotton
Karen Vaughn
Governor Mike Huckabee
Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Melania Trump
Senator Joni Ernst
Kathryn Gates-Skipper

'Dancing With the Stars' Season 19 Cast Revealed

The cast of Dancing With the Stars Season 19 was revealed on Thursday and it includes multiple daytime and primetime soap stars.

Former General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful star Antonio Sabato Jr, Lea Thompson from Switched at Birth, Pretty Little Liars' Janel Parrish and All My Children actor Jonathan Bennett are among the stars leading off the new line-up.

Co-hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews announced the celebrity cast live today on Good Morning America in Times Square.

'Fix It & Finish It' Premieres September 8, Stars Antonio Sabato Jr.

Bellum Entertainment and Raycom Media have partnered on the production of Fix It & Finish It with Antonio Sabato Jr., which will be executive produced by Scott Sternberg. Sabato has starred on General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful and recently appeared on Castle. The companies also partnered on Flip My Food with Chef Jeff Henderson.

NEWS: Christel Khalil Lawsuit Update; Chris Fountain Statement; Television Adjustment Act; Antonio Sabato: Wingman; SCANDAL Poster

Christel Khalil Lawsuit: Talent Agency Fires Back
The talent agency representing THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS star Christel Khalil (Lily) has countered her breach of contract suit with allegations of its own. Responding to TheWrap, Mavrick Artists Agency's attorney, Max Sprecher, said that the actress's complaint is "all blue smoke and mirrors" and suggested that she does not want to pay the agency monies owed.

Sprecher estimated that the actress owes the agency "in the ballpark of $20,000 in additional commission," and said she "doesn't want to pay it."

He also refuted her allegation about being sent to a Y&" audition.

NEWS: Michael Easton on John McBain; CASTLE Takes on SAVED BY THE BELL with Antonio Sabato Jr.; Ellen Holly; Victoria Rowell; Mario Lopez; Darren Criss

GENERAL HOSPITAL's Michael Easton on if we will ever see John McBain again in some capacity
"Honestly, I don’t know the answer to that. I’d imagine…they have that character and they can put him up there with somebody else and whoever it is would probably do a great job at it. I don’t know what the situation is. I think those guys are still trying to work out their stuff. And maybe when they do, they’ll allow us to do it. I certainly miss him. I saw Bob Woods (Bo, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) two days ago, so I certainly miss seeing my friends. I enjoyed working with them and if there’s a story there that I can contribute to the show, I would…I would certainly be open to that. We’ll see how it goes. I know they’re doing great and I'm excited for them, I hope it ends up doing really really well."

Facebook's Mobile Site Owes A Debt To 1930s Soap Operas
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg won’t like this message, but someone has to say it. His vast social network lately has morphed into something none of us saw coming: the planet’s biggest soap-opera site of all time, digitally engineered to emulate the great radio-age businesses that Irna Phillips invented in the 1930s.

NEWS: Binge Watching, Shawn Christian, Alley Mills, James Lipton, Melissa Leo, Peter Parros, Tika Sumpter, Antonio Sabato Jr., Jeanne Cooper Deleted Scene

From ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT to DR. WHO, Binge Watching Is Changing Our Culture
Grant McCracken writes: "Why do we binge watch? One way to answer this question is to say, well, we binge on TV for the same reason we binge on food. For a sense of security, creature comfort, to make the world go away. And these psychological factors are no doubt apt."

"I believe we binge on TV to craft time and space, and to fashion an immersive near-world with special properties. We enter a world that is, for all its narrative complexity, a place of sudden continuity. We may have made the world “go away” for psychological purposes, but here, for anthropological ones, we have built another in its place. The second screen in some ways becomes our second home."

Former GUIDING LIGHT actor James Lipton (who also wrote for many daytime soaps) talks about being a pimp in Paris in the 1950s
"I was. It was only a few years after the war. Paris was different then, still poor. Men couldn’t get jobs and, in the male chauvinist Paris of that time, the women couldn’t get work at all. It was perfectly respectable for them to go into le milieu."

"[I represented] a whole bordello. I represented them all, but her especially. I did a roaring business, and I was able to live for a year. The French mecs didn’t exploit women. They represented them, like agents. And they took a cut. That’s how I lived. I was going through my rites of passage, no question about it. It was a great year of my life."

DAYS OF OUR LIVES star Shawn Christian busy with three other projects
No less than three projects consume his waking, non-“Daniel” hours: Spanners, a sci-fi, film noir “loooow budget” thriller, in which he produces and acts as an 8,000-year-old immortal with a “deep-dish monotone” voice; ADDICTS ANONYMOUS, a half-hour, single camera comedy for which Christian and his cohorts (including DAYS actor Freddie Smith) are seeking funding through kickstarter.com; and Carolina Blues, a movie he’s writing, loosely based on Sierra Lantz, the Kent City teen stock car driver who races her pink four-cylinder at Berlin Raceway and other venues. Christian is one of Lantz’s proudest racing sponsors.

NEWS ROUNDUP: Linda Gray Talks Larry Hagman; The Year TV Broke Out In Song

Ariel Winter’s Mother to Sue Publicist, ONE LIFE TO LIVE photos involved
According to gossip website TMZ.com, Chrisoula "Chrystal" Workman (mother of MODERN FAMILY star Ariel Winter and OLTL alum Shanelle Workman) has sent a cease and desist letter to the publicist despite admitting she sent him scantily clad pictures of Shanelle. The letter reportedly warns Jonathan to stop "making false and defamatory statements" because, "Ms. Workman never represented to Mr. Hay that nude pictures existed of her daughter Shanelle." However, the letter later admits that Chrisoula admits sending him two revealing pictures of Shanelle, but she says she found them on the Internet and they were not private because they were taken at a cast party for ONE LIFE TO LIVE - which Shanelle once appeared in - by a professional photographer.

NEWS ROUNDUP: Steve Mosko Staying With Sony. Plus, Shonda Rhimes, Fewer TV Homes, Antonio Sabato Jr., TV Theme Songs

Steve Mosko Staying With Sony Pictures TV
Among Sony's TV projects are daytime soaps THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and DAYS OF OUR LIVES.

Shonda Rhimes on PRIVATE PRACTICE's Big Death
"Amy Brenneman [who plays Pete's widow, Violet] knew, because we spoke about it ahead of time. Because he was her acting partner, I wanted her to know what was going on. Everybody else knew Tim wasn't coming back, but no one knew exactly what we were doing."

Today in Soap Opera History (February 29)

On this date in...

1920: Future soap star James Mitchell, best known for his role as Palmer on ALL MY CHILDREN, was born in Sacramento. He died in 2010 at age 89.

1980: On THE EDGE OF NIGHT, Draper, Miles and Nicole all wait for new from both the delivery and jury rooms.

AOL Video Announces Original Video Slate of More Than 15 Original Web Series for Wide Range of Key Audiences, Including Women, Men, Young Adults

AOL Inc. today announced its new video slate delivering a wide variety of original programming on one of the largest- and fastest-growing online video platforms -- increasing UVs 86% year over year* and ranking No. 1 in key industry categories, including tech, autos, travel, fashion, food and home**. During Advertising Week 2011, AOL is sharing its new slate of original programming spanning more than 15 Web series appealing to multiple audiences and advertising categories. Each program will be programmed and distributed across AOL Huffington Post Media Group sites, providing marketers an opportunity to align their brand messages with distinct target audiences. In addition, marketers can extend their reach by accessing AOL's library of more than 300,000 curated premium videos.