Lauren B. Martin & Brian Hewson Preview 'You Are Not Special' On WE LOVE SOAPS TV

Indie Soap Award-nominated actress Lauren B. Martin and ISA winner Brian Hewson (both from EMPIRE) have teamed up as producers of the upcoming indie film, You Are Not Special. In a new interview, on location at The Clock Bar in the Bronx, Martin and Hewson preview the film. Martin is known for her role as Camille Bennett on AS THE WORLD TURNS, and also played roles in daytime soaps ANOTHER WORLD, GUIDING LIGHT and ALL MY CHILDREN. The producers of You Are Not Special are currently raising money via an IndieGoGo campaign. Check that out here. Watch the latest episode of WE LOVE SOAPS TV featuring Martin and Hewson below:

Former AS THE WORLD TURNS Star Lauren B. Martin Joins Empire For Season 4 In the Hamptons

The Year of the Soap continues! Lauren B. Martin, who played Camille Bennett on AS THE WORLD TURNS for several years, has joined the cast of EMPIRE for Season 4. The Indie Soap Award-winning series is heading to the Hamptons with a new director and an exciting story planned. Read the new press release from EMPIRE with all the details below:

"With so few soap operas left on network television, the Internet is the place for this genre to grow and thrive, as there continues to be a loyal and dedicated audience.”
-- EMPIRE's new director, Daytime TV veteran, Fritz Brekeller

Two Time Indie Soap Award Winner Comes To The Hamptons
Daytime Veterans Lauren B. Martin and Fritz Brekeller Join Team Empire

MANHATTAN, NY—The popular Indie Soap Award winning online sudser, EMPIRE add Lauren B Martin to their cast and Fritz Brekeller as their new director. EMPIRE is set to resume shooting on location in the Hamptons at the end of March 2012.

OPINION: DIRTY SOAP Loses Some Steam This Week!

Family and the role they sometimes play in relationships is where this week's episode of DIRTY SOAP found its focus. I have to admit that I found this week's episode disappointing after last week's stellar but sad hour. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with it but I wasn't all that riveted while watching. I even thought to myself...am I watching this out of some sort of obligation? I'm not saying that they should capitalize on Kirsten's illness but there have got to be more interesting things happening in the lives of the other cast members.

Soap Lovers Take REVENGE: RATINGS and Critics Agree With Us, It's the Best New Evening Soap on TV

It's official: We Love REVENGE.

Not only is it more proud of its soap opera heritage than any of the other fall 2011 network freshman, it's also the new drama with the most triumphant ratings story. With adults 18-34, REVENGE has won its 10:00 PM slot for five weeks in a row, beating the firmly entrenched CSI and LAW & ORDER: SVU every time.

OPINION: A Heatwave Hits HART OF DIXIE On And Off The Screen Thanks to Wilson Bethel

There almost aren't words for this week's episode of HART OF DIXIE. A heatwave was running through Bluebell. The heat makes people do a lot of very funny things. Relationships were being tested left and right. People were on the brink of making one mistake after another but none of these plot twists compares to the most epic portion of this episode: Wade as played by the god damn how he is so hot Wilson Bethel was shirtless for nearly the entire episode.

OPINION: Penn Badgley's Dan Takes Center Stage In One Of GOSSIP GIRL's Best Episodes Ever

If I were to rank this week's GOSSIP GIRL in terms of my favorite episode, it would one hundred percent make it into the top three. It did exactly what I love: focus on the core characters in large group scenes that plays off their history with one another. It also set up major drama that is going to play out for episodes to come. You know that they are doing something right when I'm even interested in anything that Chuck and Nate are involved in. It seems that they are really thinking about what they are doing and plotting everything very intricately so that plots have lives of their own but also intersect in interesting and unexpected ways. Dan Humphrey and his novel are in the dead center of this year's tale and I am LOVING every minute of it. 

OPINION: All of Our DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Stand Alone This Week

This week's episode of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES was very enjoyable in spite of the fact they once again did the thing that I hate with a passion: separate all of our leading ladies into island story lines (with the exception of Renee who was nothing more then a small appendage to Lynette's tale and a brief blip in Bree's).

OPINION: DIRTY SOAP's Farah and Jenna Show New And Wonderful Sides To Themselves

DIRTY SOAP didn't have that overt theme jumping out that it had over the past couple of weeks but I picked up on my own theme. 

We have come to know these soap stars in very specific roles on this show but things aren't always so cut and dried. Given that I tend to have very strong feelings for both Jenna Gering and Farah Fath, it is obvious that these are the two people I'm starting to re-evaluate in light of events on last night's episode. I didn't realize that I was going to have some shifts in my opinion at the beginning of this episode. 

OPINION: Emily Van Camp Continues to Shine in REVENGE As Character Development Is Amped Up!

REVENGE took a bit of a turn for me this week...in a good way. There was both a procedural element and a level of ease to Emily's takedowns that was starting to become a bit repetitive. This week both of those elements were still in play but the focus seemed to shift from Emily's act of taking the revenge to the effects this particular revenge had on the major players that we are learning about and Emily's ultimate plan to take down Victoria. The stories that have been put into place are starting to ramp up and now that we are four weeks in I am invested enough in these characters that I am eager to learn more about what is going on. 

OPINION: Worming My Way into HART OF DIXIE, Rachel Bilson (THE O.C. alum Rachel Bilson) & Wade Kinsella (YOUNG & RESTLESS alum Wilson Bethel)

In light of HART OF DIXIE's full season pickup, I'm particularly happy to write about it this week. Watching this episode something just clicked for me with the show. I'm on board with HART OF DIXIE. They aren't doing anything different so I can't necessarily pinpoint what it is that made me jump on team Zoe. I was watching on Monday and I thought to myself..."I'm kind of digging this show right now." And now we have a whole season to watch it unfold.

That's not to say I didn't have my quibbles. I will always have my quibbles but for the most part I'm entering into squeal of delight territory. Part of the problem may have been me looking at Rachel Bilson as Summer Roberts from the OC. Letting go of that idea, a typecasting frame of mind I don't normally enter into, probably helped me embrace the show more fully.  Let's take a peek at the goings on in Bluebell, Alabama this week!

OPINION: GOSSIP GIRL Is As Good As It Has Ever Been

Serena returned to the Big Apple on this week's GOSSIP GIRL. I found myself loving just about everything in this episode. It didn't hurt that one of GOSSIP GIRL's many New York nightlife events brought all of our favorite characters together, with the notable exception of Serena who was absent for most of the hour, to have their respective crises blow up in their faces.

A week where I'm loving just about everything that is happening in this upper east side world is a good week indeed. Let's jump right in and see what trouble Blair and company are finding themselves in this week. Take note that I said Blair and company because to me Blair is the focal point of this show. I know that everyone loves Serena but in my heart Blair is where it's at. Plus, regardless where you stand on the Blair vs. Serena battle, Blair is the clear romantic lead of this show right now with three different men harboring feelings for her. Serena currently has no one harboring feelings for her. Hmmm...paging a love interest for Serena. 

OPINION: DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Knows Where The Story Is Going But Still Focuses on Filler

Unlike most seasons of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES the writers and producers seem to know what their good story lines are. If they know the good stuff that they have why do the insist on keeping the focus squarely planted on B story lines that look like they were conceived moments before shooting was to begin , There were four story lines that played out in Sunday's episode: Lynette and her struggle with her sister, Renee helping Lee out with his daughter, Susan and Carlos's burgeoning closeness, and finally Gaby and Bree trying to stay one step ahead of Chuck. Susan, Carlos, Gaby, and Bree should have been driving the story but they felt started to feel like an after though when entire segments would pass and I hadn't seen any of their story being played.

OPINION: DIRTY SOAP's Farah Fath Doesn't Like The Drama. (Uhm...Yes She Does)

DIRTY SOAP is going the theme of the week route and this week's theme was marriage. Subtle is not the word for this particular theme. It seemed as if every other word out of their mouth was marriage. And when they weren't uttering the word marriage the other word that seemed to be a favorite this week was drama. I'm fine with the themes since they are starting to do two of the things I said they should be doing since the beginning: ramping up the Kirsten/Farah feud and more heavily integrating the cast with one another.

OPINION: Emily Van Camp and Madeline Stow Make REVENGE Delicious But Some Others May Need to be Evicted From The Hamptons

REVENGE and I are still very much in love, so any criticism I offer, constructively of course,  is all for the greater good.  I want REVENGE to be around for a very long time;  plus, no show is perfect when it first starts.
Having said that, the biggest problem I'm noticing is that Emily doesn't seem to face any challenges as she  implements her plan.

She has endless resources, and they enable her to do anything and everything.  But in order for this to remain interesting, we need to see some more obstacles thrown in her path, or even, maybe, have one of her revenge plots fail. At three episodes in, we have learned the formula, so now is the time to twist it on its head, and throw us something unexpected. Also, the threads of the story that revolve around Emily, Victoria, Daniel, and Jack are all edge-of-your-seat viewing, but it seems most of the secondary characters and story lines don't add a whole lot, and may need to be rethought.

OPINION: Sum of Rachel Bilson, Jaime King, Cress Williams & Scott Porter Greater Than HART OF DIXIE

HART OF DIXIE is like dating a guy who is perfect for you on paper but the chemistry just isn't right. You have some fun moments and you think to yourself this is someone that I could be with for a long time. But you don't see yourself falling madly in love and wanting to run away with him. This is a cute show with potentially fun characters and what should be the set up for some juicy relationship conflicts but something is missing. Like that boyfriend who you don't know if you have chemistry with, I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Dr. Zoe Hart and Bluebell, Alabama but I'm certainly weighing my options.

OPINION: GOSSIP GIRL's Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick & even Leighton Meester Make This Viewer Squeal with Delight

Watching GOSSIP GIRL this week I came to the realization that everything I find interesting about the show so far this season connected back to Dan Humphrey. My interest in Dan has always fluctuated through the years, but never has it been as high as it is now. When did Lonely Boy become the center of my GOSSIP GIRL universe??Before I start gushing over all things Dan and Blair I'll give you a rundown about what our other characters are up to.

OPINION: What DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Could Be Doing (So It Doesn't Feel Like Work To Watch)

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES eighth and final season continued this week. For a show that has so much talent on every level they seem hell bent on serving up just as much drivel as they do quality television. In case they don't realize it over there, the two don't go hand in hand. The set up for this season is a fantastic way to wrap things up and tie it back to the beginning of the show and Mary Alice. There is no reason for filler, but that has been a problem with this show since the second season. What am I referring to specifically? Their tendency to want to turn their main characters(I'm looking at you Susan Delfino) into buffoons.

OPINION: DIRTY SOAP Episode 2 Focuses On Family (Fary & Bambi!); Farah Is The Breakout Star!

This week's installment of DIRTY SOAP gave us another look into the lives of these fascinating stars of the genre, but I was disappointed about the lack of integration among the cast. Kelly Monaco and Kirsten Storms had a brief encounter at the GENERAL HOSPITAL studio, but other than that everyone was off in their own world. This cast is rich with history and I want to see them playing off of each other more.

OPINION: REVENGE Week 2 is SOAPTASTIC!

The second outing of REVENGE did not disappoint. This show should leave every fan of soap operas squealing with delight, but nothing so much as the epic stare downs that Victoria and Emily inflict upon one another. They don't even try to hide the death glares they are hurling at each other but relish in allowing them to last just a few seconds too long .

OPINION: HART OF DIXIE PREMIERE - Rachel Bilson is delightfully appealing!

Rachel Bilson as Zoe Hart + a warm-hearted feel good drama set in a small town with colorful characters + hunky guys to be the object of Zoe Hart’s affections should have been old school WB GOLD. It wasn't, but all hope isn't lost for HART OF DIXIE. Using voice over to establish Zoe’s pre-Bluebell, Alabama life was fine, but once her cardiothorasic fellowship dreams were dashed the narration should have disappeared as we followed her to Bluebell.  I didn't need to know every last thought that was going through Zoe's head.