NEWS: Pierson Fodé, Van Hansis, Karla Mosley, Emma Samms, Scott Turner Schofield, Michael Weatherly

Pierson Fodé and Francesca Eastwood

Francesca Eastwood enjoys horseback riding with newly single Bold and the Beautiful star Pierson Fodé
Eastwood was spotted horseback riding in Los Angeles on Friday with Fodé, who plays Thomas Forrester on B&B. Fodé recently split with longtime girlfriend Victoria Justice.

"They've been on a break for a couple of months. They are hoping to work things out and still care for each other a lot," a source told Just Jared. Fodé and Justice met in 2013 while shooting the film Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List.

Scott Turner Schofield seeing the impact of The Bold and the Beautiful's transgender storyline
"A transgender woman of color stopped me outside of a clinic," Schofield told Gay Star News, "she recognized me and said, 'I’ve been watching your story line. It’s keeping me coming back here every day to get my treatments. It means so much to me and thank you so much for being a part of that.'"

"This is a woman who is experiencing poverty and all this tough stuff, she gets to see herself reflected in the glamour of a soap opera and that that really helps her through her day. Hearing that means everything and it doesn’t matter that there are some people who don’t want to see that kind of storyline."

Karla Mosley and Piolo Pascual

Bold and the Beautiful star Karla Mosley presents at the 43rd International Emmy Awards
Award-winning Filipino actor Piolo Pascual presented the award for Best Telenovela on November 23 alongside Mosley, who plays Maya Avant Forrester on B&B. Brazilian novela Império took home the Emmy.

As the World Turns alum Van Hansis reflects on not coming out, previews upcoming roles
"When I first started with the show (ATWT) it was my first job," explained Hansis (Luke Snyder) in an interview with the Windy City Times. "I was scared and very young. I wasn't actively hiding it, but also I didn't want that to define me and I still don't because I think there are a lot more interesting aspects to my personality than the fact that I am gay. Hindsight is 20/20 and it wouldn't have been a big deal if I had come out when I was kid. What was scary is that I did an interview for Out Magazine before it aired on the show so I had no idea what was happening. I told them I was straight and knew it was a lie. I got trapped in that lie. I regret doing that, but it was the only time I was flat-out asked."

Hansis stars as Dusty in a new film, Kiss Me, Kill Me.

"He starts the film as a kept man," Hansis reveals. "He has a long-term relationship and he is in love. He is proposed to at a party and things go sour pretty quickly. That night his fiance is found murdered. Dusty blacked out and doesn't know what happened. He may even be the killer!"

Former Dynasty star Emma Samms loved her primetime soap role, but doesn't miss living in Los Angeles
"It was enormous fun, it was hard work in as much as I had to actually be at work at 5.30 in the morning, which is early, especially as I had a half-hour drive," Samms explained to the Gloucestershire Echo, "so I'd leave the house at 5am, that's pretty drastic!"

"And it means that of an evening you're not going to be, well you shouldn't be, out on the town. You should be learning your lines for the next day and then trying to get to bed early, so I certainly didn't have this wild party lifestyle; I certainly didn't have a Carrington lifestyle! But it was enormously good fun and of course, easy compared to most other jobs, it was fantastic, I was very lucky."

Samms is venturing into new areas these days.

"I'm moving into writing and directing. I've always written, the first screenplay that I wrote and was made was 17-18 years ago, so I've always done that, but it's only recently I've been directing. I've done a short film which I wrote and directed, we're just starting to enter it into festivals now so fingers crossed. I'm currently working on an adaptation of a play into a screenplay (which is proving very tricky) for a feature film, which I hope to direct."

Loving alum Michael Weatherly charged with a DUI
According to TMZ, the NCIS star was stopped for speeding earlier this month in Hollywood and officers determined his blood alcohol content was above the legal limit.

EastEnders character to be killed off in 'tear-jerker' plot
[SPOILER ALERT!] Last month it was announced that Derek Martin would reprise his role as lovable cabbie Charlie Slater in EastEnders, but unfortunately he won't be sticking around for long. The legendary 82-year-old actor will make his Albert Square comeback next year, before swiftly being killed off for good.

According to the Mirror, Charlie will meet his untimely demise in a dramatic "tear-jerker" storyline in January that will no doubt rock the East End. Charlie's daughter Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) – who is also returning to Walford with husband Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) – is going to be left heartbroken after his shock passing.

NEWS: Dena Higley, Scott Turner Schofield, Nicki Minaj, Vanessa Ray, Britney Spears

Britney Spears to guest star on The CW's Jane the Virgin
"We are so thrilled that Rogelio's 'nemesis'—Britney Spears—has agreed to appear on Jane the Virgin in Episode 205," says Jane the Virgin showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman. "Personally, after hearing about their longstanding feud (from Rogelio's point of view), we are eager to hear Ms. Spears' side of the story, which we assume is quite different. #TeamBritney”

Vanessa Ray as PLL's CeCe Drake.

As the World Turns alum Vanessa Ray on how she found out she was Pretty Little Liars' "A"
"We normally don’t get scripts until we get on set, but they couriered this one over to me. I was like, 'That’s weird.' I figured not at a lot was revealed, which is why they sent it around. Marlene texted me right away, 'Did you get it? I’m really excited for you to read it!' So I read it casually in my apartment, and when I got to Page 4, it says, 'It’s CeCe effing Drake,' or whatever word they used. I screamed and I threw the script across the room. My soon-to-be-husband came out to see if I was OK, and I was like, 'You’re not going to believe what’s in that!' It was the Neverending Story book all of a sudden. The script had power, I thought light was going to beam out of it."

Co-head writer Dena Higley takes leave of absence from Days of our Lives
Higley, co-head writer of Days with Josh Griffith, has taken a leave of absence from the soap opera citing personal reasons. There's no word on when Higley is set to resume her duties.

Scott Turner Schofield talks to Perez Hilton about The Bold and the Beautiful's historic wedding involving a transgender character
"Everybody knows a gay or lesbian or bisexual person. Even if it's only Ellen DeGeneres. Now people know a transgender person — Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox, Maya, even maybe me. But in reality, everybody knows a person in their own small town now who is LGBT. People want to see their brother's, classmate's, colleague's lives told well. They demand it with us and for us with their voices and their remote controls and their dollars."

The Bold and the Beautiful casting bisexual character
B&B is looking for a white male between the ages of 25-28 to play the role of "Christian". The character, who works in fashion, is described as being sophisticated, professional, having a great sense of style and possibly a comic side to him.

George R.R. Martin: I'm planning a "bittersweet" ending for Game of Thrones
Martin says the ending, which he hasn’t written, will be in the vein of the Lord of the Rings ending. "I’ve said before that the tone of the ending that I’m going for is bittersweet,” he says.

Antenna TV to show full episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Starting January 1, Antenna TV will show Carson reruns from 1972 to 1992 at 11 p.m. each night. The scheduling of episodes will be carefully curated to run as themed weeks or months, as well as episodes that coincide with notable anniversaries, holidays and other milestones.

The Secret Behind Old Soap Opera Plot Twists
In the mid-20th-century glory days of radio and TV soap operas, audiences—and advertisers—expected new episodes virtually non-stop. But that created a dilemma for cast members. The solution, as TIME explained exactly 75 years ago, in the August 12, 1940, issue, led to some of the plot twists that became central to the drama-heavy genre.

Nicki Minaj originally wanted to be a soap opera actress
Last week, Minaj paid a visit to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in conjunction with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation. She spoke to children about important topics like art, education, and her journey from unknown rapper to platinum-selling superstar. She told everyone that she originally aspired to be a soap opera actress so she could buy her mom a house.

Homeland Season 5 will tackle ISIS, Edward Snowden, Vladimir Putin and Charlie Hebdo
“The first episode’s going to deal with Russia — what’s Putin up to? What’s going on with this tricky relationship there?” says Showtime president David Nevins. “It deals with ISIS. Charlie Hebdo. (Edward) Snowden, cyber terrorism, surveillance. These are interesting elements to the season, which brings a lot of things together.”

Showtime renews Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex
Both shows will return with 12-episode seasons in 2016.

NEWS: Joseph C. Phillips, Scott Turner Schofield, Susan Lucci, Phil Morris, Guillermo Díaz, Peter Krause

Joseph C. Phillips

General Hospital alum and Cosby Show actor Joseph C. Phillips says Bill Cosby is guilty
Former The Cosby Show actor Joseph C. Phillips, who played Denise Huxtable’s husband Lt. Martin Kendall on the NBC sitcom, has pointed a finger at his former TV father-in-law in a column on his website titled, “Of Course Bill Cosby Is Guilty!”

In the lengthy blog post, Phillips recalls that, during his Cosby Show tenure, “my attitude was that if Bill was cheating on [his wife] Camille, I am fairly certain Camille knew. Hey, if everyone who claimed to know actually knew, then certainly Camille knew, and had long ago made her peace with it.”

Phillips was a three time NAACP Image Award Nominee for his portrayal of attorney Justus Ward on ABC soap opera General Hospital.

The Bold and the Beautiful's Scott Turner Schofield speaks transgender truth to 30 Million
Schofield proudly describes how in a recent scene he got to explain to B&B's huge worldwide audience that “violence against trans women is often at the hands of their intimate partners.”

“Getting to say something like that to almost 30 million viewers? Hello!” he says, his husky voice jumping up again into a delighted laugh. “If this was on prime time [television], people would be losing their minds.”

George Lucas, Susan Lucci named as Disney Legends
The man who brought us Star Wars and the woman who was Erica Kane are among the eight people that will join the ranks of official Disney Legends this year. George Lucas, Susan Lucci and the rest will be honored in a ceremony next month during the D23 Expo. Each of the incoming Legends receives a 2-foot-tall bronze Disney Legends sculpture and will participate in a handprint ceremony at the August 14 event. Those prints will be displayed in the Disney Legends Plaza at company headquarters in Burbank, Calif.

Wentworth Miller confirms Fox is in talks to bring back Prison Break
Both Miller and his Prison Break brother Dominic Purcell, who have reunited on The CW's Legends of Tomorrow, say Fox is seriously considering a revival of the 2005-09 drama series. "Conversations are happening," Miller tells TV Line, adding that the conversations are "assuming Michael is still alive."

Peter Krause to star in Shonda Rhimes' The Catch
The Parenthood star is playing a con man, co-starring opposite Mirielle Enos on the ABC drama. She plays a successful fraud investigator who becomes the victim of fraud by her fiancé, played by Krause. He replaces Damon Dayoub, who was originally cast in the role for the pilot.

Anna Camp joins Amazon pilot The Good Girls Revolt
The Good Girls Revolt is set at national weekly news magazine in the late 1960s in the middle of the Women’s rights movement. Camp is going to play Jane, a highly skilled, couture wearing and straight arrow star researcher at the mag.

TNT orders drama pilot from Chad Hodge starring Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery
Good Behavior is based on the Letty Dobesh novels by author Blake Crouch, who also penned the Wayward Pines book trilogy, and Dockery will play the title character. The series will tell the story of Dobesh, a thief and a con artist fresh out of prison whose life is always one wrong turn and bad decision from implosions — just how she likes it. However, when she overhears a hitman being hired to kill a man’s wife, she sets out to derail the job, launching her on a collision course with the killer, entangling them in a dangerous and seductive relationship.

NBC's Aquarius, Hannibal downgraded to Saturday
NBC has run out of patience with its low-rated Thursday drama tandem, revealing Monday that they will move over to little-watched Saturday nights.

Voting now open for the Inside Soap Awards 2015
Nobody can argue that the past 12 months have been some of the most dramatic and spectacular in the world of the great British soap opera. With one massive birthday live week, 12 murders, 4 deaths, 4 births, 5 weddings, a shooting, a train crash, a fire and more car crashes and other disasters than we could shake a stick at, the competition is fiercer as ever. Vote here.

A look back at UK adult soap opera The Box
from 1974 until 1977 Crawford Productions was breaking new ground and blowing traditional taboos sky high with its raunchy adult soap opera The Box.

The series followed the lives, loves and passions of the staff of Channel 12, a fictitious television station in Melbourne. When the program launched newspaper advertisements warned viewers to prepare themselves for the ‘hottest and most provocative series on Australian television.’ Expectant audiences were not short changed, from day one they were treated to an array of deviants, bare backsides, ample breasts and outrageous happenings.

Mexican singer Joan Sebastian, known for love songs, dies aged 64
He also starred in Mexican soap opera Tu y Yo.

"The Unauthorized O.C. Musical" cast includes Tilky Jones, Molly McCook, Brendan Robinson
Tilky Jones will play Ryan Atwood in a cast that includes Pretty Little Liars' Brendan Robinson as Seth Cohen, The Flash's Rick Consett as Sandy Cohen, Jersey Boys’ Drew Seeley as Luke Ward, Step by Step's Christine Lakin as Kirsten Cohen, BuzzFeed editor Jarett Wieselman as show creator Josh Schwartz, Awkward's Greer Grammer as Summer Roberts, and actual O.C. star Autumn Reeser as Julie Cooper. Molly McCook, daughter of The Bold and the Beautiful star John McCook (Eric), has been cast in the Mischa Barton role of tragic popular girl Marissa Cooper.

Cast members from The Wire give back to Baltimore
This weekend, Sonja Sohn and many of her fellow cast members from HBO's Baltimore-set show The Wire are reuniting. The goal of Saturday's theatrical event at the Lyric, called "Wired Up," is to help the people of Baltimore express what they experienced this spring.

"Season 5 fitting #Scandal" Guillermo Diaz wrote
on Instagram.

Spoiler Alert? Did Huck survive the Scandal finale
It looks like Quinn (Katie Lowes) didn't actually kill Huck (Guillermo Díaz), based on a new behind-the-scenes photo. Díaz posted an Instagram on Tuesday of him posing in front of a rack of clothes for a wardrobe fitting.

Richard Jenkins has joined the ensemble cast of Epix drama Berlin Station
Berlin Station is a 10-episode contemporary spy tale that is Epix's first drama series. Jenkins will portray Steven Frost, a veteran of the Cold War who serves as the CIA’s Chief of the Berlin Station. It’s the first series for the actor since playing the deceased patriarch of the Fisher family on HBO's Six Feet Under.

Tarsem Singh to direct NBC's Emerald City
A variation of The Wizard of Oz, Emerald City centers on 20-year-old Dorothy Gale. She tries to break into an underground facility in the Midwest, but things don’t go according to plan. She manages to escape, stealing a police dog in the process, but her getaway route puts her right in the path of a nasty tornado. When she wakes up, she’s in Oz, but this time around, the fabled land is packed with dark magic and lethal warriors.

The Young and the Restless alum Phil Morris narrates Ken Burns-style Game of Thrones Castle Black battle retelling
Morris is now finding online fame in fictionalized retellings of fake battles from films and television shows -- a la Ken Burns-style documentaries -- including Star Wars, Pacific Rim and The Avengers.

Now, the Battle of Castle Black is retold as Game of Thrones steps into the spotlight. Instead of concentrating on Jon Snow or the Night's Watch, the video tells the story from the perspective of one of the giants.

NEWS: Cable Networks Lose Subscribers; Plus, Scott Turner Schofield, Scott Bryce, Ethan Embry, 'Riverside'

ESPN Tightens Its Belt as Pressure on It Mounts
A decline in subscribers as customers trim their cable bills, coupled with rising content costs and increased competition, has ESPN in belt-tightening mode, people familiar with the situation say.

The company, majority owned by Walt Disney Co., has lost 3.2 million subscribers in a little over a year, according to Nielsen data, as people have “cut the cord” by dropping their cable-TV subscriptions or downgraded to cheaper, slimmed-down TV packages devoid of expensive sports channels like ESPN.

Networks such as The Weather Channel and Viacom Inc.’s Nickelodeon have also suffered steep declines in household reach in the last four years. Among other top networks, Time Warner Inc.’s TNT has shed 6% of its base, and NBCUniversal’s USA has lost 5%.

As the World Turns alum Scott Bryce to Host Norwalk Symphony's Broadway Pops Concert on July 12
Bryce (a Weston resident) will be the host for the event and will participate in a meet and greet for sponsors afterwards. Says Scott "I am so honored and excited to host this upcoming special event with The Norwalk Symphony Orchestra. I am especially thrilled to share the stage with Paul Bogaev and all the other remarkable performers joining us. This gift the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra is giving us is truly special. We are very blessed to have so much talent in our various communities in southern Connecticut and as a board member of New Paradigm Theatre, I am so very proud to see yet another example of how that community talent can be "orchestrated" to present entertainment, education and mentoring to all of our young people."

The Young and the Restless launches "Phone a Fan Sweepstakes"
"To enter the Sweepstakes, if not already a Registered User, register to the Twitter Service, watch the Show, find the Show related video presented by the Show talent in relationship to the applicable Sweepstakes via the Twitter Service; and re-tweet such video via the Twitter Service with hash-tag #YRSweepstakes during the applicable Sweepstakes Entry Period to receive an entry into the applicable Sweepstakes."

Meet The Bold and the Beautiful transgender actor Scott Turner Schofield
Schofield’s character, Nick, debuted in May as a close friend of Maya, whom Schofield describes as the show’s “leading lady.” Since then, he has shared screen time with some of daytime television’s biggest stars, including Thorsten Kaye and Jacob Young, calling them “lovely, lovely men.” Kaye, he says, helped calm his nerves on set, while Young took to Twitter to defend the “love story” being told between his character, Rick, and Maya. “What an ally,” he says of Young.

What We Can Learn From Coca-Cola’s Biggest Blunder
On July 11, 1985, following the New Coke debacle, original-formula Coca-Cola returned

Network executives had been understandably hesitant to interrupt the nation’s most popular daytime soap opera. Yet viewers raised few complaints after ABC’s Peter Jennings broke into General Hospital, on July 10, 1985, to tell them that, bowing to public outrage and stunned by the anemic sales figures of its replacement, Coca-Cola was moving to put its original soft-drink formula back on the market.

Merritt Wever Joins The Walking Dead Season 6 Alongside Ethan Embry
Wever will play a character from the fan-favorite comic book when the new season kicks off. Embry is going from Storybrooke to Alexandria and joining the cast too. He'll make his appearance in the Sunday, October 11 season six premiere.

Archie Comics Drama Riverdale Moved To CW With Greg Berlanti Producing
Riverdale, a one-hour drama based on the iconic Archie comic book characters, has moved to CW. The subversive take on the well-known franchise’s wholesome town of Riverdale and residents Archie, Betty, Veronica, as well as Josie and the Pussycats, originally was being developed at Fox.

The Simpsons Duff Beer Tries to Tap Markets Outside Springfield
21st Century Fox is entering the Duff Beer business itself—beginning in Chile, with plans to roll out to more of South America and Europe by early next year.

Ron Perlman talks Hellboy 3, makes General Hospital joke at Comic Con
Ron Perlman had a lot of good things to say while promoting his new Amazon show Hand of God this week in a Comic Con panel. He talked about the unparalleled freedom given to the creative team by Amazon Studios. He talked about how he considers the role of Pernell Harris to be the most exciting of his career. He talked about how true originality is the domain of television now, where it used to belong to cinema. And when asked which of his past movies he loves most, he said “I love all my children equally. And I love General Hospital.” (Zing!)

“We owe the world the finale of Hellboy,” he said. “It’s a deal we made, man!"

Ros Na Rún actor Diarmuid Mac An Adhastair dies
He was best known for playing the part of Séamus Mhicil Tom on Irish language television channel TG4's soap opera Ros Na Rún.

American Idol judge Keith Urban wins big in court versus "Player" trademark claim
A Los Angeles judge tossed a lawsuit by a British songwriter who accused Keith Urban of stealing his band’s name — Player — for a guitar lesson package the singer sells on the Home Shopping Network and online, court papers show.

In a trademark violation complaint filed in federal court, Peter Beckett claimed the “American Idol” judge snatched the “Player” name after Beckett’s band performed its 1978 chart-topper “Baby Come Back” last year on an episode of the daytime soap opera General Hospital.

Scott Turner Schofield Stars in RomCom Web Series 'Ze Said, She Said'

Scott Turner Schofield and Jessica Lynn Johnson

Scott Turner Schofield recently joined The Bold and the Beautiful as Nick, Maya's transgender friend and confidant. Last week, his cute new romantic comedy web series, Ze Said, She Said, premiered.

In the first episode, "We're Engaged!" a Christian woman named Jess (Jessica Lynn Johnson) has just become engaged to the transgender Scott, and the story of how they met and fell in love is explained. We also meet Scott's roommate, Nick (Life's a Drag star Ian Verdun), and the couple's therapist (Zachary Kovarik), who is fresh out of school but willing to take on their complicated relationship.

Watch the premiere below:

Transgender Actor Scott Turner Schofield Joins 'The Bold and the Beautiful'

Scott Turner Schofield

Diversity speaker, author and performer Scott Turner Schofield has joined the cast of CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful as Nick, according to the New York Daily News. Nick is described as a sort of "transgender mentor" to fashion model Maya Avant (played by Karla Mosley).

[Warning: Spoilers below]

"I’m Maya's best friend and I come from her world when she first landed in Los Angeles before she became the huge success that she is," Schofield revealed. "We met in the trans community together. I’m her friend that comes in and kind of help remind her that she is beautiful and whole and authentic exactly as she is. And as things start to happen and discrimination mounts, she can stand strong in who she is and how she made the right choices for herself. So in that sense, it feels like playing myself in a certain way."

Iconic transgender actress Candis Cayne also auditioned for the role.

Schofield, who has already shot 6 episodes, will make his first appearance May 8.