LoveLure's Luke and Reid Blog

In today’s update:

• Greg Hernandez gives a shout-out to Eric Sheffer Stevens
• We Love Soaps and Nelson Branco both highlight Van Hansis’s Pale Swan
• Nelson Branco offers his early predictions for the Daytime Emmy’s including his pick for Best Supporting Actor
• Michael Fairman’s Podcast of Nelson Branco’s Soap Opera Spirit Awards postponed, but still this week
• More info (but still no clips) of the ESS John Hancock ads – including some media buy information

And last, this was just too funny to pass up. Stephanie Gatschet (AMCStephanie, ex-Tammy on GL) tweeted:

To answer all who have asked, yes Danny Cosgrove was completely "nekked" under that towel. The shock on my face was an honest reaction! #AMC

Given that I just finished the LONG post on Van’s Emmy reels (one of which was up against Tom Pelphrey’s reel, where he played opposite Stephanie), she was already top-of-mind. Both Tom and Stephanie, BTW, are on the announced celebrity list for this year’s SoapFest event (May 14th and 15th on Marco Island, in Florida), along with Austin Peck (Brad), Ellen Dolan (Margo), Terri Conn (Katie), and Billy Magnussen (Casey). And having seen Billy in person in Utrecht, I can wholly endorse that experience!

In the meantime, Daniel Cosgrove (Chris) finished second to Eric in the ATWT Dankies’ Most Attractive Male Star competition. Plus he was in a couple of Trent Dawson’s potential Emmy clips, and was also in Tom Pelphrey’s GL clips (as a much more likable Bill Lewis). In all of these cases, I was amazed at how much more appealing DC and even Chris was than he was playing opposite Katie and Reid, and especially in the September 16th episode (which I just saw embedded and rewatched today).

For heaven’s sake – he had Reid’s heart already and was going to live happily ever after (or at least until Mike or Simon came back to town). When Luke says that he strongly suggested that they make Chris COS, why the heck didn’t he reply, “Thanks Luke, I’m really honored. And I’ll definitely do my best because I know Reid will find a way to kick my butt or give me a coronary if I don’t” instead of being a wishy-washy undeserving nincompoop? (I don’t think I’ve every actually used that word in writing before!).

But back on-topic. Well at least “on” my off-topic topic. About that towel. I would be remiss if I mentioned towel scenes without a nod to Jamie Bamber of Battlestar Galactica. Those of you who have followed this or read my bios on YouTube or FanFiction.net may have seen that Starbuck/Apollo is one of my other ships. And in fact, BSG was my only material TV obsession prior to LuRe (nothing compared to this, though), not the least of which was thanks to this scene:

[tubepress video=Dr5yCyLdvIE description=false title=false]

There were some hilarious interviews surrounding this scene because apparently Jamie was definitely NOT wearing anything underneath and when he drops the towel, you can see Katee Sackhoff’s Starbuck in the background snickering, which apparently was a real response. Meanwhile, Jamie talks about being “intimidated” being naked in front of Xena on her first day on the set (she’s 1/2” taller than he is without heels, according to IMDb, and I’d guess that underestimates the gap). Not to be outdone, Lucy Lawless was quoted as saying that “Jamie Bamber’s towel (ahem) ‘held itself up.’ ”

If the screencaps from this episode weren’t enough eye candy, Jamie did a photo shoot wearing little more than a towel (with a strategically angled mirror, to boot!) as well as a PETA PSA for “bare skin, not bear skin.” I didn’t think I’d find an excuse to plug Jamie and BSG, but now that I have one, here is a taster:

If you’re not familiar with BSG or Jamie Bamber, watch the above scene again – and then watch the either or both of the clips below before reading the spoiler.

[tubepress video=QOzQYUNf890 title=false description=false]

[tubepress video=Y55qqnHUZIU title=false description=false]

[spoiler]If you’ve watched either of the two Paley Center videos, you’ll now know that the incredibly amazing thing is that Jamie is British and does the whole show in American English. Living here in the UK, I’m particularly aware of differences in pronunciation, and I have to say that I noticed only 2-3 instances in the four-year run (totaling about 10 words) where I thought his British-ism was detectable. Really, he was phenomenal. BTW in the second interview, “candy floss” is the British term for cotton candy!

He and James Calliss (who played Gaius Baltar on BSG) have done several interviews joking about how James gets to keep his accent, and Jamie doesn’t. Hugh Laurie (House) was famously quoted on the subject of acting with an American accent as saying:

It’s like ‘Everybody is playing tennis with a tennis racquet, and you’re playing with mackerel.[/spoiler]

Oh, and for any of you who adore Eric because he’s cerebral, not just a hunk, (Jamie was #72 on the 2010 After Elton Hot 100), Jamie graduated from Cambridge University with 1st Class MA Honours in Modern Languages (the highest you can achieve, according to Wikipedia). He also drama at LAMDA (the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art – like a British Juilliard, if I can be American-centric for a moment) and speaks French and Italian fluently (I think he’s done an interview in French). Plus in the interview, he uses “parochial”, “pertinent” and “eviscerated.” If you’ve read any of my ESS interview liveblogs, you’ll know that I have a thing for men using big words. Squee!

Even if you hate science fiction, there is much in this series to love. If you haven’t seen BSG, I’d strongly recommend watching the pilot miniseries and then the first regular Season 1 episode, “33” which is probably the best hour of television I have ever seen (so yeah, the rest of the series can’t quite live up to that unbelievable start). I have never simultaneously felt like I was on such a heart-pounding ride (not even during a big-screen action flick) for such a sustained time, and yet dreaded that the episode was coming to an end because it was SO good. FWIW, this episode won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Presentation, Short Form, and received an A+ rating from its TWoP recapper.

At any rate, back on-topic. On the subject of towels. Anyone else wonder what Van was wearing underneath his in the Dallas scene?!?

And with that pleasant thought, I’ll leave you with the rest of the news after the jump….

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ETA: 7th March 2011, 7.53pm GMT – It turns out complete results (along with the original ballot) are up on the SoapCentral site. With this data, you can see that Luke and Reid TIED with Carly and Jack for Best Couple with both at 35, both more than twice above 3rd-placed Henry and Barbara. WOW! More highlights after the jump.

SoapCentral has just posted the results of the ATWT-only ballot for the 2011 Dankies. The winners of the ATWT ballot will go on the All-Shows ballot which is live as of today. Voting concludes on Sunday 27th March (I believe at midnight Eastern Time). Click here to vote; you must be a registered member of SoapCentral’s forums to vote.

The good news: the ATWT-only Dankies results are in and Eric Sheffer Stevens won in virtually every category in which he was nominated. This includes:

• Outstanding Supporting Actor
• Outstanding Newcomer
• Most Attractive Male Star, and
• Most Missed Performer.

The LuRe storyline won both Favorite Storyline and Most Memorable Moment. Hopefully this bodes well for this year’s Emmy race!

The bad news: he outpolled screen partner Van Hansis in the Supporting category and the duo lost the Favorite Couple contest to Jack and Carly; perennial favorite Carly/Maura West took home both Favorite Character and Outstanding Overall Performer (as she has every year starting with the 2007 awards).

Then, I don’t know whether to call this good news or bad news: The train wreck lost the Least Favorite Storyline competition to the Mick Dante arc which was truly abysmal and to me lacked any redeeming qualities. Though it lacked anti-LGBT sentiment, it’s hard to argue that it wasn’t truly atrocious on its own, um, merits.

And, oh yeah, Janet beat out both Noah and Chris (both of whom did make the ATWT ballot) for Least Favorite Character.

ETA: 7th March 2011, 7.9.51pm GMT – With the additional details, there is more good news and some quite remarkable news. First – in Outstanding Overall Performer, Eric finished a close second (23% to 20%) to perennial favorite Maura West, and Van Hansis came third at 10%. In Supporting Actor, Van finished 2nd at 26%, well ahead of 3rd pace votegetter Grayson McCouch (Dusty, 16%).

And as a big Benry fan, I was thrilled to see Trent Dawson do so well in the Lead Actor category against the always-awesome Michael Park (36% to 42%) – though that means more competition between Trent and Eric for the Emmy.

As a refresher, the Dankies are a fan-voted award run by the website SoapCentral.com. All votes are tracked by SoapCentral forum user name (I think it’s a moderated forum), and the ballots are fairly lengthy, so cheating is relatively difficult. And judging by the fact that CarJack, Carly, and Maura won as they have for pretty much forever, I’d guess the results were not dominated by Eric-spam, but rather likely included votes from the show’s broader fanbase, including those neutral in the LuRe/Nuke wars.

The first round (beginning January 2nd) of pre-balloting allows fans to nominate in an open-ended “vote” for each category. I think you had to make nominations in a minimum of 10 categories, so this would have been particularly painful to spam. The top 4 or 5 in each category then become part of that show’s ballot. Voting took place between January 31st and February 27th. The winners from each show go up against each other in the All-Shows ballot for the ultimate Dankies winners.

I can’t seem to find the original ATWT ballot for this year anywhere on SoapCentral’s site, but I have most of the nominees listed on my original Dankies post. The complete list of ATWT winners follows below the jump.

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Chris Hughes arrives in town and helps let the cat out of the bag regarding Reid’s being gay. Meanwhile, Noah announces that he’s having his adoption papers nullified and is going to Dallas with Reid for his surgery.

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A few quick reminders:

Nelson Branco reveals his Soap Opera Spirit awards on Monday’s (March 7th)  Michael Fairman On-Air On-Soaps podcast, though surprisingly, I just checked and didn’t see any details. As a reminder, the nominees include:

• OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kathryn Hays (Kim, World Turns)
• OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jon Hensley (Holden, World Turns)
• OUTSTANDING FEMALE ACTRESS IN A RECURRING OR GUEST-STAR ROLE:
  Lesli Kay (Molly, World Turns)
• OUTSTANDING MALE ACTOR IN A RECURRING ROLE OR GUEST-STAR ROLE: Eric Sheffer Stevens (Reid, World Turns)
• OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A DUO: Elizabeth Hubbard and Larry Brygmann (Lucinda and John, World Turns) AND Eric Sheffer Stevens and Van Hansis (Reid and Luke, World Turns)
• THE DOUGLAS MARLAND MEMORIAL AWARD: Helen Wagner, As the World Turn

The Gold Derby’s fan-voted Goldie awards voting closes next Friday, March 11th. Voting is done by PMing the moderator, so again, every vote counts. Eric and Trent are both up for Best Supporting Actor. You don’t have to vote for every category, but you do have to submit a winner and runner-up (top two) for every category you vote in. There are not a lot of CBS nominees, but there is a steady sprinkling of ATWT nominees throughout.

And as a complete non-sequitur, Van’s on-screen dad, Jon Hensley, mentioned in late 2010 interviews that he was pursuing a music career, among other things. Fans on SoapCentral’s ATWT board posted some links to demos that he’s released (would never guess they’re him!). On the LyricWriter.net site, there’s a brief bio for Jon along with links to two demo clips with Jon on vocals: “Sinking Down” and “We’ll Stay Standing.”

Incidentally, I know many LuRe fans are really creative (just look at all those fanfics and videos!) If any of you live in New England, you might find this concept interesting: the above site is run by Jon’s lyricist, Joy Gora, who describes a songwriter’s forum that is interactive and live. Really interesting for anyone interested.

Embedded clips of all of Van’s Emmy reels from 2007, 2008, and 2009, along with those of the eventual winners, as well as 2010’s winner, and some speculation into what would have been Van’s episodes in 2011. Plus the buzz from the pundits, my analysis upon viewing the reels, and other associated research.

In the meantime, in a complete aside, here is something just plain WRONG: I was just filling in the links for the September 9th episode near the end of this post, and searched YouTube on AnthonyDLangford and September 9th. Buried among unrelated links were the two for the episode above, plus one whose thumbnail was Noelle Beck’s Lily in an outdoor setting crying. Except that the date on the episode read September 9, 2009. Looking at the caption, it reads: “Luke and his family hold a tree planting memorial service for Holden.”

Am I the only one who thinks there’s something truly wrong when Luke attends a memorial service for his life’s love on the one-year anniversary of one for his father, whom he thought was dead?” And that in between the two he was told his other father was dead as well?!?!?

All after the jump….

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