Soap

"Another World" isn't the first daytime soap opera to feature fans as extras in a scene or two - but "AW" is the first soap to use 12 members of its audience to serve on an attempted murder trial jury. The necessity for a jury trial on "AW" came about when Brittany Love (played by Sharon Gabet) shot and wounded her evil husband, Peter (played by Marcus Smythe), when he pulled a gun on her in the family stable as she was trying to calm a frightened horse. Now the jury must decide whether Brittany shot Peter in self-defense or whether she tried to carry out a repeated threat to kill him. The lucky fans selected to serve on the jury were chosen from a randomly selected group of 50 finalists, who responded to ads placed in the New York metropolitan area.

When Rebecca Street joined the CBS soap "The Young and the Restless" several months ago, anyone who was paying attention to her character, Jessica Blair, was convinced that the ailing woman had AIDS. Attempts to confirm that those suspicions were correct were met with denials by everyone connected to the soap. Just recently, however, the show's co-creator and head writer, Bill Bell, announced that Jessica's mystery illness is indeed AIDS. The decision to reveal that fact, we were told, had been put off because it wasn't definite until now that Jessica would be an AIDS victim.

When Marlena Brady's longtime friend Tamara Price arrives on August 21 to sing at Marlena and Roman's re-marriage ceremony, many "Days of Our Lives" viewers will recognize her. Singer/actress Marilyn McCoo is originating the role of Tamara. According to an NBC source, Marilyn's role on "DOOL" will be recurring, and the show hopes that she'll be with them for a long time. In the story line, Marilyn's character is slated as a possible love interest for Abe Carver (played by Jim Reynolds)

Despite the fact that he's changing - literally - the face of soaps, Brian Frons, the vice president of NBC daytime, won't take any credit. Frons said when he saw the "bible" for his network's proposed new half- hour afternoon soap "Generations" (due in March), he decided then to alter the show from all-white to half-black. "I just didn't see the point of another soap about the same types of people," he said. "It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that a lot of shows on in prime time several years ago did not deal with older people.

"The Young and the Restless," which is midway through its 14th year on CBS, should be with the network even beyond its next 14 years. Everyone eagerly anticipated the debut of "Y&R" in March 1973, and John Conboy, producer at the time, didn't disappoint. Conboy (now executive producer of "Capitol") had, and still has, a talent for finding new actors that not only looked good on screen, but could act as well. (David Hasselhoff of "Knight Rider," who played Snapper Foster on "Y&R"; and Tom Selleck of "Magnum P.I.," who played Jed Andrews on "Y&R," were Conboy discoveries.

It's something that's never before been achieved on daytime TV: On July 30, "The Young and the Restless" will have completed 500 consecutive weeks - nearly 10 years - as the No. 1-rated soap opera. The milestone will be marked that day by a brief lunchtime ceremony outside CBS Television City that will include the release of 500 black and red (the show's trademark colors) balloons and a speech by the show's co-creator and longtime head writer, Bill Bell. Bell, who created the show with his wife, Lee, said from the moment it debuted on March 26, 1973, he never doubted that it would be a success.

Use soap. Don't use soap. Soak, rinse, wipe . . . How did washing fresh fruits and vegetables get so complicated? Whatever happened to using just plain water the way our grandmothers did? Well, two things have changed since the days when most Americans ate produce out of their own gardens: the use of harsher pesticides and discoveries of more illness-causing bacteria in commercially grown food. U.S. Department of Agriculture data widely reported in May showed detectable residue of at least one pesticide on 73 percent of conventional fruits and vegetables tested and on 23 percent of organic produce.

He stood before his adoring fans, wearing a benign smile and a ripped orange T-shirt. TV soap superstar James DePaiva, "Max" on One Life to Live, was holding court at a charity softball game in Conshohocken that attracted more than 800 fans. All that stood between DePaiva, 30, and his fans was a metal fence that strained with the collective weight of hundreds of star-struck teenage girls. "Max, Max," they cheered. "Just stand there and smile," said another as cameras snapped in Max's sea-green eyes.

An offbeat comedy tops this week's list of new videos. It's easily ahead of competition that includes a creepy horror sequel, a cloying teen drama and a ghastly sex comedy. TUNE IN TOMORROW (1990) (HBO) $92.99. 90 minutes. Barbara Hershey, Keanu Reeves, Peter Falk, Peter Gallagher. As a dwarfish radio scribe who skulks around, Falk walks away with this whirligig of a movie. Based on a Mario Vargas Llosa novel, and directed by Jon Amiel, it's essentially an older woman-younger man romance with a grand farce orbiting around it. Falk is a meddling soap-opera scenarist, a scheming Peeping Tom whose daytime serial takes its plot lines from the amorous adventures of mismatched lovers Hershey and Reeves.

LOS ANGELES - Jeanne Cooper, 84, the enduring soap-opera star who played grande dame Katherine Chancellor for nearly four decades on The Young and the Restless , died Wednesday in her sleep, the actor Corbin Bernsen, her son, wrote on Facebook. Ms. Cooper joined the daytime serial six months after its March 1973 debut, staking claim to the title of longest-tenured cast member. The role earned her 11 Daytime Emmy nominations and a trophy for best actress in 2008. As the years passed, Ms. Cooper brushed aside thoughts of saying goodbye to the show.

You've probably seen the Dove soap commercial in which a forensic artist sketches a woman according to her own description and she looks terrible, and then sketches a second picture of the woman according to a description of her by a stranger, and she looks great. Who is surprised by this? Not me. I could've told you that women are their own worst critics. I also could've told you that forensic drawings make everybody look ugly. But that's not my point herein. The tagline of the campaign is, "You Are More Beautiful Than You Think.

 WILLIAM ROACHE , a longtime star of the British soap opera "Coronation Street," has been charged with two counts of rape involving a 15-year-old girl, prosecutors and police said Wednesday. In a plot twist right out of a soap, the rapes allegedly took place between April and July of 1967. Roache, now 81, was arrested at his home earlier yesterday for the alleged offenses. He has played Ken Barlow on the popular British series - satirized in the Queen video for "I Want to Break Free" - since its first episode in 1960.

It's official: Pine Valley and Llanview, those hot spots of romance and intrigue in the Philadelphia suburbs, are open for business again. And business is brisk. Both All My Children and One Life to Live began their online reincarnations Monday with lively, eventful, dramatically re-tailored debuts. It's ironic that soap operas, TV's oldest, most hidebound genre, with direct roots to the radio era, would be the first to leap across the digital divide. But AMC and OLTL , which were afternoon neighbors on ABC for decades before being canceled two years ago, are now available at any time of the day or night on the Internet, via Hulu or at iTunes (for $.99 an episode)

THE IDEA that a dog's saliva has healing powers has been around at least since the ancient Greeks and Romans. Modern medicine, no surprise, doesn't look kindly on such theories. Soap and water, a dab of topical antiseptic and a Band-Aid are much better treatments for any cut. Because no matter what you've heard, a dog's mouth really isn't cleaner than a human's.   The Great Dane is the No. 1 breed at risk for a sudden, potentially deadly problem commonly called "bloat. " Other large, deep-chested dogs are also at higher risk.

I'm concerned that hoarding is getting a bad name. And I blame cable. I say this because I'm not a fan of clutter, but there are definitely things I save, even though I could end up on A&E. Once again, it's not my fault. Even my faults are not my fault. Yes, that's the kind of grade-A attitude that got me divorced twice. Don't try it at home. In our culture, we get a mixed message about saving. It used to be that saving was a good thing. You saved time, you saved money, and you saved yourself for marriage.

THE TESTIMONY was done, Jerry Sandusky had chosen not to take the stand in his defense, and both sides had rested. It was Wednesday afternoon. The trial was almost over, but it was impossible not to run the thing through your head, again and again: the wrenching testimony of the alleged victims, the sometimes ham-handed defense, all of it. And then it dawned on you. There were a couple of obvious people who were not heard from. It just didn't make sense. Amid the parade of character witnesses, there were people — witnesses to showers, like former Penn State coach Tom Bradley — who should have been able to offer factual testimony to counter several claims made by the people accusing Sandusky of 48 counts of sexually abusing 10 young boys.

Perhaps more than any of the professional sports leagues in America, the NBA is the one that most closely resembles TMZ. With very little prompting necessary, there always seems to be a story about some player wanting a trade or wanting his coach canned or something even nuttier (think former St. Joseph's player Delonte West circumnavigating the Washington Beltway with three loaded pistols on a three-wheeled motorcycle). The 76ers have been above this foolishness for the most part, but they delved into it this past week when an article appeared on Sports Illustrated's website that quoted all-star forward Andre Iguodala wondering why teammate Lou Williams, a gifted offensive player, is "one of the toughest guys to guard in the league, but he can't guard anybody.

DENVER - Peyton Manning stood next to John Elway, holding up a bright-orange jersey with the No. 18 on it. Yes, that could take some getting used to. And now, if Manning's surgically repaired neck cooperates, these two quarterbacks - one in the Hall of Fame, the other headed there one day - think they might be taking a similar photo together, only next time they will be holding a Super Bowl trophy. Manning was introduced as the new quarterback of the Denver Broncos on Tuesday, the four-time MVP taking the spot once held by Elway, who as Broncos vice president engineered the deal to bring the NFL's most sought-after free agent to town.

DEAR ABBY: I recently began going to a new doctor after the one I had been using retired. I like her. She shows a genuine interest in my well-being, seems to diagnose well and I get good results from her treatments. She doesn't keep me waiting and has a charming, warm personality. So what's the problem? She's not very clean. There is sometimes dirt under her fingernails. Her white coat is tattered and filthy, and when she gets close there's an odor that's less than pleasant. Once after touching me, she washed her hands by sticking her fingertips under cold water for a few seconds - no soap or scrubbing.