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.

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.

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)

A local Ukrainian-American group has persuaded several large corporations and private citizens to donate 50 tons of much-needed soap to the Ukrainian people, who have long endured scarcities of many basic necessities. "We have relatives there, plus we had friends who had gone over to visit (the Ukraine), and we know that people don't have soap there, among other things," said Ukrainian Human Rights Committee member Olena Stercho Hendler. "This is just a common, ordinary exchange between people.

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.

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.

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.

* MASTERPIECE CLASSIC: DOWNTON ABBEY, SERIES II. 9 p.m. Sunday, WHYY 12. I HAVEN'T slept well lately, having spent a good chunk of the holidays watching the second season of "Downton Abbey," only to discover that those fiends at PBS' "Masterpiece Classic" had withheld the Feb. 19 finale from critics, leaving us as much in the dark as our readers about the fates of some of the addictive soap's most compelling characters. (Yes, I know, it aired in Britain over Christmas, but I'm not going to peek.

Best fight on TV this month? The Pacquiao vs. Marquez PPV boxing match? The dos Santos-Velasquez UFC title match on Fox? For our money it was this week's Braverman vs. Braverman throwdown on NBC's Parenthood . In this domestic demolition derby, Kristina (Monica Potter) decimated her husband Adam (Peter Krause) when she found out he hadn't been entirely honest about that gorgeous young receptionist he hired. Adam got off relatively easy. The week before, Kristina gave a boy she thought was picking on her son Max a verbal lashing so severe, you could practically feel the kid's growth spurt reversing itself.

Many soap fans - at least the ones with fast Internet hookups - are mourning the news that All My Children and One Life to Live will not enjoy second lives online after all. Personally, as much as I love both shows, I never thought transplanting them to the Web was a viable solution. If daytime dramas had grown too cumbersome and expensive for broadcast, how could the financials work in the cable-access atmosphere of the Web? In fact, with all the cost-cutting measures that Prospect Park, the new owner of AMC and OLTL, was exploring, fans should consider themselves lucky things didn't work out. They might not have been able to recognize their old favorites online.

Question: What are the basics of DryVit care? Our home was built 10 years ago, and we've lived here almost three years. I don't know if it's ever been repainted since installation. Can it be power washed? (It's getting mildew streaks on the shady, damp side of the house.) When it's time to paint, does it require a special product? Answer: The manufacturer recommends that the surface be cleaned every five years. DryVit products include mildew-retarding agents, but mildew can still grow under the proper conditions, especially warm, moist, and shady.

It probably shouldn't have surprised us to see Katherine Helmond turn up in the ghastly precincts of HBO's True Blood this week. After all, the grande dame of the small screen has done everything on TV but host Meet the Press . She's guest-starred on shows from Mannix to The Glades . She's had recurring roles on series including Coach and Everybody Loves Raymond . In TV biopics, she's played everyone...

LOS ANGELES - On the surface, the news that soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" may find new life on the Web after ABC pulls the plug on them sounds like great news to fans of the genre. But the economics of such a move wouldn't be easy. Soap operas have large casts, writing staffs, producers and lots of sets. In other words, they're not cheap. A soap can cost as much as $50 million a year to produce. Thursday's announcement from Prospect Park - an entertainment company whose partners include former Disney executive Rich Frank that has aspirations of creating a Web-entertainment giant - was sparse on the details of how it would pull off moving the two soaps from broadcast television to the Internet.

It was a long, hot summer of great import for the United States - only months after a course-changing election, and on the cusp of monumental decisions about war and tax cuts and, as it turned out, a national tragedy of epic proportions. And America's couch potatoes and their fix-feeding TV producers got lost in the news that fateful summer of 2001 - none of that serious stuff, but the case of an attractive missing-and-later-found-murdered Capitol Hill intern named Chandra Levy, who'd also had a fling with a congressman.