— A spokesperson has confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that Julianne Moore will return to As the World Turns before its finale. The star of A Single Man and the upcoming Chloe originally appeared on the soap from 1985 until 1988 playing both identical half-sisters/cousins Frannie and Sabrina Hughes. It’s refreshing to see a Hollywood A-lister be proud of her daytime past. The Oscar-nominated actress is expected to appear as Frannie, who will greet her parents (Bob and Kim) and wish them well.
Amanda Seyfried, Moore’s co-star in Atom Egoyan’s Chloe originated the role of a teenaged Lucy back in 2000-2001. Chloe hits theatres on March 26th. Moore recently guest starred on a couple of episodes of 30 Rock with a dreadful Bostonian accent.
What other famous alumni would you like to see drop by before the world stops turning? Meg Ryan (ex-Betsy), Jason Biggs (ex-Pete) and Lauryn Hill (ex-Kira) don’t really have much going on at the moment. No offense to Noelle Beck, but the show should do whatever it can to beg Martha Byrne to return as Lily. Byrne has often stated that she learnt a great deal about playing dual characters from watching Moore on set in the late 80s.
Check out an old clip of Frannie and Kevin (Steven Weber):
— Daniel Cosgrove (ex-Bill, GL; ex-Matt, Beverly Hills 90210; ex-Scott, AMC) will first air as the new Chris Hughes (Frannie’s younger brother) on March 11th.
— The Young and the Restless recently won the 2010 Writers Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing…take that, Silver Chipmunk haters!
— Camryn Grimes will return to Y&R as Cassie’s spirit/ghost/whatever next week (Mar. 12th in Canada; 15th in US) to visit Nick and Sharon. Honestly, let the poor girl rest in peace.
— Former All My Children star Aiden Turner (ex-Aidan) is following in the dance-steps of his co-stars Cameron Mathison (Ryan) and Susan Lucci (Erica) by appearing in the next installment of Dancing with the Stars. Did you know that the former AMC star appeared in Geri Halliwell’s music video for “Bag It Up” in 2000?
— Days of our Lives fans can expect to see a badass Nicole when Arianne Zuker returns from her two-month maternity leave next week. Zuker told Soap Opera Digest that “The first scene was throwing some woman against the jail room wall,” where she had a lot of fun doing and is happy to be back at work. Nicole wants to figure out who was behind Sydney’s kidnapping and that “What’s killing her is that she can’t remember. It’s been riding on her and she just wants to figure it out.” Zuker is also happy that we’ll be see a more classic Nicole rather than the emotional and sobbing mess we had in recent months.
— Daytime Confidential is reporting that John Callahan (ex-Edmund) is heading back to Salem as the sinister Dr. Baker who helped Nicole switch Sami and Mia’s babies.
— Tonight’s episode of Mercy will feature Alison Sweeney (Sami, DAYS).
— You can check out the list of the 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards pre-nominations at We Love Soaps. The final list of nominees will be announced in April.
