♥ Updates Page ♥ UPDATED 1/21/12 Below are the changes we have made to the "Program" in the following Sections of the Ballpark to make it easier for you to find them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Meet DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Sexy New Mystery Man... Will This "Pawn" Capture A Queen's Heart? DAYS OF OUR LIVES - Will This "Pawn" Capture A Queen's Heart? Who is John Black? At press time, that's the question plaguing the minds of DAYS OF OUR LIVES fans everywhere. Is he Roman Brady (minus the curly hair and renowned plaid shirts)? Is he Stefano DiMera (younger, thinner, and without the Italian accent)? Or is he just some poor, brainwashed soul? "I really don't know," insists actor Drake Hogestyn, who plays the mysterious Pawn. "But they tell me I'm going to be finding out soon." (Hopefully, by the time you read this!) DAYTIME TV: What sort of reaction have you been getting from DAYS fans? Drake Hogestyn: Fans are behind me one hundred percent. They're convinced I'm Roman. They're always sending me tips on how to be more like Wayne Northrop - different mannerisms and things I should do - like raising my eyebrows a certain way, hitting the table top when I talk, and of course, they want me to wear plaid shirts. Deidre Hall (Marlena) told me the other day, 'If you turn out to be Roman, we're burning all those plaid shirts!' I guess she's gotten tired of looking at them. But actually I'm into that casual look. For a while they were dressing me in blazers and dress pants. I felt like a Ken doll. Now they're getting me into turtlenecks and flannel shirts. That's more me. The other day Deidre said to me, 'I've finally got you figured out. You live on the beach, drive around without a shirt, and work in sweat clothes.' She's got me pegged pretty well (he laughs). DAYTIME TV: How do you get along with Deidre? Drake Hogestyn: Working with someone like her has really lightened the load for me. We're constantly bouncing ideas off each other. Deidre's given me pointers on different techniques and things. DAYTIME TV: Did you always want to act? Drake Hogestyn: No. Originally I wanted to be a baseball player. I was on a Yankee farm team. Then I had a collision with another player while catching a fly ball and tore some cartilage in my knee. DAYTIME TV: How did you wind up acting? Drake Hogestyn: One day while I was in the Yankee organization, a bunch of us guys were sitting around in the locker room reading the paper. We came across an article mentioning that Columbia Pictures was staging a talent search. All you had to do was write a one-hundred-fifty-word essay on why you wanted to come to Hollywood and be a big star. So we all decided we'd give it a shot. I got called for an interview out of fifty-thousand applicants, and wound up being one of thirty chosen for the program. I was shocked, but the Yankees weren't. My coach told me I always acted more like a ballplayer than played like one. DAYTIME TV: What about your private life? Are you single? Drake Hogestyn: Yes, but there is a special lady in my life. Her name is Victoria. She's a real hometown girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana. She'll be joining me in California soon. DAYTIME TV: How did you meet? Drake Hogestyn: It's a pretty funny story. I was fifteen and she was twelve. I was playing baseball with my friends - just standing in centerfield, when Victoria and her girlfriend rode out on a bicycle built for two and started circling me. They told me they just wanted to see what I looked like. Then they rode away. Just then, a fly ball came my way. I caught it on the run and then ran after Victoria. And I've been chasing her ever since. DAYTIME TV: So, you've been together for a long time? Drake Hogestyn: Yeah, a long time. We've been together, broken up, gotten back together again. The whole baseball scene and college came between us at one point. But we always get back together again. My feelings for Victoria are strong. Sometimes they scare the hell out of me. Picture Captions: Drake Hogestyn has no trouble warming up for those tender scenes with his leading lady, Deidre Hall. "I screen tested with five other guys for this role. They were all older than me," says Drake. "I didn't think I had a chance." If Drake wants to please his soap queen, Deidre Hall, he'll just have to light a match to his plaid shirts. Drake (that's him standing on the extreme right) got his primetime start on SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. Richard Dean Anderson (who's next to Drake in this photo) co-starred. The series didn't last, but Drake hung in there. He was up for a guest spot on CRAZY LIKE A FOX when DAYS called. Janet Di Lauro, DAYTIME TV, 8/86 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Drake Hogestyn: A Man Of Contradictions... Romantic, Funny And Very Private Drake Hogestyn, the jocular jock-turned-actor, looks like a Saturday morning commando in a jumpsuit version of khaki-colored Army fatigues ("It's my leisure suit," he quips) as he greets the show's publicist and a visitor in the lobby of the two-story studio where DAYS OF OUR LIVES is taped daily on the Sunset-Gower lot in Hollywood. (The show is working Saturdays to put enough episodes in the can so the cast and crew can enjoy a year's end hiatus.) Through the circuitous halls of the studio, the playful blue-eyed six-footer leads his guests to a dressing room on the first floor, talking football scores, plays, etcetera to anyone he meets along the way. (OOPS! This is wrong. According to the biography given out in the fan club kits, Drake is six-foot-one.) Settling on a sofa in his dressing room, Hogestyn begins a free-flowing conversation, reminiscing about his first audition for DAYS OF OUR LIVES back in November 1985 and moving on from there. The former minor-leaguer (he played for the Yankees) loves to talk. It must be his favorite sport - well, after baseball and football and amore (not necessarily in that order). He is a raconteur, albeit an earthy one, with a phenomenal memory for dates and the minutest of details to flesh out an anecdote. It's been two years since Hogestyn first showed up in Salem as the mysterious John Black, later revealed to be Roman Brady with a new face. Indeed, the show had pulled off a major coup in getting the DAYS fans (notorious for their steadfast devotion to certain characters) to accept another actor in a role created by the incredibly popular Wayne Northrop. How has the character of Roman changed in the past two years? "About one-hundred-eighty degrees," Hogestyn answers in that rapid-fire delivery (almost like a 'play by play'). "Yeah, they've opened him up and let more of my personality come out. Not all of it." A grin. "They don't let him be as crazy as I really am." Hogestyn's personal publicist arrives. She delivers an AM Cleveland baseball cap to the actor, which he promptly plants on his head. The talk turns to his personal appearances around the country. "People see me in person and they think, 'This isn't Roman Brady,'" he says with a laugh. "I really have fun, but I kind of wonder if that's counterproductive sometimes. I get a lot of mail that says, 'WOW, you are so much different. I wish that personality would come out more in Roman.' But you gotta remember the guy is a cop. He was an agent. He's cut from a little different mold, and he's there, y'know, for the checks and balances against the bad guys. Roman, being the good guy, is going to take a stand, give an opinion. And so that way, I have to cut myself back - but there are certain moments." Which introduces Hogestyn's leading lady, Genie Francis (who plays Diana Colville), into the conversation. "We play around with the script quite a bit," he says. "They have given us license - to a degree - to have fun with it more, to find some moments in the script. The situations in Greece - even though they were intense and dangerous - we were allowed to add some levity through the dialogue." Adding: "It makes for good banter, makes it exciting fast." The actor says he doesn't understand the word "chemistry," but acknowledges there is something special that ignites between him and Francis when they are on screen together. "I like Genie. I tease the heck out of her. I tell her sometimes, 'If I tease you too much, just let me know, okay? Just raise your hand, and I'll know you've had enough.'" "Now, Genie is an 'actress,'" continues Hogestyn, "and that's from a different school of thought than I come from. She's focused, she does her homework. Not to say that I don't. I keep saying, 'Hey, I don't know what I'm doin' out there.' That's a bunch of bull. I'm really serious about my work here." They go about preparing for a scene differently? "We do," Hogestyn says. "Because I haven't taken a whole lot of training - and it shows. But I just try to look at each scene as a dance, and at the end of that two-three minute scene, I say to myself, 'Did we get our point across to the people watching?' However we arrive at it, that's just between Genie and me. We should find the beats there and work at it together and she's good about giving her time to make it work." About life away from the television studio, Hogestyn is more guarded. It is known that he shares a place at Malibu with his wife of one year, Victoria. (OOPS! This is wrong. Typo alert! In our opinion it should be "It is known that he shares a place in Malibu with his wife of one year, Victoria," not "It is known that he shares a place at Malibu with his wife of one year, Victoria.") They were married on New Year's Eve day 1986 at his parents' home in Connecticut "in between the football games," he jokes. The romanticist in him is revealed, though, when he looks at the "classic love" of Roman and his late wife, Marlena (played by Deidre Hall), describing it as "the perfect relationship. That's what people need to see, that it really does happen. That's like my wife and I - as far as I'm concerned. I've known her since I was fifteen and she was twelve." They were childhood sweethearts growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (It was at times, however, a tumultuous relationship, and for a seven-year period, they were separated.) The couple has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Whitney. Last summer at the first annual DAYS OF OUR LIVES family picnic, the actor was observed politely turning down photographer requests to take pictures of him and his daughter. Does he prefer to keep Whitney out of the limelight? "Yeah," he says with a sigh. "I like to accentuate the work, because I don't talk too much about the personal stuff." But the proud father in Hogestyn gets the better of him. "She's just beautiful," he says in the next breath. "I sat and looked at her for an hour last night. She's such a blend (of both parents)." In a previous interview, Hogestyn confessed, "There is a very serious side to me that I mask very well." Who else, besides his wife, sees that sensitive side of him? "People who know me real well - and that's not too many people." What made him decide to go that private route? "I don't know," Drake Hogestyn shrugs. "Genie said something today. 'You're more serious about this business than you let on.' But I have fun with it. And I think everybody needs to be lifted up a little bit. There are just too many sour things going on in this world. Not that I'm ever a 'life of the party,' but I have fun. People always associate with positive energy anyway. And so you can be a little sparkplug and make someone laugh - and I usually get them that way by telling very crude jokes." Picture Captions: (Picture Description: It is forbidden to scan material from any magazine, newspaper or book, so we'll instead try to draw you a picture, regarding how adorable and precious the following pictures are.) The real leading lady in Drake's life is his wife Victoria. (Oh my goodness, some photographs are just so full of sweetness, tenderness and warmth. In this one of Drake and his beautiful wife, Victoria, Drake has his arms grasped tightly around her shoulders. Drake is wearing his favorite California Angels ball cap, but instead of him wearing his trademark matching baseball jacket that he always sports, his wife instead is wearing his Brooklyn jacket! So precious! These two really are childhood sweethearts and Hollywood's most delightful couple. They're truly pulchritudinous, which means physically beautiful, YEAH BABY!) Drake prefers to keep daughter, Whitney Nicole, out of the limelight, but can't you tell that she's that "apple of his eye." (If you all were looking at this picture like I am, you'd agree that it should be on the cover of TODAY'S PARENT! It is beyond precious! We think it was taken in 1986 or 1987, because Drake is wearing his DAYS baseball team shirt from when many DAYS OF OUR LIVES cast members played on a baseball team together. Victoria and Whitney were his own personal cheerleading squad and went to all the games with Drake and visited with Drake's fans after the game. In this picture, Drake has Whitney perched on his shoulders and is lovingly looking up at her while Whitney tenderly looks down at her daddy and smiles. Whitney has clutched in her hand a Minnie Mouse helium balloon on a stick. We're pretty sure Drake's fans gave this to her since Whitney loves Minnie Mouse. We even have an article on our website talking about how Drake makes Mickey Mouse pancakes for his children! Yep, Drake Hogestyn, the world's best daddy, and that's a fact!) David Johnson, SOAP OPERA UPDATE, 2/29/88 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Valentine Special! Fun And Games At Our Cover Shoot: (Please Note: This should say "Columbia Pictures," not "Columbia" in this article to keep consistency throughout our website. We always refrain from using shortcuts or abbreviations, even though the magazine chose to do this for space constraints.) One of my responsibilities as a publicist for Columbia Pictures was to coordinate photo sessions, like the one on this cover. Without divulging too many behind-the-scenes secrets, readers, I can say it was shot at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center! Genie and Drake had just finished a thirteen-hour day at DAYS and arrived at about 7:00 PM. Carol Brown re-did Genie's make-up. After all, this was to be a romantic, black-tie occasion look, different from a typical day between cop and scribe. Paulette Lewis whipped Genie's hair into shape (with the help of Drake's hairdryer) in two styles, so that our editors could have a little variety. Check-list: we've got the flowers, the chocolates are not melting under these hot lights...where's the loveseat that photographer Gene Arias physically picked up pre-shoot?...This was a real make-shift environment at the corral, with restrooms used as dressing rooms. Drake's wacky sense of humor kept energy up. Not only did he entertain his fair lady, but also the entourage of publicists, business managers, wardrobe people and friends that go with the territory of a shoot. But what kept Hogestyn's energy from crumbling? He had just returned from a two-city forty-eight-hour tour with a midnight stop in Chicago. Drake made it back to his Malibu digs with his wife Victoria and the baby in barely enough time to catch two hours of sleep before work. Genie had spent part of the weekend planning her wedding. She had also attended a STAR TREK convention with one of its co-stars and her fiancé (now husband), Jonathan Frakes. What pros...the couple knew exactly how to pose, how to camp it up, how to flirt (Drake claims Deidre Hall gave him great lessons; Genie practiced with her buddy, Tony Geary). All to create a fantastic cover. It was as if we were watching George Burns with Gracie Allen. Genie even taught Drake how to tap dance between takes - why, we'll never know...Lots of giggles from the peanut gallery. Since it was past the dinner hour at the shoot's end, the candy was demolished, even with these health-conscious California types. Each lady departed with a rose. Happy Valentines Day. SOAP OPERA UPDATE, 2/29/88 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Gossip - DAYS OF OUR LIVES Street Wise: Drake Hogestyn (John) was a big hit when he took part in the musical SESAME STREET tribute at May's Daytime Emmy ceremony. As viewers saw, the DAYS OF OUR LIVES hero was paired with The Count, the puppet vampire who teaches kids how to (what else?) count! But when Hogestyn showed up for rehearsal, he and the Emmy producers had a slight - but understandable - miscommunication. "They said to me, 'We are so glad you're here. We wanted just the right person to work with The Count.' And I said, 'Oh! Thaao's here?' And they said to me, 'No, no, we're talking about The Count.' And I said, 'Right. Count Tony DiMera (played by Thaao Penghlis)!' And they said, 'No. The Count from SESAME STREET!'" SOAP OPERA PREVIEWS, 9/6/04 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ DAYS OF OUR LIVES Falling In Love Again… Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn reveal their relationship is about to undergo a serious overhaul. DAYS OF OUR LIVES fans were up in arms over the killing-off of Salem hero John Black, leaving his beloved wife Marlena widowed. Viewers threatened to switch off in droves if he was not brought back, but no sooner had the threats been issued than news came that actor Drake Hogestyn had re-signed to bring John "back from the dead." Some believe the comeback was contrived, but here Hogestyn and Hall set the record straight. TV SOAP: Drake, some DAYS OF OUR LIVES fans believe you knew all along you'd return as John Black. Is that true? Drake Hogestyn: Absolutely not! I'm working with an acting coach right now and we're plotting out the new John Black. What I signed back on for was to explore the real reason John Black was created and brought to Salem, and to explore his dark side. They said, "This is what we want: dangerous, untrustworthy and emotionally void." It's thrilling and exciting, and that's how I felt in 1986. TV SOAP: Deidre, how has it been having Drake back as a 'dangerous, untrustworthy, emotionally void' John? Deidre Hall: It's challenging and fun. Marlena needs to decide if she likes him or not. She needs to decide if it's going to work for her or not. TV SOAP: What does the new John think of Marlena? Drake Hogestyn: He's intrigued by her and her stories, and why she stays around when he has treated her so poorly. He has heard all her stories from the life they had together to the point where he's nauseous. The frustration is knowing he will never go back to being that 'other guy.' TV SOAP: But, does John sense a connection at times? Drake Hogestyn: He remembers nothing about her before (but) sometimes he has these lightning bolts that go by so fast. There's something that John felt for a second that makes him curious now. Is Marlena beautiful? Absolutely. Is she smart? Without a doubt, and was sex in the tent spine shattering? Well, you know it was. But outside of that, is there emotional attachment? Well, he has no emotion, but he wants to know more about her. TV SOAP: Will we see Marlena change? Deidre Hall: I think we are going to see her antenna up. She's smart and decisive, and she has an instinct about this man, although it doesn't always prove to be who she wants him to be. TV SOAP: What were your thoughts on the love-making scenes in the tent after the plane went down? Deidre Hall: Unfortunately, the audience didn't see all those scenes. Drake Hogestyn: There were some very aggressive scenes. John comes from the lowest common denominator: his instincts. She's a beautiful woman and it's cold. She wants to be kept warm and he thinks, 'You're beautiful and want to be kept warm. I'm the man for the job.' And my God, I have never experienced anything like that in my life - that I remember! It's like, 'What was that? Let's do it again!' and she said, 'Not until you remember who I am. I thought being intimate with you would jog something.' Marlena was coming from a point of desperation. TV SOAP: A lot of the footage didn't make it to air. Why? Deidre Hall: I was told at the eleventh hour they felt it was too much too soon for the characters. I respect that, but they were still wonderful scenes. They were challenging, adorable and sexy. TV SOAP: What more would like see change for the characters? (OOPS! This is wrong. Typo alert! This sentence makes no sense. In our opinion it should be "What more would you like to see change for the characters?" not "What more would like see change for the characters?" like this article states.) Deidre Hall: I think what we're doing is the most entertaining. We are at the beginning of a love story. Drake Hogestyn: I want to see (John) get back on track. It's not like when I started twenty-three years ago. If you take it into a different kind of love story, we can still satisfy John and Marlena fans that want to see the couple together. TV SOAP: Drake, late last year, you and Deidre and Executive Producer, Ken Corday, went to Australia to promote the show. The trip came at a strange time for you… Drake Hogestyn: I arrived the day the show aired in Australia where EJ shot John and put him in a coma. One journalist was asking me something and I felt my emotions welling up. It was an awkward moment, but the spin of the ball changed in Australia, because a lot of stuff was happening in Los Angeles at that moment (too). John's funeral was airing over two days, and I understand they got a spike in the ratings numbers. TV SOAP: In terms of the country and its people, what did you take away from visiting Australia? Drake Hogestyn: You have a secret, the most pristine, unbelievable society. You don't know how cynical you have become until you go to a country like that, where people bend over backwards to help you and accommodate you. I was amazed. I walked down the street with Deidre, telling her how clean the streets are. Their energy and love for their fellow man is so commendable. Michael Fairman, TV SOAP, 6/11/08 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Exposed John And Hope's Guilty Secret "We Were Lovers!" Cover Story - DAYS Outrage! Salem Long-Time Favorites John And Hope Discover Their Secret Lives As...Secret Lovers! (Please Note: Our Australian friends have always been several years behind the United States and Canada in terms of storyline on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. We always make a conscious effort to arrange all of the articles on BASEBALL MEMORIES AND MALIBU DREAMS according to the issue date on the magazine, but because the Australian soap opera magazines like SOAP WORLD and TV SOAP are so far behind us on what they're seeing, we're going to list these articles by storyline instead of by publication date. Even though these articles might seem like they're not organized right because of the date "appearing" to be out of order, they are in order but it is according to the storyline going on in the United States and Canada, not in Australia.) John and Hope were once lovers - loyal, devoted and totally inseparable! This is the shocking discovery made by Hope when she digs further into her puzzling past on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Trying to take her mind off problems with true love Bo, Hope instead discovers she was once deeply in love with John! In a storyline sure to outrage fans, Hope (Kristian Alfonso) learns for the first time that Bo (Peter Reckell) may not have been the only man to claim a special place in her heart - and bed. Meanwhile, John (Drake Hogestyn) is rocked to think that for years there was another woman in his life besides Marlena (Deidre Hall). It's not the first time there have been hints of romance between John and Hope. John once deliriously demanded Hope make love to him in the jungle, while Hope was obsessed with keeping him safe as they searched for a cure for Roman (Josh Taylor). So, will we see John and Hope get together? And, if so, how will this affect Bo and Marlena? It would surely be one of the show's most controversial love stories! Recently in the United States, fans were ready to storm NBC studios where DAYS is shot when Hope seduced John and made love to him in shameless scenes. The two characters are embroiled in a bitter custody battle over the baby whom John sired during their wild weekend abroad. (OOPS! This is wrong. John did not fight Hope for custody of Johnny. In fact, John stepped back from being a father to the baby and instead took a place behind Bo as Johnny's Godfather.) Although these intense love scenes are two years away from local screens, we'll soon witness the pair's chemistry as they work to fill the gaps in their shrouded histories. In coming months, John and Hope leave their partners in Salem as they head to distant Switzerland to hunt for the truth. Hope depends increasingly on John who uses his detective skills to spot clues she missed. He tracks down an old lady who knew "Princess Gina" intimately during her time in Europe. Hope is elated and grateful to John for finding this link to her past. But her gratitude turns to horror when the old lady reveals that "Gina" was the "envy of all women but faithful to one man." When "Gina" asks who the love of her life was, she secretly believes she's about to hear Bo's name, reaffirming their deep love. But poor Hope is shaken to the core when the woman says: "He's right beside you, dear..." John immediately refutes the idea, claiming he was in Salem for the entire time Hope was missing. He suggests it's a case of mistaken identity. But he's in turmoil, remembering the photos of him at a great party he and "Gina" allegedly attended together. Viewers get a further hint that the old woman may be right through a flashback. It shows John saving Hope from Stefano's (Joe Mascolo) clutches a few kilometers from Maison Blanche, four years after she was presumed dead. Maybe, in hindsight, it's a little too convenient to have been a spontaneous rescue? Perhaps John was with Hope the whole time, right up until Stefano tired of using them and turned them out? Hope has long wondered what happened during her four-year disappearance from Salem. She'd been declared dead after Bo saw her fall into a vat of acid, but she later reappeared with no memory of where she'd been or her life as Hope. For many months, Hope insisted she was a Russian princess named Gina, until her family and friends convinced her otherwise. But her real identity is again questioned in Switzerland as former acquaintances insist she's "Gina." Certainly, John can empathize with Hope - his own history is eerily similar. When John first arrived in Salem, he was covered in bandages and unable to speak. Months later when his injuries healed, he couldn't recall his name or his past. Although many now accept that John is really Forrest Alamain, nutty Vivian's (Louise Sorel) nephew, he's never been able to recall a single memory. Indeed, he's probably the only person in Salem who can truly relate to Hope's anguish. (OOPS! This is wrong. John has recalled some memories of his life as Forrest. He remembered thrashing in water while under hypnosis; this lead to him remembering that he 'drowned' in a swimming pool as a child. He was revived, but his death was faked and he was taken from his family. He also remembered dancing with a masked woman at a masquerade ball, who later turned out to be Danielle Stevens. He also remembered being given a baseball signed by Mickey Mantle. It came out that the ball was a gift to Forrest from Buddy Rose, a janitor that Forrest befriended in a New York City boarding school.) So what will this new bombshell mean for John and Hope's legendary romances with respective partners Bo and Marlena? For now, neither intends to take it too seriously. They can't remember the affair and don't have any solid evidence to back the claim. But one thing is certain - neither can look at each other again in quite the same way. Vanessa Mace, Australia's TV SOAP, 1/02 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ DAYS Shocker! The Kiss That Will Change DAYS Forever! Will John Or Marlena Betray Their Love? Four Weeks Of DAYS OF OUR LIVES Previews - The End Of John And Marlena? Everyone's favorite couples have been torn apart on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and things go from bad to worse this month when Marlena is drawn to an old love while John seems to be considering a future with someone new! The Puppetmaster: "The person pulling the marionette strings is on a power trip," explains Executive Producer Ken Corday, continuing with what seems like something of an understatement. "They are a control freak and an evil person." This becomes more obvious than ever at the beginning of August, when the residents of Salem spend a special night at the Penthouse Grill, and the folks of New Salem are "allowed" to watch! While the island natives will no doubt be thrilled to catch a glimpse of the loved ones they unwillingly left behind, how will they feel about seeing proof positive that life does, indeed, go on? Corday knows that fans are having a hard time dealing with that fact. "It's tough for the audience to accept John and Kate as a couple," he acknowledges. "But the reality is that one is a widower and one is a widow. That's part of the attraction. They're grieving at the same time." Moving On: Seeing John and Kate's closeness at dinner leaves Roman and Marlena with only each other to lean on. "Roman and Marlena are turning to each other for comfort," previews Corday, adding, "It will probably go further than comforting. This isn't them thinking, 'Well, they're never coming here, and we're never getting off this island, so let's be together.' It's a much deeper and more emotional story." In a sense, being trapped on the island with Marlena is like a dream come true for Roman. "He's said to Marlena, 'I love Kate with all my heart, but you do know that you're the love of my life,'" says his portrayer, Josh Taylor. "He loves Kate tremendously. He just happens to be on the island with this woman who is the love of his life. It doesn't mean we can't have more than one love of our life. Roman would do anything for Marlena - even die for her." And although Marlena's heart will always belong to John, "She knows that there is no love like the one they have," says portrayer Deidre Hall - the pull of the past draws her closer to Roman, and the two former lovers wind up sharing a kiss! Mixed Doubles: As Lauren Koslow (Kate) points out, the situation between her alter ego and John is different because they are completely unaware that their spouses are alive and well. "In this situation, Kate and John are the innocent ones." But she understands that there's something more than grief bonding the pair. "You would think (John is) someone Kate would have been interested in anyway," says the actress. "But he was always attached to Marlena!" Viewers will be kept on the edge of their seats when DAYS is bumped off the air for two weeks to make room for NBC's coverage of the summer Olympics, but they won't want to miss a moment of the action when the soap returns on Monday, August 30. Because at the end of the month, dire circumstances bring Marlena and Roman closer than ever while, back in Salem, Kate convinces John that it's time to get on with their lives. And as Celeste begins to sense that a loved one is very much alive, John and Marlena share passionate kisses with other people! "John brings out Kate's better side," says Koslow, pondering an interesting question. "Would John bring her to the good side or would Kate bring him to a darker side?" With the situation getting messier by the day, it's clear that the ramifications will be felt for some time to come. Confirms Corday, "It's going to take some patience on the viewers' part for the better part of a year to see how everything is resolved." In the meantime, expect the months ahead to be filled with forbidden passions and emotional repercussions. As Koslow succinctly puts it, "You can't predict where this is going to go!" SOAP OPERA PREVIEWS, 9/6/04 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~