Own a piece of 'Passions'

Passions, the supernatural sudser that had a small but devoted following and which showcased its hunks unlike any other soap, will have its official last airing on Aug. 11 on DirecTV.

In sort of a fire sale mentality, more than 750 costumes and props from the series will be auctioned off online on Aug. 9, via icollector.com, eBay, and Premiere Props. Items up for sale include several shirts worn by Adonis 2006 winner Eric Martsolf, although I don't recall ever seeing the stud wear a shirt during his entire run in Harmony. Check out the entire list of items here, and get registered to buy here.

Passions, we'll miss you here at soaphunks.net. For those keeping score, the former NBC sudser amassed 88 Soaphunks.net Award nominations and 22 wins during its run. (And, yes, it is still eligible for more during the 2008 awards this December.)

Egglesfield bumped at AMC

Bummer. The character of Joshua Madden, for which AMC concocted one of the biggest ret-cons in soap opera history, has been backburnered so badly that the soap has bumped his portrayer to recurring status.

That means that the hunkalicious Colin Egglesfield is, for all intents and purposes, off of AMC. What a waste!

Egglesfield was an immediate hit with soap hunk watchers, amassing seven Soaphunks.net Award nominations and winning the 2005 prize for Hunkiest Newcomer. That award may be starting to become a curse: of the seven hunks to win it, only two (OLTL's John-Paul Lavoisier and ATWT's Jake Silbermann) are still with their respective soaps.

McCouch back to ATWT; Prescott out

In a surprising development, fan favorite and Soaphunks.net Award winner Grayson McCouch is set to return to ATWT on Sept. 24, less than a year after being killed off the sudser. No word yet on how McCouch's Dusty Donovan will be able to turn up very much alive.

McCouch is known for a very loyal online fan base, who helped him to strong finishes in the Adonis 2004, 2005, and 2006 contests.

In other ATWT soap hunks news, the latest recast for Mike Kasnoff (Jon Prescott) has been axed from the soap for "budgetary reasons." Prescott took over the role earlier this year, following the tremendously popular Shawn Christian and Mark Collier. Soap hunk fans will surely note that while Prescott was in the role, Mike--one of the most frequently shirtless characters in daytime history--went topless a total of zero times.