365 days of Marcus Patrick

If there's one soap hunk who never minds stripping off his clothes, it's DAYS and AMC alum Marcus Patrick. And now you can experience this ripped stud's body all year long as the actor is offering a pin-up calendar for 2009, filled with hunky shots of his fine physique. Other items will be up for sale soon. You can check it all out at marcuspatrickexposed.com, and tell them soaphunks.net sent ya!

Stuffing Marcel's turkey

I know this isn't soap-related, but this one was too cute not to post. Who can resist Marcel in his undies? If you haven't checked out Score Underwear, please do. I own eight pairs myself. :)

10th Annual Soaphunks.net Award Nominations Announced!

OLTL newcomer Mark Lawson scored a record-tying eight nods Wednesday as the 10th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations were unveiled at soaphunks.net. 80 nominations were announced covering 16 categories.

Lawson's eight nominations include the top category, Best Hunk, and tie him with Mark Collier's record-setting number of mentions from 2004.

Also up for Best Hunk and scoring four nominations each were B&B's Brandon Beemer, DAYS' Shawn Christian, OLTL's John-Paul Lavoisier, and PASSIONS' Eric Martsolf, who helped that now-cancelled soap to its final haul of eight total nominations, for a series total of 96 nominations.

Christian's nod marks the first time in awards history that a contender for Best Hunk Over 40 also landed in the overall top category. Beemer, Lavoisier, and Martsolf each have one
previous Best Hunk nomination, though none of them has ever won it. Beemer is the only nominee to have also been in the top category last year.

DAYS' James Scott, who won Best Hunk in 2006 and 2007, in addition to summertime Adonis titles both years, was left out of the race this year, though he did score three other mentions,
including Best Chest and Most Shamefully Clothed. (His relative lack of onscreen shirtlessness in 2008 was to blame.)

A total of 42 soap hunks received nominations this year, five more than in 2006 or 2007. With 20 nominations, OLTL led all shows for the first time in history, helping ABC lead the
networks with 33 nominations. (ABC was in last place in 2007 on that count.) CBS scored 28 nods, and NBC nabbed 11. DirecTV's network The 101, which aired the final season of
PASSIONS after it left NBC, got credit for that show's eight nominations in 2008.

Other points of interest:

• B&B had its best year ever in the nominations, thanks to strong showings by Beemer and newcomer Texas Battle. The show managed seven nominations.


• ATWT's Jon Prescott scored a Hunkiest Newcomer nomination, despite the fact that he has already been released from the sudser. Perhaps even more noteworthy was the strong showing of his former co-star, Dylan Bruce. He has also been let go from the soap, but managed four total nominations, tying him for second place this year.


• The two nominations for Y&R's Thad Luckinbill (Best Hair & Most Shamefully Clothed) extend his unfortunate lead in the no-wins race, with 16 career nominations but no trophies.


• GL crashed and burned this year, scoring a worst-ever single nomination (Murray Bartlett for Best Voice).
  
• Like it or not, the absence of James Scott (and GH's Greg Vaughan) in the Best Hunk category sets up the most unpredictable Best Hunk race in years.

The entire list of nominations can be streamed online, while the text version is also available. Complete year-by-year history of the awards is also available online.

As always, voting begins December 1 at soaphunks.net.

Ouch! Metcalfe falls on his award-winning butt

PAS alum and three-time Soaphunks.net Award winner Jesse Metcalfe's good luck almost ran out last week. According to US Magazine, the hottie recently was partying at a World Music Awards after-party in Monaco when he fell 40 feet off of a balcony and was knocked unconscious. He is currently in a wheelchair, and can barely walk. Ouch! Metcalfe is expected to recover--slowly.

I'll take mine with fries

Here's a cute blast from the past: check out DAYS' James Scott before he was an Adonis, and his hunky former castmate, Marcus Patrick, both getting pulses racing in this classic McDonald's commercial. When they look like this, we're all lovin' it!

More sands in the hourglass: DAYS renewed, though Johnson apparently out

After months of speculation, NBC and Sony Pictures TV have reached a deal to keep DAYS on the air, possibly through Sept. 2011. That's good news for Soaphunks.net visitors, as DAYS has won the award for Hunkiest Soap five out of the eight years that the award has been given. Keep growing studs like James Scott and Shawn Christian for as long as you can, Salem!

The downside of DAYS' remaining on the network is that the show has announced that it will be making some "onscreen changes," which include asking its talent to take a pay cut. Sadly, contract negotiations between the soap and hunk Jay Kenneth Johnson have broken down, and the actor has cleared out his dressing room. DAYS is looking to recast the role.

Johnson recently finished in ninth place in the Adonis 2008 contest.

Light's on for Aleksander

GL fans who have been missing the popular character of Phillip Spaulding can rest easy. Word has it that four-time Soaphunks.net Award nominee Grant Aleksander will soon be returning to heat things up in Springfield.