Diamont's B&B debut: A hairy situation

Now that Don Diamont's B&B debut as Bill Spencer Jr. is upon us (hallelujah!), it's nice that the soap media is squarely focused on this square-jawed dreamboat again. Ladies & gents, here's your All Things Diamont Update:

First up, the great Michael Fairman just did an insightful interview with B&B's newest resident at his Web site. Check out that interview (including audio!) here.

Next, several soap blogs are abuzz over the surprising facial hair that Diamont's sporting with his new character. As his cheeks remained smooth for 23 years on Y&R as Brad Carlton, this new look is quite stunning for many Diamont watchers. One of those, in fact, is so anti-beard that they've started up a renegade site at BillJrMustShave.com, which chronicles in pictures and videos Don's good ol' days of being stubble-free. It's a fun site to reminisce on even if you don't agree with its premise...

...which I don't! Any longtime visitor of soaphunks.net knows that Diamont is my favorite soap hunk of all time, so I definitely have an opinion on this pressing issue. First of all, I can't blame Diamont for wanting to bring a new look to his new role, after being so closely associated with Brad Carlton for so long (on B&B's sister soap, no less). So there's that...but in my opinion, the beard looks GREAT on him! I'm generally not even a fan of facial hair on my soap hunks, but on Diamont, it just works. Sexy sexy sexy. So there! :)

May I suggest that if we really want to start a Web campaign to convince B&B to remove something from Diamont's body, that it be not his facial hair but instead his shirt? Y&R kept him clothed way too often towards the end, and make no mistake, Diamont still has an Adonis-level body. I just checked and BillJrMustStrip.com is available. Any takers?

GL's Driscoll Genoa City-bound

From Soap Opera Source:

Daytime Confidential is reporting that former GL star John Driscoll will join Y&R as Phillip Chancellor IV. Driscoll spent 5 years playing Coop Bradshaw on GL before he was written out in early 2009.

Phillip is the son of Nina Webster (Tricia Cast) and the late Phillip Chancellor III (Thom Bierdz). Phillip is also the grandson of Jill Foster Abbott (Jess Walton). The character's name has been dropped a couple of times over the past few months. During Katherine's "funeral," Nina revealed Phillip was fighting in the Iraq war.

According to DC's source, Driscoll will heavily interact with Adrienne Frantz (Amber), Christel Khalil (Lily) and Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe). Also interesting will bethe dynamic between Phillip and Cane (Daniel Goddard), seeing as how Cane turned out to be the "real" Phillip. During Katherine's "funeral," Nina looked at Cane and said "He's no Phillip." Was Y&R foreshadowing a story for the fans? It seems the writers have forgotten the DNA test between Jill and Cane did not match, yet she accepted Cane as her son anyway. It seems the writers have also forgotten the mysterious phone calls Cane made shortly after Jill accepted him as her son. Hmmmmmm….

The last time Phillip graced Genoa City with his presence was in 2001, when he was played by current Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley. Current Sarah Connor Chronicles star Thomas Dekker played the role back in 1993.

No first airdate has been given.