Soap Watch

I dipped into the soaps for no particular reason. My two favorite moments: on "As The World Turns," the pouty young son Luke came out to his mom and dad. What made me giggle was the public service announcement at the end where the actor playing Luke (Luke #6 to be exact, in the tradition of soaps where multiple people play the same character) turned to the camera and said, "I'm Van Hansis and I play Luke." Van Hansis has to be about the silliest, most "soap" ready name Iive heard in years. And on the shameless "Passions" they're trying to hook into the "Da Vinci Code" mania by having one character break into the Vatican to steal a chalice. But what I really loved was the scene where some girl who is clearly in love with Miguel (who is being seduced by a siren -- as in the mythical creature -- named Siren) tells her clueless hunky boyfriend why she's worried about Miguel without making him think she actually cares for the guy romantically. "He's my friend. We've been friends for a really long time. And he's the father of my child."