Brandon's Buzz

Twenty-five years beyond the chart-topping success of his breakthrough smash Cristofori's Dream, the brilliant DAVID LANZ is still going strong, with a terrific new record --- the lush Movements of the Heart --- on tap, and he is coming by the Buzz to discuss the staggering breadth of his career, as well as his thoughts on the current music scene.  PLUS: Oprah's favorite designer --- the incredible NATE BERKUS --- stops by to spill some dish on his fun new NBC competition series, American Dream Builders!

You may or may not recognize JEFF GILES' name on sight, but if you're a die-hard fan of ABC's late, great classic soap opera One Life to Live, get ready to wonder how the hell you ever lived without his electric, earth-shattering new book for so damn long.  The tome is called Llanview in the Afternoon, and it is an oral history of the soap's extraordinary four-decade run, made up of brand new interviews --- over fifty of them, in fact --- that Giles himself conducted with everybody who was anybody connected with the show, from creator Agnes Nixon and producers Joe Stuart and Linda Gottlieb, to stars like Erika Slezak, Robert S. Woods, Kassie DePaiva, Judith Light, Brynn Thayer, Michael Storm, and countless others.  Llanview is an utterly extraordinary read, and Jeff is stopping by Brandon's Buzz to break down for us in glorious detail how the idea for this book popped into his head to begin with, and how he set about the momentous task of compiling this magnificent masterpiece.

Early in his career, he seemed bound for the life of the typical dime-a-dozen character actor, but fate clearly had other plans for the dashing, magnificent A MARTINEZ.  And when his destiny finally revealed itself --- in the form of a true-blue good guy cop called Cruz Castillo on NBC's singularly offbeat soap opera Santa Barbara --- Martinez suddenly became one of the most beloved and most popular performers in all of television.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Martinez is keeping busy these days on both sides of the camera:  as an actor, with a recurring role on A&E's hit series Longmire and a supporting role in the latest Chucky film, and as a writer/director, with his latest project, a heartfelt family affair entitled Before Your Eyes.  And he's stopping by the Buzz to discuss his decision to leap into the director's chair for the first time, as well as his adventures in daytime television, and why HE mourned the loss of his character Cruz every bit as much as we, his ardent fans, did!

An entire generation of us crazy soap fans will forever adore her for her work as the original Lorna Devon --- the badass chick with the tough exterior above and the tender heart below --- on NBC's late, lamented daytime classic Another World, but a great many of us never understood the full extent of the pain that has driven her rich, riveting work in her two-plus decades as an actress.  But the brilliant ALICIA COPPOLA has just peeled back the veil of her personal pain with a shattering new memoir, Gracefully Gone --- which details her father's brutal decade-long battle with brain cancer, via alternating entries from his journal and from her own --- and she is stopping by Brandon's Buzz to discuss the rigors of hopping a rocketship to Another World while fighting like hell to just keep putting one foot in front of the other in this one.

Slip this one in the "better late than never" slot:  earlier in the spring, the glorious actress JOAN VAN ARK returned to the proverbial scene of the crime when she briefly reprised her most iconic and most beloved television role:  that of ever-agitated Valene Ewing on TNT's vaunted reboot of the classic prime-time soap Dallas.  Van Ark was my seventh guest all the way back in this show's nascent early days, and I was thrilled to welcome her back to Brandon's Buzz for a sneak preview of the action, and though a series of crazy events in my life prevented me from getting this interview edited and assembled prior to the aforementioned Dallas episode's premiere, I suspect you'll still enjoy hearing Joan's invaluable insights about reuniting with her television family, about honoring the memory and incredible legacy of the peerless Larry Hagman, and about how it felt to slip back into poor Val's shoes some thirty years after she first donned them.

It's always a blast whenever the glorious LINDA DANO pays a visit to the Buzz, and in honor of her long-awaited return to QVC --- with whom she begins celebrating her 20th anniversary of dazzling us with her innovative designs this week --- we have managed to wrangle her back here as well for her sixth appearance, whereupon she shall regale us tales of winter weather, sudsy soaps, and the arduous process of bringing us the greatest line of home decor accessories that television home shopping has ever seen.

The soaps are dwindling in number, but the ever-opinionated Marlena De Lacroix soldiers on, and her fabulous alter ego --- the crazy-cool CONNIE PASSALACQUA HAYMAN --- is popping into Brandon's Buzz for her ninth appearance to discuss the thrilling relaunch of her website --- http://www.marlenadelacroix.com --- as well as her thoughts on the "new" General Hospital, the One Life to Live gang's seamless entry into Port Charles, the turmoil across the daytime landscape, and the riveting return of that old dinosaur, the primetime soap!

Three years ago, the esteemed Lee Phillip Bell --- widow of the legendary Bill Bell, creator of the classic CBS soaps The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful --- hand-picked veteran soap journalist Michael J. Maloney to write her husband's long-overdue authorized biography, and with the book finally set to arrive in bookstores later this week, Michael is stopping by the Buzz with an exclusive sneak peek at the daunting process of distilling the real story behind the life of one of the world’s masterful tellers of televised tales.

The gloriously gorgeous NIA PEEPLES makes her fourth appearance on Brandon's Buzz to discuss the latest iteration and evolution of her online self-help series The Elements of Life, as well as to drop a little dish on this week's hotly-anticipated second season finale of ABC Family's smash teen soap Pretty Little Liars!

Regular Buzz listeners know it's always a fun time when the amazing LINDA DANO stops by for a chat!  An Emmy-winning veteran of more soaps than I have fingers to count, she is now a staple on QVC, for whom she designs a mega-selling line of affordable accessories for the home.  She returns to the network this week with a second iteration of the popular Christmas decor line which she premiered during the holiday season last year, and she is returning to the Buzz to offer us an exclusive sneak peek at the goods!