Soap World No. 324

Thomas pulls out every dirty trick to snare Hope, and poor Liam’s in the firing line on our fave sudser, B&B. There are eye-raising twists and dramatic turns on all the daytime soaps; check out our updates for the lowdown. Offscreen, our resident soap expert Michael Maloney rubbed shoulders with the stars of B&B and Y&R at the fan club events in LA: see our coverage on pages 26-29 of what really went on behind the scenes, with die-hard fans travelling from as far as Australia to meet their daytime idols. We chat with Bernard Curry about his new gig on My Life is Murder, co-starring opposite Lucy Lawless. Elsewhere there’s stacks of good reading with rundowns of all the hot plots and all the intrigue and crazy plot twists…

Baby on board! Too cute! As The Bold and the Beautiful bombshell JACQUELINE MACINNES WOOD preps for the Daytime Emmys, newborn RISE HARLEN is her most gorgeous accessory – she sure has her hands full here! Hanks for coming! Fancy meeting you here! WOODY bumps into alter ego TOM HANKS at Toy Story Land – didn’t even know that was a thing, to be honest. Boy, that sheriff is larger than life, eh? What a gem! “Who, me? Living the dream?” Well, when you’re at a Bulgari showing on the isle of Capri, KATE HUDSON, and looking like a squillion bucks, it’s hard for the rest of us not to be well jel! Suits you! Sharp-dressed men don’t get much cooler or more stylish than this, movie star JAMIE FOXX…

Manipulative words, and an innocent little boy, have long been Thomas’s malicious stocks in trade. That’s been his MO for browbeating and coercing Hope into excising her true love, Liam, from her heart and opening it up to him instead. And although it’s largely worked, Thomas is now a desperate, edgy man. With his fingerprints on Emma’s car-crash death, he’s crossed a line of no return – and now switches his focus back to taking Hope as his new bride! However, Thomas (Matthew Atkinson) is acutely aware that Liam (Scott Clifton) stands in his way as a pesky thorn in his side – and must be sidelined. With the help of Vincent (Joe LoCicero), his shady colleague from the rotten Big Apple, Thomas turns mixologist! He arranges to have Liam’s…

Twelve years ago, Paul Robinson vowed to erase all thoughts of his psychopathic, murderous son Robert when the madman was finally sent to prison for his long list of horrendous crimes. Ever since, Paul’s done a pretty good job forgetting all about him... but now his other son David has revived the painful ghosts of the past in his quest to probe his half-brother’s disturbed mind to help fulfil his ambitions to further his medical career by studying neuropsychiatry. Cottoning on to David’s (Takaya Honda) awkward behaviour in trying to keep his meeting with Robert under wraps, Roxy (Zima Anderson) does a little sleuthing for information on Robert and soon stuns Leo (Tim Kano) with the grisly details about the plane explosion that ultimately put Robert behind bars! Fearing that…

Born along with his triplet siblings Elle and Cameron to Paul and his second wife Gail (Fiona Corke), Robert arrived in Erinsborough in 2006. A very disturbed young man due to Paul’s lifelong neglect, Robert began a campaign to destroy his father and everyone close to him, planting a bomb on a plane and killing David (Kevin Harrington), Liljana (Marcella Russo) and Serena Bishop (Lara Sacher)! Next, Robert almost killed Cameron (Adam Hunter) in a crash, assumed his identity while he was in a coma, then tried to kill Elle (Pippa Black) and his father’s squeeze Izzy (Natalie Bassingthwaighte). Later, he almost let his girlfriend Katya (Dichen Lachman) fall off a cliff before murdering a business contact of Paul’s! The prospect of Paul’s reunion with Gail really riled Robert. Kidnapping…

COMPLEX FEELINGS, THE PASSAGE OF TIME, AND A POTENTIALLY SHOCKING REVELATION NIX Toadie AND Dee’s BID TO BOND * Discovering that his long-presumed late first wife Dee – who supposedly perished on their 2003 wedding day – was really alive and had been living as “Karen” in NSW’s Byron Bay has blown Toadie’s mind. After initially declaring that raking over the past was too hard for him and sending her away, the poor bloke’s had second thoughts about his decision, having read through the old diaries Dee left him... Inviting Dee (Madeleine West) to return and spend time with him, Toadie (Ryan Moloney) is consumed with nervous anticipation over what lies ahead for both of them. They were so in love when they were together but when Toadie thought he’d…