From the May 11th Soap Opera Update:

How Shows Keep Stories
TOP SECRET!
Everyone is kept in the dark -
including the actors!

Psst. Want to hear a few juicy daytime secrets? You know, like who's the father of Amber's baby on THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, or whether Luke and Laura will ever reunite on GENERAL HOSPITAL? Interested? Well, sorry. That is highly classified information, and you don't have security clearance. In fact, very often, neither do we!
     Getting advance information on soap storylines can be as difficult as breaking into the Pentagon. Okay, we're exaggerating, but it's no joke that soaps take their secrets very seriously. Here's a look at some of the best-kept...

A Private Ending
Soap aren't the only genre where storylines are guarded like state secrets. Actors in movies by Woody Allen are only given script pages with their characters' dialogue on them; they don't even know what's going on in the rest of the movie until they see the finished product months later. And primetime TV is just as secretive. When it came time to prepare the ultra-hush-hush final episode of MELROSE PLACE, which airs on May 24, scripts were sealed in wax, stamped with individual serial numbers, hand-delivered to cast members and put through the shredder as soon as they were used. And, reportedly, several potential endings may have been filmed to confuse the cast and crew - and spies!


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