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Fiona Byrne's column in the Sunday Herald Sun has revealed the names of the latest signings to the Neighbours cast. 18-year-old Sweeney Young, who has previously appeared in Holly's Heroes and Little Oberon, and 20-year-old Eloise Mignon, who has appeared in the sci-fi series Silversun, will both begin filming shortly.

The Sunday Herald Sun has revealed that American actor and comedian David Spade is set to make a cameo appearance in Neighbours later this year. Spade agreed to the appearance thanks to his friendship with Nicky Whelan (Pepper Steiger), who appeared on his US series, The Showbiz Show last week. He'll be returning the favour when he visits Australia in May.

Last week saw rumours that the BBC was facing stiff competition for the contract to show Neighbours and those rumours seem to be growing stronger with each day that passes.

Media website Broadcast has reported that FremantleMedia, who make the show, have turned down the BBC's offer, thought to be around £70,000 an episode (an increase of £45,000 on what they currently pay). Last week, they failed to come to an agreement with ITV, who were said to be offering £80,000 an episode, and it is now unclear where Neighbours is going to end up.

With reports that the show is set to screen on BBC Three in the coming months, and a new series of Neighbours Revealed in post-production, it seems unlikely that Neighbours' current home will simply give up on the negotiations, but BBC director of acquisitions George McGhee was reported to have said that "if a deal is not reached in the very, very near future, we will withdraw the money and move it elsewhere. We quite possibly will move it by the end of this week."

Having toured the UK several times in the past two years with his band, Waiting Room, Alan Fletcher (Karl Kennedy) looks set to put his singing voice to good use again. The Herald Sun reports that Alan will join The Production Company in July, to appear in the musical Sweet Charity, though it is not thought that it will interfere with his Neighbours schedule.

After making a guest appearance in a few episodes late last year, Anne Charleston (Madge Bishop) will reprise her role as Lilly Lovett in Emmerdale, this time on a longer contract.

And, in a strange piece of news, none other than Kylie Minogue (Charlene Robinson) is the latest big name to be connected to the UK sci-fi series, Doctor Who. It is rumoured that she has been asked to appear in the show's Christmas episode this year.

UPDATE (May 3rd): DigitalSpy has confirmed that the Kylie rumours were untrue.

UPDATE (May 12th): An interview with Kylie in InStyle magazine has confirmed that she will appear, though no other details are known.

MaggieMillar.net, the official website for Maggie Millar (Rosie Hoyland) is currently offering for purchase two items of Neighbours memorabilia. First is a black fleece, handed out to cast and crew to celebrate the show's 4000th episode. Also available is the blue suit, worn in the show by Rosie during Susan and Karl's Vow Renewal. To find out more information, visit the merchandise page on Maggie's website.

Maggie will also be doing a couple of appearances soon - her popular reading of Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups at the Bass Coast writers' Festival will be next Friday, 27th April at 8.00pm at the Woolshed, Wonthaggi, and then her widely acclaimed performance of Molly Bloom on Bloomsday, an annual event in Melbourne, will be June 16th at 5.30 at Forty-five Downstairs (45 Flinders Lane Melbourne.) All are welcome, she enjoys meeting fans of her work and of Neighbours in particular.

Recent rumours have suggested that the BBC is set to pay £13 million to renew their contract to show Neighbours, something which they have been quick to deny. The contract comes up for renewal in 2008 and discussions are currently under way. Although the BBC denied the £13 million price tag, they are still said to be committed to keeping the soap, one of their best performers in their daytime schedule for over 20 years, but could face competition for the show from both ITV and Five if an agreement can't be reached.

Broadcast is reporting that ITV have put in a bid of £80,000 per episode for Neighbours, which is four times what the BBC currently pay. Although Fremantle was ready to accept the offer earlier this week, negotiations broke down when it came to additional rights, such as VOD.

Though reports of a 20th Anniversary DVD release in 2005 came to nothing, apparently due to problems over music licensing, it seems that there is fresh hope for fans hoping for a Neighbours DVD release. TVShowsOnDVD.com reports that American DVD label BCI Eclipse has struck a deal with FremantleMedia to release much of their back catalogue in the United States and "The IT Crowd and The Bill will join the Australian soap Neighbours as some of its first releases." We'll bring you more news about this when it's available.

There've been no new fancards released for a few months, and now we know the reason why. Network Ten has redesigned their fancards for all shows, including Neighbours, and the new design features both the actor and character name, for the first time since 1997. To find out how to obtain fancards, visit our FAQ and to see some of the cards from years gone by, visit our recently-launched Fancard Gallery.

The nominations for this year's Logie Awards have been announced, with Neighbours represented in a few categories. Most impressive is Natalie Blair's (Carmella Cammeniti) nomination for the Gold Logie. Natalie surprised many by winning the award for Most Popular New Female Talent in 2005 after only a couple of guest stints as Carmella. She joined the regular cast last year and it seems that her popularity has only grown since then.

Natalie is also up for the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actress alongside another Natalie. After playing vixen Izzy Hoyland for three years, Natalie Bassingthwaighte quit Ramsay Street in 2006, but she is still a hot tip to walk away with the award this year.

Also up for an award is Ben Lawson. Ben has been in Ramsay Street now for six months as mysterious Frazer Yeats and is nominated for Most Popular New Male Talent. Meanwhile, the show itself is up for Most Popular Australian Drama.

The award ceremony will take place on Sunday May 6th and, although voting for all of the other awards is now closed, you can still vote for Natalie Blair in the Gold Logie category (if you live in Australia) by SMSing the word "Natalie" to 199 888 22 or calling 1902 559 591.

With recent news that a new family would be joining the residents of Ramsay Street later this year, the Sunday Herald Sun has announced the names of the actors set to play the parents. Steve Bastoni, who has appeared in Police Rescue, Water Rats and The Matrix Reloaded, and Nikki Coghill who has appeared in numerous Australian dramas and theatre productions, will start filming on Tuesday.

Steve and Nikki join other recent cast additions - Benjamin Hart, Fletcher O'Leary and Jane Hall - as part of Neighbours' "back to basics" revamp, which will start to take shape over the coming months.

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