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News Headlines

Carla Bonner (Stephanie Hoyland) has a new man in her life, and it's none other than former The Secret Life Of Us actor Sullivan Stapleton. Sullivan also has plenty of connections to Neighbours. Aside from appearing in the show in 1998 as Josh Hughes, the boyfriend of Caitlin Atkins, he is also the real-life brother of Jacinta Stapleton, who played Amy Greenwood from 1997 to 2000.

Voting for the annual Inside Soap Awards has begun, with Neighbours nominated in almost every category. Voting will continue until August 26th and can be submitted through the website or via the voting form in the magazine.

In the midst of Neighbours' 20th Anniversary celebrations in Australia, today sees Australia Post issuing a set of commemorative stamps. They can be picked up at post offices across Australia, or via the Australia Post website for overseas viewers, and they feature images of several of the current cast.

News has reached us that Stefan Dennis (Paul Robinson), already back for the whole of the 2005 season, has signed a three-year contract, which will see him sticking around in Erinsborough until the end of 2008. Meanwhile, Mark Little (Joe Mangel) will soon finish filming a stint which will see his character around in Ramsay Street for five months. However, it's looking possible that he may return once again next year.

More panto news has arrived, with Ryan Moloney (Toadfish Rebecchi) reported to be appearing in Cinderella in Canterbury. He'll be playing the role of Buttons in the production at the Marlowe Theatre. More information can be found here.

The first panto news of the year has arrived, and it seems that Ian Smith (Harold Bishop) will be making the trip over for this year's festive season. He's due to appear in a production of Aladdin at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings. Tickets can be bought here.

Fresh from his character Caleb Nichol being killed off in a manner eerily reminiscent to that of his Neighbours character Jim Robinson, Alan Dale has signed up to star in a new sitcom for the Warner Brothers Channel called Bow.
It's the first time Alan has turned his hand to comedy since embarking on a career stateside. Prior to his two-season starring role in The O.C, Alan also appeared in raft of hit American drama series including 24, The West Wing, ER, The X-Files and JAG.

Our latest news following the London terrorist attacks is that Neighbours will be broadcast in its 5.35pm slot today, but on BBC2. There will be no lunchtime showing. PerfectBlend's thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, and anyone involved in the rescue and treatment operations.

Lucy DeVille, Marcella Russo (Liljana Bishop) and Marisa Warrington's (Sindi Watts) band, will be appearing at the Staying Alive concert, a youth suicide awareness event, on Sunday 17th July 2005, in Maryborough. More details can be found at http://www.stayingaliveconcert.com/

Neighbours' return after a two week break has successfully sent ITV1's competition running for cover. Unofficial overnights show that Monday's lunchtime episode attracted 2.7 million viewers - over 38% of the audience share - while ITV's heavily-publicised show Nigella opened with only a 12% share viewers and 800,000 viewers.

Marisa Warrington (Sindi Watts) will be soon performing on stage. She will be appearing in the play Inner Sanctum, by Adam Zwar, at the La Mama Melbourne in Carlton, from 20th July for 3 weeks.

To find out more about what the Neighbours are up to, visit our Neighbourhood Watch page.

Neighbours has once again been nominated for a National Television Award. This year it is nominated in the Most Popular Daytime category, rather than the Soap category. You can vote, until 29th July, here.

The Herald Sun has recently reported three new regular additions to the cast in the form of the Kinski family. The arrival of Andrew Clarke, as Alex Kinski, a single father who will find romance with one of Ramsay Street’s single women, has already been reported, but now it seems that he will be joined by two children. Daughter Rachel will be played by Caitlin Stacey, while son Zeke will be played by Matthew Werkmeister. The Kinski family will hit Erinsborough later this year.

Fans of Alan Fletcher in Melbourne can look forward to hearing more of his singing voice when he appears in My Fair Lady in the role of Henry Higgins, at the Comedy Theatre from July 29th. More details can be found on Ticketex Australia.

Ben Nicholas (Stingray Timmins) has joined the cast of A Bunch Of Ratbags for a three-night rehearsed reading this week. Ben will play Albie, a member of the Goodway Gang in the musical, set in 1950s inner city Melbourne. The readings will take place at Theatreworks, 14 Acland Street, St. Kilda on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. More information can be found here.

Word has reached us that Brett Swain, real-life partner of Marcella Russo (Liljana Bishop) has won the role of errant father and husband, Kim Timmins, and recently started filming. Brett previously played the duck hunter who shot Kerry Bishop in 1990 and can be seen on-screen as Kim from October.

According to several recent sources, Natalie Bassingthwaighte may be ready to leave her role as Izzy Hoyland when her current contract expires. During an interview with Australia’s OK magazine, she apparently expressed concern that she might “get rusty” if she stayed in the role too long, but would see how she felt when the time came. Her contract does not expire until the middle of next year.

It looks like the decision to remove the lunchtime episode of Neighbours for Royal Ascot had a bad effect on the ratings. According to digitalspy, although the teatime episode gained some viewers, figures were still down by 1.7 million, meaning that around a third of regular viewers missed out.

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