CBS daytime head is all for gay love story on As the World Turns

The waiting goes on. Kind of like that spinning planet that symbolizes As the World Turns. TV Squad reported recently that many fans of the soap are anxious to see the two gay lovers, Noah (Jake Silbermann) and Luke (Van Hansis), smooch on screen. There are web sites with a clock ticking, waiting for the next on screen kiss from the fellas. Now comes news that TV Guide's Michael Logan questioned Barbara Bloom, head of CBS Daytime, to find out if the show, the sponsor or the network is afraid to depict a homosexual teen love story in the same way they do a heterosexual one?

"I can assure you there is no homophobia on the part of the network, nor are we pandering to any group," Ms. Bloom told Logan. "I really hope the show will continue to evolve the Luke and Noah story, and that they culminate their relationship the way all couples in love do." That may be lip service, though, because since a kiss last fall, Noah and Luke have barely held hands. Those deep, longing looks can only go so far in satisfying the segment of the audience that wants to see these two really acting like a couple in love.

Complicating matters is the story line which has Noah in a marriage of convenience with Ameera, an Iraqi girl who's come to Oakdale. In order to be able to stay in America, Noah has entered a marriage of convenience with Ameera. Now, while they're proving to the INS agent that they're marriage a love match, feelings are stirring between Ameera and Noah. It's not much of a stretch to think that ATWT may be looking for a way out of the Luke/Noah love story by having Noah fall in love with his wife!

Barbara Bloom told Logan that the course of true love rarely runs true. "The pacing is slower with Luke and Noah than it is with other romances on ATWT, but that's good storytelling. We're in the business of getting people to watch more."

Logan believes that the soap is taking advantage of the controversy and that they'll keep Luke and Noah's lips apart for months and months if it keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. Far be it from me to disagree with my friend Michael, so I won't. He's dead on about this. In the wake of the hubbub about Martha Byrne's exit, the show needs to keep fans glued to the set. If Luke and Noah in a tortured love story is working, they'll drag it out forever.

By the way, this is hardly unprecedented. Bill Bell, one of the greatest soap writer/producers of all time (he started The Young & the Restless and The Bold & the Beautiful), once kept the secret of Michael Horton's paternity on Days of Our Lives a hot story for years -- which kept the show number one in the ratings.