While we've all been struggling through this holiday lull in regular TV programming, soap fans can take solace in the fact that the action is still happening in daytime. No show has more action going for it right now than All My Children as the 40th anniversary approaches.

On January 4, 2010, All My Children will turn 40 years old. In honor of the event, the celebration will be stretched over two days, Monday and Tuesday -- January 4th and 5th -- with former AMC stars Kelly Ripa and husband Mark Consuelos anchoring the festivities.

On Monday, Hayley and Mateo -- Kelly and Mark's characters -- return to Pine Valley with much fanfare. They're there to film an episode of Hayley's TV show, The Wave, because Pine Valley has been named "The Most Congenial Town in America."

If there's one thing about success in the entertainment business it's this: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That means if something is working on another show, steal/borrow the idea. As I've pointed out before, the soaps are inspired by movies and TV shows all the time, including Ugly Betty and The Devil Wears Prada and 24 and anything else that the daytime dramas can adapt into the soap opera format.

The latest form of flattery will be on All My Children with the introduction of Beth Ehlers as a new character in Pine Valley, Lieutenant Taylor McBride, a U.S. Army vet who has recently been deployed in Iraq.

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The richest man in the world has a secret. He likes to watch the goings on in Pine Valley. You know, the place Erica Kane -- Susan Lucci, don't you know -- calls home. And now he's going to be on his favorite ABC soap, too -- for the second time! Billionaire Warren Buffett will play himself on All My Children during May sweeps.

Actor/director Mario Van Peebles has a new gig: he's joining the ABC daytime soap All My Children.

Van Peebles will come to Pine Valley and play Samuel Woods, an attorney who runs for Senate and just might get romantically involved with Erica Kane (Susan Lucci). If you've never watched the show, everyone at one time or another gets involved romantically with Erica Kane, and often marries her.

I think everyone's first reaction to this will be "gee, his career has really gone downhill, eh?" But I don't think that's necessarily the case. Van Peebles works a lot and often does his own stuff, so maybe he just thought it would be a good gig and we shouldn't read anything else into it. No word on whether it will be a temporary role or a long term stay.

Maybe he should come to the show as this guy.