One of ongoing gags in the soap biz is the mythical return of Vanessa Marcil to General Hospital. I say it's mythical because for six years now, a certain magazine regular writes about Vanessa's return and it never actually happens. But now, there may be some truth to the rumor. ABC has contacted Vanessa Marcil about returning to General Hospital to reprise the character of Brenda Barrett. Maybe as soon as this spring.

For a change of pace, the news is coming directly from the show. GH headwriter Bob Guza has said that talks are underway with Vanessa. He has also always maintained that Brenda's one of his favorite characters and he'd love to have her back on the show.

I used to be a devoted fan of General Hospital, and some of my favorite episodes involved Luke and Laura, and later, their son, Lucky. In fact, now that I think about it, I started to stray from the show about the time that Jonathan Jackson, who played the first Lucky, left the show in 1999.

The other actors who played Lucky -- Jacob Young and Greg Vaughan -- did a fine job, but I so associated the role with Jackson that it was impossible for me to accept anyone else as Lucky.

As luck would have it, I just happened to flip on One Life to Live yesterday and saw a promo for Jonathan Jackson coming back to General Hospital as Lucky. What a stroke of "luck" for me!

NBC's Las Vegas ended abruptly in February with two couples -- Danny and Delinda and Sam and Vic (her deceased ex-husband's brother) -- just about ready to tie the knot. But the shocking news that Cooper had died in a plane crash blanketed the ceremony in a gloomy pall -- the same pall that Vegas fans felt upon learning that the series had been canceled. Here are my top six reasons why Las Vegas needs to come back for a wrap-up movie, if not another season:

1. Spin-Off Opp. A TV movie would be a great opportunity to spin Las Vegas into a new series for Josh Duhamel and James Caan. I've sorely missed watching Caan rough up the bad guys this season, and he and Duhamel would make a great P.I. duo, collaring modern-day Vegas criminals a la Crime Story's Lt. Torello. Are you listening, Michael Mann? Pretty please, with wing-tip shoes on top?