ROSEANNE AND TOM LATHER IT UP

Prime time’s most controversial couple, Tom and Roseanne Arnold, took a trip to daytime last month.

After several postponements, “General Hospital” viewers got to see the Arnolds March 22-24 in a story line that took Luke and Laura to an Atlantic City casino, where the Arnolds’ characters, natch, could be found.

Roseanne, who is a fan of “General Hospital,” played Jennifer Smith, the daughter of crime figure Frank Smith (played by Susan Haskell). Tom played Jennifer’s husband, Billy “Baggs” Boggs. Luke and Laura (Tony Geary and Genie Francis) went to the Jersey shore looking for Jennifer and Baggs, who own a casino. “Roseanne” fans will remember that Geary and Francis made guest appearances on the nighttime series earlier this year.

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James E. Reilly recently signed a new contract with “Days of Our Lives” and will continue as the show’s head writer. Several of Reilly’s story lines that were extremely popular with the soap’s viewers included the “Carly Buried Alive” story and the “Who Fathered Marlena’s Baby?” story.

While we are on the subject of writers, the writing team over at “Loving” (including Millee Taggart, Robert Guza Jr., Laurie McCarthy, Addie Walsh, Craig Carlson, John Kuntz, Eugenie Hunt, Dana Herko, Lew Arlt, Tony Lang, Lynda Miles, Juliette Mann, Andrew Gottlieb and Nancy Maxwell) received the Writers Guild of America award for best writing in a daytime serial. Competition for the award, which was presented March 13 at the 46th Annual Writers Guild of America Awards, included “General Hospital,” “All My Children,” “Another World” and “Days of Our Lives.”

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“One Life to Live” also brought home an award recently. On March 5, at its 46th Annual Awards ceremony, the Directors Guild of America presented director Jill Mitwell with an award for best director of a daytime serial.

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Krista Bonura has joined the cast of “Loving” in the recurring role of Alexis, the 4-year-old daughter of Alex and Egypt Masters (played by Randolph Mantooth and Linda Cook). When Egypt left town a couple of weeks ago, she left little Alexis with her daddy. Egypt’s exit also marked the exit of actress Linda Cook.