TVSquad

Soap operas thrive on drama and they're not above borrowing from other sources. You could say it happens all the time, because it does. Of course, you can also go by that old Hollywood axiom that there are really only seven stories and they're told over and over again in a variety of new and different ways. Be that as it may, a look at some soap stories going on now will remind you of some other media.

For instance, on All My Children, you might look at Erica Kane's incarceration for insider trading (or whatever she was supposed to have done that was criminal) and think it's reminiscent of the Martha Stewart case. After all, like Martha, Erica is host of a TV show and an entrepreneur of the highest order. But the part of Erica's story that made me giggle was when she was on the run from prison with fellow con Carmen. Being handcuffed together was right out of The 39 Steps (the Hitchcock movie and now on Broadway) and The Defiant Ones, but the two women from different worlds clicking was more like Ugly Betty. Remember, last season when Claire Meade escaped from prison chained to a tough girl named Yoga? Think the AMC writers were taking notes?

Acting is a funny business; one day, you're anonymously playing a waiter or waitress in a silly commercial, and the next day, you have a major supporting role in a new hit series. The interesting part is when the struggling and non-struggling phases of that actor's life collide on the screen, and you begin to recognize the actors in those previously-anonymous bit parts.

Many people have already noticed that Becki Newton, who plays the mean-but-vulnerable receptionist Amanda on Ugly Betty, plays a waitress on an Olive Garden commercial that's currently in pretty heavy rotation across the dial (heck, the ad was shown during a Betty episode where Newton played both Amanda and a Betty look-alike). But, did you know that Michael Urie, who plays Marc, Amanda's partner in cattiness, also played a waiter in an ad?

An explanation, and the video of Becki's Olive Garden ad, is after the jump.