On The Bold and the Beautiful, the character of Rick Forrester used to be front and centre. He and his wife, Amber (Adrienne Frantz, who now plays Amber on The Young and the Restless), were poised to be 'Ridge and Brooke: The Next Generation'. However, after losing custody of their son, Little Eric, to the boy's biological father, Amber and Rick divorced, became involved in other stories on the show and were subsequently written out.

Justin Torkildsen, who most recently played Rick, has been back for brief appearances during family emergencies, like losing their company, Forrester Creations, to Nick Marone (Jack Wagner), but he hasn't been a permanent fixture in a while.

Change is a-coming

That's about to change starting January 25, because Rick is back and will now be played by Kyle Lowder, who most recently played Brady Black on Days of Our Lives, where he earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for the role. This is the third actor to play an adult Rick Forrester (All My Children's Jacob Young, 'JR', was the first), and he's a welcome addition to the show, as anyone who has seen his work on Days can attest.

You might not know this, but Lowder is quite an accomplished and classically trained vocalist. As early as high school, he studied music theory and voice performance with Dr. Renato Mario Vellutino, of Italian opera fame. He continued in the performing arts programme at Syracuse University, but then the acting bug bit, and he left in his sophomore year and eventually landed Days. He has occasionally flexed his vocal muscles by singing the national anthem for various Major League Baseball and NBA games.

While on Days, he met his wife, Arianne Zuker, who used to play the deliciously devilish gold-digger Nicole Walker Kiriakis.

So what brings Rick Forrester back to Los Angeles? He had been overseeing Forrester's European operation, but now that the company is in the hands of the enemy, he's back to help his father, Eric (John McCook), start up a new company, Forrester Originals. I miss the good old days when Forrester used to compete with Spectra Fashions on the runway - let the fashion wars begin!

Other newbies

Lowder joins new casting additions Alley Mills and the returning Daniel McVicar to start off some fresh stories for the new year. Mills briefly played Stephanie's sister, Pamela Douglas, over the holidays when guest star Betty White appeared as her mother. Mills has signed a contract with the show, and Pamela will be moving to L.A. to watch over Eric while Stephanie and her mother take a vacation together. She begins airing again on January 11.

Meanwhile, McVicar returned as Clark Garrison on January 3. The last time we saw Clark, he was dressed as a clown at Alexandria's birthday party, a day that later ended in tragedy when Alexandria's mom, Darla, was accidentally killed by Taylor. Now you can see Clark sans the clown costume and back to his charming self in what I hope is, as I said above, a fashion war.

In other brief casting news, you might have noticed that Parker and JJ on As the World Turns have grown up some. They're now being played by Mick Hazen and Daniel Manche. Hazen briefly played Jason Marler on Guiding Light, while Manche has guest-starred on the Law & Order franchise.

- Cindy Elavsky