Soapsuds

Passion, power, sex, betrayal, and seduction--it's all in a day's work.Having escaped to Hollywood after catching her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, London stage actress Kate McPhee is offered a gig on the popular daytime television series Live for Tomorrow. As Devon Merrick--police detective, car crash victim, and love interest for at least two men--she knows all the secrets and sins pulsating in fictional Hope Canyon. But the real drama is off the set, where the soap is indeed slippery.Enter Meredith Contini, the show's power-wielding diva. Meredith has two rules: Know your place and Stay in it. Kate broke both on day one, which is why she suddenly found her character switching sexual orientation. That brilliant solution came from Daphne del Valle, the show's barking-mad obsessive/compulsive producer, who drives herself and her actors to enthrall the audience. ("Sell the hurt. Sell the rage. Sell the hunger. Sell the looooooove.")As gay detective Devon Merrick, Kate is a smash. The show is a hit. Kate's private life seems to be becoming something of a drama itself. Especially since everybody thinks she really is gay, which is a problem since she thinks the best cure for h