Prelude to a kiss? The chaste gay couple on As the World Turns frustrates fans, enrages religious zealots, and lends the 52-year-old show some much-needed buzz

NO ENTERTAINMENT STORY of late has ignited the gay blogosphere like the never-ending drama--or more accurately, lack of drama--of As the World Turns's Luke and Noah, daytime TV's first ongoing gay male romance. After two passionate kisses last fall, the couple affectionately known as "Nuke" reverted to hugs and knowing glances. Fans got a lump of coal over Christmas when the pair leaned in for a kiss ... and the camera panned away. Then on Valentine's Day, when almost every other couple sucked face, Nuke hugged.

The paring down of gay intimacy has inspired a tidal wave of fan activism including e-malls, web tickers, and a campaign in which fans sent bags of Hershey's Kisses to CBS's Los Angeles office.

"We don't want to push the wrong buttons with the producers or network," says George Hinds, 29, the gay webmaster of LukeandNoahFans.com, a site pushing for Nuke to get to first base again. "We're just trying to get them to add this one thing."

Launched last August, LukeandNoahFans.com has doubled its traffic since the couple's cooldown--from 26,000 views in October to 52,000 in February. "All the Luke and Noah sites are split fifty-fifty between straight women and gay men and lesbians," says 21-year-old hetero site cocreator Nicole Lafferty. "And a few straight men."

There's no clear answer why Nuke stopped kissing. CBS daytime TV senior vice president Barbara Bloom says, "I never asked producers to hold back. I've been having the same conversations with the show's producers we have about any characters." Jeannie Tharrington, a spokeswoman for the show's producer, Procter & Gamble Productions, admits the couple's affections stirred protest. "To be frank," she says, "a lot of people weren't expecting that first kiss. We got a lot of letters--not from activists but regular fans who said, 'We're not ready for this.'"

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Antigay groups aren't happy either. The American Family Association urged members to chastise P&G because of Nuke. But both Bloom and Tharrington deny the AFA influenced the couple's affections.

The explosion of publicity is what will undoubtedly affect P&G and CBS. Van Hansis, the straight actor who plays Luke, just signed a new contract, squelching rumors he was being written out of the show. But even with Hansis secured, Nuke's romance looks to grow even more Victorian: Noah (Jake Silbermann) recently entered into a green-card marriage with a woman. Nuke's slow burn, Bloom says, is par for the course on soaps, where conflict and obstacles draw more interest than "happily ever after." The proof is in the pudding: The show's ratings are up by half a million viewers--a 17% uptick--since June 2007.

COPYRIGHT 2008 LPI Media
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning