In spite of difficult early years as a foster child, Portland native Victoria Rowell’s ties to Maine are unshakable. Here’s what she’s up to now!

On May 10, 1959, future ballet principal, dazzling actress, Ph.D., bestselling author, and movie mogul Victoria Rowell was born at Mercy Hospital in Portland. This summer, she’s shooting a film in which she’s the executive producer, director, screenwriter, and a lead actress. We caught up with her as her production company, Days Ferry Productions, LLC, revs up to full throttle.

The village of Days Ferry goes way back in Maine history before it became Woolwich. Established in 1754 on the banks of the Kennebec, it seems almost like a fable—a magic place, like Brigadoon. Is Days Ferry your Castle Rock?

Well, I’ll tell you, I love history. I cover my Maine connections in my memoir The Women Who Raised Me[Harper Collins, 2007, a New York Times best seller]. My mother’s side of the family is buried in the Castine cemetery. In our...

Fans who miss Victoria Rowell on The Young and the Restless can check out her streaming soap opera that’s getting ready for a second season — The Rich and the Ruthless. The show is based on the novel the actress/authored penned in 2013 titled The Young and the Ruthless.

The Rich and the Ruthless (RR) tells the story of people in the soap opera world, primarily ingenue Calysta Jefferies (Alesha Renee) and producer Augustus Barringer (Richard Brooks, Being Mary Jane), who cast Jeffries as Ruby Stargazer.

In addition to telling the stories of Calysta and Augustus, R&R also charts the paths of other characters including Alison Fairchild Roberts (Chrystale Wilson), an older soap diva, and Randall Roberts (Hunter Bodine), Alison’s husband and producer, who is hoping to bed Calysta! There’s also sexy Emmy Abernathy (Elizabeth J. Carlisle), who has been feuding with Alison for over a decade.

On the first six episodes R&R, viewers see Calysta’s journey as she finds the fame and lov...

Join Courtney Stewart and Derrial Christon as they recall the top stories of the week on This Week for June 14th, 2018.

Joined by Special Guest: Victoria Rowell.

UMC - Urban Movie Channel's hit soap-within-a-soap dramedy series The Rich and the Ruthless returns June 14 for a 6 episode second season filled with more passion, humor and family intrigue, swirling around soap industry titan Augustus Barringer, his fading leading lady actress wife Kitty, their feuding children and a cast of devious supporting players.

Created by talented multi-hyphenate - executive producer, director, writer and star Victoria Rowell - best-known for her award-winning, starring role as Drucilla on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and her New York Times bestseller The Woman Who Raised Me - The Rich and the Ruthless exposes the behind-the-scenes fictional drama about the first, black run daytime drama in the soap opera industry. The six-episode series stars Rowell as Kitty Barringer, alongside Richard Brooks as Augustus Barringer (Being Mary Jane, Law & Order),Robert Ri'chard as Max Barringer (Coach Carter, Chocolate City), Chrystale Wilson as Alison Fairchild Roberts (T...

Warden Wolfe will be coming soon to The CW’s The Flash, and he will be played by veteran TV actor Richard Brooks. Brooks, who has previously appeared on Law & Order, will be stepping in as Wolfe, who was previously played on the show by Anthony Harrison. The character is set to appear in multiple episodes, with a set number not yet announced. It is also unknown whether or not the change in actors is due to the events of Flashpoint, or if it is just a simple swap.Comic fans will recall that Wolfe is no-nonsense and hates criminals with super-powers. He can be quite cruel and relishes the opportunity to lord their captivity over them.

You can read the official synopsis for next week’s episode of The Flash entitled “Girls Night Out” below:

KATEE SACKHOFF (“BATTLESTAR GALACTICA”) AND EMILY BETT RICKARDS (“ARROW”) GUEST STAR — Having received an ominous threat from her old boss, Amunet (guest star Katee Sackhoff), Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) fears that her past time as Killer...

SILVER SPRING, Md., Sept. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RLJ Entertainment, Inc. ("RLJ Entertainment," "RLJE" or "the Company") (NASDAQ:  RLJE) today announced that combined subscribers to its two proprietary digital channels, Acorn TV and Urban Movie Channel or UMC, have surpassed 600,000, an increase of 50,000 subscribers from the end of last quarter and over 60% total growth from a year ago. 

"RLJE is building momentum in second half 2017 as our robust line-ups of original and exclusive content draw viewers and our increased investments in our digital distribution footprint, customer service, and customer awareness pay off," stated Miguel Penella, Chief Executive Officer of RLJ Entertainment. "Our growth across digital platforms remains strong and we are focused on all elements of our strategic execution to more firmly establish Acorn TV and UMC as compelling, must-have brands in the burgeoning OTT market. We remain highly confident in achieving our objective...

The rich will be getting even more ruthless as UMC has renewed the Victoria Rowell (ex-Drucilla Winters, “The Young and the Restless”) created “The Rich and the Ruthless” for a second season.

Loosely based on her novels “Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva” and “The Young and the Ruthless,” the series is a behind-the-scenes send up of what happens when the cameras aren’t rolling when a struggling soap opera is forced to move production from Los Angeles to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

In addition to Rowell herself, the series stars Richard Brooks (“Being Mary Jane”),  Brenda Epperson (ex-Ashley Abbott, “Y&R”) and Mykel Shannon Jenkins (ex-Detective Charlie Baker, “The Bold and the Beautiful”), among a host of others. The first season, which premiered in July on UMC.tv as part of its Fall Out Fridays programming block, also features an appearance by Kimberlin Brown (Sheila Carter, “The Bold and the Beautiful”).

“Look for more of the Barrin...

Victoria Rowell, best known for playing Drucilla Winters on "The Young and the Restless," has returned to the world of soap operas, but this time in a very different role.

The 58-year-old actress has created a six-part series called "The Rich and the Ruthless," in which she also stars as aging soap star Kitty Barringer, who is trying to make her comeback as Blue Sylla (sound familiar?) in the industry's only black-owned daytime drama.

The new show, which streams on the Urban Movie Channel, a subscription service started by BET founder Robert L. Johnson, pokes fun at soaps but also addresses a very real problem about their lack of diversity.

"The lack of diversity behind the camera was never lost on me," Rowell told ABC News. "It inspired me to write two novels from a black perspective behind-the-scenes."

Those novels, "Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva: A Novel" and "The Young and the Ruthless: Back in the Bubbles," form the basis of the new series.

They also served as a creative outlet fo...

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rebroadcast Monday 8/14 1pm-3 and Tues 6am-8am and Thurs 7am-9am

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