Webmaster's note: The following excerpts are taken from Soap Opera Digest. Throughout these pages, we have been talking about the shameful practice of using premature babies on film. You will note that the producers of All My Children don't even bother to deny this; they openly admit to the practice.

Babies Again

"We adore the babies! " cries T.C. Wama (Kelsey). "They're happy babies and they're both so cute." Of course, most infants are adorable, so AMC Casting Director Judy Blye Wilson had to figure out which babies would react well in front of multiple television cameras. "We looked at six sets of identical twins, mostly preemies, so they'd be a little smaller," explains Wilson. Adds Associate Casting Director Eli Tray, "Judy and 1 would pick up each twin and go off in different directtions to see how they handled separation If one baby got upset, we knew we might have trouble," laughs Wilson, "When the babies cried and the mothers started apologizing, we'd say, 'Look, they're babies! They're not actors.' "

Before casting the Tuma twins in March, Wilson used a trio of infants as young as 2 weeks old to play newborn Sam. "Legally, children are supposed to be three months old to work" she explains. "[To hire younger babies], we send a letter to the child welfare department certifying that the infants are in good health and that we'll follow proper safekeeping procedures." (Webmaster's note: Such "safekeeping procedures" as they demonstrate by using premature babies??)

These include having a registered baby nurse on hand. "One pregnant woman called the baby's agent on the way to the hospital," marvels Wilson. "She said, 'I'm in labor, so my baby can work next week!' "

As has been reported in other pages, these practices are not unknown in Entertainment. Most of the shows, however, corrected the practice when it was pointed out to them what they were doing. In this case, the producers of All My Children, are all but bragging about their misuse of babies. For more information on this practice, refer to the following pages: