Claire and son Matt, dubbed the "soap fixers," are included in the television category (no mention of Ryan's Hope, though):Claire and Matthew Labine.
AGES: Says she is 17, he's 38.
WHY THEM? The mother-son team are daytime TV's consummate soap writers. Their family-oriented plots and deft humor checked ABC's General Hospital out of creative intensive care (earning the show two Outstanding Drama Series Daytime Emmys). Now they're trying to resurrect ABC's One Life to Live.
HOW THEY DO IT: Both admit to pilfering material from friends' lives. Explains Matt: "I preface every meeting with a new person by saying, 'I write for television, so anything you say can and will be used in an episode as soon as I can write it down.'"