The TV-and-movie star and her husband launch a lush, delicious blog called "Under the Tuscan Gun."

Feeling like a change? Debi Mazar knows all about it; she's probably the uncrowned Queen of Challenges. She started her adult life as a makeup artist (her most famous client was Madonna) then juggled that job as she segued into a successful acting career. Now, she's juggling acting (HBO's "Entourage" and, until two weeks ago, "Dancing With the Stars") with an Italian Cooking blog she does with her husband, Italian musician (and house dad) Gabriele Corcos.

With its beautiful photographs and videos, graceful layout and endless recipes, tips, organic products and ruminations on parenthood (they have two daughters) work, living and cooking, "Under the Tuscan Gun" is like exploring the Tuscan countryside from your kitchen counter. There's also tons of travel info if you've ever dreamed of traveling to Tuscany. Mazar and Corcos know all about traveling to Tuscany; they're in the process of restoring an old farmhouse and olive orchard in Fiesole, Corcos' hometown just outside of Florence. Eventually, the olives they harvest will go into several organic olive oil-based products they're developing. First on the list is an organic skincare line, with more products to follow. [Search: underthetuscangun]

The bad seed renders its bitter fruit.

And here is where Victor Newman shows up and is forced to confront his handiwork, namely Patty, and the havoc she's wreaked. And, as so often happens in the last scene, the Monster turns on its Creator.

Patty Williams pointed her gun at her final target, the tyrant who dumped the last of her marbles into the same lake that would ultimately claim his sweet-natured goddaughter. With a pull of the trigger, Patty Williams tried to do what so many others dreamed of and failed at - ridding the world of one of its most hateful scourges. Bang. Bang. Bang. Three shots would change everything.

Or would they?

Colleen would suffer the same fate as her father with one difference; though her brain was dead, her body was still functioning. Now, she lay in a hospital bed with no hope for a future except as a body full of organs waiting to be harvested. And ironies of ironies, only feet away, riddled with shrapnel, lay Victor Newman, the cause of all this needless suffering and sadness. You could almost hear him wheezing: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."

Despite his recovery, Victor Newman is a not new man, they tell us. A few days after the incident at Lake Elizabeth, Newman's family graciously released a sidebar verbal memorandum during a Savaneure shareholders' meeting implying his perfect health and continuing impeccable business savvy. But how can that be? He wasn't sick with the flu, nor he didn't break a pinky, or more likely, burst a blood vessel browbeating his pet dragon.

In fact, Victor Newman had a heart transplant, but we have to wonder at the choice of words. After all, when it comes to medicine, the word "transplant" popularly assumes there is something to replace. Wouldn't "implant" with its connotation of inserting something where nothing was before be more accurate?

Regardless, as always (and undeservedly as always) Victor Newman got the best of the best; the delicate flower of a young woman's heart, but not just any young woman. Beating in the once-empty cavity of Victor Newman's chest is the heart his victim, an utterly intelligent, kind, compassionate human being and my niece entered the world with. Which makes me wonder: Will "CeCe's" heart have any effect on Victor? And if so, what will that mean for his family, his business colleagues and rivals - humanity? If Victor Newman is no longer the detestable pestilence he's always been, where will our moral compass land? Without South, we have no North.

This is the million dollar question, folks. If in fact Newman Enterprises survives this latest SEC scandal questioning the fitness of Savaneur's chief executive officer, and the timeliness (or un-timeliness) of the Newman family disclosure, not to mention what has to be a looming Corazal Bank investigation, what kind of man will Victor Newman be? Will he rise from the ashes to recapture the business crown of Vlad the Impaler (aka Dracula)? Or will he wither on the vine, and slowly bleed-out into obscurity and irrelevance, his loathsome nature poisoned perhaps by the innate decency of his latest "acquisition"? That may be putting too narrow a parameter on the possibilities. We are assured, ad infinitum, that Victor Newman was a vital and dynamic man before being shot by a crazy lady on a lake. Perhaps the future Victor Newman lies not in his past, but in the life of the beautiful person whose heart now beats within him.

CeCe Carlton was very special to me. But she was more than just my niece, she was also my best friend. I was closer to her in a lot of ways than my own brother and sisters. We came of age in the Millennium, not the mid-Seventies. We both knew the difference between a tweet and a twitch. Colleen was the first person to tell me she loved me and the last person to tell me what a screw up I was, and never missed her chance at either. I loved her like I do my brother and sisters. The day she died I would have rather ripped out my own heart and given it to Mr. Newman than have him take hers. That was the most difficult decision my sister Traci has ever had to make, and one in all honesty, I didn't fully agree with, and am still trying to understand. To shut off her only child's life so that someone else might live is wrenching enough, but to turn around and share that gift with Victor Newman is the action of a human far more evolved than I.

Victor Newman has waged war with my family for more days than anyone is really willing to count. His weapons range from classic double-crosses to destructive acts of vengeance motivated by sheer pettiness to destructive acts motivated by nothing more than the fact that he can. For my sister to share the enormous gift of her daughter's life with someone who has caused nothing but pain for my family is truly the work of an angel.

Will Mr. Newman tread a new path now? Will the beating of a young woman's heart soften his ossified sense of male prerogative? Will we one day cross paths and banter about Michael Kor's assertions on Project Runway? Will he and my sister have "girlfriend time" over popcorn and the latest Sandra Bullock movie? Will he end up teaching a lost man or woman to love again as a Beverly Hills escort? The possibilities are endless, but they also include the sad prospect that he'll be the same petulant bastard he always was.

I'd like to think people change, or at least are capable of a change of heart. There is no heart finer than the one Victor Newman has received, but he should earn it. It's my hope that he eschews past rapacity and predation for the spirit of kindness and hope embodied by my niece CeeCee. If he stays his current course, doubtless he will hear the thump-thump of CeeCee's Tell-Tale Heart. For his sake, I hope he dreams now of butterflies and Care Bears and peace in the Middle East. I hope he has tea parties with his daughters and begins retaining water in the middle of the month and marches for Women's Rights in front of the U.N.

Victor Newman can take any direction he wants. My niece no longer has that option.

As the Zen master said, "We'll see."

Victoria Newman-Hellstrom acts more like Big DaddyVictor every day...

If Restless Whispers are to be believed, little Vicky Newman is a Chip Off the Old Block....or is it Chippy? First, there was Newman Enterprises' trouble with the SEC. It's nothing big, just a few casual "misunderstandings" aka "misrepresentations" to stockholders and the folks in Washington, D.C. whose job it is to make sure 2010 doesn't play out like 2008 and 2009 did. One thing's for sure, stockholders and government watchdogs are in no mood to be mis-led, which means "Mis" Thing was very fortunate the SEC decided to drop the investigation. Just like Dad, little Vicky is proving very adept at out maneuvering even the canniest government investigators.

But then came hunky hubby JT Hellstrom's decision to sack security at Newman and seek greener employment pastures elsewhere. But why? With the wife at the helm of Newman, Hellstrom's role as Director of Security for N.E. is set for life. Maybe not. In fact, definitely not; as poor JT is learning, when you marry into a family of jackals, the best you can hope for is eventually getting out with all your fingers and toes still attached. And forget your heart, we already know how woefully under-equipped the Newmans are in that department. Perhaps JT should have a heart-to-heart with Julia, Ashley, Leanna, or Diane. Heck, it might even be worthwhile to dust off the Ouija board and see if he can ring up Hope or Sabrina in hopes of benefiting from an even broader perspective.

It would appear that Hellstrom's departure had something to do with the appearance of Deacon Sharpe on the scene. In fact, apres the last stockholder meeting, Hellstrom made his feelings about Sharpe obvious with a left to the jaw. Why all the rancor, fellas? As the French say, "Cherchez la femme," which loosely translates as "Keep your eye on the woman." Restless Tongues wag that keeping an eye on Ms. Newman after hours would have been a full time job of late. Taking after Dad again, Vicky?

At any rate, shortly after Sharpe's jaw was re-aligned, Mr. Newman-Hellstrom accepted a position in New York City. In a last-minute decision, Mrs. Newman-Hellstrom decided to accompany her husband with their son. Their New York sojourn was short-lived however; within weeks, the Newman-Hellstroms were back in GC.

So everything is back to normal and everybody's happy? "We'll see," says the Wise Man.

For more photos of Victoria, check out "Restless Icons."