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PAGE 4 So the luncheon ended and to my knowledge, a grand time was had by all, except for perhaps some of the actors, who looked just exhausted (the phrase "rode hard and put up wet" comes to mind). Kathy headed up for Maurice Benard's event, which I'm sure she'll tell you all about. Carolyn and I went to grab a drink at the Patio Cafe. I was waiting for a friend of mine, with whom I'd made plans and she was a bit late showing up, so we talked for a while and met up with some other EOS fans to have a good chat. My
friend, Tracey, showed up with (God bless her soul) a ticket for Wally's
concert for me, so I was set for the night. I was going to Tamara
Braun's event (I was surprised at the number of fans who address the stars
by their first names or nicknames: "Tam," "Mo," "Chad," as if
they've been smoking, whoring and drinking 40's with them on the corner.
I guess my Mom beat the "Mr" and "Ms" into me a little too hard
Now, it's important to know my perspective on interviews, since you may have noticed we don't put any on the site, barring one lone Loren Freeman interview 2 years ago. I'm not creative, like my friend, Coggie, who thinks up the greatest questions ever and I don't care about the stupid questions like "what was it like to kiss Maurice Benard?" My impression is that the stars are so castrated by the network and the interviews are so heavily censored and glamorized by publicists and agents that by the time it finally hits print, it's the same fifteen glossy questions 5-6 other sites already have posted. So why bother? It's not like "Mo's" gonna start crying in mid interview and talking about the puppy that ran away when he was seven or the gardener who taught him to count cards and light kitchen matches off his heel. It's going to be the same crap as always, not to mention the hoops you have to jump through to get interviews. For three years, I've always said that if I did an interview, I wanted it to be in a bar with the interviewee already into the cups and I wanted to just talk to them, to get past the veneer and bullshit and get to the real person... to just talk to them for a while and pick at their brain and see what they're really like. Kathy and Carolyn were very eager to interview and that was GREAT! I wished them luck in setting it up. I did not come at all prepared to do interviews, so no voice recorder, nothing but a pad and paper. When Rita told me that she could set up interviews for me to do (because I'm her fwiend) with her clients and friends, I wasn't eager to do it, but I knew it would be good for the site. So interview, I did. As it turned out, I got my dream handed to me on a black linen platter. (Thanks, Rita, honey) I ended up missing Tamara Braun's event, but I got great interviews, which will be posted on the site over the next week or two. First, was my favorite, Scott Egan. We talked for over an hour and what was so precious about it was that it was my dream, exactly what I said I wanted. We sat at the pool bar and just talked. He is just such a handsome man. He has a very powerful presence and I felt like I'd had a string with a tag on it wrapped around my neck and been steeped in estrogen or something. Carolyn was with me for the interview, thank God, or else I likely wouldn't remember what the guy said. He's a "close talker," meaning that he leans in and talks in close proximity and looks directly into your eyes. He has this bedroom voice that is soft and full and... anyway, the interview. At one point, I asked him to look away for a few minutes so I could ask him an intelligent question, then I asked him to look back because I'd missed him. I have no idea what I asked or what he answered. The gaze just sucked all that info out of me. Then I suggested that maybe Faith could get to Sonny via Johnny and he said, "If Johnny got Faith in the bed, he'd beat her like a rented mule." (I about passed out when he said that, like, *gulp*) He also told me that a story had been originally written where Alexis, instead of becoming pregnant with Sonny's child, became pregnant as the result of a rape by Johnny. He knew that would mean cement shoes for Johnny and in the end, the actors talked the writers out of doing it (we may all be grateful that saner heads prevailed). He brought up the point that the last of Sonny's men to get some was Renaldo, who was blown up ("Renaldo, bring the car around" - *boom*), and so he wasn't sure it was a good idea. It was an awesome interview. I just wish I could remember it. All I remember is black shirt, black pants, that voice, those lines I mentioned and a certain amount of heat. (Nah, I got the interview. It'll be good). I just want to say that I'm grateful to know him and have another opportunity to talk with such a great guy (all "he's hot" smack talking aside). Next was Lindze Leatherman, who was just fabulous. She is the most vibrant, alive, intelligent, darling girl ever and it was a pleasure to talk with her. Dylan Cash was my next victim and when he heard he was to be interview, he groaned and made that kid face. I said, "I'll tell you what, Dylan. We're going to talk for a while and I won't ask you hardly ANYthing about GH or Maurice or Tamara or Steve, how's that?" He got really excited and did a happy victory dance while I silent gave thanks for having kids so I'd know what to talk to him about. I did two other interviews (not ABC) and by that time, both Carolyn and Kathy were in the Tamara Braun event (which went on until 12:30am with her signing autographs and talking to people - WHAT a trouper - it started at 6:30!). I went over to see if I could slip in, but it didn't look welcoming to those not already inside. But WALLY was playing, so I tooled over there for a while. By 11, I was whipped (rented mule, you know) and so I headed back to the hotel and fell into a fitful sleep, with visions of all kinds of stuff flying through my head like chickens caught in a tornado.
August 24, Day 3, Nancy Lee Grahn, The Q
Brunch, Cursed alarm went off right when I told it to at 6am. For its efforts, I beat it in to silence and then popped up like a jack-in-the box when Kathy called to see if I was still going. I dressed quickly and off we went. I'd been busy with interviews and the concert and such the night before and had skipped dinner, so I was starving. NLG started sign in at 7 and we finally made it in around 8. As usual, the event was a class act (and the main luncheon was very hard to beat). They had NLG mugs for everyone, SoapNet pens and keychains and magnets. My seat had me posted neatly behind, well, a post. I could hardly see anything at all, much less take any pictures. Still, it was a fantastic event. They had bagels, muffins, juice and coffee. I grabbed a couple of muffins and minibagels and topped it off with some apple juice (mistake... big mistake). After spending many weeks on modified Atkins (this means that you eat a LOT of protein, but you also eat other stuff, which is called "overeating with a protein emphasis"), I was accustomed to having a high protein dinner and high protein breakfast with a salad and protein sandwich for lunch. I have cut way back on my breads and potatoes and other starches. After essentially fasting since the previous afternoon, then eating nothing but carbs for breakfast, I proceeded to go into some kind of weird sugar arrest where I broke out in wicked sweats, got very nauseated and developed a pounding headache. I thought I was going to die. I left the NLG event for about 20 minutes to run across the street and grab some Tylenol, then returned to see if it would go away. They started circulating for the autographs a few minutes later and I started to feel worse instead of better, so I left and went the Patio Cafe for a side of 1 egg and a side of ham. I was feeling better by the time Kathy and Carolyn showed up for the Quartermaine Brunch. I did manage to get some great stuff from the NLG event before I had to bail. I was very excited when NLG introduced Constance Towers as a guest. I had heard she wasn't able to make it (she always comes to NLG's events) and it was a pleasure to see her. She looks more gorgeous than ever and is such a classy lady. Note to self: Be her when I grow up. She said she has two tape dates coming up in September, but has no idea what the story will be, so look for a Helena return!! When asked what Helena has been doing, she said she'd been "saving penguin souls in Antarctica," then said she didn't think Helena had been there at all, really. We thought that was the end of the cool surprises (Lord knows Wally Kurth was still sound asleep at the butt crack of dawn), but then NLG introduced her "love interest" on the show, (WTF?) and the crowd absolutely went wild when Bergen Williams (Big Alice) came out. WHAT a beautiful woman she is!! NLG said that when she came back from vacation (she's on so little, did we even know she was gone?), the first thing she said was "Give me back my damned baby." When she said this, Constance Towers purred in her best Helena voice, "And I'm coming after that baby. It's a Cassadine." NLG told us that she was really sick of the slapping on GH and didn't feel that people really slapped each other much in real life. Someone mentioned the idea of an Alexis and Lorenzo pairing and she liked the idea quite a bit. CT related her funniest moment in GH taping to be the scene where Luke sneaks up on Helena when she's in bed. He's wearing all black and has a switchblade at her throat. When Tony Geary opened the switchblade on the first take, he was holding it backwards and ended up sticking himself, so here's dark, sinister Luke in a menacingly intense scene and CT hears, "Click, Ouch!" She said she had to go outside and walk around for a while after to stop laughing through the scene. She also liked the idea of Faith being Helena's long lost daughter. Bergen Williams was very grateful to be working on GH, saying that until now, all she'd gotten to play were jail matrons ("the kind with the one plastic glove," she clarified) and biker chicks. She feels Alice really needs a man and suggested Mike Corbin. :o) In a bizarre reveal, she admitted she's only gotten four fan letters since she started working on GH and folks, this is just WRONG, so everyone write to her at:
Bergen Williams Each time someone writes a snail mail (NOT an e-mail!), it is tallied as a viewer of that particular actor, so write to the actor, not the show or the producer or the writers and tell them we want MORE BIG ALICE!! The same goes for more Johnny (replace her name with "Scott Egan") or whoever you want to promote! The actors are judged by the amount of mail they receive to determine fan interest!!!! We can't let her go on thinking we don't love her! Unbelievably, I learned that Blake Gibbons wasn't even going to attend the event because he didn't think anyone would remember him, much less have an interest in him! Good God!! I went mostly to see him and he's one of the few actors I was determined to photo with!! Write to Blake too!! Convince him he's the New Hotness! Think POOL TABLE, BABY! So that's what I got out of the NLG event before going off to change my blood sugar levels. The Quartermaine Brunch was a new event for me and while the NLG event had really cool stuff, the Q Brunch had protein and I had a better table. It also had a VERY smoothly moving autograph and photo line, even though it was tough to get a picture WITH anyone, so you had to pretty much settle with pictures OF everyone. For reasons I could not associate with the Q's, but nonetheless happy as hell to see her, Susan Brown (Gail Baldwin) showed up, which was a joy for me because I can't get PC. I told her I was so grateful that Lee had finally gotten a sane wife. Another surprise guest was Amber Tamblyn, to was basically there to promote her new TV series, Joan of Arcadia. It sounds pretty interesting. The theme of the brunch was to honor Anna Lee's birthday, so a few of the cast members told anecdotes about her and offered her their love and well wishes. It was all recorded for her by a friend and would be delivered to her that afternoon (broken hip). John Ingle read a letter of regret from her for being unable to attend and Susan Brown honored her with a reading of a lovely essay on aging written by Lee's husband, Robert Nathan. Stuart Damon, upon taking the podium quipped, "Do any of you recognize us?" He then revealed that he called Anna Lee "The Nymphomaniac of Port Charles" and told of a lightswitch plate he received as a gift from her that was of a man flashing with the lightswitch fitting into strategic placement. He also said that each year for Christmas, she gives him a day-to-day calendar with a dirty joke for each day. Leslie Charleson recounted a time she took Anna Lee to a wedding and parked her wheelchair by a giant ice sculpture (brrr) and Lee said, "It melted quite a bit." As they walked back to their seats for autographs and photos, John Ingle said, "You [meaning the audience] must be so poor after leaving these events!" :o)
Amber Tamblyn and Wally Kurth
Natalia Livingston and Scott Clifton
Denise Alexander and Stuart Damon
Stuart Damon some more
("Ten minutes ago I saw you
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), but my friend had lined
up 5, count'em FIVE interviews for me and I knew I had to make some
choices about how I would spend my time (for future reference and "based
on results," the site will always win out). I ran to find Carolyn,
who was already in line for Tamara Braun's event and told her the
situation. She was bummed because she spent $65 on the ticket, but I
told her one of the interviews was Scott Egan (Johnny) and she said, "Pfft,
it's assigned seating, let's go!" (That's why I love, love, love
Carolyn. She's like 4 gallons of spontaneity in a 1 pint container)
