First, A Zen Moment
This is a photo off of Mallory Square
in Key West, Florida.
Super
Soap Weekend 2000
By Tracey Warren
Note: The photos included are thumbnails to speed the loading time of the page. Please click on them to enlarge. More photos are included in the photo album at the end of Tracey's narrative.
First, A Zen Moment
This is a photo off of Mallory Square
in Key West, Florida.
The
Fifth Annual Super Soap Weekend was held on November 11 and 12, 2000, at
Disney’s MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.
This was my fourth trip to SSW and I think the most fun.
The things I do for you people! LOL!
First,
the list of attendees:
All
My Children
Rebecca
Budig (Greenlee Smythe)
John Callahan (Edmund Grey)
Mark Consuelos (Mateo Santos)
Josh Duhamel (Leo du Pres)
Michael E. Knight (Tad Martin)
Susan Lucci (Erica Kane)
Cameron Mathison (Ryan Lavery)
Kelly Ripa (Hayley Santos)
Esta TerBlanche (Gillian Andrassy Martin)
Walt Willey (Jackson Montgomery)
One
Life To Live
Linda
Dano (Rae Cummings)
Kamar de los Reyes (Antonio Vega)
James DePaiva (Max Buchanan)
Kassie DePaiva (Blair Buchanan)
David Fumero (Cristian Vega)
Catherine Hickland (Lindsay Rappaport)
Erika Page (Roseanne Delgado)
Jason-Shane Scott (Will Rappaport)
Hillary B. Smith (Nora Buchanan)
Erin Torpey (Jessica Buchanan)
General
Hospital
Sarah
Brown (Carly Corinthos)
Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis)
Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth Webber)
John Ingle (Edward Quartermaine)
Wally Kurth (Ned Ashton)
A Martinez (Roy DiLucca)
Coltin Scott (Nikolas Cassadine)
Jacob Young (Lucky Spencer)
Jackie Zeman (Bobbie Spencer)
Port
Charles
Lynn
Herring (Lucy Coe)
Thorsten Kaye (Ian Thornhart)
Jon Lindstrom (Kevin Collins)
Julie Pinson (Eve Lambert Collins)
Saturday, November 11th
Saturday
morning started earlier than usual because I was with people who would actually
get out of bed on time so we arrived at the park prior to it’s opening.
It was a little chilly that morning but nothing compared to the hideous
weather from last year. Having had
the schedule posted at ABC.com we made the decision to visit Thorsten Kaye first
at 9:45 (Wally wasn’t out until noon so I had time to kill before stalking
him!). I intended to see a net
friend, who is an adamant Thorsten fan, but I never saw her; however, while
standing in line for Thorsten we did get an up-close view of several stars
emerging from the “behind the scenes” area, including Josh Duhamel, Esta
Terblanche and Jason Shane Scott. I
managed to refrain from taking any pictures thereby sticking to my rule about
not wasting film on shots that would have little use later.
That rule went all to hell later as the pictures you’ll be seeing with
this story will not even be ¼ of the pictures that I took. Anyway, you can always tell when someone arrives for signing
by the overwhelming “wooooooooooooooooooooo” heard around the park and this
line was no different! As soon as
someone spotted Thorsten and started the “woooooo” heads snapped around and
the flashes began. Let me just say
that if you think this man is a hottie on tv, wait until you see him in person!
Oh my gawd! I forgot my name
temporarily when he spoke to me. It’s
a good thing I had the GH/PC Fan Club pin on.
He saw it and asked “How are you doing today, Tracey?” I was looking
at him through glazed eyes like “uhhhhh what?”
It took a second for my brain to register anything other than the fact
that he was speaking to me and I must add that I love the way he says my name in
that accent. YUM! He was very
sweet and asked me if I was having a good time.
This being the first event of the day I told him that I was and at least
the weather was way better than last year.
He said he’d heard about that and was glad we got better weather this
year. I think I’ll be
tuning into Port Charles a little more often now.
After
leaving his line I walked around for a while snapping some pictures of the
people I knew I wouldn’t get in line for like Jacob Young, Rebecca Herbst and
Josh Duhamel.
Who
had the not-so-brilliant idea to have Josh and Jacob not only signing at the
same time but in stations right next to each other, hmmmm?
That part of the street was so crowded from all the gawkers that nobody
could get through without being some sort of body contortionist!
Then,
I stopped briefly for a sandwich while one set of my friends went off to have
lunch at the Sci-Fi Diner and I headed to the area where Wally would be signing.
There was already a line forming so I made a few new friends and pimped
the site and the GH fan club while watching Susan Lucci sign some autographs
behind me. By this time the
temperature had risen and there wasn’t any shade in this particular area so I
was thankful that I was still sporting my Keys tan; otherwise, I would have been
crispy before Wally ever made it out. When
he stepped out and walked toward his podium I got the silly little grin on my
face as if I’d never seen him in person before.
After waiting for what seemed like hours (not really) it was finally my
turn. I walked up and he recognized
me, I’m assuming because of that manhandling stunt in L.A. earlier this year,
so he asked how I was doing. Everything
in my little alternate sense of reality was just perfect at that moment in time.
So after the obligatory small talk I told him he’d have to sign one of
the black and white photos because he’s signed everything else possible (5 CDs
and the book). The first question
on the agenda was asked on behalf of myself and the other Gatekeepers (www.ned-alexis.com
). We wanted, nay, needed to know whether or not the Nexis wedding was actually going
to take place. He just grinned that
adorable dimply grin, which he should know by now is dangerous when I’m
standing that close to him, and said he wouldn’t tell me.
I told him that was fine because the other GKs were in Nancy’s line in
an attempt to extricate information from her.
He said she wouldn’t tell either, all the while grinning dangerously.
I accepted that, got my Wally hug and had to ask one more question.
“Are you ever sick of the leather pants?”
He said, sometimes he is sick of them due to the fact that he can’t
move around as much. I told him
that I felt sorry for him last year during the concert at SSW because it was
unbearably hot for everyone and he couldn’t have been comfortable wearing
those pants on stage. I told him
that for my part he could give them up because it’s not a novelty any more.
Everybody has leather pants now and it’s become acceptable to wear them
everyday. He still wears them
better than 99% of the population (remember Jax in the leather pants?
::::shudder:::::) but it’s gotten old.
Ok,
so that part of my mission completed I walked over to the station where Nancy
Lee Grahn was signing to find the other Gatekeepers and observed some of them
getting autographs. Nancy is
such a good sport that when two young ladies wearing pink “Charlie’s
Angels” t-shirts asked her to pose with them in the classic Angel opening
stance, you know the one – back to back holding out their hands as if they
were guns, she willingly obliged.
After
the GKs had their NLG autographs we all tromped over to the SuperStar TV theatre
to stand in line for the Talk Show starring Catherine Hickland and featuring
Nancy Lee Grahn, Wally Kurth, Sarah Brown, John Ingle, Josh Duhamel and Rebecca
Budig. While waiting we were given
a bag of goodies from Colgate Total (sponsor of SSW) which included 3 or 4
different kinds of toothpaste (hey – never turn down free stuff!) and a copy
of the Soap Opera Digest SSW special edition. I don’t normally attend anything where fans are allowed to
ask questions of the stars because we are inevitably treated to the same
irritating, asinine questions over and over and over and over and….well, you
get the picture. This time was no
different. Also at this particular
event, you are forced to stand outside the theater in the crowd like a herd of
cattle and when they finally open the doors everybody is pushing and shoving
trying to get in to get a good seat. It’s
ridiculous and some people also fail to comprehend the directions to go all the
way to the end of the row and sit. You can’t just stop in the middle. In all the madness, our group got separated into three
smaller contingents. One person
ended up sitting next to Angela Shapiro so a conversation was sparked and AS
only wanted to know what she thought of Sonny and Carly.
Gag me with a sharp object!!!!
Nancy
and Wally were introduced first. The
first question Catherine asked was if they liked working together.
They both answered at the same time laughingly saying that no they hated
each other. Then said that they are really good friends.
It’s quite obvious that they enjoy working together and get along well.
Wally had to explain to Nancy where the “Eddie Maine” persona originated,
apparently she’d never heard the entire story.
He mentioned that dreadful “L” word referring to Bratlynn’s Mother
and I cringed. I don’t really remember all that was said so I’ll have to
update you once I receive the video. I
do remember at one point Wally was sitting on the couch with his arm around
Nancy and he commented that he was sitting awfully close to her.
Actually they were cozy all weekend. They showed the clip of the
reporters going into Ned’s hotel room and finding “Eddie’s Angel” for
the first time. Nancy said that
when she got ready to do that scene she started out standing on the bed and the
director told her to sit down.
John
Ingle was introduced next and was asked (again) about who his famous students
were from his teaching days. I can
recite almost the entire list because I’ve heard it so many times.
New questions please. Catherine
then asked him why Edward was so grumpy and his answer was “good writing”.
Wally commented then that John is nothing like Edward and you will not
find anyone as nice as John. I
wholeheartedly agree with this assessment.
I love that guy!
Sarah
Brown was introduced next. Catherine
commented that she played the “best bad girl of all time”.
Sarah told her that she would have to take a backseat to her.
I agree on that point. Lindsay
is so much more entertaining than Carly, but then I’d rather have bamboo
shoots shoved under my fingernails while enduring Chinese water torture than
watch Carly. Sarah said that some
days she’d like to throttle Carly for her lack mothering abilities but stated
that nobody ever takes care of their kids on TV.
At some point she made the comment that she learned everything she knows
about comedy from Nancy, drama from John and music from Wally. I thought this was quite nice (cheesy, but nice).
I really liked Sarah from what I saw of her over the weekend, but it
hasn’t improved my opinion of Carly at all.
Rebecca
Budig and Josh Duhamel were introduced next and somebody really should have
turned on the AC because that man is hot,
hot, hot! Catherine was really
impressed (and rightly so) with Josh’s acting ability.
Rebecca was just so excited to get to see Catherine, it was cracking me
up. They showed the clip of Leo and
Greenlee in the bathtub and if you watch AMC you know which scene I’m
referring to. Josh jokingly said
that while they were filming that scene he was wearing pants and socks but
Rebecca was completely naked. Rebecca
just cackled at that remark.
Afterwards
there was another motorcade with Wally, Nancy, Sarah and John.
The interviewer and fans asked the same tired questions.
While we were waiting on this motorcade there was a motorcade and
conversation with Susan Lucci. I
wasn’t sitting where I could see anything, but I could hear the conversation.
Nothing new was divulged.
The
Street Jam that evening began with the Grand Motorcade with all of the stars who
were not performing later in the evening. It’s
tough to see anything during the motorcade because everybody is out front for
this and add that the to fact that the Disney characters ride with the stars
blocking the view of the stars (that we are there to see!) from at least one
side. The best picture I took of John Ingle was during one of these motorcades,
but Kate (Nancy’s daughter) is in the picture too and I have a long-standing
rule that I don’t post pictures of stars with the children.
After
the motorcade passed the crowd was allowed to come to the front of the stage and
it turned into a mosh pit. I could
only tolerate this for so long and bolted after a couple of songs.
Once everyone was on stage they played “Maria” by Ricky Martin and
all the stars were dancing around. At
one point Cameron Mathison was carrying Esta Terblanche around on his shoulders.
He
always has a good time. He was also
filming everything with his video camera and I’m sure by now you can see video
clips on his website at www.cameronmathison.com
if you are so inclined. After the
stars leave we are treated (if you want to call it that) to an obnoxious DJ
playing CDs and trying to keep us entertained until the bands got set up.
One of the things he attempted was to have everyone do the macarena.
I’ve never done the macarena and never intend to do the macarena so
that seemed like a very opportune time to get a drink.
The
first band to perform was The High
Lonesome (with Jon Lindstrom). Jon
played drums on a couple of songs and sang one. He’s pretty good and the band was entertaining.
I wouldn’t mind hearing them again.
The song he sang was “I love my car more than my girl”.
I liked it.
Next
up was Kassie Depaiva. She sang one
song and then did a duet with James Depaiva. She’s not bad but should keep a death grip on that day job.
Their duet was sweet but had me standing knee deep in cheese.
Catherine
Hickland sang next and she was much easier to take this year.
She’s really very good, but the songs are still inappropriate for the
SSW forum in my opinion but at least she wasn’t singing a lullaby this time.
I wasn’t really listening to most of her set because there was a
serious discussion going on about how Lindsay would make a great love interest
for Stefan Cassadine on GH. I
believe she dedicated one of the songs to Michael and again I must say CHEESE!
A
Martinez sang one song that he wrote and sang for his younger sister’s wedding
the month prior to SSW. He’s
pretty good, but should definitely stick to acting.
not a thumbnail
Coltin
Scott came on next and I was skeptical at best because his lackluster
performances on GH leave a lot to be desired; however, I was IMPRESSED!
He can sing!!! He did three songs and I’m now a fan of his singing career.
After the first song a discussion was held about the Prince becoming
L&B’s new feature artist. This
could provide a good Cassadine story. Stefan
would hate it. Helena would hate
it. Alexis might be skeptical at
first, but she’d come around. Plus
we’d have the added bonus of not needing Juan (not that we need him now).
I highly recommend Coltin’s singing.
Why is he bothering with GH if he can sing like that?
FINALLY, we got to why I was still hanging around the park after 12 hours on my feet. Kurth and Taylor – WOOHOO! Yes, Wally was wearing the leather pants. I left my fellow Gatekeepers in the back of the crowd and squirreled my way into the wheelchair section right next to the stage to take some pictures and enjoyed the concert from about the 4th “row”. They did “Hero”, “September”, “Who Knew” (one of my favorite K&T songs!!!), “Surrender”, which he dedicated to the Gatekeepers because we never surrendered in trying to get a story for Ned & Alexis. (yeah, we rule!) Needless to say we were overjoyed. That was followed by “Simply Irresistible” which was a HUGE improvement over that Nurse’s Ball video. And as the finale, he sang “Let it Go” and fireworks were set off behind the stage during the song. This was my suggestion from last year, so you’re welcome. All in all it was a great day.
SUNDAY,
November 12th
This
day started far too early in my opinion. Brunch
with Susan Lucci was scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m.
I am not a morning person, ever! Usually, my alarm is going off at 7:30 and that is CST so
basically I had to be at MGM at 6:30 according to my internal clock, meaning I
was up around 5:30 (to my brain anyway). The
only reason I agreed to this insanity was to avoid having to stand in line to
get Susan to sign my AMC book. Three
years ago I dedicated an entire morning (i.e. 4 hours) to standing in her line
to have her autograph the Erica Kane book and the lines have gotten even longer
for her. Now that I have both books
signed I can skip her from now on so I would like to thank the other Tracy from
the AMC Luncheon for the heads up on this info.
Immediately upon returning from NYC I joined Susan’s chat club and
ordered the exclusive pin so I could go to this brunch.
This was so much easier than standing in line!
It
was chilly that morning and walking through that myriad of hotels I could smell
breakfast cooking and was getting pretty hungry since I didn’t eat anything
the night before. We arrived at the
bus stop by 7:00 a.m. The MGM bus
was late and we were getting pretty nervous because we had to be checked in by
7:30. It worked out just fine
because we arrived before 7:30 but we were still among the last few people to
get there. The Brunch was held at The Brown Derby in MGM and was the best meal I
had all week. We were each given a
bag full of goodies including the travel pack of Susan’s hair products and
Invitation perfume, a Soap Opera Weekly T-shirt, the copy of Soap Opera Weekly
with the 10 most Wanted stars we’d like to return to Daytime with Lane Davies
(yeah baybee!!), Mathew Ashford, Louise Sorel and some other people on the
cover. Helmut Huber (Susan’s
husband for anyone who’s been living under a rock and doesn’t know that) was
milling about all morning. Susan
arrived around 8 with Mickey Mouse. Who
is the bigger star? You be the
judge. They raffled off one of the
new Susan Lucci dolls and a poster that Susan said had been hanging in her
dressing room for 6 or 7 years of Erica and Dimitri.
I wanted that poster, but I didn’t win it.
I did think about offering money to the winner for it though.
The chat club presented Susan with a donation to her favorite charity,
Little Flowers Children’s Services of New York (“the largest child care
agency in New York State providing foster care and adoption services to all five
boroughs as well as Long Island” quoted from Susan’s website – www.susanlucci.com
). By the time I finally got to the
front of the line I was getting a little anxious to get out of there and on with
my day. I didn’t say much to
Susan, but I did have a clean page saved in the front of the AMC book reserved
for her autograph. There is no one
quite as gracious as Susan and I recommend that every AMC fan that has the
opportunity to meet her – DO IT! Just
please refrain from getting too emotional. Some of her fans get a too excited
and cry.
The
first line I got in that morning was for Hillary B. Smith.
I’ve only been watching OLTL for a couple of months and she is by far
my favorite person on that show so I took a shot and I got there early enough to
be about the 10th person in line.
I had my friend claim my spot and went walk-about to take some pictures
of the stars that were already out and signing like Jon Lindstrom, Lynn Herring,
James and Kassie Depaiva. Once I
reclaimed my spot in line I had enough time to chat with the other people in
line, pimped the site and the fan club some more and just generally enjoy the
fact that I was still on vacation. Hillary
is very playful with the fans and she’s so much fun to watch.
I had forgotten that I was wearing my GH Fan Club pin and when I finally
got to meet her she started reading the pin out loud, then looked at me in fake
astonishment and asked “How dare you wear that in my line?”. Well that
took me by surprise and while we were laughing about it I told her that I was
sorry but I hadn’t been watching her show for very long. She signed one of the black & white photos for me and I
got a picture. Then I told her that
she should “go with Ty, because he’s the hottie!”.
That seemed to get me off the hook because I got a high-five for that
one! I really loved her!
She’s one of those people that you just want to continue to hang
around.
Next
mission of the day was to obtain a signature and picture of A. Martinez.
My goal was to get the b&w photo signed as a surprise for our dear
webmaster for all that she does for us [Note from Katrina:
“Awwww. These great pics
are enough to thrill me to my little girl bones. J];
however, after standing in line FOREVER A was late getting to the station and
proceeded to take his sweet time with everybody. (I was about the 80th
person in line and had promised a friend that I’d go to NLG’s signing with
her which was about to start) so I had to bail.
I got a few nice photos of A.
I
high-tailed it over to where Nancy’s line was forming and claimed a spot for
myself. Then bribed the people in
line to hold my spot for me so I could run around and take some random pictures
of the stars that were already out, like Jacob Young, Cameron Mathison and Josh
Duhamel. Firmly planted back in my
spot at NLG’s line, I found a few of my Gatekeeper friends who informed me
that Nancy had aggravated that cornea abrasion again and was wearing a bandage
over her eye, she couldn’t see at all and might not even be coming out to
sign. Fortunately, Nancy is such a trooper (and probably still feeling bad about
bailing on the GH Luncheon, although her reasoning was completely forgivable –
family comes before fans!) that she came out for pictures but was unable to sign
any autographs. She also said that
anyone who wanted an autograph could leave his or her address with her Disney
attendant and she would mail a picture to everyone once she could see again.
The line was moving so swiftly without having to wait for autographs that
I gave up my spot in line and hung with my fellow Gatekeepers further back in
the line. We got a group picture
with Nancy and she said some cryptic things about the upcoming Nexis wedding and
no one could agree on what she exactly meant.
I’m a little frightened that the wedding might not go through now.
She said she was sorry that she couldn’t see us and one group member
promised to send her a copy of the group shot so she’d know who she was taking
a picture with. Since I was in
Wally’s line on Saturday while the GKs were in Nancy’s line I also got a
picture of just me and her and explained that I needed this because I was ogling
Wally the day before.
Afterwards
we split up and a few of us were going to get in Coltin Scott’s line to tell
him how great he was at the concert on Saturday night.
We were thwarted by the long line and elected to watch Wally sign and one
of the GKs asked Wally just before he left if we could talk him into a group
picture with all the GKs. He
willingly agreed and a time of 2:45 was set to meet him beside Star Tours (the
Star Wars ride). I hung around to
take some pictures of Coltin with my camera and a friend’s camera (she refers
to Coltin only as her “boyfriend”) while they went to locate the other GKs
for the picture. Coltin deals with
the crowds well considering he’s only been on the show for a year and a half
and is very attractive in person.
I
went immediately over to Star Tours to stake out a location to wait for Wally
and the other GKs. While waiting I
saw Linda Dano and overheard her ask her Disney escort if she had time to ride
Star Tours before going to her next station.
I almost ran in to the line to see if I could get into the same booth
with her, but quickly weighed my options and decided that waiting there for
Wally was more important (you knew I’d say that right? lol).
I also saw Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos, Jason-Shane Scott, Michael E.
Knight and Susan Lucci being led backstage.
All of them stopped for pictures and autographs with the fans that had
discovered this prime location and no one seemed bothered by this, even Mark
which seriously shocked me! He
usually shows nothing but contempt for the fans.
Once
the other GKs arrived it didn’t take long before Wally’s Disney attendant
came out to retrieve us. A little
voice inside me was gloating that all of those people standing out there were
asking “Who the hell are they?” because we got to go backstage.
Wally was waiting backstage for us and his Disney attendant took a group
shot of us with all seven cameras. Before
leaving we somehow managed to get on the topic of the election and Wally stated
that he didn’t vote for Al Gore (he didn’t vote for Bush or Nader either!)
and made the mistake of mentioning that fact to Nancy.
She was not pleased by this information at all.
That spiraled off into a political discussion for a few minutes. We had to shut it down so he wouldn’t be late for his next
appearance but he did promise to dedicate a song to us again at the concert that
evening! (yeah baybee!)
We
went directly to the front for the Motorcade and Star conversations with Wally,
Nancy, John Ingle and Sarah Brown. See
above description of this as nothing different happened.
Same questions, same answers.
A
motorcade and star conversation followed with Cameron Mathison, Esta Terblanche,
Michael E. Knight, David Fumero, Erin Torpey and Jason-Shane Scott.
I wasn’t really paying attention because I only wanted to get some
pictures of the OLTL group since I had no intention of standing in line for any
of them. I do remember the
interviewer asking Cameron the most asked question of the weekend and he left it
up to the crowd to answer. {drum roll please} “Take
off your shirt!” I know Cameron
is tired of this request and frankly so am I.
It was only cute the first time. My GKs deserted me in favor of trying to
get fast-passes for the Rock-n-Roller Coaster, so I wandered over to try to get
a decent picture of Sarah Brown. It
just wasn’t happening with all of the gawkers standing around her station so I
planted myself in a keen location and saved seats for the gang until the final
motorcade.
The
Grand Motorcade was very much like the one on Saturday night.
The concert line-up was a bit different.
Kurth & Taylor opened that evening.
This was my sixth or seventh K&T concert and I don’t think I’ve
ever seen them give a better performance. In
Wally’s own words “What we lack in rehearsal we make up for in energy.” He wasn’t kidding. They
sang “Barefoot Ballet”, “Seventh Son”, “Surrender” and dedicated it
to the Gatekeepers again (told you we ruled!), and “Let it Go” among others
which I do not recall at this time. My
GK friends left immediately after the band left the stage and I tooled around
looking for the friends that I was staying with.
I knew they wanted to hear Susan Lucci sing so they’d still be around.
Michael
Saucedo sang next. I pretty much
ignored him while I was talking to some new friends and waiting on Susan.
The
first song Susan Lucci sang was a number from “Annie Get Your Gun”.
She did pretty well but again this was the improper forum.
In the context of the play and inside a theater I’m sure I would have
enjoyed it more, despite the fact that I HATE it when anybody tries to fake a
southern accent. The second song
was the same one she sang on AMC and it was a big improvement over the first
song. I think she was wearing the same dress she wore on AMC when
she performed it too.
I
bolted from the park as soon as Susan was done singing because BBMack was
scheduled to perform next and I have no use for boy bands on a regular day and I
certainly have no use for them in the middle of my soap stuff.
One
final note before I leave you. If
you should ever attend a fan event, please do the star (and me) a favor by
learning his or her real names. This
is a huge pet peeve of mine, just ask anyone who spent any time with me over
that weekend. Anyone who spends
that kind of time, money and energy surely could spend an extra five seconds to
either learn the name of the star or read it off of the program.
That’s
it folks, at least until I get my copy of the video.
Happy
Soaping!
~Tracey~
