August 28, 2006

I should note that this was the first soap event where I didn’t get to see Thorsten Kaye.   

But that’s okay.  I got to meet lots of other people, including the wonderful, scintillating, divine, and ever so charming Alicia Minshew: 

But I’m getting ahead of myself!!  I arrived in NYC, not having had any sleep at all.  That’s right, none.  I had so much to do the night before, and with a 6 AM flight, there was no point.  My attempts at sightseeing without getting hot and sweaty were a bust, so I killed the time before the first event by nursing a smoothie in SoHo (I’m such a party girl).   

The first event was hosted by Chrishell Stause and Colin Egglesfield at a nice little place called Nolita House.  I had a lot of fun at the event.  Chrishell and Colin were both very nice.  During the Q&A, the impression I got was that the Josh and Babe relationship would continue to grow, and the Amanda and Jonathan friendship would be fleshed out more.  Colin teased Chrishell, saying that “fleshing out” is a good way to put it.   

Someone asked Colin what his first sex scene was like.  As he was explaining that it’s all very technical, etc, someone else pointed out that the only scene we’ve seen was him in bed with an extra.  It seemed to indicate that maybe something has been taped, but not aired yet.  He did mention that a kissing scene between him and Alexa had to be cut because he was being too “aggressive with his tongue.”

When asked, Chrishell noted that Alexa never saw any of the scenes she taped with Justin when Jamie and Amanda were together.  They make it a point not to see each other’s love scenes. 

Colin was asked if he shared a dressing room.  He said he has his own now, but he used to share with Alec Musser and they called it the Frat Pad.  Chrishell has her own room, too, but she says that people tend to hang out in other people’s dressing rooms – she hangs out in Connie Fletcher’s room a lot. 

Someone asked Colin about the new camera work, and he explained that the desire was to have a more cinematic feel to the show.  He said they were still working out the kinks, and looking for feedback from the viewers.  No one in the room liked the new look. 

Someone asked Colin if Josh would ever forgive Erica, and he said, “Of course not, I’m a Kane!”  Then he went into a very good Erica impression as he expounded that he was a Kane and Kanes never forgive anyone.   

Someone asked Chrishell about Kate Collins, and she told everyone how motherly Kate was towards her, and how much she taught her as an actress in this medium.  She said she’d love to work with Kate again, but as far as she knows there isn’t anything planned for Janet. 

Colin was asked about Ian Buchanan, and he talked about Ian’s wonderful sense of humor.  He went into an imitation of Ian, saying that right before a scene Ian would be dancing a jig, and then when the scene started he would be very dour for his role.  Then after they yelled cut he’d go back to dancing a jig.  It was hilarious. 

I got to chat with a number of other fans at the event, many of whom I saw again and again at other events.  One gentleman I talked to said that he was outside the studio earlier in the week and saw Eileen Herlie and James Mitchell.  He asked her about her scenes with Thorsten Kaye, and she said to him that TPTB asked her to tone down the sexual energy between her and Thorsten in their scenes together.  She explained to them that it wasn’t something they planned, it just came natural.  I about wet myself with laughter when I heard that.   

For the weekend, I had a little ice breaker that I figured I could try whenever I had the opportunity, or if I was too nervous or didn’t know what to say.  I only did this with about five of the celebrities I met.  I told them that I had two questions for them.  The first question was “If there was a question you would like to be asked by an interviewer, what would it be?”  Whatever their answer was became the second question.   

I asked Colin and he said he would like to be asked how he prepared for a role.  I asked him how he prepared for Josh.  He smiled big and said that he could go on and on all day long – he clearly puts a lot of thought into what he does.  He said that he first wrote a biography of Josh, about two pages long.  He said he had no idea of Josh’s real history, but he tried to come up with something that would give him a feel for the character.  He said that the biography has had to change and grow according to what the writers have added to his character as time goes on.  Obviously when he started he didn’t know that he could fly airplanes, etc.  He also writes down what characteristics of himself and Josh that would be the same and what would be different.  He also writes out what he feels like Josh wants from life, what motivates him.  He said that also changes too, as time goes on.  Right now, Babe is what really motivates Josh, but that wasn't true of him when he first came on.  Not to sound cliched, but Colin was very nice and not at all like Josh.  I really enjoyed meeting him. The pic below was actually one I asked him to take with me towards the end of the event, because the one of him and I during the autograph session sucked so badly.  He was so sweet to let me try again! 

I also enjoyed meeting Chrishell.  She was very sweet.  She was chatting with the fan in front of me, talking about how she once worked as a manager at Dairy Queen, and took great pride in making Blizzards and serving them to the customers upside down.  I told her about some fans I know that would like a pairing between David and Amanda.  She told me she had heard about that, that it was based on that one scene they had together at Myrtle’s.  She said she would love to work with someone as talented as Vincent Irizarry.  I asked her the “two questions.”  What is her favorite alcoholic beverage?  Vodka and Diet Coke in separate glasses. 

Chrishell also gave out fan club packets which included an original script.  Coincidentally, the script I received was the one of Amanda and David in the aforementioned scene.  I was very thrilled to receive it.  I should also mention that the emcee of the event was Chrishell’s boyfriend Matthew Morrison, who was a very nice young man.  He’s apparently been in a number of shows on Broadway.  I would know this if I lived in New York City, because I would totally be Broadway’s bitch – I love the theater.  

Justin Bruening and Alexa Havins were special surprise guests at the event.  They were quite a beautiful couple.  I told Justin that I really enjoy the Jamie and Julia storyline.  In the midst of all the angst, they are a lot of fun to watch.  I also asked him the two questions.  What would Justin like to be doing more of?  Comedy.  I had to whole-heartedly agree.  I enjoy Jamie a lot more when he is smiling and joking.   

Alexa said that she is glad that it looks like Josh and Babe will be paired.  She said she went to the producers three times protesting Babe’s forgiveness of JR after he tried to kill her.  She thought it was sending out the wrong message to women.  I had read once that Alexa takes her job and her character very seriously, and I could tell.  Her demeanor changed when she was talking about her work.  She really cares about what she does and it makes others sit up and take notice. 

At one point I went up to the bartender and asked for a rum punch or something like it.  Something “rummy and fruity,” I said.  He got a maniacal gleam in his eyes and began to whip something up that seemed to involve at least four different bottles of something.  Not sure what it was, but it was tasty.  

I somehow made it to Alicia Minshew and Cameron Mathison’s fan event using the subway system.  It was held at the Hard Rock Café.  I used the opportunity to buy a third Hard Rock pin.  I have two of them, one from Myrtle Beach and one from Seoul, Korea. 

There was doubt about whether Cameron would be able to come to the event, but he arrived with Alicia.  She gleefully announced that she got Cameron here, and gave an enthusiastic high kick.  Alicia is so adorable.  My reaction to her is similar to my reaction to Thorsten – they just draw you in with their amazing magnetism, warmth, and vitality.  As I said in my Super Soap Weekend recap – I love Zach and Kendall, but Thorsten and Alicia are just so much more.  I hope someday to actually get to interact with these two at the same time.  Alas, not this trip.

We didn’t get the opportunity to do a Q&A because Alicia and Cameron had way too much fun with the raffle prizes.  They have a very good rapport and love to chat and joke around.  During the autograph session I pretended to be wounded to the core that the pictures they were signing were of the two of them together.  I even pointed out that the dress she was wearing in the picture was from the scene where she and Zach were celebrating at the casino when the earthquake happened.  I gave Alicia a purple wrist band that says “Always.  Only Zen.”  I told her it matched her shirt.  She put it on, winking at me, and told Cameron that it wasn’t for him to see.   

While waiting to chat with Cameron, he was telling some of us that there will be some weird surprises coming up in regards to Spike, and it isn’t what we would think.  He said that Terry is not Emma’s biological father and there was a surprise with her, too.  We told him the speculation about Emma being Kate, and he said he doesn’t think that is the surprise.  I asked him the two questions.  What is his motivation for everything?  His kids.  He said it with such a tender smile.  Awww! 

I gave Alicia a postcard printed with the banner from the Zach and Kendall message board.  I told her that I was asked to try and get both hers and Thorsten’s signature on it.  Since I knew Thorsten wouldn’t be there, I put my address and  a stamp on it and asked her if she could get him to sign it and then drop it in the mail.  *crossing fingers*  I asked her the two questions.  What does she do when she comes home after filming a crazy scene on the show – where there might be lots of crying or yelling or whatever?  She said she’s usually still in a state, and deals with it by laughing, drinking wine, eating junk food and calling her mom.  Alicia said some other very sweet things to me and then it was time for the photo op.  Okay, I admit I was a little juvenile.  Can I blame it on the lack of sleep and that rummy concoction from Chrishell’s event?  I really do like Cameron.  Honest! 

I managed to trudge the whole entire city block over to the Dopo Teatro Trattoria for the next event – the Vincent Irizarry tea.  When I got settled in at a table, I felt a tad bit concerned about my physical well-being.  I felt like at any moment I could take a nosedive into the tablecloth.  As my friend put it, I was on a seven second delay.  When Vincent came over to say hi to us, I managed not to make a complete ass of myself.  Nevertheless, I decided to play it safe and not enter the raffle to have dinner at his table.  It would not have been pretty if I fell asleep right in front of him.  Fortunately I got my second wind and managed to enjoy the rest of my time there.  The Friends of Vincent Irizarry (FOVI) put on a very classy affair. 

During the Q&A, Vincent was asked the same question posed at Chrishell and Colin’s event – what was the deal with the new camera work.  Like Colin, he explained that they were trying to modernize the look of the show.  Prime time shows were always moving in new directions, so daytime was trying to follow suit. Only one other person and myself liked the changes.  Vincent was asked if he knew when the Madden murder mystery would be resolved, and he said he had no idea.  He talked a little about David and Dixie, and said that Cady McClain asked TPTB if she could tone down Dixie’s rejection of David when he confronted her and Zach.  She said that Dixie’s behavior was inconsistent with the understanding that she had developed with David up in Scarsdale.  Cady was allowed to make small changes to the scene, but it was still a very harsh confrontation.   

Someone asked Vincent if he could name three people in Pine Valley that David hasn’t pissed off.  Myrtle, Stuart and Colby.  He joked that David delivered Colby, and she was already a teenager – it didn’t seem like he’d been on the show that long.  Vincent was asked if he had any control or input for his character’s storylines.  He said that sometimes his suggestions make it onto the show.  He gave the example of when it was revealed that David had drugged Maria.  He told TPTB that there should be some acknowledgement of the fact that David had attended previous Crystal Balls and would have seen Maria’s picture.  So they wrote a flashback scene into the show for that purpose. 

Vincent asked people what they thought of David’s blackmailing of Palmer after the explosion.  Everyone thought it was fairly in keeping with David’s character.  I said that the method didn’t matter, I was just happy that David was back to being a doctor. 

Justin and Alexa arrived and answered a few questions.  Justin commented that he doesn’t understand why Jamie would still be tight with JR considering all the things JR has done to him and people he cares about.  He also thinks Jamie would still be angry with Babe for the things she has done.  They were asked how they deal with storylines that don’t make sense, and Justin smiled ruefully and held up his wine glass.  Lots of vodka was also mentioned (hey, that works for fans, too).  They said that daytime is much different than a movie where you can see in the script how things progress from beginning to end.  In daytime they often have no idea what direction will be taken, so they just try and go with the flow.  TPTB are usually open to minor changes to make it more palatable to the actors. 

During the autograph session, I asked Vincent to sign Chrishell’s script, telling him about my friends that are fans of a David and Amanda pairing.  He also signed a picture for me and a postcard for a friend.   

I made it to my hotel in one piece and stayed up another couple of hours to chat with friends because I am INSANE.  We woke up late the next morning and managed to make it to the luncheon just in time for lunch to be served. 

During lunch, they held the raffles, and a friend of mine won shirts worn by Zach and Kendall.  Naturally I pole-vaulted several tables so that I could paw at it…er…I mean get a closer look.  The Zach shirt was Armani and the softest material on an article of men’s clothing I have ever felt.  And boy did I take my time  feeling it.   

The actors arrived and since I was sitting towards the back, they were barely recognizable blobs.  During the Q&A three of the actors - Terri Ivens, Alec Musser and Jeff Branson – went around the room with microphones to take questions from the audience.  At one point Alec was standing next to me waiting his turn, and I told him that I liked his Myspace page.  He said his girlfriend put it together, and I said she did an excellent job.  I mentioned meeting him at the Prohibition event, and he encouraged me to join his fan club and send in pics.  

I didn’t take many notes for this Q&A.  I was too distracted.  The funniest thing I remember was when someone asked if Erin and Josh were going to hook up.  Colin Egglesfield went over to Connie Fletcher, and started checking her out.  From the crowd, Jeff Branson joked that he would like to see more of that on the show.  I was thinking the same thing – they were being very naughty, it was a total crackup.  The camera work was brought up yet again, and same answers given.  Same reaction from the crowd. 

I was a bit startled when they were announcing where the celebrities were going to be sitting for their autograph session, and when they announced Jeff Branson and Leven Rambin were to sit together there was a huge cheer – the biggest cheer of the day.  I had no idea Jonathan and Lily were so popular.  They made a change later on and the two ended up sitting with other people. 

I made a bee-line for Cady McClain’s table.  I told her my online nickname and said that I posted to her blog a lot.  I gave her a Zen wrist band as I had joked in my last comment to her blog that I would do.  Then I had her sign the CD cover that I custom-made when I downloaded her BlueGlitterFish songs.  She really liked it, so I presented her with a poster that I made of pictures that she shared on her blog.  The graphic is on my website if you want to see it. 

Now that I had Cady out of the way, my goal was to visit any celeb that I had not already seen that weekend or the time that I went to Prohibition in May.  I next visited Terri Ivens and Tanisha Lynn.  They pulled Terri away right before it was my turn, to have her pose with a fan who would be featured in Soaps In Depth.  When she got back I joked that she kept eluding me – she was at the Prohibition event but I didn’t get to see her there.  I told her that I really enjoyed the scenes that aired the previous week with the argument between Babe and Simone.  I said it wasn’t like the usual catfight stuff, it was very intense.  She said it was a hard scene to do since most of it was just her reacting to Babe’s rant.  I said she really did well.  When I spoke to Tanisha, I wasn’t sure what to say because I didn’t want to bitch about them not giving her a storyline, so I just inanely gushed about her beauty and how she really began to shine in the Dragon storyline.  That’s what happens when I don’t have something prepared – I start to sound like an idiot. 

I stood in Jeff Branson’s line next.  He was paired with Chrishell, and their table was right next to Alicia’s, so I was able to snap a few pics of Alicia looking gorgeous and so sweet to her fans.  Her line was very long, and after awhile a rather large and intimidating security guy came up and started moving people along.  Alicia sheepishly called out,  “I talk too much!”   

Speaking of talking too much, Jeff’s line was the longest I had to wait all day since he also liked to spend a lot of time with his fans.  Jeff was talking to the person in front of me about how the writers must like the letter J since so many characters had J names.  He began spouting them off.  I thought it was hilarious since just the day before I had been thinking the same thing – except not just the characters but the actors as well. It was hard over the course of the weekend to try and keep track of the right names at the right time – like when I was talking to Justin, I wanted to make sure I called him Justin and his character Jamie, and didn’t switch the two or accidentally use another actor or character name.  When it was my turn I mentioned that to Jeff, and he smiled and said, “I’m Jeff.”  I laughed and said, “I know.”  I told him that one of my favorite fan stories was an internet friend of mine who met him at the Daytime Emmys and her hilarious behavior with him.  He smiled and said he knew exactly who I was talking about.  I thanked him for humoring her, and he said that he always enjoyed interacting with the fans.  I told him he has done a good job of trying to redeem a character that was thoroughly irredeemable.  I really don’t remember if I babbled anything else.  Jeff was a very nice and engaging young man, and not like er…uh…Jonathan!  He actually looks somewhat Jonathan-like in the picture below, but he has a very warm and charming smile in person.   

Since I had seen Chrishell the day before, I didn’t want to take up her time, so I just gave her a quick hug and thanked her for her event and told her I had a great time.  I stood in Leven’s line next.  At one point she had to take a break to visit the ladies room, and was escorted by a guy I recognized to be her boyfriend.  Awwwww!  I asked her a question about her Myspace page, which I found out this past week is actually someone posing as her.  That explains the confused look she gave me.  She seemed pretty worn out, so I smiled and told her to hang in there.   

I went to see John James next.  I told him that I had met him once before at the studio, his first day on the job.  I said the pic I took of him then sucked badly, so here was another opportunity with the same sucky camera.  I told him I enjoyed Jeff Martin, and liked him better than Jeff Colby.  He seemed surprised and I said it was because he was more mature and dashing.  Yay, the picture didn’t suck! 

When I got through with him, it was getting late and security wasn’t letting anyone join any more of the existing lines.  It was suggested that I just go around and take pics, which I did.  I went back over to Alicia’s line to take some more pics (I’m not a stalker, shut up!).  I was hoping that I would at least get to wave hi to her as she was leaving.  When I realized that the security guard was taking pity on some people and letting them get pics taken with her (but not autographs or chatting), I quickly queued up behind him.  When it was my turn, she grinned at me and said she knew I’d find a way to come see her.  She told me to give the other Zach and Kendall fans lots of love.  (see pic of me with her at the top of the page) 

I also happened to see that Alec was doing the same thing - taking pics with a few stragglers - so I told him that the pic we took at Prohibition looked awful, and if I was going to send one in to his website we needed to try again.  This one was better too. (God, I’m so vain!!) 

Once again exhausted after an exciting day, I didn’t have the energy to sightsee, so I dragged myself to the airport and hung out there for roughly 37.5 hours.  I had a great time and I hope I can do it again next year. 

Some more pics!! 

Thanks for reading.  Cheers! 

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