Lots of little girls dream of fame and fortune, and PORT CHARLES’s Rebecca Staab (Elizabeth) admits that she was no different. “Growing up in Nebraska you have those fantasies and desires, but you also have a sense of reality,” shares Staab. “I knew when I was 3 and 4 years old that I wanted to be a dancer and be on TV, and then that wave passed.”The fever hit Staab again when a little show named LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE the Prairie arrived on the airwaves. “My best friend and I became fanatics,” she says with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I have to be Mary.’ That was my calling.” Still, Staab kept that dream on the back burner. “I did theater in high school but I was a real academic,” she explains. “It wasn’t logical to say, ‘Oh, I’m going to be an actor.’ I was a straight-A student in high school and in college. My major was speech with journalism. All of this came in through the back door, which is even more thrilling because you can really appreciate it. It seemed like such a gift.”Staab became a model and won the Miss Nebraska pageant — and the rest is history. However, from time to time she does think about her career that might have been as a newscaster. “I would do that in a heartbeat,” she asserts. In fact, Staab has worked behind the camera as a buyer in the production department of SURVIVOR: MARQUESAS. But she can’t let us in on any secrets. “Working as staff on the show you know very little because no one is allowed to interact with the contestants except for the camera crew and (host) Jeff Probst,” she says mournfully. “Everyone assumes that if you’re on it you can get the scoop, but we knew nothing.”
