FRIENDLY FIRE
Michael Mealor (Kyle, Y&R) reports that co-star Tyler Johnson is nothing like his arrogant and self-serving alter, Theo Vanderway. “Tyler is great,” Mealor praises. “He brings an excitement and a fun energy to set. He’s a big goof and he’s always laughing. Tyler’s personality is wrapped up in his laugh. It’s amazing. And he’s such a nice and kind person, plus he’s humble, too. He’s the very opposite of Theo. In fact, Tyler is a great-looking guy but his personality is so opposite of his looks. He’s a nice breath of fresh air on the set and is so much fun.” Mealor also shares that he and Johnson don’t pull any punches when portraying the very prickly rapport between their characters, adding, “The writing for us is great and we are laughing at the lines we have to say to each other until the moment they call action and then we’re laughing afterward, as well. We’ve been working at different times, so I haven’t had too many chances to go out to lunch with him, but hopefully that will happen soon.”
SPACE JAM
Soap vet Sean Kanan (ex-Deacon, B&B et al) has gone where he has never gone before as an actor: space. “I’m doing a film called Colonials,” Kanan explains. “It’s a sci-fi film, which is exciting for me because in over 20 years in this business, I’ve never done one. In all these years! I can’t believe it. In this film, I play a guy from Mars. He’s an old Special Forces guy who gets shipwrecked on Earth, and he’s like an Obi-Wan Kenobi character who mentors the hero of the film. It’s going to be cool. I get to wear a prosthetic bionic arm and hair extensions. It’s a really cool character actor part. My portion shoots at Joshua Tree and let me tell you, there’s nothing like shooting in the California desert in late August during the day. It just screams fun and glamour, right?” he chuckles. “I saw the first film the director did and while it’s not a big budget, he does all this incredible work with computers and it really looks like a multimillion dollar production. It’s incredibly impressive. My wife, Michele, is also on board as a producer, so I get to work with her, which is always fun. It’s the best of all worlds!”
GIRLS’ NIGHT
When it comes to entertaining, Linsey Godfrey (Sarah, DAYS) loves to play hostess. “I do girls’ night with some of the girls from the show,” says Godfrey. “Stacy’s [Haiduk, Kristen] there, my sweet Sal [Stowers, Lani], Camila [Banus, Gabi] ... It just depends. Sometimes I make it small. Sometimes I make it bigger. Camryn Grimes [Mariah, Y&R] always comes and Kim Matula [ex-Hope, B&B]. Rena Sofer [Quinn, B&B] has been to it, too. I invite everyone. I have a mom from [my daughter] Aleda’s school that comes and a friend from acting class. It’s a big group of ladies that come and hang at my house.” It all started thanks to her boyfriend, actor Breckin Meyer. “Breckin has a huge dinner that he goes to on Thursday nights,” explains Godfrey. “He and his friends have been doing this for like 13 years. So I was like, ‘Well, I’ll do a girls’ night.’ ” The mood at Godfrey’s get-togethers is casual and relaxed. “I usually do hors d’oeuvre and appetizers,” she notes. “We have this big old island [in the kitchen] and I’ll fill it up with wine and snacks. We have extra beds, so if anybody drinks too much, they can stay over. We really just chat, and there’s a lot of laughing. We’ll start out talking about work stuff, then move into politics, then move into our kids ... We go everywhere and talk about everything.”
MAN WITH A VAN
On GH, James Patrick Stuart (Valentin) is tasked with despising Ingo Rademacher’s Jax, but off camera, he’s having a blast with his new co-star. “He’s terrific,” Stuart raves. “He’s doing a fantastic job. He is very different on-screen than he is off-screen. When he turns it on, when he becomes Jax, it’s a whole different creature. Ingo’s actually quite silly and very lovable and soft around the edges as a human being, so when he turns it on, you have to prepare yourself, because you don’t necessarily see it coming. With someone like Roger [Howarth, Franco], he’s always dry and he’s always edgy, on-screen and -off, but when Ingo turns it on, you have to be prepared for the smash, cross-court two-handed backhand because you don’t see it coming!” The actor also covets Rademacher’s wheels. “He has this amazing van and the kid in me just goes, ‘Wow!’ Ingo is this adventure guy, this world traveler, surfer, lifeguard — it looks like GI Joe owns this van! It’s got beds in it, refrigerators, and surfboards on the side and it just looks like, ‘This guy is ready for adventure!’ When I was a kid I would have done anything to have a van like that.”