SISTERS BEFORE MISTERS
Though love triangles are a tried-and-true daytime staple, both Emme Rylan (Lulu) and Kirsten Storms (Maxie) are adamantly opposed to the idea of their BFF characters fighting over a man on GH. “I’m anti-triangle,” Rylan declares. “I don’t care if Lulu was madly in love with Maxie’s boyfriend, she would not go down that road. We want to play love triangles, but we also want to honor this relationship that Maxie and Lulu have, so we’re a big fat ‘No’ on that one. Give us love triangles and drama with other people.” Concurs Storms, “There are so few female friendships like Maxie and Lulu’s on the show and to just kind of throw it away over a man? I don’t think so. Emme and I would never fight over a guy in a million years, and I would like to think that Maxie and Lulu have an equally strong friendship.”
LOUD AND PROUD
Christian J. LeBlanc (Michael, Y&R)has vivid memories of playing the drama surrounding Kirk McColl on AS THE WORLD TURNS. During a scene in 1984, the family maid publicly confessed that she was really Kirk’s bio mom. “I looked down at the script and I see ‘primal scream’, so when the maid says that Kirk is her son, I have to give a primal scream in the middle of a courtroom,” recalls LeBlanc. “I remember being so surprised when I saw those words. It was like the scene in the movie Soapdish, when [during a live broadcast], Kevin Kline’s character is horrified when he sees ‘Kopfgeschlagen’ on the teleprompter and he has to pronounce it.” LeBlanc saved his best material for the cameras. “I didn’t do [the scream] full-out while we were blocking that morning because you only have one of those in you a day,” he chuckles. “But I think everyone that day knew it was coming.” When the pivotal moment arrived, LeBlanc reports, “I did it! One of the actresses came to me afterward and said, ‘Where did that come from?’ — but in an admiring way.”
BABY LOVE
After working with babies all year, Annika Noelle (Hope, B&B) says, “I could babysit anyone right now — newborns, toddlers, 5-year-olds. I’ve worked with so many kids that I am ready! It’s like a baby boot camp at the studio.” Noelle worked hard to find her rhythm with her young co-stars playing Beth/Phoebe. “I made the decision as an actress, as someone who wasn’t entirely in her comfort zone working with newborns or 8- to 10-month-olds, to spend a lot of time with them outside of work,” she explains. “I got to know their mothers and I got to know each individual baby, and I have to say, that helped so much, because then the babies started to know me and they were comfortable with me and familiar with me. I knew Maddie [Valdez] started teething so she likes her ring and River [Davidson] likes to get her face blown on if she’s acting fussy. I really got to know them and what they like: ‘Is she hungry? Is she tired of sitting? Does she want to stretch her legs?’ In a way, I started understanding their language. I’m much more at ease than I ever was before.”
HIT THE ROAD
Melissa Reeves (Jennifer, DAYS) and husband Scott Reeves (ex-Steve, GH et al) recently surprised kids Emily and Larry, and their respective spouses, Nate and Olivia, with a California road trip. “It was so beautiful and fun,” she enthuses. “We all had shirts from Old Navy that said ‘California’ on them. We were full-on tourists. We did everything from strawberry picking to white-water rafting to wine tasting in Napa. And we were in a Suburban, all six of us.” Each night, the kids would get a folder revealing the next day’s activity. “Scott would hand them their folder every night at dinner. They could not wait to go to dinner to get their folder so they knew what we were going to do the next day. And then we gave them a little list of what to pack before we left so we knew they’d have everything they needed. We still treat them like they’re 5. It’s probably not good, but they love it. I was like, ‘You guys, I know it probably seems like we still treat you like little kids, but you kind of are little kids to us.’ It was just a kick. It was our little fun thing that Scott and I did. It was so amazing.”