Melissa Ordway (Abby, Y&R) has kept busy sheltering in place with her two young daughters, Olivia, 4, and Sophie, 2, and her hus- band, Justin Gaston (ex-Ben, DAYS). “I’ve dyed my hair pink and we’ve been making lots of tie-dye shirts,” says Ordway. “I also play every character from Frozen, Tangled and The Little Mermaid. I also play the male characters, as well, so during the quarantine, I’m really building my repertoire of Disney characters. That’s pretty much it.” Ordway’s oldest child decided to get in on the act. “Olivia had just watched Shrek, so she came out of her room and asked, ‘Do you have any green makeup?’ ” Ordway recalls. “I was like, ‘No, honey, I don’t have green makeup.’ Apparently, she wanted to be just like Princess Fiona and I tried to reason with her by saying, ‘Why don’t we just pretend that your face is green?’ Well, that didn’t work. When I wasn’t looking, she went in my makeup drawer and found green eye shadow and she painted her face green to be Princess Fiona. Instead, she looked like she was seasick.”
Kate Mansi (ex-Abigail, DAYS) enjoyed getting to work closely with Matthew Ashford (Jack) during her recent visit to Salem. “With Matt and me, it’s such a natural father/ daughter dynamic, and the same with Missy [Reeves, Jennifer] and the whole family,” she notes. “This time around, when I went back, we were also shooting the app series ['Chad & Abby in Paris']. On the day that I directed, my father actually came to set to watch and Matt was shooting something different that day, as well, so my dad and Matthew Ashford met in the hallway and started talking. I introduced them and before I knew it, they were talking. It was like 02 minutes had gone by or something and I had to say like, 'Okay, you guys. I got to go.' I kept nudging them and reminding them. And they'd be like, 'Okay. No problem.' And then they would keep talking. Finally, I was like, 'All right. You guys stay here. I'm just going to go to work. Find me when you're ready.' That was a really fun experience."
Eden McCoy (Josslyn, GH) was taken aback when her Port Charles living quarters got a makeover. "I had no idea it was happening, that they were even redoing it, until I went upstairs and the living room was gone and it was a completely new place!" she reports. "I like it a lot. It's really different from how it was before and I think that's cool for everyone. I think it's really pretty. They did an amazing job, as they always do. It's exciting for us, but it's new and weird at first! It's strange, and on the first day I was working in the new set, Josslyn didn't even say anything about it being different! I'm sure Josslyn likes it; it’s probably more her style than the old living room.” Because of the redo, McCoy has to find new spots to stash her scripts. “I hide them everywhere!” she chuckles. “Under couch cushions, behind couch cushions, in drawers, behind shelves, behind the couch. The last time I was there, we were filming something and I left my script in the middle of the room on a table and I was not supposed to be in the scene, but I came into the background of the set and I took the script out and walked out with it. They had to redo the scene because they were like, ‘You’re not sup- posed to be in this scene!’ I was like, ‘Yes, I
Courtney Hope (Sally) is one of many actors enjoying the B&B encore episodes that are being broadcast during the pan- demic. “I have three years on the show, as opposed to the other 30 years, but it’s great to see all the hard work and effort that everybody has put into the show over the years,” she marvels. “Personally, I’ve enjoyed seeing the [2014] Paris episodes and knowing the behind-the-scenes sto- ries, like how Darin [Brooks, Wyatt] proposed to Kelly [Kruger, ex-Macken- zie, Y&R] on that trip. Going to Monte Carlo [in 2017] was a huge mile-marker in my life. It was the first work trip I went on that I could bring a loved one with me, so Chad [Duell, Michael, GH] came and got to immerse himself in my friends from my work, which he’d never gotten to do before. And, we took a side trip to Paris ourselves, and that was just a blast. These episodes remind me just how blessed I am to be a part of the B&B family.”