HAVING HER PHYL As a longtime viewer of Y&R, even before joining the show, Melissa Ordway (Abby) has been a huge Michelle Stafford (Phyllis) fan. So it was a dream come true for Ordway to finally share scenes with her co-star on a regular basis. “I didn’t get a chance to work with Michelle that much before she left the show [in 2013],” the actress explains. “I think we had maybe a couple of group scenes but we never had any one-on- one scenes and I was kind of bummed about that.” However, the situation changed dramatically after Stafford’s return and Phyllis started mixing it up with Abby. “I remember the first time I got a script that I was going to be working with Michelle and I couldn’t believe it,” recalls Ordway. “I was like, ‘Are you sure they want me to work with Michelle Stafford?’ I even called my mom and said, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m working with Michelle Stafford. I’m really intimidated because she’s so great.’ I was nervous but excited at the same time. I soon found out that the thing about Michelle, besides being that talented and that good, there’s no reason to be intimidated because she is such a cheerleader for every single person on the show. She’s just such a good person that she just wants the best for everybody. She’s just a champion.”
SCREEN GEMS B&B’s new kid on the block, Delon de Metz (Zende), posted a photo of acclaimed French actor and ’60s sex symbol Alain Delon on his Instagram page, calling him his namesake — and it’s the truth. “I was completely named after him,” confirms de Metz. “My mom was a big fan of his, although I’m not actually sure how many movies she has seen of his. I’ve seen pretty much all of them. She might have just thought he was cute, which I think is probably the more likely answer [laughs]. But she liked him and she liked the name, and so I got it.” However, the family fame name game didn’t stop there. “My brother is actually named Brando after Marlon Brando, which is interesting because he lives in the finance world,” shares de Metz. “He did not take the art route, and yet he was named after an actor everybody knows. Since both of us are named after actors, I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that at least one of us went into the business.”
Photo credit: Peter Baron/Shutterstock
WE MEET AGAIN Mark Lawson (Dustin, GH) is thrilled that his storyline has intersected with Amanda Setton’s (Brook Lynn). “She’s awesome,” he enthuses. “I think we kind of crossed paths at ONE LIFE [where Lawson played Brody and Setton played Kim]. I remember really enjoying what she was doing on ONE LIFE and I’ve followed her career since. Any time she pops up in something else, I always say to my wife [excitedly], ‘Look, it’s Amanda!’ So to be back in her orbit and then to actually be working together and now having some history is great. She’s so available and she’s so giving as an actor. GH feels like I’m not even working when I’m there. Everybody who is there is so thankful to have that job and so thankful to be doing the work that it just feels good. It always feels good. And Amanda and I have a lot of similar outlooks. We both have multiple kids. We’re both more concerned, frankly, with being a parent than we are with being an actor at this point. That gives us a lot of common ground and it also gives us a lot of freedom to play the kids we once were in the story a bit.”
PARENT RAP Alison Sweeney loves that DAYS’s Sami is a new grandmother and she’s interacting with babies on set. “It’s funny because some things you don’t forget,” she muses. “When I had gotten the opportunity to hold the baby in the scene, you just find yourself falling into the old habits of rock- ing the baby and finding a comfortable position. It’s so fun to remember, and it does remind you of your own kids when they were little and the cute little baby idiosyncrasies they have. It’s so sweet. It was really fun.” The actress, who has children Ben, 15, and Megan, 11, admits that having infants around doesn’t make her want more. “No, it doesn’t,” she laughs. “Of course, you’re in the middle of shooting a scene and if they cry or something doesn’t go well, it’s like the grandparent moment where you get to hand it back or you try to work through the scene and make it okay.”