TOGETHER AGAIN Although taking care of baby Josephine keeps Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe, Y&R) busy, the first-time mom has managed to stay in touch with her pals. “One of the silver linings of this entire pandemic was reconnecting with people and all the FaceTiming,” she notes. “I mean, I speak to friends and family members more than I ever have. I’m really grateful for that and it has made the whole situation that much sweeter.” The actress, who played Frankie and Maggie on ALL MY CHILDREN, is especially appreciative to be in touch again with her former co-star from both soaps, Eden Riegel (ex-Heather, Y&R; ex-Bianca, AMC). “Eden came over to visit me a couple of weeks ago and gave me probably the best card I have received throughout this entire thing,” Hendrickson smiles. “She took a picture of us from 20 years ago and underneath it said, ‘Babies’ and below that were picture of her boys [Jack and Henry] and my Jojo and it also said, ‘Babies’. It was really good to see her. It’s like we haven’t skipped a beat. Our lives got really busy, plus she lives on the other side of town, so we kind of lost touch. We promised each other to make a point to not let more time go by.”
LADIES WHO LUNCH It has become a custom that when the Daytime Emmys roll around, the previous Outstanding Lead Actress winner treats the current nominees to a luncheon. That task recently fell to Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy, B&B), but unlike past years, Wood had to plan the event with a pandemic in effect. “I wanted to take everybody out but I also wanted to be respectful about who was comfortable with that because even though the restaurants were open, not everybody was okay with that,” she explains. “Some of the ladies were still wary because of everything that’s going on and I totally understand. A few of them were game but since everyone wasn’t, we came up with doing a Zoom and we did. We had wine and we chatted and it was great. I wish I could have seen them in person because that would have been so much fun, having a big party with all of your girls, but it was still nice to be together. We chatted for hours on Zoom, so it was definitely different, but I’m so happy we were still able to all get together. We had a good little time. Those women are phenomenal.”
SIBLING REVELRY According to Jacklyn Zeman (Bobbie, GH), the introduction of Luke was a “very important” development for her character, Luke’s sister. “Oh, my gosh, when they kept Tony [Geary, ex-Luke, who was originally slated for a short-term role], that was huge!” she recalls. “When Tony first came on the show, the Luke character was so introverted and kind of sullen. Later, the personality with all the flair and the disco and the dancing and the out-there self [came out], but when Tony first came on as Luke, he was kind of introverted and a little sneaky and a little bit unpredictable. Tony always had such great subtext. He’s such a fine actor. You could look at his face and see the motive going behind his eyes, but Luke was borderline not a good guy. You felt like, ‘Wow, this guy’s dangerous. He’s capable of doing anything to get what he wants.’ Bobbie’s always been really a positive person. She was, ‘Like the glass is half full!’ and Tony came in and saw all of that and created this character as a contrast.”
REACH OUT Greg Vaughan (Eric) says he has been in touch with a slew of former castmates since leaving DAYS last November, and plans to keep it that way. “I mean, Eric Martsolf [Brady], Galen Gering [Rafe] and Ari [Zucker, Nicole], Kate Mansi [ex-Abigail], my one and only Miss Deidre [Hall, Marlena] and Kristian Alfonso [Hope], my man Nick [Schillace, head of hair and makeup] and Lauren [Koslow, Kate]. Nick is my guy. He’s been with me since [BEVERLY HILLS,] 90210 [where Vaughan played Cliff]. I mean, we all keep connected,” he reports. “It’s a family across daytime, it’s not just one show. We’re such a small family in a great way. I speak to everybody from Jason Thompson [Billy, Y&R] to Steve Burton [Jason, GH] to Bradford [Anderson, Spinelli, GH] to Brandon Barash [Jake]. Everybody across the board. We’re all in this together. We all have family. We all have kids. We all have careers that we stand behind. We support people whether they’re long-term or short- term. And Casey Moss [ex-JJ], we probably talked five days ago. They know how to find me and I know how to find them.”