Scene And Heard

Veteran sitcom star Telma Hopkins, who recently made her soap debut as Y&R private eye Denise, started out as a singer — in fact, you’ve likely heard her vocals on many legendary tracks. She explains, “I was a Motown baby, raised in Detroit, so I started singing Motown as a background singer at a young age. I was singing on songs like ‘Reach Out, I’ll Be There’ with The Four Tops, ‘Standing in The Shadows of Love’ and ‘Bernadette’; with Marvin Gaye, ‘Heard It Through The Grapevine’, ‘That’s The Way Love Is’. That’s what Detroit was known for, that and cars, so you did one or the other — you made a car, or you drove a car because you were a singer. I decided to do the latter! But I always had sort of a twisted sense of humor about things and I was always making jokes and liked to make people laugh and all that sort of thing. I worked with Isaac Hayes, and ended up from there working with Tony Orlando. When we got the show [TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN], that was the transition. Humor turned out to be something they would actually pay you for, which was a revelation for me! I had been funny my whole life and nobody paid me any atten- tion, and all of a sudden, I saw that as something I could do that I enjoy that other people enjoyed as well. So that was the transition for me, when I realized I could actually be funny and make a living at it. I was just blessed, I tell you. My career has really surprised me at many times.”

DAYS’s Heather Lindell was excited to hear that Jan was waking up from her coma — as Charlie’s killer. “First of all, I’m always excited when the show brings me back,” she explains. “I’m always like, ‘Yay!’ because I love being on the show and playing crazy. My favorite pastime, playing a homicidal maniac ... so I was very excited to come back again and very inter- ested to see what the story would be. How we shoot the show is almost how the audience watches. We don’t really know exactly what’s coming, either. I read it all in the scripts. It was a nice unfolding. The April Fool’s episode I got first and I thought it was real. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. They’re putting me with Shawn! He loves me!’ I didn’t realize that that was a joke until I got the next script and I actually called Martha [Madison, Belle] and she was like, ‘Oh, it’s April Fool’s.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, okay. That makes sense.’ But after reading everything that Charlie had done, I wasn’t at all surprised that Jan took matters into her own hands and got rid of him to protect Claire.”

Count B&B’s Don Diamont (Bill) as someone who considers Father’s Day to be one of the best days of the year. “I am so blessed on Father’s Day,” he says with a smile. “That was a day I really relished as a son, to honor my own dad and spend that time with him. He was certainly deserving of being honored on that day. He was just a wonderful dad and I miss him — and then to be blessed on the other side of it, and me be the dad and have all of these wonderful boys, I’m enormously grateful. I’m just so thankful for all the beautiful, celebratory moments, and even for the ones that were the bumps in the road along the way. That’s what you are in for when you sign up to become a parent. It is easy to enjoy the happy times but the ones that test you are the ones that are the real learning experiences. The challenging interactions with your kids, when those come up, that really tests your mettle and looking back, those times were maybe even more valuable in helping your child through those periods. That’s the most important thing, so there is an equal amount of appreciation for those trying times, along with just the fun ones. I wouldn’t trade a moment of it.”

James Patrick Stuart (Valentin, GH) reports that since the pandemic began, GREY’S ANATOMY, which shares a studio lot with GH, has been shooting more outside, and makes use of the GH studio’s facade for its own exterior backdrop. “I’m dodging production assistants from GREY’S ANATOMY as we speak,” he chuckles. “It’s tough when they use our front door, because there’s really no other way to get into the building! You just have to act politely to the production assistants, the young kids with the walkie-talkies, and they’re very accommodating. It’s not like they have an attitude if you need to get by them.” The actor had been on the lot prior to joining GH. “Years ago, I was on this lot auditioning for something and Jocelyn, my wife, was home with our baby watching a lot of GREY’S ANATOMY and falling head over heels with Patrick Dempsey, along with he rest of the world. And I found myself in a light rain outside of the studio, alone — except that [GREY’s star] Patrick Dempsey was suddenly walking right next to me wearing scrubs! We were alone on this studio street and I said, ‘You know, I’ve got to say something: My wife’s a huge fan.’ He beams at me and goes, ‘What’s your wife’s name?’ ‘Jocelyn.’ ‘Well, you make sure you tell Jocelyn hello from me.’ I might as well have met John Wayne! It was sort of a perfect moment.”