Scene and Heard

Susan Batten (ex-Luna, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; ex-Connor, AS THE WORLD TURNS) had a blast during her whirlwind appearance on GH as Flora Gardens. Working with Morgan Fairchild as Haven was a highlight. “She was lovely, just as sweet as she could be and so beautiful and inspiring and such a professional. I went to her dressing room after and I was like, ‘That was a lot!’ Both of us were like, ‘Whew, Lord!’ We were both relieved that we got through all the dialogue. But everybody there, across the board, was welcoming and generous. It was just a pleasure. ” She was disappointed that she didn’t cross paths with Roger Howarth (Austin), whose OLTL character, Todd, famously bore a scar after her character, Luna, slashed his face in self-defense. “He doesn’t have the scar anymore, so hopefully he’s forgiven me,” she teases. “I saw his face on one of the giant photographs in the hallway and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, Roger looks so great without that scar!’ I mean, he looked great with the scar, too, but without the scar, it gives him a happier feeling, a happier appearance. A little less jaded [laughs].”  

According to Michael Mealor (Kyle, Y&R), texting with TV mom Susan Walters (Diane) is highly entertaining.  “Susan will ask Siri to record a text, and she just starts talking and talking while it records everything that she’s saying, which is then sent as a text to me,” he shares. Walters can’t contradict him. “I’m always voice texting from my car and it’s like I’m speaking in a long stream-of-conscious,”she explains. “Michael has said, ‘Your texts are hysterical’, but he’s being kind because there’s no punctuation or capitalization, so they must be maddening to read. They turn out to be one long paragraph with words that just run together.” Mealor admits Walters’s texts “take some decoding, but I usually get them. And it’s kind of the same way she talks in person. There’s no filter, which I love. I’m not someone who is as long-winded, so Susan just carries whatever conversation I’m in and I appreciate that. It takes far less energy on my part.”

While the rest of the DAYS cast may have been chuckling over the name of Jan’s baby boy, actress Heather Lindell wasn’t in on the joke. She didn’t realize that the infant shared his name with former co-star Shawn Christian (ex-Daniel). “I got a chuckle over the fact that, of course, Jan was naming her child after the man she’s obsessed with for years,” says Lindell. “That’s how I interpreted it.” Playing Jan’s pregnancy storyline was “really wild” for Lindell. “It’s funny, when the belly first went on, I swear I was having phantom lower back pains,” she reveals, noting that she may have been reflecting on the sciatica she had while pregnant with her second son. “I never got to work with a real baby, just this sort of dummy baby that looks so real it’s creepy,” she adds. “The doll really does help to kind of ground you when you’re working with it. Having gone through the process of having children, it hits so much more closer to home than it would have 16 years ago for sure. I definitely think had I not had children, I would feel a little bit more out of sorts and not as comfortable. Even just touching the belly [when Jan was pregnant]. It’s a foreign thing for people who haven’t experienced it. So it brought me right back to it. In hindsight, it was kind of a cool thing to get to do, and I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to do. It’s something now that is a part of Jan’s life and adds another layer on top of her already layered journey.”  

B&B’s Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) recently hosted her annual fundraiser for Breakaway From Cancer at the Little Big Cup in Louisiana, and it’s a cause that’s close to her heart. “I always wanted to work with a great charity that helps cancer patients,” she explains. “They have support groups. They help with financial aid. Once you’re diagnosed with cancer, they walk you through the whole process and basically holds your hand, because it’s really scary. When somebody is diagnosed, they have no idea what to do, where to turn, who to listen to, where they get help for this and that, so they kind of guide you through the whole process. When my dad died of colon cancer when I was only 13, he was really young, he was like 42, and back then there was no help. It seemed like there was nowhere to turn so it’s really amazing to have this organization. They’re really making leaps and bounds. Patrick Dempsey is also one of their ambassadors, and Joan Lunden has done some things with them. She’s a cancer survivor, so there’s a lot that we do, and I just want to try and help get that out there.”