Scene and Heard

Courtney Hope (Sally, Y&R) feels that she has struck gold by being paired up with Joshua Morrow (Nick). “He’s really great and so much fun to work with,” the actress praises. “All the people he works with, including the crew, just love him. He’s got such a great sense of humor and I’ve never seen him in a bad mood. In fact, you can never feel down when you’re near Josh. And I appreciate that he’s very collaborative and always asking, ‘How can we bring something different to this relationship?’ ” And Hope isn’t the least bit intimidated by Morrow’s years of experience. “I love that he’s a seasoned pro,” she enthuses. “That gives me the chance to pick his brain and learn even more. I’ve been very lucky to work with the vets, like, Peter [Bergman, Jack], Michelle [Stafford, Phyllis], Tracey [E. Bregman, Lauren] and Liz [Hendrickson, Chloe]. They keep me on my toes and challenge me. I appreciate what each of them brings to the table.”

When she was starting out in the business, B&B’s Naomi Matsuda (Li) spent time in Australia at the school of hard knocks. “I was hired to work for this so-called modeling agency and it turned out to be a big scam,” she shares. “I ended up moving to Australia, opening up agencies over there, and my roommate was in San Diego. I had been living in San Diego at the time, and she was working at their San Diego branch. We found out when my roommate called me and she said, ‘A reporter from Channel 5 News is here knocking on the door,’ and I told her, ‘Grab your stuff and leave.’ Then, I tried calling the people that hired me and they abandoned me. They had my return ticket to the United States, so I was completely on my own. I was 23 years old. I had no ticket, no money, but I did have enough to go out so I said, ‘Screw it. I’m going out to a club,’ and I ran into a friend of mine who I’d lived with in Japan three years before. I told her the story and she said, ‘Let’s go back to where you’re staying, grab your stuff, come home with me and tomorrow we’ll go to the airline and get your ticket back. We’ll say it’s a family emergency and you lost your ticket.’ Well, I got back to San Diego from that nightmare and that was when I decided between going to school or going to L.A. and despite what happened, I said, ‘I’m going to L.A.,’ and that was the beginning [of her career there].”