Scene and Heard

Wally Kurth (Ned) is overjoyed to have Jane Elliot back in the GH mix as his on-screen mother, Tracy. “I love Jane, love having her back,” he enthuses. “It’s just great. I mean, it just feels like GENERAL HOSPITAL for me when she’s around and I feel like we’re already back into our rhythm. We had lunch the other day and got caught up on everything and one thing I didn’t realize until that conversation is that we both love THE VOICE! I thought that was so funny, but every time I watch it, I’m always moved in some way and thrilled by the talent and how democratic the process is. She feels the same way and we talked about how much we enjoy it. But anyway, Jane and I have known each other for a long time and I have so much respect for her. I can’t hide anything from her; she picks up on everything! She knows me really well and she loves me and she holds me accountable.”

Darin Brooks (Wyatt, B&B) recalls that when he first met his future wife, Kelly Kruger (ex-Eva; ex-Mackenzie, Y&R), in 2011, they had much more in common than just instant compatibility. “We were sitting there chatting and something came up and she said something like, ‘I have to talk to my brother Adam,’ ” he recalls. “And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy. My brother’s name is Adam.’ She was like, ‘Really? What’s your mom’s name?’ I said, ‘It’s Susan,’ and she said, ‘My mother’s name is Susie.’ Then I said, ‘Well, while mine is Susan, she goes by Susie, too.’ We were like, ‘This is crazy!’ Then she was like, ‘Okay, what is your dad’s name?’ I said, ‘It’s Don.’ She said, ‘Okay, mine is Allan.’ But, it’s crazy that we had two out of three family members with the same name!’ So then we were like, ‘Well, we’ve got to be friends or something now because this is just too darn crazy.’ Our families don’t get the chance to get together very often, since hers is in Toronto and mine is in Hawaii, but when we are all together, you can imagine it can get a little confusing at times,” he chuckles.

Abigail Klein (Stephanie, DAYS) made a very memorable blooper on set that she never wants to repeat. “I had missed a page of dialogue,” she shares. “I hadn’t printed it out, because I just didn’t see it. I didn’t think I had any lines in it. Worst nightmare. I didn’t realize that I’d missed memorizing a couple of lines in a scene that was already in progress with other actors. I thought I was just entering in at the end. At rehearsal, I walked in all confident and didn’t say anything. Then I heard over the intercom, ‘And Stephanie says ...…’ I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ I just quickly looked over the lines with our stage manager, managed to do my thing, and it was fine. Luckily, it was only a couple of lines. I cannot imagine accidentally doing that with dialogue that was any longer than that. It really makes me sweat just thinking about it.”

Y&R fans voiced their disbelief on social media that no one recognized Phyllis in disguise at her own funeral, but her portrayer, Michelle Stafford, is here to report that her character flying under the radar wasn’t that farfetched. “It’s so funny because so many people were like, ‘Oh my God! Nobody recognized her?’ ” the actress iterates. “But honestly, I was on the set wearing that wig and those glasses and for a good 45 minutes, and no one recognized me. Everyone just walked by and ignored me. And when I was walking to the set, Josh [Morrow, Nick] walked right past me, so I went, ‘Hi’, and he just went, ‘Hi’ and kept on walking! He didn’t bat an eye and I was really stunned. I thought, ‘Oh, wow, this guy didn’t even know me.’ And I think it’s funny because , there was just a barrage of comments that people couldn’t believe that no one recognized Phyllis, but it’s true because [my co-stars] didn’t and I’ve been working with most of them for years. Also, I think that it’s not such a stretch because you wouldn’t expect Phyllis to be standing there alive while you’re paying your respects at her funeral.”