Scene and Heard

Though B&B’s Don Diamont (Bill) chronicled the highs of his recent trip to Italy with wife Cindy Ambuehl (ex-Amy et al) in the last issue, there was a near-devastating low. “Whatever trip we’re on, I try to find something special, a piece of jewelry, and I accomplished that in Palermo, and that was great,” he begins. “And we got back to L.A., we got our bags and got into the car and realized her carry-on is missing, which had every single piece of jewelry that I have ever given her. Forget the monetary part of it; they’re for her birthday, for anniversaries, and connected to vacationing somewhere. It was devastating. I went to customs, I went to the LAPD and the other airlines. I spent hours at the hospital and the bag was gone. Literally, I cried and she cried.” Despite having no luck tracking down the bag, Diamont had an inkling it would be found. “I just felt somewhere, like, ‘I’m gonna get a call.’ I was just hoping against hope,” he explains. “And then, one night I was driving back from picking up some food and my phone rings. I never pick up the phone if I don’t know the caller, but it said Inglewood, which is the airport. I said hello and they said, ‘Is this Donald?’ And I said, ‘You have my bag.’ They said, ‘Yes, this is Delta Baggage Service Department. We have it.’ I had to pull over; tears came to my eyes. I’m like, ‘You don’t understand. Does it look like it’s been ransacked or is it open?’ He said no. I walked in the door and Cindy was in the kitchen. I said, ‘They have the bag. Delta has the baggage.’ She had tears and said, ‘I don’t want to get too excited. Maybe somebody went through it and then left it.’ I said, ‘I feel like it’s intact.’ So they asked if I wanted them to get it to us and I said, ‘No, no, no, I am on my way. Literally right now. I am coming to the airport to get it.’ ” Once the bag was back in their possession, “Cindy said, ‘I can’t open the bag, you open the bag.’ And I opened the bag and there’s a picture of the woman at the baggage service area — she was in the background of the picture — and she has the sweetest smile on her face, looking at us, photographing us with the bags, so we could send it to the kids and everybody that we got everything back. And I open the bag and Cindy reaches under and there’s the bag that she has all the jewelry in, and we were hugging each other with tears in our eyes.

According to Michael Mealor (Kyle, Y&R) working with on-screen lover Zuleyka Silver (Audra) has been a positive experience. “She’s awesome, I love her,” declares the actor. “She’s sweet and funny, and an actor’s dream as a scene partner. She questions everything, which I love.” However, Mealor only discovered these attributes after he and Silver filmed those steamy love scenes. “They’re very technical and far from glamorous,” he attests. “To begin with, it’s just an awkward and embarrassing situation, so you kind of not take it too seriously and laugh your way through it. At first we had to put a lot of blind trust in each other because before Kyle and Audra had sex, Zuleyka and I had only shared a couple of brief scenes before that, so we didn’t really know each other that well. But I feel that mutual trust has solidified over the time that we’ve been working together. But I also have to give it to production and the crew for making us feel safe by being really strict about a closed set. As an actor, you can feel vulnerable and uncomfortable during love scenes, so the crew has been really kind and respectful of our boundaries. It’s been a wonderful collective effort.”

Chad Duell had what he describes as a “chaotic” entrance into the GH universe as Michael — a role he did not even know he was auditioning for — back in 2010. Duell explains, “I’d read for [Casting Director] Mark Teschner a few times; he just kept bringing me back for different things. This time in particular, I was originally reading for a different role, a love interest for Kristina, who, of course, is now my sister on the show! They liked me enough , where they brought me back for a secret audition. I thought it was for the same role, but I was actually reading for Michael, who was already being played by somebody [Drew Garrett]. There were only two of us in the room and it felt like, ‘Oh, this is pretty serious!’ I felt confident going in there and a few days later, my manager told me, ‘Hey, man, I have some crazy news.’ That’s when I found out that, ‘It’s not for the part [you thought it was]. They like you enough to make you one of the main characters in one of the families on the show.’ It was so surprising, but I was excited because it seemed like it was a much more stable character to be playing on the show.” Well over a decade later, his instincts proved correct. “Now I’ve been there 13 years, and when I think about that, I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s crazy how long I’ve been on!’