Scene And Heard

SUPPORT STAFF: Laura Wright (Carly, GH) cherishes the friendships she has made behind the scenes at the show. “Maurice [Benard, Sonny] and I are super-tight,” she says. “He’s one of my closest friends here. If I had any kind of an issue and I really needed to talk to someone, I would knock on his door. Maurice is a really good friend.” She’s also forged tight bonds with what she calls “a really great, supportive female cast. If I needed something, Kelly Monaco [Sam], I don’t care where I am, what time of day, if I called Kelly, she’d be there for me and vice versa. In a heartbeat. I talk to Emme Rylan [Lulu] a lot, and Kirsten Storms [Maxie] and Becky Herbst [Elizabeth], who are my dressing room neighbors. And Finola [Hughes, Anna], oh, my God, I could be in her room at any time, and she’s the best girlfriend, I have to say. I adore her. The amount of love I get from everyone here, it chokes me up. It blows my mind and I just am so grateful for it.”

NOTES WORTHY

Although Tristan Lake Leabu (Reed, Y&R) and co-star Noah Alexander Gerry (Charlie) have become close on-set buddies, their tastes in music are very different. “I’m into rock and roll and Noah likes hip-hop and rap but we’ve been trying to learn about each other’s styles,” Leabu explains. “What’s funny is that some of the groups I like, such as Led Zeppelin and Black Crowes, is the same kind of music Noah’s dad likes. So we’ve been going through my albums, song by song, for him to get to know the music. Usually, people are pretty confined by what they like listening to, but Noah has a really open attitude.” The sentiment, however, isn’t mutual. “I’ve tried to get into his music but there isn’t really anything that I’d go out of my way to listen to,” Leabu admits. “It’s just so different and isn’t really in my wheelhouse. He gives me grief but we just laugh about it. He knows what a stickler I am for good music, so he gets it. I think it’s really cool that he’s interested and branching out. He even wants to learn how to play guitar, so I’ve been teaching him chords and he’s getting good. I should have him brainwashed in no time [laughs].”

BALL BEARINGS: Victoria Konefal (Ciara) says she was thrilled to take part in DAYS’s annual ornament-hanging episode at the Horton house, but didn’t know about the tradition until she arrived at the set. “I wasn’t aware until that morning and when they told me about it, I thought it was the cutest thing in the world and I was so excited to film,” she recalls. “I got my own ornament and I got to hang up Bo’s ornament and that was really sentimental. The physical ornaments have been in the show for years. They haven’t been changed. It’s the original Bo ornament. It felt really cool to be able to hold it and hang it up.” Doing the episode also helped her get closer to her castmates. “By then I had been on the show for a couple of months so I had time to bond with everyone. It was actually around that time that I started finding my footing on the show and getting a grasp on the character and the storyline.”

HELLO, DOLLY!: When Kimberlin Brown (Sheila) returned to B&B last summer, she received a memorable gift from a fan. “I had this wonderful box sent to my dressing room, and there was my Sheila doll,” Brown exclaims. “It was created by Justin Haire, who lives in Florida. He created Sheila and Lauren dolls as they were on Y&R [circa 1990]. These dolls are truly pieces of art. The faces are hand-painted. The clothes are handmade. I took them up to show our wardrobe department and they were just beside themselves with the intricacies of the clothing and the accessories. And, in that envelope are the puzzle pieces from when Sheila blackmailed Lauren about her affair with Brad [in 1993]! The detail is just phenomenal. I was blown away that somebody took the time and the energy to do something so special for me. It’s so greatly appreciated. Now Heather Tom [Katie] wants one!”