All My Children News & Gossip
News for the week of 23-Jun-2008
AMC won “Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction/Electronic Camera/Video Control for a Drama Series” at the 35th annual Creative Arts & Entertainment Daytime Emmys June 14. The Creative Arts portion of the Daytime Emmys was held in New York City’s Frederick P. Rose Hall.
Beth Ehlers (ex-Harley, GL) will join AMC for an August 5th showing as a brand new character named Taylor McBride. Taylor is military through and through, and that’s fine by Ehlers who hasn’t done a different role from GL heroine Harley in ages. She’s also excited to reunite with former GL co-star Ricky Paull Goldin (ex-Gus, GL; Jake); the two of them became very popular with fans as a soap supercouple on-screen. She told SOAPnet’s Jesse Murray that starting fresh and new on another soap will be made easier because she knows Goldin well, is also friends with Rebecca Budig (Greenlee; ex-Michelle, GL), and she admires so many “powerhouses” in the cast, including David Canary (Adam/Stuart), Darnell Williams (Jesse), Debbi Morgan (Angie) and Susan Lucci (Erica). Her first scene, however, will be with Goldin, and will explain the reason she’s in Pine Valley, which is to award Frankie a military medal for bravery. Ehlers described her new character’s psyche: “She's lifetime military ... someone that likes rules and boundaries. [She looks at things as] This is right and this is wrong.” Doing AMC provided Ehlers with the fulfillment of another wish—to be closer to her children at home. On GL she found herself on a lot of remote shoots. AMC’s studios, in contrast, isn’t far from where she lives.
Bobbie Eakes (Krystal) gamely fielded many storyline what-ifs from SoapTown USA reporter (and AMC columnist) Amanda in a recent interview, including the one about Jenny turning out to be Adam’s biological daughter. “It’s mentioned all the time. Just the other day one of the crew members said to me wouldn’t it be interesting if Jenny turned out to be Adam’s especially now that Tad has been reunited with Kate.” Eakes is game for other what-if stories too, like a triangle with Tad and Adam, bringing Dixie back for the triangle. To Eakes, Adam is Krystal’s Dixie. There are a lot of unresolved issues and forgiving that must occur between these two, especially with how Krystal broke Adam’s heart by cheating on him with Tad, Eakes said.
Besides storyline, Eakes has been busy training for the New York Marathon and organizing her live shows, as well as priming fellow singers Kathy Brier (Marcie, OLTL) and Kassie DePaiva (Blair, OLTL) for the upcoming Daytime Divas concert. The concert was Eakes’ idea, born of great admiration for the other ladies’ singing abilities.
In the midst of the interview, Amanda surprised Eakes with news of the new head writer, Charles Pratt, taking over. Other than admitting the writers’ strike caused some stories to change direction, the actress didn’t know much about upcoming spoilers.
She did know that working with, getting to know and befriending Debbi Morgan (Angie) as their characters were becoming friends… turned out to be a big bonus. Angie and Krystal are similar characters, Eakes described, both are strong, independent and fiercely loyal to family.
Krystal’s family—namely her daughter Babe—is very important. Eakes has been lucky enough to strike gold in two back-to-back Babes, Alexa Havins and Amanda Baker. Both young women are like real-life daughters to Eakes. Eakes said she counseled Havins to spread her wings even though she missed her terribly, and she thinks the world of the kind and hard-working Baker.
David Canary (Adam/Stuart) couldn’t believe nobody else from the AMC cast was chosen as Emmy nominees. His pre-nom submission reels featured Adam reacting to Krystal having slept with Tad and getting pregnant, juxtaposed with Stuart in another scene. Canary could not make the Daytime Emmy ceremony in L.A. because he preferred to attend his daughter Kate’s graduation from Northwestern University. The actor said, “I’ve had five Emmys [and 16 nominations], but only one daughter.” –Soap Opera Digest, June 24, 2008
Aiden Turner (Aidan) and Alicia Minshew (Kendall) turned up the heat in their fantasy sex scenes. The scenes were to heighten Greenlee’s insecurity as she learned of their one-night comfort sex; Greenlee would go on to imagine what that sex might’ve been like, which was far from reality. Turner encouraged Minshew to go for it, so she licked his mouth (his idea). “We shot it the way we believed it would be the most awful for Greenlee, with us laughing and kissing really sexily,” Turner said. –Soap Opera Digest, June 24, 2008
Billy Miller’s (Richie) bummed to be out of a job at AMC but not so bummed about ending the frequent use of “bone marrow” in his conversation all the time. He is also bummed because he grew close to his cast mates during his popular tenure.
Melvin van Peebles (Melvin Woods) appears soon as Samuel’s (Mario van Peebles) father. In case the last names didn’t clue you in, both Melvin and Mario are real-life father and son.
Leven Rambin (ex-Lily/Ava) has a new gig already, on primetime TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Her character is called Reilly.
Gossip for the week of 23-Jun-2008
SOAPnet’s Live from the Daytime Emmys featured Ricky Paull Goldin (Jake) and Rebecca Budig (Greenlee) from AMC as two of the four co-hosts, and they made some lively, fun, knowledgeable co-hosts. I’d vote for them to do it again next year. They also made the two-hour crap-fest mildly entertaining, because they personally knew most of the soap stars they did quickie interviews with. Budig was able to put some of the more nervous stars (Antonio Sabato Jr./Jagger, GH: NS) at ease with the kind of fawning that didn’t seem too terribly pretentious because she actually listened.
This June 20th pre-show is really just to promote upcoming soap projects, such as GH: NS’s revamped cast and with regards to AMC, the addition of Beth Ehlers (ex-Harley, GL) with Goldin (ex-Gus, GL). Ehlers said she couldn’t believe she was now a part of AMC and not GL. She was on GL for the longest period, since age 19. When people around the red carpet would ask which show she represented, she almost said GUIDING LIGHT but had to correct herself.
Susan Lucci’s (Erica) talk with Budig netted actual information. Lucci helped judge the best actor category, and said it was “the most competitive category,” as all of the nominees were top-notch in their field.
When it came time to chat with her “girls,” Budig was in her element, and forgot the cameras were on her for a second as she raved about Alicia Minshew’s (Kendall) and Melissa Claire Egan’s (Annie) slamming outfits, Minshew’s frizzy hair which required the taming of her Humectin, Egan joking about her “boob sweat.” You could really tell these girls were close friends—and meant it when they promised to party all night.
Aiden Turner (Aidan) and his wife showed up with the GH co-host Finola Hughes (Anna), which made sense because the two of them played relatives (they’re both Devanes) on AMC once. Hughes joked about interpreting Turner’s responses, referring to his thick British accent—a common complaint of fans is they can’t understand what he’s saying on the show. He quipped back that he’d “had elocution lessons, so I can be understood.” They only had time to get, “I learn something everyday,” out of him regarding the best things about being on a soap.
Budig was lucky enough to lavish deserved attention on Darnell Williams (Jesse), Debbi Morgan (Angie) – with her tall drink of water boyfriend Jeff – and Cornelius Smith Jr. (Frankie). She told them she is a huge Jesse and Angie fan and that she was thrilled that they’d return to AMC. Morgan gushed about being a huge Jesse fan before she reached out to her people to see if she could make a connection on that show herself back in the day. She said she knew Williams as Jesse was a huge presence. Williams returned the favor by describing Morgan as already a big star when she came on the show as Angie. Playing out their long-awaited reunion at the train station several months ago was unreal, Morgan said. She said she was transformed into this woman, beyond space and time.
The pre-Emmy show wouldn’t be complete without the Emmy co-hosts, Cameron Mathison (Ryan) and Sherri Shepherd (The View). They joked around a little too much about the heat. Shepherd riffed about worrying her wig will slip off in the heat and hurling. Mathison agreed with Budig that he’s “a little bit of a sweat-er.”
Budig made a fashion statement of her own, inadvertently. She was in a short dress with poufs at the skirt, which kind of harkened back to the ‘50s. Turned out a lot of celebutantes were dressed that way.
All My Children News & Gossip, Copyright © 2008 Carol Banks Weber. Published by SoapZone.com / Jeff Jungblut. No part of this page may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed on this page are those of the author and may not be representative of SoapZone.com or its advertisers. Don't steal scoops.
