September 12-13, 2009
New York City
(updated 9/22)
by: Patti
**PLEASE DO NOT COPY OR REPOST THIS REPORT OR PHOTOS WITHOUT PERMISSION**
I went to see A Steady Rain on Friday night. My "boyfriend" Hugh Jackman looked as yummy as ever, but I hardly recognized Daniel Craig. He had a bad side part and a big bushy moustache! They were both REALLY good. It's just the two of them on the stage, telling a story. They're cops in Chicago, and both of them, the Australian and the Britain, both had really good Chicago accents! Hugh's character, Denny, had a problem with cursing, and Daniel's character, Joey, had a problem with drinking. It was a really interesting play, and they just talked for an hour and a half. I tried to wait by the stage door after the show, but I swear I was in the only row with people who took 45 minutes to exit the theatre! I heard Daniel Craig come out first, he signed a few autographs, and hopped into a big black SUV. He got a pretty nice ovation. Then my boy Hugh came out, and the cheering was deafening! I saw the top of his forehead, and what a nice forehead it was!! He also signed a few autographs and then hopped into a different big black SUV and was escorted away. I'm just impressed that like before when Hugh was in The Boy from Oz, that he signed autographs after the show! Very entertaining!!!
Now
onto the events... The first one was the Melissa Claire
Egan (Annie) and Aiden Turner (Aidan)
event. One of my friends who knows Melissa and
Aiden pretty well asked the same thing to both
of them..."So are you excited about LA?" and they both answered
similarly that they were. Adam Mayfield (Scott)
was there. He was really nice, and I got my photo with him and asked him to
sign my AMC book. As he was writing, I asked him if anyone ever told him that
he looks like Janitor from Scrubs and that he probably hears it a lot! He
said he doesn't hear it a LOT, but he has heard it. He told me that he takes
that as a compliment since he feels that Neil Flynn (Janitor) is one of the
better actors on that show, which I agreed with. Ricky
Paull Goldin (Jake) was there, but didn't stay long. In addition to
Adam and RPG, all
the kids showed up. The twins who played Little Adam were there, Declan and
Rory McTigue. They are SO cute! They both had on khaki shorts, an oxford shirt,
an oxford jacket, and crocs! Lucy Merriam (Emma)
was there, along with her little brother. After I got Lucy
to sign my AMC
book,
her little brother Joe told me that HE wanted to sign my book, too, so I let
him! He's adorable, too. Their mom came over and thanked me for letting him
sign the book. She said that it's hard for him sometimes when Lucy
gets all the attention. Alexa Gerasimovich (Kathy)
was also there.
I asked Melissa how much she loves working with David Canary and if she considers herself the luckiest girl in town. Of course, she loves working with him and she does consider herself really lucky! I really like the two of them working together, and she thinks it works, despite their age difference. Well, come on...who wouldn't want to work with David Canary?!!
RPG's bus tour was next
and wasn't at all what I expected. Maybe it would have been different if it
hadn't been raining. I'm glad picked the lower deck, which I did in case it
was raining because I didn't want to go to Vincent Irizarry's
(David) event looking like a drowned rat! Anyway, Jill
Larson (Opal) was on our bus, and she couldn't stay for the entire
tour. She got off when we were in upper Manhattan. Ricky
made it through our bus very quickly, just long enough for me to have him
sign a photo and get a quick photo of him (not with him). He switched buses
a lot, and then we got Chrishell Stause (Amanda)
on our bus. She didn't go to the top because it was "rainy and yucky
up there," and of course, she looked like a million bucks! Adam
Mayfield popped on board, and I got some photos of him. He visited
the upper level, as did Brittany Allen (Marissa).
She was super sweet. Danny Kennedy (Petey) kept
coming
by and introducing himself as Cameron Mathison
(Ryan). I got him to sign a photo that I took at the luncheon last year, and
he told me he wanted a copy of it and gave me his email address. I have to
send it to him yet!! He was funny and a lot of fun. At one of the traffic
lights, I happened to look out the window to see Adam
Mayfield crawl from the top of the bus next to us over to our bus!
Yikes! Good thing he has long legs and the buses were semi-close!! There wasn't
any kind of "guided" tour, but my friend Evelyn kind of did the
play by play on where we were. Every now and then, the driver would put on
a recording, but that was it. I was a bit disappointed in it, but I know it
was difficult for Ricky to visit with every bus.
A lot of people were disappointed since Ricky's
website had Susan Lucci (Erica) and Cameron
Mathison (Ryan) would be attending. Someone asked Danny
Kennedy where Susan Lucci was, and he
laughed and said, "Susan Lucci? On a bus?
In the rain? Yeah, like THAT will happen!!" Then they asked him where
Cameron was, and he said, "I'm better than
Cameron!" At least the bus let us out near
Vincent's event, since it was running REALLY
late.
Next onto Vincent Irizarry's
event... Vincent's events are always my favorite,
since it's first class and the proceeds go to charity. Unfortunately, Vincent
got there late, due to an autograph signing that he had to do in CT. Then
the restaurant took FOREVER to get our dinner. First of all, we had a choice
of pork, salmon, chicken, or lasagna. So it took a while to take your order,
then longer to actually GET it! The event was supposed to be from 7-10, but
we were still eating around 9:30! Then Vincent
did the Q&A, and it was during that Vincent
kind of let slip that next year, he'll be working in LA and living in NJ,
and as long as he gets his schedule well enough in advance, he's hoping to
be able to have another FOVI event in NYC. Oops! He did say how much he loves
the show and how he loves playing David Hayward! Someone asked him if he thought
they were grooming David to be the next Adam. He said words to the effect
of, "David Canary is such a professional
and such a warm human being, and if anyone deserved to pull a diva trip, it
would be him, and he doesn't. In my opinion, no one could ever be Adam except
David Canary. He's the best actor on the show."
I may have paraphrased, but you get the idea! RPG
did pop in and pop right out of Vincent's event.
They both said who much they loved playing opposite each other. Back to the
Q&A, Vincent said that he loves the twins
who play Little Adam, and if you ever hear one of them call Marissa, "Aunt
Ma-wiss-uh," it's Rory, since he can't say
his R's. Vincent always calls Rory
"War-wee," and Rory will said, "It's
not War-wee, it's War-wee," even though they sound exactly alike! Of
course, you had to imagine that THAT sounded better in person!! He also gave
kudos to the casting director, Judy Wilson, in casting the babies. He said
that he and Chrishell were making a fuss over
Baby Trevor lately, and they both said, "Our baby is so much cuter than
Baby Stuart...like he's really OUR baby!" Vincent
did take the time to do autographs and photos, even though he had a long day.
I left around 10:45, and they told me the next day that Vincent
was there until after midnight signing autographs and taking photos with the
fans. THAT's the kind of person he is! He didn't want anyone to be disappointed.
Other than the LONG time to order and get our food, it was a great event with
lots of goodies to take home with us!!
Now
for the main event...the AMC luncheon. Let's see if I can remember who all
was there. Walt Willey (Jackson) was the MC,
and he made a statement up front that they all decided NOT to answer any questions
about who was and wasn't going to LA, so don't even bother asking. The actors
who attended included Brittany Allen (Marissa),
Bobbie Eakes (Krystal), Melissa
Claire Egan (Annie), Beth Ehlers (Taylor),
Stephanie Gatshet (Madison), Shannon
Kane (Natalia, and it was her birthday, so we all sang HB to her!),
Danny Kennedy (Petey, who came out when they
introduced Cameron Mathison!!), THEN Cameron
with Lucy (Emma), Jill
Larson (Opal), Jamie Luner (Liza), JR
Martinez (Brot, who got a well-deserved standing ovation), Adam
Mayfield (Scott), Alicia Minshew (who
got the biggest ovation), Vincent Irizarry (who
probably got the next biggest ovation after Alicia),
Chrishell Stause (Amanda), the adorable twins
who play baby Trevor, the three kids who play or have played baby Ian, and
the twins who play Little Adam. Walt said that
Susan Lucci and her husband Helmet were celebrating
their 117th wedding anniversary, so they were out of town. The meet and greet
was kind of interesting. I had a baby gift to give to Alicia,
so in order to
see
her, I also had to see Cameron (which was TORTURE
to see such a fabulous hunk of man) and Walt Willey!
Okay, so we got in that line, saw Cameron first,
and he looked REALLY tired, but he was ever so gracious and stayed until he
saw everyone who wanted to see him. As I approached Alicia,
she grabbed my hand and put it on her belly and said, "OMG, Patti, she's
moving! Do you feel her? Just as you approached, she started moving, and I
wanted to share it with you!" I was so touched. I would NEVER put my
hand on her belly (or anyone else's belly) without asking, but she grabbed
my hand and did it herself. That was very sweet of her! She thanked me for
always being so nice to her (huh?), and I said the same thing to her!! Then
we got a quick photo with Walt Willey. I have
his autograph 100 times, so I was happy with just a photo. Even though he
seemed annoyed to be there in between photos, he put on a good face!! Next
up, my friend Evelyn and I both wanted to meet Jamie
Luner. In order to do that, we had to also meet Vincent
Irizarry and Brittany Allen. I'll never
turn down an opportunity to talk to Vincent some
more, and I got a photo with Brittany, since
I hadn't done that on RPG's bus tour. Jamie
was nice and even prettier in person. I bought a photo of her from the Emmys,
just in case she was there, and I got her to sign it. I told her the truth...that
I liked her blue dress the best, since I thought it went so well with her
hair and coloring, and she thanked me for that compliment. Her hair looks
much redder on screen, so it must be the lighting. She said that everyone
says that to her! She was nice, and I'm glad I met her!!
Chrishell said, she was already planning to go to LA at the end of the year; the show just followed her! She said her contract is up in December, so she'll be on till then. Not sure if that means she'll extend it or not, but she did say at the luncheon that Amanda is married to Jake, but living with David is sure a nice consolation prize! She said he loves working with both VI and RPG!! Can you blame her?!
Next, we had to go to another room to meet anyone else.
Shannon Kane and Beth Ehlers
must have left early, since they weren't there when
we got to the next room. We got to meet Stephanie Gatschet,
and she was really sweet. She loves playing Madison, and can you blame her?!!
I also got a quick photo with Bobbie Eakes, even
though she had to get out of there to head to her Divas event that night.
Finally, the last person we met was JR Martinez.
What a special person he is. His line was consistently long all day, and he
took the time to chat with everyone about everything. I told him that I followed
him on Facebook, and he is such an inspiration. He hugged me and thanked me.
I love reading his inspirational comments, and it really brightens my day.
I also thanked him for all that he does, and I told him what a great job he's
doing for someone who has never acted before. Of all the people I met that
day, he was by far the best one for so many reasons.
Here's a few odds and ends... Aiden was off screen for a while, while his wife had their baby, and also while he tended to his business. Not sure what his business is, other than I know he also is a disc jockey. But he said we'll see Aiden again really soon. He told us how he filmed scenes with Kendall the day before, and they were talking about Annie. As soon as the camera stopped rolling he called Annie a f-ing beyotch! He said Alicia couldn't stop laughing, since it really fit the scene!!
After the luncheon, I headed home, happy with the weekend I had. And even though I didn't win this, I just had to take a photo of it!
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