Tribute to Pine Valley Dish!

Ahh well, dish might be a little strong.  There really wasn't much of that but it was fun anyway!  I went to the event at Town Hall in NYC on Tuesday, October 25 with PVB friend, Kelli.  And what a great time we had!!  It started out with each of the guys being introduced one by one and coming out to the stage.... Walt Willey (Jack), Vincent Irizarry (David), Jacob Young (JR), Cameron Mathison (Ryan), Darnell Williams (Jesse) and Michael E. Knight (Tad).  Walt and Cameron were given microphones to go out into the audience so fans can ask questions.  There were some about the finale, general questions about this and that... nothing too memorable or that we haven't heard already.  But one thing I do remember very clearly was that Jacob said that his contract with Bold & Beautiful is short term!  So if/when the Prospect Park version of AMC gets off the ground, Jacob is not completely out of the picture to return as JR.  One of the funniest things, to me anyway, was that whenever a question was directed to Jacob, Vincent (who was sitting right next to him) would say, "Oh you mean Rick Forrester?" referencing Jacob's B&B character.  I think Jacob might have been getting a little irritated by it by the end of the Q&A!  

Check it out, I'm sitting next to Rick Forrester!

Someone did thank Darnell for signing and he seemed still so unsure of how it will work or if it will ever get off the ground.  Cameron chimed in as a Prospect Park cheerleader, assuring fans that it will happen.  After fans asked questions, the guys then asked us questions, about the show for prizes (the "Who Did JR Shoot?" t-shirt autographed by all the guys).  And then fans got to stump the actors for the same prize.  


The best part of the night, for me anyway, was when the guys got to tell behind the scenes stories.   Both Walt and Michael had hilarious stories about Ruth Warrick (Phoebe), with Walt's being my favorite story of the night.  Of course I'm paraphrasing here and going by memory, but the gist of it was that during Cliff and Nina's wedding, on location.  Walt was just an extra at the time.  The venue was very strict and had a ton of rules about what they could and could not do and the director of the venue gave a big speech about no smoking, no eating, no drinking etc...  Ruth Warrick looked at the venue representative and said, "If the sofa's have slipcovers can we f**k on them?"  Oh to have been there to hear that!   

Michael's story about Ruth was much different.  Apparently she was a notorious, um, well I can't really say this delicately so I'll just say it, farter.  Everyone knew it, everyone ignored it.  It was just Ruth being Ruth.  But when there were visitors to the set, they didn't know how to handle it!  Case in point, Ian Buchanan (ex-Dr. Madden) was visiting Finola Hughes (ex-Anna) on the set one day and Ruth went by tooting her way along.  Michael recalls the hilarious look of absolute confusion that Ian experienced seeing the legendary Ruth Warrick farting her way across the stage!  Years later when Ian returned, this time as Dr. Madden, Michael asked him if he remembered that visit to the set, and he did... oh boy did he ever!   


Vincent recalled a not so pleasant first meeting with James Mitchell (Palmer) while Vincent was still on Guiding Light.  They were sharing a car to take them to an event and Vincent was very late, making James wait in the car for however long it was.  Years later when Vincent joined AMC he asked James if he remembered him, and James very distinctly said to him, "Oh yes, I remember you."  But they did become great friends after that.  

Michael and Walt recalled the trouble James Mitchell and Ruth Warrick had once teleprompters were taken out.  Michael said that Ruth still always looked in the spot where they were, even years after they were taken out, even though she knew her lines.   James on the other hand would write his lines on index cards and hide them all over the set that he would be filming in.   To mess with him, Michael and others, would take the cards and mix them up and change their locations.  Then James would be wondering around and muttering... "no, that's not right" until he found the correct card!


Michael also told a funny story about Eileen Herlie (Myrtle).  During a Crystal Ball scene, which took many many hours to film and often went well into the night, Michael was in the background with Eileen for part of the shoot.  She kept pointing to his teeth very casually and subtly.  Michael assumed that he had something in his teeth and kept trying to get it out and then showing her.  She just kept pointing back at his teeth.   At the end of the scene he asked her what was wrong and she replied, "Oh nothing, I was just bored so I thought I'd f**k with you."  

All of the actors had the utmost respect for the elder statesmen of the show.  Especially Jacob for David Canary.  He spoke of how much he absolutely loved working with him.   They all loved hearing the stories they had to tell of old Hollywood.


Once the first part of night was over, there was a short intermission and then we were ushered back in for the meet and greet.  Unfortunately this part didn't go as well.  It was chaotic and disorganized.  Having been to my share of events, I took it in stride.  They promised everyone would get their chance to meet each of the stars, so you have to trust that it will happen.  It did.   It may not have been the dream meeting some had in mind, but it did happen nonetheless.  The night went well over the time it was scheduled to end.  It was the first of the events, and as always there are problems that need to be ironed out.   


If you'd like to see all of my photos, check them out on Facebook.  I have made the album public so everyone should be able to check them out!