After seeing a hilarious show down with some guy in one car and a taxi on 42nd Street (the taxi driver beeped at the guy and the guy yelled at him, "I'm trying to turn you moron!" LOL! Gotta love New York), we headed off to the Marriot Marquis where this event was taking place. When we first got there, tsk tsk, Carol Dickenson (the coordinator) made a mistake. I had e-mailed her two days before this event asking her if there was going to be anything for sale and she said no. Well, when my friend and I got to the 7th floor where the action was taking place, there were things to buy! Debby was also there selling her photos. I saw her and she said hi. I told her that I didn't know she was going to be there....LOL! Anyway, I brought a couple of photos at some tables, and the little photo book called "Hot Shots" by Jim Warren. I also brought a t-shirt that Kassie DePaiva made herself. There were also people there advertising for her fanclub, Kristen's, Brandon's, Kamar's, Tika's, and Sean's. There were also people promoting the "Diva's Night Out" that was happening that night. In addition, the people who ran Tika and Kamar's fan clubs were promoting their event. Kamar and Beth Ann were having an event that night and Tika was having hers the next day. Nothing like last minute sells....LOL!!
I also brought my OLTL Trivia Book for the author, Gerry Waggett, to sign. He saw John and Trevor's signatures from the day before and he was like "oh who signed this?" I said, "John and Trevor"....LOL! Gerry signed my book and thanked me for buying it.
We got there at 9:00am, well after all that looking around and shopping, the time just flew and it was already 11:00am, and the doors to the Astor Ballroom finally opened. After we ate and the raffles were announced, Carol Dickenson introduced Gerry and he started asking us trivia questions about the show. Very entertaining I must say!
Once that was over, Carol came out onstage again and introduced the cast of OLTL. We all clapped and cheered.
The only thing I can say about this is WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!!!! I've never met so many people in one day in my life. This was a total treat because not only were my two people, John Brotherton and Trevor St. John were there, but my other main man Kamar De Los Reyes (Antonio Vega) and my girl Tika Sumpter (Layla Williamson) were also in attendance! The list of people who were there were as follows:
Kristen Alderson - Starr Manning*
Eddie Alderson - Matthew Buchanan
Justis Bolding - Sarah Roberts
BethAnn Bonnor - Talia Sayed**
John Brotherton – Jared Banks
Brandon Buddy - Cole Thornhart*
A. Martinez – Ray Montez
Thom Christopher - Carlo Hesser
Chase Coleman - Garrett
Kamar de los Reyes – Antonio Vega*
Bree Williamson – Jessica Buchanan-Brennan**
Farah Fath - Gigi Morasco*
Catherine Hickland - Lindsay Rappaport*
Mark Lawson - Brody
John-Paul Lavoisier - Rex Balsom*
January La Voy - Noelle*
Sean Ringgold - Shawn
Trevor St. John – Todd Manning
Hillary B. Smith - Nora*
Tika Sumpter – Layla*
Jason Tam - Markko*
Brittany Underwood - Langston*
Gerry Waggett
Author of The OLTL 40th Anniversary Trivia Book*
Austin Williams - Shane
Jerry VerDorn - Clint*
The ones with only one (*) by their names, I met today. The ones who are blue and italicized I met the day before, the ones with two (**) by their names I didn't get to, but I met them last year at the LADIES OF LLANVIEW event, and the ones with no (*) by their names I didn't get to all (which was fine by me because the main people I was there for were Kamar and Tika. If there was time, I would have gone to John and Trevor again, and Bree and Beth Ann; but I wanted to get to people who I haven't met yet first).
When I didn't see Kamar on the stage I started to get worried and thought he wasn't there at first, but he had gone down into the audience without going onstage to get questions from the fans. Beth Ann also went down to whoever had a question.
I can't remember everything that was asked during the Q&A but here are some highlights. Someone asked Kamar if he was doing "Dancing with the Stars" and he said no because he is still recovering from his shoulder accident, and he joked by saying "John wants to do Dancing with the Stars!" (Meaning John Brotherton....LOL!) I can't exactly remember what the question was, but it was directed to Trevor and it was something about if it feels strange for Todd to be helping Marty after he gang raped her all those years ago. I don't know, something to that effect. It was basically a stupid question; so Trevor, as Todd, said "I like gang rape" and the whole room bursted out laughing. Another winner was when a lady asked "When will they learn that Jared is not a Buchanan?" The whole room answered her, "they already know!" and Kamar was like, "sit down". I heard one lady mumble at the next table, "where has she been?" LOL! DUH! Someone asked Justis how does it feel to have love scenes with David Fumero and she was like "uh, I'm engaged and David is married!" Good answer....LOL! There were a few comments about how great the show is and how, even though General Hospital won for best directing, OLTL was the best show, and how everyone loves the catfights between Nora and Lindsay. Someone asked Bree who she liked playing better Jessica or Tess and naturally she said Tess (big surprise....LOL)! Someone else asked if Tess had anything bad planned for Natalie and Jared and Bree said that Tess will be doing some bad things in the future without giving anything away. Oh and January (aka Noelle) does not have a southern accent in real life folks! Anyway, that's all I can remember from the Q&A's. I am sure there are posts about this luncheon on other sites, so they'll probably mention more questions....LOL!
When the Q&A was over, it was a bit overwhelming at first when it came down to getting on line for autographs. The stars were in two different rooms. Some were in the same room as the Q&A and others were in another room accross the hall. I wanted to find Kamar and my friend (who is a BIG Tika Sumpter fan) and I wanted to find Tika first. We did manage to find Trevor and John's line, but we decided since we already met them that we were going to go to other people. We found Kamar, but the lines were not organized in the beginning. I think Kamar, John, Justis, Jason, Brittany, and January were on one side. Trevor had the other side of the room to himself with his line....LOL! Finally, one of the event coordinators came around and organized the line so we knew who was on what line for whom. I finally got to meet my man and when it was my turn to meet him, I told him how great he is on the show and he said, "thank you", and then I mentioned that I saw him on "Paula's Party" (a cooking show) and I said, "I didn't know you could cook" and he said, "neither did I"....LOL! Then, he started giving out cards for his website and red hot cinamon candy. I said, "wow look at all of this stuff!" He said, "curtesy of my fanclub". I will join soon I promise! I'll join his and Tika's fan clubs eventually. I'm already a fanclub member of Trevor and Renee Goldsberry (ex-Evangeline Williamson). Kamar was the first to sign my blue OLTL book. :)
We instantly went to look for Tika next and she was in the next room. After security checked to make sure we had wristbands (the security person said, "have a good time"), we went into the other room.
Man, I think there were more stars in this room than the previous one! We headed directly to Tika, who was in the far corner and, at that point, had no one on her line. At first, there was someone there, but we didn't know if she was for Tika or for Catherine, who was diagonally next to her. She was for Catherine....LOL! We went over to Tika and was like "we were confused!" LOL! Tika was great and since there was no one waiting after us, we had a decent full conversation. She signed my book and said "I have got to get this book!" I told her, "you have got to get it." I think she then mentioned how heavy it was and I said, "it was worth taking it out of the house today!" I told her that I missed her on the show, and she said, "thank you, I miss me on the show". My friend mentioned that he loves her music and she said "thank you". I told Tika that I sing and I, recently graduated college with a BA Music degree. She said, "congratulations, what college?" I told her, "Kean University". I also mentioned that my friend and I both went to the same school. Tika asked me what do I sing and I said that I was trained in classical music, but I sing anything (yes, some of you may have heard that story before. Work with me here okay? LOL!). She asked me if I can sing opera and I said, "well not opera"....LOL! Opera is not easy to sing that's for sure! We got our pictures taken with her and she said "thank you for coming". :)
At that point, my friend had to leave because he had to catch an early bus home for his gig that night. I didn't want him to leave, but he had to go; so I went solo for the rest of the day. It didn't matter who I went to now because I got the two main people that I wanted, so I decided to go to whoever had the shortest line....LOL! Therefore, I went to Sean next.
The first thing I said to him, after saying hi, was "big man" and he said, "I'm not so big"....LOL! Basically I said that I missed him on the show and he said to tell TPTB that I want him on more. I told him that I do just that. He asked me if I had anything for him to sign and I asked him if he could sign my OLTL book. :)
I went to Catherine next since she was right next to him....LOL! Basically what I said to everyone was that they all do great jobs on the show and they all thanked me. While I was waiting for Catherine, I noticed Tika had to leave; so it was a good thing we went to her second. After Catherine, I was going to go to John-Paul, but he seemed to have the longest line so I went to Jerry next. He signed a card advertising his website and when he saw my book he was like, "they don't make this book anymore." I told him that I've seen both Clints (Clint Ritche was the original Clint Buchanan). He was like "and I won you over huh?" He also said, "now that it's signed, you can go sell it on Ebay!" Referring to my book. I told him, "No way, I am not selling anything." LOL! Some people would, though, and that's a real shame.
The next person I went to was Hilary who said "nice meeting you", then Farah. I told Farah that I liked her earrings and she said "thank you". She had these really cool peace sign earrings. Like I said earlier, I was telling everyone was a wonderful job they were doing on the show. She said, "nice to meet you" and I said, "nice meeting you too". Also she and John-Paul, who were right next to each other, kept going to each other's tables because people wanted pictures of them together and then John-Paul would go over and sign something for a fan (which would also explain why it looked like his line never moved).
I went to Kristen next and I told her that I saw her at Trevor's event the day before. I also told her that I thought she was doing a great job with Starr's storyline, and I said that I have never seen that done on Daytime ever. She told me that she thinks it's great that the writers are doing this kind of storyline.
Next, I went to Brandon. The first thing he did was sign a card advertising for his website. I told him, "I hope you win" referring to his storyline with Starr. He said, "I hope so too". I also told him that he was cute for a young guy and he was like "thank you"....LOL!
Okay, has John-Paul's line gotten shorter? Why yes, but not by very much....LOL! I decided to wait on his line anyway. I had nothing else to do....LOL! His line was definitely shorter than it was before, and a good thing I decided to get on line because it got RIDICULOUSLY longer again after I got on....LOL! In fact, one guy said, as he came back "so much for me coming back later and the line being shorter"....LOL! Once again, John-Paul and Farah kept going over to each other's tables and posing together for people, and also J.P. kept signing other people's things at Farah's table. Again, no wonder his line got longer....sheesh....LMAO!
I decided after John-Paul to go see if there was anyone left in the original room I came out of. I, pratically, got to everyone in this room except for four people (which I either wasn't interested in or I had already met at a previous event). Kamar was still in the other room, but he was on his way out. John, Justis, and Trevor had left; and apparently the actress who plays Carolotta (sorry, I forgot her name) had shown up for a surprise visit. I saw her leaving as I came in. She looked like she was in a rush to get to somewhere. Anyway, Jason, Brittany, and January were still there; so I got pics with them. :)
Man, in two days I met 15 people, got 15 pics with them, and got 15 signatures! That's pretty damn good. Next year at Trevor's event, I am going to have him sign my blue OLTL book and also at the next luncheon, whoever didn't sign the book will and the ones that did will sign my trivia book....LOL! I am so looking for next year's luncheon. I had a blast at this one, being my first one! :)