GH Fan Weekend 2007

I recorded four events during the GHFCW this year. The Scrubs Event for the LA AIDS Walk they are doing, Finola's event for her goal of building a woman's center in the Sudan, the Kick Off and the GH Luncheon. Kudos to Debbie Morris who between the Fan Club donation, the auctions at the GH Luncheon and the Scrubs Events raised $57,000! That doesn't include all of the other additional individual events that actors held to raise money for their charities. It was great to meet so many fans, thanks for everyone who came up to say hello, its great to put a face with the email addy and name! I also record the TV Guide Network special "Infanity", they had a camera crew at the luncheon, see additional info below.

GH Luncheon 2007 Event DVD - 4 hours - $15 [Kick Off Party - 2:09 ; GH Luncheon - 1:51]

Scrubs Event 2007 - $20 Money Order ONLY made out to AIDS Walk Los Angeles

Finola's Event 2007 - $20 Money Order ONLY made out to "The Damazo Majak Foundation"

"Infanity" - :36 mins no commericals - On set interviews with Ingo, Tony Geary, Kelly Monaco, Kimberly, Jason Thompson, Genie Francis, Becky Herbst, Laura Wright. They mix interviews and clips with on set action shots and storyline clips. Donna Messina, Head Makeup Artist, is interviewed about doing 40 actors a day as she does Nancy Lee's makeup. Joanne Onario, Hair Sylist, talks about the doing not just daily hairstyles but inserting ashe after explosions, or for a cancer patient, or someone in the hosptial. Next is Monique Adamas, Head of Wardrobe Department, about dressing the characters, doing all of the shopping, dressing Luke in particular. Kimberly talks about the Aids storyline and playing a character living with HIV. Mark Teschner, Casting Director, on what goes into casting an actor in a role. Cindy Sawyer, Medical Consultant, on medical dialogue and working with the medical props.  Clips of the GH Luncheon, interviews with actors interspersed throughout the show, and interviews with fans at the luncheon is showcased as well as fans meeting actors during the autograph session.

Kick Off Party 2007 - 2:09 - This event started the fan weekend with a lot of energy, a lot of actors, and a very festive cocktail party atmosphere.  Igancio "Nacho"'s band started off the evening with an hour and a half concert.  Many actors stopped by for a meet and greet with fans and signed autographs and took pictures. In between the bands playing, I  was able to get a few shots of the actors who were there in between the two band concerts: Jason Gerhardt, Adrian Alvarado, Kent King, Minae Noji, Lindsey Leatherman, Graham Shiels, Nazanin Boniadi, Amanda Baker, Candice Bergen (Big Alice), and Sebastian Roche. Next, Scott Clifton's band played for about 30 minutes, Scott announced to check his web site as his band will be playing in the LA area. Steve and Bradford stop by and talk to the fans for a few minutes and auction off a script. The evening concluded as Nazanin and Dominic introduce Soapnet's presentation of the premiere episode of "Night Shift" (no, I didn't include the Night Shift episode on this event dvd).

GH Luncheon - 1:51 - I began the video with shots of the ballroom, all the raffle and silent auction items, photographs of the actors, and then the fans entering the event, clips of different fan created t-shirts. I then headed back to the Press Room for some pre-event interviews (about :40 minutes worth with most of the new actors), first off with Minae Noji (Kelly) & Kent King (Lainey) who talked about working on Night Shift, and Kent on being reunited with some of her former cast members and sharing a dressing room, Randy of TV Guide Network on shooting "Infanity", Jason Gerhardt (Coop) on playing Cooper and about initially auditioning for the role of "Logan", two fans who won the Backstage Pass and were able to come into the first luncheon they were able to go into the Press Room with the actors, Megan Ward "Kate" on her first day on the set and working with Maurice, Graham Shiels on differences between himself and his character, he auditioned for the role of "Coop" inititally and they brought him back as "Cody". He mentions Mark Teschner's being a fan of the theatre and this was a reoccuring theme that many of the new actors had worked in theatre and were invited to audition. Next, I chat with Caroline (Diane) who also talks about how wonderful it is working with Maurice, Kiko Ellsworth on joining GH and working on Night Shift and being reunited with his friends, Josh Duhon (Logan) also on joining GH, Sebastian Roche (Jerry) has a theatre background and he was asked to join GH during the Metro Court Hostage storyline, Dominic Raines (Dr. Leo) on his new gig on GH and Nightshift, Amanda Baker (Jolene) on her background and her first day on the set,  Nazanin Boniadi (Leyla) being chosen out of 700 women who auditioned for the three student nurse characters, John York (Mac) talks about Night Shift. Then its time for the actors to line up to get ready to enter the ballroom for the main event!

John Ingle introduces his fellow castmates and he receives warm greetings and hugs from many as they arrive on stage. Stuart Damon received a standing ovation and by far the loudest applause. Steve then takes over as the MC and welcomes the fans, and jokes about his hair. He announced that Debbie Morris was donating $15,000 to a charity on the actors' behalf. Steve calls Greg to come up to the microphone and talk about the cause the actor's decided to contribute the donation to.  Greg Vaughn spoke very emotionally about a family close to him that had been devastated by the illness of their baby who had been diagnosised with a brain tumor.  He had asked his fellow actors to support him in wanting to help this family and announced that the cast had voted to donate the fan club donation to this family. Greg speaks eloquently about Caleb Parson's, who had to go to St. Jude's Hospital in Nashville for surgery to remove the tumor. His mother had to take a leave of absence from her teaching position to be with her son as the hospital was 8 hours from their home. He gets choked up as he describes what a difference this money will make in helping this family through this.

Next, Nancy Lee auctions off a set tour and lunch with 10 of the actors and jokes about different actors making out with the winners! The auction is for a group of six fans and goes for $12,000! Brian Frons who attended called out that they should do two tours, and they wound up doing two tours for $12,000 each! They picked out two actor's names and Kimberly's fundraising for the AIDS Walk Los Angeles received $12,000 and Tony Geary's charity was selected as well. His web master reports that he usually raises money for "Broadway Cares for Aids". So this single event raised $39,000 for charity! The morning of the luncheon, a promotional press appearence had been scheduled which involved several of the cast and so the luncheon event was running late waiting for the arrival of the actors involved.  The normal Q&A and fan voted on awards were not given out.  Then it is autograph and picture time for the fans! During this time, I also had brief interviews with Drew & Dirk Cheetwood (Max), Sonya Eddy (Epiphany) on working with Billy Dee, Bradford (Spinelli), Annie (Amelia)

Scrubs Event 2007 DVD - Kimberly McCullough & Jason Thompson - 1:02 - Many fans want and ask for more Scrubs love scenes. Jason admits that Patrick does get a little jealous of Robin's other male interests and she teases him about it. She teases him about having a crush on Finola, him dancing on GH, he talks about Kim & Fin's relationship, Kim would love to work more with Kirsten as she thinks she is "crazy talented". They talk about how they prepare for scenes together and their different work styles. Funny moment when a fan asks about the Nurse's Ball, and he has a vision of something like OLTL's Prom Night. She teases him that if they did an NB again that they would make him dance! Of course they talk about Night Shift. They discuss their charity, all of the money collected throughout the weekend for Kim's charity will be donated to the Aids Walk, they are doing a team again this fall. They report that their team last year was the 5th largest team, this is in the huge LA area with major cooporations with tons of people participating so very admirable. They auctioned off a set tour that went for $6,000 for five lucky fans, and then due to competing bids they wound up doing three of them and raised another $18,000 just in the studio tour auction, bringing the total raised for the LA Aids Walk to $30,000 in just two days! To order this event video, please send a Money Order ONLY made out to "AIDS Walk Los Angeles", 100% of the proceeds of this event video is donated directly to Kim & JT's charity. I donate the dvds and First Class shipping. If your going to be in LA on Sunday, October 21st, join Kimberly & Jason's "Team Scrubs" for the Aids Walks Los Angeles 2007. Registration and event info at: http://www.aidswalk.net/losangeles/index.html


Afternoon With Finola DVD - 1 hr 40 minutes - $20 Money Order ONLY Payable to "The Damazo Majak Foundation" - First two minutes silent montage of raffle items of Finola pictures and magazine covers are shown, fan shots at tables, children opening presents from Finola, fans at raffle table, door prizes, Fin's Q&A (about :54 mins), autograph and picture session with fans, Ian's phone call to fan, trivia contest, final additional :12 minute as Finola is asked a celebrity Q&A by Proust. To order this event video, please send a Money Order ONLY made out to "The Damazo Majak Foundation", 100% of the proceeds of this event video is donated directly to Finola's charity. I donate the dvds and First Class shipping. This event was a benefit for the Aweil Women’s Resource Center, to be built in the Sudan. They have obtained the land to begin this project. You can check out the official web site at:
http://www.damazomajak.org/ 

"The Aweil Women's Resource Center will enable local women in Southern Sudan to improve their social and economic status, by providing them access to educational services and sustainable economic opportunities. The local women that will benefit from The Aweil Women's Resource Center's education and training workshops, are women that have been most affected and widowed by the Sudanese civil war. Some of the initiatives and projects of the Aweil Women's Resource Center will include economic development projects, sustainable agriculture, vocational training and provide health care services."

Becky's Event which should be available within a couple of months, check her official web site

Quartermaine Brunch, check Leslie Charleson's Official Web Site, LOTS of vets showed up at this one!

There are no videos available for Maurice, Steve, Greg, Ted, Rick, Bradford's events. I'm not sure about Laura's, check with her official web site.

For Fan Pictures of the weekend check out The Scorpio Files at: http://www.scorpiofiles.com/fanweekend/2007/fanweek20073.html