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Performer of the Week
Grant Aleksander
Soap Opera Digest
August 21, 2001

Phillip Spaulding is no stranger to secrets. He’s kept some doozies (like the fact that he fathered a child with his ex-wife, Beth) and has been in the dark on several others (his biological parents being middle-class Marlers rather than blue-blood Spauldings, for instance). Perhaps one reason Phillip keeps finding himself in these quagmires is that, when the truth is finally on the table, portrayer Grant Aleksander always wins the hand.

This time, the secret was that Phillip’s almost ex-wife, Harley, and his best pal, Rick, were having a baby. Rage simmered under Aleksander’s cool veneer until Harley confirmed that she was indeed carrying Rick’s—not Phillip’s—child. Aleksander’s eyes narrowed, his breath became labored. The usually glib Phillip was at a loss for words.

When he did speak, each remark was tightly wrapped in caustic humor and aimed to wound his one-time friends. “I know the speech. I’ve given it before, remember?” he spat. “I know how all this works. I know nobody is responsible here. The sun came up. It rained. ‘Rick and I slept together.’ It’s Monday. Now Harley’s pregnant.” And just in case Rick and Harley thought that familiarity would breed forgiveness, Phillip coldly added, “You both are about to find out that it gets much uglier from here.”

He should know, and Aleksander revealed the toll that a lifetime of lies has taken. “You were supposed to be better than me,” he said to Rick, who replied that he was only human. Huffed Phillip, “You want the title, you got it. You’re a screw-up, you’re a loser—just like me.”

How this latest reveal will affect Phillip in the long run is anyone’s guess, but it’s no secret that Aleksander gives a first-class performance.