Robin Strasser & Brynn Thayer

Transcript of Soap City's Chat with OLTL's Robin Strasser and Brynn Thayer
(Dorian Lord Hayes and ex-Jenny Renaldi) - January 21, 1999

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Brynn: Hi everybody and thanks so much for coming to visit us at SoapCity, us meaning myself and Robin Strasser, the women of David Renaldi.
Robin: I can pretty much say the same thing. But you won, Brynn! You won his heart. LOL

SoapCityGuest2 asks: Robin, what is your favorite storyline this far with Dorian?
Robin: One of my favorites was one which the executive producer at the time thought I would hate. He took Dorian's money away and sent her off to prison. But I love the movies of the 30s and 40s and as far as I was concerned I was doing Women Behind Bars. And I had a ball! I wore no makeup, I wouldn't let them tailor the prison uniforms -- turned my back on soap divadom, and I had a ball.

Noni27 asks: Is "One Life to Live" going to have David pass away, and will they have a tribute to Michael on the show?
Brynn: I don't think they've made that decision yet. I know they're looking at the possibility of keeping David alive, in that manner the hope is kept alive. They're looking at that issue, it's what I'd like to see happen.
Robin: That he's off camera?
Brynn: Maybe that he's gone somewhere for a treatment program, that's a possibility.
Robin: Did they not do a tribute to Michael at the end of a show?
Brynn: I think if I'm not mistaken, they did a card at the end of the show in tribute to Michael.

hotfudgesundae42 asks: Do you think that Zas knew how much his fans from GL missed him?And how happy we were to see him as David on OLTL?
Brynn: I know Michael knew how much the GL fans missed him, the amount of mail that came to Michael that came from GL after OLTL and the amount of mail he received at OLTL was enormous, just enormous. A lot of that mail was from GL fans that wanted to see him again on OLTL. The GL fans and OLTL fans that knew Michael's work and personally were extraordinary in his support, before and after his disease.
Robin: And I spoke to Michael ... just after he had been told he couldn't return to GL, and he was very upset, devastated by that decision. But he was so buoyed and supported by the response of the fans, and he mentioned that to me several times, about how much the letters that were pouring in meant to him, that he was so moved, profoundly touched that people made that individual effort. I think that was one of the things that gave him fuel to fight on so many levels against the disease, fight for his rights as a performer, fight to keep his strength so he could perform on OLTL. It's hard enough to get hit by a disease, but to also have what you love taken away from you, the manner in which you've made your living and expressed your creative side. That would have been devastating for him not to have had an avenue to perform his work

pam380 asks: Brynn and Robin -- what are your best memories working with Zaz?

Brynn: Oh gosh, for me, I remember the moment that I got to meet him for the first time and I was just bowled over by his gorgeousness, so that kind of takes your breath away.
Robin: Let's get this over with. I think better looking in person.
Brynn: Even better looking
Robin: Let's set the fact straight.
Brynn: A gorgeous human being.
Robin: Inside and out!
Brynn: He just had a different exciting, interesting twist everyday on our scenes. He always made it a surprise, always a surprise party everyday. We had so much fun, so many laughs. And then to have the triangle with Robin and Michael, we had a ball. We also got to go to Europe to do a remote for OLTL and we had some great times there. Of course the kissing wasn't bad, I was really into that. I just have all time, all time memories of our scenes together. One of Michael's fans has a tape or many tapes, of David and Jenny's scenes throughout the years, and I got to see some of those scenes and of course you don't remember all of those scenes but when I got to look back on them, it was so much fun. I remember the funny things that happened before the actual taping of the scenes. I mean you're together all day long you go through different... the scene changes through the day, and at that time we didn't tape during the day so we got to rehearse all day long. So I have very vivid memories.

Robin: When I watch those old shows, any old shows, I will often flash about what was going on in my life at the time.
Brynn: Oh yeah...
Robin: "Oh, I know why I look so puffy, I was breaking up with so and so, I had eaten all that chocolate the night before..." It's so funny the specifics that come up. During the time Brynn was able to kiss Michael and have so much fun was one of my least favorite eras in Dorian's life - she faked being crippled and having to be in a wheelchair. Remember that, Brynn?
Brynn: Oh yes, Robin, I do. I wasn't going to bring that up, I know how jaded you are.
Robin: It wasn't Brynn's fault, but she was having all the fun and I had to go around whimpering and moaning and complaining.
Brynn: Oh, you have some sanity flashbacks.
Robin: Do you have those flashbacks on tape?
Brynn: Don't you remember you had a joke sometime that you were so upset that you never got back the sanity flashback and Ray the stage manager brought up the fantasy...
Robin: Our stage manager -- that I get to dance with Fred Astaire. He came out in a top hat and cane, naked except for a diaper. Ray easily weights 220 pounds, is about 5' 10. It wasn't that live Fred. But what does that have to do with the fact that you got to kiss Michael and I was whining? You were trying to keep the conversation upbeat.

Uncle_Slapshot asks: Robin, that wondeful moment when Dorian and David saw each other for the first time.. How did you both prepare.. It was so charged with emotion. One of the truly great moments in all of daytime !
Robin: You know... I can't even say it was acting, I just needed to walk on that set and be with Michael. For a moment, I was Dorian and he was David, but there was a lot of us and our history and our feelings for what it was like seeing somebody after such a long time. And seeing him in that condition, ravaged by that disease to the extent he was at that time.
Brynn: But dammit he still looked gorgeous.
Robin: Okay, so they're going to think we had these big crushes on him.
Brynn: But we did.
Robin: Platonic, deep, passionate crushes. To know him was to love him.

DocGinaNJ asks: Brynn, we miss you! Robin, how do you feel about Mel's impending "death" and Stephen's departure?
Robin: Devastated. I had a very hard time talking to my heart, my stomach, my mind, that this was a fictional death, that I really wasn't losing my friend. But it's been very difficult and it continues to be difficult because I loved working with him and I certainly hope that I will be able to stay in contact with him and hope we might work together again. Historically it's unusual -- Brynn and I are one of those rare cases that we keep in touch. Very often you have these really intense relationships with people when you're wokring with them, and then life intervenes, and with the best of intentions the thread is broke. I would have never made or supported the decision to have Mel die. I wish they had just broken us up. But it was so long since we were really on camera...unfortunately, I had no control. I was told this was how it was going to be.
Brynn: I loved the two of you together, aren't they the best?
Robin: And I'm sure you may have noticed he worked well with eveyone who worked with him. He was so talented, so prepared -- everyone had that nice chemistry.

AnnOnnymous asks: Brynn, would you ever consider a return to OLTL? I loved sweet Nurse Jenny!
Brynn: In about a minute, I would consider. I would go if only asked.
Robin: And wouldn't we all be thrilled!
Brynn: I was doing everything I could, I was begging, I was on my knees, I made it perfectly clear that I would do anything but they are wonderful, ABC as you know is extraordinary
Brynn: and it become a joke because I wanted to come back so badly, but we wanted it to be about David Renaldi and how the family deals with it and everybody felt that if Jenny came back, that would take the focus away
Brynn: How would Jenny come out of the avalanche? And the focus would be taken away from David Renaldi, and Michael and I had talked as he did with Robin, what all of us wanted was to have that awareness and teach people about the disease
Brynn: That was what we wanted to do
Robin: I would be happy to do a storyline where Dorian takes up mountain climbing in the Alps and happens to bring along a really nice couple and finds Jenny
Brynn: A huge Swedish boy
Robin: And here's my digger, Sven!
Brynn: You mean Dorian finds Jenny?
Brynn: He doesn't speak English but who cares?
Robin: I see a foot in the snow! Dorian could find Jenny -- I have to do something nice!
Brynn: She comes back for one last breath and Dorian puts her foot on my head
Brynn: We have to go from serious to goofy
Robin: I do notice how wonderful all that cold snow has been for your skin, so I start giving myself facials... are we digressing here?
Robin: That was the way -- Michael would have liked that
Robin: Including slightly off-color jokes or goofy remarks
Robin: During the times when he was sometimes too tired to type into the commputer or write a note, you told him a good joke and that laugh would come out, or his eyes would light up, or the big thumbs up sign -- he just so appreciated humor of all kinds, his taste for fine food, pretty girls -- I caught the eye following short skirts so many times...

doodlebear110 asks: so, it must be pretty sad to lose michael. How did/do you cope?
Brynn: Well, I think for everybody who has lost a loved one, it goes day by day, but sometimes there's a... I don't want to use the word "lucky," but it's the only word I can think of at the moment. Someone is taken from you fast and we don't always get to say everything that we wanted to say, and I must tell you that the greatest thing for me -- Michael and I had this friendship over the years, as I did with his family. I said everything I wanted to say, we had laughs, we cried. I felt totally complete in my friendship with Michael, and it's a great lesson for all of us to do that with our friends, because we never know when they'll be taken. We always hear that you have to say everything and do everything and life goes fast and you forget. And I just had an extremely wonderful year with Michael and as much as I feel the loss, I feel complete. I haven't dreamt about him yet and I can't wait. I used to have these dreams about him and he'd be running or he'd be laughing, and I'd wake up and the reality would be there that he was sick, so I would tell him that I dreamt he was playing tennis and he'd get so excited and laugh.

Brynn: I was with him when he was diagnosed. That was a tough day, but Michael turned it around from a tough day to a hopeful day in a matter of maybe 3 hours ... You know, Robin had gone to OLTL after Michael left GL, so the feed was there for ABC to bring him back, but because of some contractual things he was unable to come back to OLTL at that point... and so, from going to "you have ALS" to Michael going through these days of testing on his muscles and his body and his breathing, he turned it around and said, "Let's make this work, let's fight to find a cure, let's go back to ABC and see what they say".

Robin: Can I ask a question? Why is ALS so hard to diagnose? Was it his case in particular that was hard to pinpoint, or in general is it hard to identify?
Brynn:It's one of those diseases that camouflages itself in other diseases, and the reason ALS is so difficult to diagnose is because they have to rule out every other possibility, and nobody wants the ALS diagnosis because it is, at this point in time, a death sentence. You never wish for anyone to have any kinds of disease, but we're now beating cancer in ways, and there are those people with ALS who have lived for many years. Steven Hawking has lived for over 20 years, but the majority of ALS patients die within 2 to 3 years after diagnosis. We know so much about MS because people live longer. but with ALS, the voice of ALS dies too, so all of us have to keep it alive so we can create the awareness and find a cure. You know, it's related to [many] neuromuscular diseases. They're all related, but ALS is the granddaddy and once they find a cure for that it will trickle down to everything else
Robin: Has there been any change in govertment funding?
Brynn: They're working on it. They have a good lobbyist in Washington and they're working so hard. The ALS chapters all around the country are extraordinary. They're a hard working group of people.

Robin: I've got another question -- this came up for me -- the people who are looking for some kind of an answer to Michael's passing might want to know that aside from contributing, is there anything an individual can do to fufill this legacy that Michael wanted left?
Brynn: There are many ALS chapters around the country and they need people to answer phones, to do mailings, to become involved with the many ALS patients and their families around the country who need help getting places, need help doing things for them, and I'm sure each individual chapter has great jobs for volunteers. You know Michael was passionate about taking care of the PALS, people with ALS, for a better quality of life. You can always write your senators to get more research furnding for ALS and we can beat it.
Robin: That's great!

slh061948 asks: The scene between Dorian and David, when they were talking about the kind of man Dorian needed, was BRILLIANT!! It was the only time I can remember being able to almost SEE the connection between characters.
Robin: Michael always had input into the process of how a scene came about, so you heard Brynn describing what a scene was like 15 years ago, and it wasn't any different last year. He had great ideas, he'd let you know them...
Brynn: He was pushy ...
Robin: Assertive.

pam380 asks: Robin, I loved your piano lessons with David -- Did you really want to be married to Herb?
Robin: (laughs)
Robin: I think that Dorian's connection to David and the passion she felt for him certainly became reawakened when he showed up in Llanview.

SoapCity Rose asks: Robin, how do you and Erika Slezak get along in real life?
Robin: Well! She's terribly professional and therefore so easy to work with and she's a very classy person.
Robin: So we dopn't have the Dorian-Viki dynamic going in real life. Thank goodness!

wickedgreeneyes63 asks: Brynn, I respect your devotion to Michael Zaslow during his illness, God Bless You !!
Brynn: Thank you, it was a gift for me to be able to be with him.

AnnOnnymous asks: How are Michael's wife and daughters doing?
Brynn: They are... he has a daughter Marika who just turned 16 and another daughter Helena who's 13 and Susan is his wife.
Brynn: And as many of you know, SoapCity has been so extraordinary to promote the event that is happening this Monday night in New York City at the Golden Theatre. And what we're going to do is, A.R. Gurney, who wrote the play "Love Letters"-- it's going to be presented at the theatre, done by Alec Baldwin and Kim Zimmer of "Guiding Light". And we'll also have Robin, myself, Blair Brown, we're going to be reading letters from ALS patients and family which are also going to be our ALS love letters, so we've made the event into a tribute as well as a benefit. All the monies raised are going to go to research so if any of you are going to be in New York, we'd love to have you there
Brynn: Back to the original question, I'd love to tell you that they're doing well but it's very, very difficult, and they're having a difficult time as I'm sure many of you will understand. They're going one day at a time.

lovinrh asks: Robin .. if it was up to you alone, how would you write your script?
Robin: If it was up to me alone... you mean taken from this point with the decisions I had no control over that have already been made?
Brynn: (laughs)
Robin: ....What would I do now? Taking it from the point where I can change things?
Brynn: You can do that good Bob Newhart thing that it was all a bad dream. Didn't they do that on Dallas too?
Robin: They did! No body has been found. Maybe he's buried in the snow with you. Or after I get you out of the snow, I take a cruise and stop at an island and there Mel is in a grass skirt with six wives! Okay, I'm being funny. I'm trying, I really am!
Brynn: *laughs*
Robin: At this point, I would just like to have some good material that's true to the character that realizes the audience's expectations and respects how smart the OLTL audience is, and the soap audiences are. More follow-through, more attention paid to character development and detail.

bigkikki4 asks: How do you feel about Laura Koffman's firing? The fans are outraged!
Robin: I certainly don't understand it. I don't understand it at all. I think not only is she a beautiful actress, and a talented actress, I thought that the balance between the two of us was just right. We are actually talking about a friend who really died, and I feel guilty, but I have to be honest -- the loss of a husband and a daughter in the space of a month is not fun. A real feeling of loss. I know they're fictious characters, and Laura has a baby about to be had -- I was a little concerned this was not the best timing. She's about to go into labor at any minute But I love her and she's been blessed with so many things. She worked very hard on herself and found this incredible young man and they're very happy. They wanted a baby and they went through many efforts and now they have this wonderful baby on the way and her life has been blessed. But I personally wish she would be coming back with nanny in tow and playing my daughter. But we are not necessarily asked, or listened to, I'm afraid. I don't know if they're re-casting. At this point, you have to be realistic, and I'm not one of the people that gets informed ahead of time, or asked if I think it's a good idea. I wonder why!

Uncle Slapshot asks: Michael created one of the great "male villan" characters on Guiding Light, Roger Thorpe. Did you both have a chance to watch his work on GL over the years ?
Brynn: Oh I did, yes, I think we both did, I don't mean to speak for you, Rob, but its kind of hard to be in America and not know Roger Thorpe, he was so good to watch!!
Robin: I think besides his intensity, his passion and his good looks, the fact that he was a musician very often informed his work, that he was a fabulous singer and a gifted pianist...there was this sense of rhythm and energy and pace and how to build a scene...how to be so evil and not raise your voice if that was appropriate and when to suddenly scream... he had so many talents, and they all sort of coalesced in his acting.
Brynn: He liked Roger, you know when he played bad guys you gotta love them. You know it's not just the "love to hate" Roger, there was something else magical about Michael that popped this character off the screen.

SoapCity Michael asks: What was it like working with Judith Light and Nancy Snyder?
Brynn: Well, two of the all time all time actresses in my book.
Robin: Ditto.
Brynn: Those were, I hate to say the old days, but those were some great days! Nancy -- I know we throw the brilliant word around a lot but she was/is brilliant and Judith Light brought the character of Karen ... I was a long-time soap viewer before I got lucky and got the job, and Karen had only been on for a year at that point. I was amazed by this person.
Robin: Judith was either the second or the third Karen.
Robin: Second
Brynn: I remember when she would look straight into character and that had never been done before, I mean not many people could get away with that. It was an extraordinary choice she made and it drew us all in.
You just don't see it all the time. The courtroom scene, I was in the courtroom at the time and I had not been at the show that long.
Robin: I was the third Dorian and the fifth!
Brynn: Just watching this performance and watching this great theatre performance but this you saw so many times and Tony (Herb Callison) did not get much credit in the scene and I think at one point the stage manager had to tell me to close my mouth 'cause my jaw was dropped open and that wasn't supposed to be the character at the time. It was so exciting those days!! We had some fun.
Robin: One year Judith and I were up for the Emmy together, but not the year I won. She loved the repertory feeling, the co-creation that can happen when people like and trust each other. That's part of what made it an extraordinary time. Remember when two actors rewrote a scene and it was submitted on the Emmy reel? It didn't matter -- the writers liked it and put it on the reel ... If you could amaze them, surprise them, let your character unfold from your deepest heart they just said "thank you". You weren't stepping on anybody's toes.
Brynn: It was an amazing collaboration between writers, actors, producers, crew...there was no jealousy, no territorialism ...
Robin: Yes!
Brynn: We all had a great time bringing each other to our highest height.

Brynn asks: Brynn, what was it like during the babyswitch storyline?
Brynn: Loved that story, I loved that story!! And to have little Baby Mary ripped out of Jenny's arms, that tramp!!! LOL ... We had so much fun, it was such a ball, I'll tell you what was a great storyline... it lasted for three years, everybody knew the secret except for Jenny. I don't think the audience was torn, they wanted the baby to go back to the real mom but they didn't want the baby taken away from Jenny and the audience was in on it, and it feels like now we're so used to it and eveything in our lives has to be short and come to an ending quickly, and I love those days when the stories would intertwine with characters and last for longer preiods of imem
Brynn: Remember Ivan Kipling and I had to inject David with this injection and Dr. Larry and I and David were stuck trying to make David alive again? It was so emotional, we were all such good friends that all the emotion around us, it was easy for us to get into the story.
Robin: Actually, no, but ironically it's always fun running into Victoria Wyndham because she's played the part for 30 years or something, and she's always so funny, "They still tell me they like you," being funny
Robin: The two Rachels are joking around
Robin: She's a fun person
Robin: I got a phone call from George Reinholt a few times, said hi. There were a number of people that I would have liked to have stayed in touch with. Somebody who forever changed my life, made me a better actor, was Constance Ford. She was so generous. It was my first job on tv. She was patient and specific and so good herself that I benefitted greatly by being her daughter for those five yeras.
Robin: It was great running into Jackie again, and George, but that's also a long time ago now, so that's why it didn't come to mind. I haven't talked to Jackie in maybe 10 years.

slh061948 asks: Brynn, what's happening career-wise for you? Saw you on a "Diagnosis Murder" -- you're GOOD at being bad, too.
Brynn: Well, career-wise, this past year all I really did and focused on was working with Michael, so now I'm going to try to get back out there and see if I can land a darn job.
Robin: If I may interject, becuase Brynn would not tell you this, but one of the reasons why the fundraising efforts have been so successful is that as a nonsalaried president of ZazAngels Brynn made it a full time job and commitment. She was a great support to Michael and his family as a friend, but as a really dedicated fundraiser and organizer...how many people could get George Steinbrenner to agree to let OLTL do an opening game for the Yankees? Brynn produced that and it was one of the best events anyone had ever been to. This is more than a full time job. She did the job of 5 or ten people.
Brynn: Oh, Bird, come on!
Robin: Oh, shut up! and I never say that... It's absolutely -- that's why this thing got launched the way it did. Big changes don't happen in the world without people making big gestures, sacrifices, commitments, and she'll never put the spotlight on that but I just have to.
Brynn: If you didn't understand, I sometimes call Robin "Bird," since she is a bird.

pam380 asks: Brynn -- I'm so glad you were his friend, and Robin helped in his return to OLTL -- you two are the best!
Brynn: Thank you.

thedistinguishedgentleman asks: Ms. Strasser..how was it working with thom christopher? will they be bringing him back any time soon?
Robin: I don't know, but since nobody's put a stake in his heart he could keep coming out of that coffin. He showed up in hell or purgatory, which was very fun.
Brynn: Right, right, that was good. Those were good scenes, those were funny
Robin: I think they cost Pam Long her job! I'm sorry, we didn't come on here just to be bland. I had fun. That was Pam Long's idea. Totally surreal, like Ivan Kipling's brain implant. The wild and wooly times
Brynn: That's right.
Robin: Didn't last forever, but it was fun. Gave Thom's fans a chance to see him again.

springintoaction asks: will you and Viki have any more good classic fight scenes?
Robin: I'm told that they are trying every way they can to make me as Dorian so furious at Viki that we'll be off on a blood feud. That's in the future.
Brynn: You know, when you were talking about the women in prison things, one of my favorite Viki/Dorian stories was when she had you locked in the room ...
Robin: Oh, yeah!
Brynn: ...with the glass window between you, you guys have had some great, great stuff between you...scary and weird and fun and I love seeing Dorian in total distress.
Robin: Yep. That was Michael Malone, the headwriter then.

CHIK_OF_LOVE99 asks: Robin, What was it like working with Roger Howarth? Is he a nice person or a jerk?
Robin: What's between a nice person and a jerk? Just kidding! Roger and I didn't get to work that much together and he had some quirky habits. I think he's very talented, but he used to love, as we were taping, to act as though Dorian smelled bad, either from too much perfume or something. I would make an entrance and suddenly I would notice that his nostrils were flaring and he'd done this big sniff. I heard rumors that when he came back he was snarling like a vampire or a cat that you just stepped on his foot. So he did that to me in an important scene, where Blair was performing a song for him on a yacht, I think when we found Carlo's body, I was up above watching Blair, and he gave me the vampire snarl and exited. I must have been inspired by Judy Light -- I looked into the camera and snarled and shrugged my shoulders like " what was that?" A really quirky guy!
Brynn: I love that scene!
Robin: I would certainly be in a glass house throwing stones if I had to cop to the weird ways I'm like Dorian. Sometimes people need their part and their part needs them.

bigkikki4 asks: Brynn, will you continue the ZazAngels group?
Brynn: Yeah, I'm going to continue working on raising money for research, but it's going to be a little easier doing it out here in Los Angeles because I really do need to try to get a job, but I'm still going to be involved in ALS awareness.
Robin: During this year I guess I didn't say that Brynn did so much and was away from home and husband -- she gave of herself 100%.

storminormi asks: Robin, are you really related to Phyllis Diller?
Robin: I know why it comes up -- it's the other part of the family story. Phyllis Diller is also Susan Lucci's mother, and Susan and I are sisters. When it isn't Phyllis Diller, it's Phoebe Tyler. I swear I don't know how that got started or why it won't die! Phyllis Diller I hear has made jokes about it in her act
Brynn: How funny.
Robin: I don't know, is the answer.

storminormi asks: did Clint leave for good?
Robin: I don't know. I would suspect it has to do with the decision would be up to whether the current administration would invite him back under terms that he would find agreeable.
Brynn: I hear he's having a grand old time on his ranch out here in California.
Robin: Of course he is! Everybody knows, I think they know that all throughout this time on the show, Clint has been buying acreage in California and putting together this wonderful ranch with horses and dogs.
It's a side to him apart from his acting that is one of the most beautiful sides of his personality, his love of nature and animals.

bigkikki4 asks: Robin, will you be working with Mark Derwin?
Brynn: Who's that?
Robin: I don't know. He's going to be playing a character named Ben.
Brynn: Is ... the mother?
Robin: He's too old for you to be his mother. You could be his sister or ex-wife or something.
Robin: At any rate, yes, he's coming to town.

DocGinaNJ asks: In fact, it was because of David's return to OLTL that I did some more studying and reading about the disease- there's pitifully little to find about it in medical texts.
Brynn: Yeah, I think that is correct, there's not a lot of information because it is such a mysterious disease. They just can't figure it out, it's so scary when you can't figure it out, it's hard to write about it. But if you want more info, the ALS Association here in L.A. or wherever you're at, your chapter, can give you great info and statistics that you might find interesting.

megjo2 asks: Robin, how is your off screen relationship with the guy who plays Kevin?
Robin: I think he's a really interesting actor and ditto who he is as a man. I gave a goodbye party for Steven Markle at my apartment, and it's the first time in this apartment that I tried to cook for 40 people. This was very funny. There was not enough counter space. I ended up putting chopping boards on the floor of my kitchen to do all the dishes!
Brynn: On the floor, you, Robin! Robin has an extraordinary taste in furniture and things that are around her, I just can't imagine.
Robin: There wasn't enough counter space! I'm trying to chop all this stuff and I ran out of space, so I remembered seeing documentaries about Asian housewives sitting on the floor, so I went to work.
Brynn: Oh you're funny!
Robin: I told him I was doing this party for Steven, and Tim Gibbs said "I have to do the wine, because he's been the most splendid support and just for the laughs he's given me. Which says a lot about Steven and Tim. We've had the chance to do a few scenes where I can see that if they wanted to have us -- we didn't have a chance to work together that much, but in the next couple weeks you'll see things that go a little deeper. It was very interesting. There's some good stuff in terms of -- they're very emotional, very hot.

Uncle Slapshot asks: Okay, Robin, the truth... Does Phil Carey peak at the teleprompter more than some ??? Robin: The teleprompters have been gone for 10 years, but maybe Phil's still looking for them. Kidding, Phil!
Phil has busy eyes, and you never know what he's going to do. He's so unpredictable.

pam380 asks: Robin ws the only Dorian for me? I also wished that Light and Zaz had scenes together -- that would've been great.
Brynn: I had forgotten this but Michael and Judith were never -- Judith had already left when Michael came on so they never knew each other
Robin: Ah! that's interesting. That would have been you and Judith fighting over Michael.

lulu2 asks: Where would you like to be in five years?
Brynn: That's a hard question. Robin and I have always wanted to go to Paris together. Robin, we should go in five years ... I'd like to go sooner. Although I'm sure the question was meant to be a little bit deeper
Robin: If it has that sort of genie in a bottle, you get three wishes...
Brynn: Let's have a cure for ALS in five years ...
Brynn: And I'd like to have a job in five years ...
Robin: On a very good show, very good part, with a group of people that really enjoy working together?
Robin: This is sort of like we can get to create a reality ..
Brynn: Good health for friends and family and happiness ...
Robin: Yeah...

Robin: I just want to acknowledge the contribution and the power that Michael's fans harnessed. You made a great difference to him personally, and professionally your support, your passion for him and his work really made a big difference. It helped bring, if there could be any satisfactory closure with GL, it propelled him into the situation with OLTL, but at all times it was like an injection of health and hope for him to know that so many people he had never met had been moved by his work and wanted him to know it. So I thank them, and I know Michael does.

Brynn: Well I thank them too. Not only did he realize how important the fans were before he was sick but that they stayed with him and they even got more powerful and stronger. All the letters that you were writing, the contributions that you've made -- we all kept Michael up to date on all that -- the e-mails he got, it so mattered and it brought so much joy to this past year. And you'll probably never know how much you individually did, and you did make a difference and as a whole group you made a difference. And so many more of us know about ALS and eventually we will find a cure, and that's what Michael wanted. And I know we'll make his wish come true.