CINCO DE MAYO

Although the title of this particular entry is called “Cinco De Mayo” it will have nothing to do with the holiday other than it just being the actual date. It’s been about a month or so since my last post and I guess I waited so long because there wasn’t exactly a great deal to discuss until the past three weeks. So I decided to wait for all the excitement to pass and then include it all in one journal entry. You’ll not only read about this past weekend’s trip down to “Marco Island” in Florida, but also the Ricky Paull Goldin and Michael Park Cabaret show that was an absolute smash hit!

I’m not sure if many of you know, but Guiding Light has experienced a few losses in the recent weeks and months. One of those losses was Stephen Martines (Tony Santos) whose character was last seen falling from a cliff in an emotional struggle between Tony, Michelle and Danny. Stephen parted ways with Guiding Light to pursue other avenues of work in the entertainment industry and all of us at the “Light” wish him well, “BEST WISHES, STEPHEN”!

The other loss we experienced, which was a bit more surprising and emotional, was that of a Mr. Bill Runyon. In April of this year, Bill lost his battle with Lymphoma (Cancer). Now I never knew Bill personally due to the fact that he worked at the studio and left before I got there, but his effect on everyone at the “Light” was a lasting one. Bill was the Assistant to the Executive Producer. Bill was a young guy, only in his thirties, who had a promising career ahead but he also knew how to let loose. Following his passing, there was an assortment of pictures that were posted all over the studio and main office in his memory depicting him in various poses with many other GL employees, all having lots of laughs. Now, unfortunately for Mr. Runyon, while he was undergoing treatments, bills were accumulating which he was in no shape to handle or deal with physically or financially. Getting wind of this, Bill’s friends and family jumped into action to give aid in hopes of raising money to lighten this burden. The “Ricky Paull Goldin and Michael Park Cabaret” was thus born. This was an event for fans of both Guiding Light and As The World Turns to come to and enjoy, with half of the proceeds going to Bill and the other half going to The Ron Marsico Family Fund (a family friend of Michael Park’s). It was a great event with lots of laughs and good music and an incredible turnout of fans for both shows. There were guest appearances by Ron Raines (Alan Spaulding), Kim Zimmer (Reva Shayne-Lewis), Mandy Bruno (Marina Cooper), and of course Tom Pelphrey (Jonathan) who sang an interesting rendition of Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places” which unbeknownst to me had five verses….I always thought it just had three, LOL.

That night was a night of great music and camaraderie benefiting a gentleman who unfortunately would never know how it all went. Bill Runyon actually passed just before this event was to happen, which deeply saddened many people. But it was because of Bill that so many of us (those who knew him and those who didn’t) were able to get together and raise quite a bit of money which was then donated in Mr. Runyon’s name to the Lymphoma Cancer Research effort. Bill Runyon has passed on but because of him and the donations that were collected, soon a cure will be found to save others. Thank you, Bill from the bottoms of the hearts of “Guiding Lighters” everywhere!

I know that was a bit of a heavy opener for this entry, but I felt that if you were a fan of the show, then you would understand why it needed to be talked about.

Anyhoo, moving on to a more upbeat and exciting event that took place about three weeks ago, the “Men of Guiding Light and As The World Turns on the Discovery Channel!” Some of you may be familiar with the show “The Party Planner” hosted by David Tutera on The Discovery Channel. Well, Procter & Gamble Productions approached “The Party Planner” about helping put on or rather “plan” an event spotlighting the men of their shows. The location was the popular club CroBar on the west side of Manhattan, and the men of daytime not only were featured but we basically helped put the whole thing together…well, we may have had a little help, LOL! To check out the outrageous night, just watch “The Party Planner” with David Tutera on The Discovery Channel June 6^th. I promise that it will be a night of television/bloopers you’ll never forget.

This brings me to the most recent adventure that a few of us from the show were able to attend, “MARCO ISLAND”! About fifteen to twenty Daytime Stars made the trek down to the Gulf Coast Island of Marco for a weekend of boating, wave runners, dolphin watching, fine foods, fans, and lots of Beach Time! I was fortunate enough to only work on Tuesday of last week, allowing me to fly down Wednesday and stay until Monday of this week. Let me just say that I took advantage of sleeping in and laying on the beach and putting some color on this white behind of mine...not really but a good visual non-the-less. On Thursday morning, Frank Dicopoulos (Frank) played a pretty good trick on Michael O’ Leary (Rick) and I during a radio interview. Michael and I were at one of the local radio stations doing some PR for the weekend, trying to get some last minute fans out to see us and partake in the good times, when a not so innocent Frank, who had disguised himself as a very uneducated fan, called in. As you can probably guess, the conversation quickly went downhill from there. To sum things up, Frank or “Jon” as his character referred to himself, basically said that Michael was older and had put on weight and had killed almost every patient that came into his hospital except for maybe one. He then turned the conversation on me constantly calling me “Croop” and saying that I was young and handsome and had a “PURDY MOUTH”….what the $%&# was this guy talking about! Ultimately we figured out who it was when Frank’s daughter, Olivia, got on the phone to say hello and that’s when everyone in the radio station lost it…yeah, very funny guys, ALRIGHT the gag’s on us! It was a pretty priceless moment, I have to admit now, good job Frank.

Another moment that really stands out in my mind was when Michael O’ Leary, George Alverez (Ray), and their families, along with myself, went out dolphin-watching for the day and ended up on this secluded beach we seemed to have all to ourselves. The Fifty-eight foot yacht pulled up to this private dock with us on board, where we were then instructed to change into our suits and disembark and “follow the sandy path to the other side of the strip of land which will come out onto this beach which, well, you’ll see….”

So we followed the path which had coconut trees growing over it just like sabers at a wedding, and at the far end of the path we could see an opening which seemed beautiful. As we got to the opening, the most beautiful beach setting welcomed us. White sand as far as we could see both left and right, ith the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico in front of us. I think the older people were just as happy to see this site as the kids in the group. We all dropped our towels and shirts and shoes and took off for the water, it was like a minor doseof heaven. By the end of the tour, it was unanimous; we were all going to buy some land and beach!

For all you daredevils and lawbreakers, there was some fun, too. Once the rest of the group who couldn’t come down until Friday night arrived, there was no stopping us. You must understand first -- that midnight to us New Yorkers is like nine in the evening down there, it is an older community with a few fun spots. So with this in mind, by midnight we were all still raring to go. Doug Hutchison (Sebastian), Tom Pelphrey (Jonathan), Gina Tognoni (Dinah), Stephanie Gatschet (Tammy), Sarah Brown (Carly GH and Julia from ATWT), and myself decided to go swimming in the Resorts pool and hot tub after about an hour of “catch-up partying.” We must have been down there for at least an hour and a half, and were so loud. We had to have woken a few people up, but we really didn’t care, we were just happy to be down there. From the pool, most of us went for a walk on the beach and just laughed and joked around with each other, blowing off steam from work. By the way, just a side note for all you Sarah Brown fans: be on the lookout for her big screen break out role in the Martin Lawrence comedy “Big Mama’s House 2” set to come out next year, I believe.

Anyways, the last real crazy event we had was a guest bartending charity event at one of the local hot bars called “Blue Fusion”. Now I have to say that I suck at anything having to do with alcohol whether it’s drinking it, getting it, buying it, and most especially making alcoholic drinks. But I did my best and pulled through. Actually I just wore a really revealing shirt and hoped no one said anything about the crappy drinks I was making, LOL! It was so much fun and yes, once again Tom got up and sang his thirty-two minute rendition of “friends in low places” by Garth Brooks…thank goodness all those in attendance were already pretty drunk. It was a wild night for all of us.

When Monday came, I was so tired from this vacation that I am still recovering and most likely will be for a few more days. Before I exit though, I have to say thank you to a few special individuals that gave me some really special gifts while I was down there; Donna Baker for giving me such an extensive picture book of my GL career thus far from events such as our Fan Club weekend back in October of 2004 to the Virginia Calendar signing in January of 2005 to this past weekend in Marco Island. Donna, thanks greatly. Rick McComb, thank you so much for the Edgar Rice Burroughs book of “Tarzan” and the box of Milk Duds, my favorite candy in the world (yes, ya’ll he read the interview, LOL). To my Mondo Milk Dud Girls who brought me five boxes of the beautiful chocolates, they are going to last for a few days as long as my roomies don’t find them. Pat Berry, who put the whole Marco Island weekend on, thanks for having me this year and I’d love to come back next year too! And Frank Dicopoulos for being the older brother that I never really wanted but I now have to deal with even on MY VACATIONS!!!!! I love ya, lol.