Post by jag11 on Jul 15, 2008 18:44:16 GMT -5
There was oohing. And aahing. And chatter. Lots of chatter. And more than a little anticipation in the excruciating wait for the doors to open.
No, it wasn't the lineup for the new iPhone.
It was the 10th annual The Young and the Restless Afternoon Tea, and last Saturday it drew more than 300 soap opera fans to the sold-out Marriott Hotel ballroom in downtown Vancouver for a few hours of star gazing, and maybe just a little star lusting.
Oh, all those fans would have you believe they were there, at $60 a pop, to help a good cause -- the tea is a fundraiser and this year's recipient was the B.C. branch of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation-- and they probably were.
They will also tell you that it was a lovely way to spend a summer afternoon with a good friend, eating petits fours and finger sandwiches and sipping tea. And it was.
But make no mistake.
They were there for the beefcake.
And that would be Christian LeBlanc, Michael Graziadei and Chris Engen, the actors who play, respectively, lawyer Michael Baldwin, photographer Daniel Romalotti and prodigal son Victor Newman Jr., on the The Young and the Restless, which is not only the highest-rated soap opera on television, but counts B.C. fans among its most faithful, and has done ever since the venerable Newman and Abbott and Chancellor families of Genoa City, Wis., began their shenanigans 35 years ago.
In fact, we're among the 5.3 million viewers who really, really like The Young and the Restless, and watch it every day.
Which is why actor Kate Linder, who has played Esther Valentine, faithful housekeeper to doyenne Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper) on the show for the past 26 years, started the fundraising tea in Vancouver a decade ago.
The idea blossomed when Linder was in town meeting with friend and local fundraiser Robin Wyss.
Their breakfast kept getting interrupted by Y&R fans coming over to say hi to "Esther," and Wyss was surprised by her recognition and the obvious local appeal of the show.
"He was shocked," says Linder. "And I said, 'You're missing the boat, Robin. To raise money, you should do an event with The Young and the Restless people.'"
Wyss was intrigued, but wondered what it would look like.
"And I said, I would have a tea, because that's what my character does. Serves tea," says Linder.
"Only it would be a real classy tea, to raise money."
She was right, and for 10 years she and an assortment of like-minded Y&R castmates have headed north once a year to Vancouver, the only place Linder holds the event.
All the actors, she says, attend the tea on their own time and ticket, and for their own reasons.
Christian LeBlanc, whose quick-witted, energetic turn as the event's MC was a highlight of the afternoon, has done a number of the Vancouver teas with Linder and, as a native of flood-ravaged New Orleans, says he knows the value of charity.
"I show up and you're glamorous for a day and it makes a difference," says LeBlanc, who does similar work around the U.S. and makes no bones about using his celebrity to raise money.
"I'm here because I'm picking your pocket," he laughs.
Castmate Michael Graziadei, in torn jeans, porkpie hat and flip-flops, looking every bit the 29-year-old cheeky charmer he plays on the show, agrees.
"When there's a charity and events to do that are worthwhile, I just want to do my part," says Graziadei.
That, it must be told, included being adored (okay, pawed) Saturday by hundreds of fans, a surprisingly mixed demographic of young women, well-heeled professional boomers and nattily dressed seniors, who would ante up more thousands by day's end in their soap fervour, buying memorabilia and bidding on auction items, including a tour of Y&R's Los Angeles set. (Linder auctioned two of them, for $4,000 each, and the event netted about $20,000 for the charity.)
New cast member Chris Engen, who plays Victor Newman's long-lost son, and who doesn't suffer from a deficit of good looks, was a big draw.
Smouldering and slightly scruffy in a Marlboro Man kind of way, wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a linen shirt, he charmed the crowd in the Q&A session (yes, gals, he's single!) and took forever to get through the crowds, what with the hugs, cheek bussing, handshaking, photographs and, well, squeezing.
Irene Edwards is a big fan of Engen and his still-developing character, which wavers somewhere between good and evil.
"When he first came on the show, I was like, hmm. But when you see him smile, it totally transforms him."
Edwards, who's 57 and from Surrey, is a recent Y&R convert, having stumbled on the show five years ago while channel surfing and getting, she says, hooked.
She likes the show's theme music, the high calibre of the acting and script writing, and "the opulent sets."
This is not her first tea, for she is also a fan of Linder, who spends much of her off-set time raising money for charities, including The ALS Association, Make-a-Wish Foundation and TV Cares AIDS Awareness.
At 60, Linder is also still a working United Airlines flight attendant, and recently received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, only the fourth soap actor to achieve the recognition.
The soap studs were joined, it should be noted, by the elegant Emily O'Brien, the actor who plays new-age nutcase Jana Hawkes, who when she isn't trying to kill someone is consulting a Ouija board about her love life.
Also along for the ride were producer Josh O'Connell, as well as makeup artist Patty Denney and hair stylist George Desmond, who took a contest winner backstage for a two-hour makeover.
And if you think soap operas are for bonbon-popping soccer moms, think again.
I'm not naming names, but manly radio personality Joe Leary was in the crowd, one of about, oh, three men in the ballroom. He said he was working but he also confessed, sort of, that he has been watching Y&R, sort of, ever since David Hasselhoff was on, way before Baywatch, way before America's Got Talent, way before that I'm-so-drunk-I'm-eating-a-cheeseburger-off-the-floor video incident, and dammit, if the Hoff was man enough to act on a soap opera, then Joe Leary is man enough to watch it.
Besides, if it's okay to spend hours watching some guy plunk tiny white balls into tiny holes on a big lawn -- and an average of six million of you do just that when the PGA is on the tube -- there can be no shame with just as many being addicted to the twisted sport of the human condition playing out in Genoa City.
Mark your calendars for next year, Y&R fans. It will be the best $60 you ever spent.
No, it wasn't the lineup for the new iPhone.
It was the 10th annual The Young and the Restless Afternoon Tea, and last Saturday it drew more than 300 soap opera fans to the sold-out Marriott Hotel ballroom in downtown Vancouver for a few hours of star gazing, and maybe just a little star lusting.
Oh, all those fans would have you believe they were there, at $60 a pop, to help a good cause -- the tea is a fundraiser and this year's recipient was the B.C. branch of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation-- and they probably were.
They will also tell you that it was a lovely way to spend a summer afternoon with a good friend, eating petits fours and finger sandwiches and sipping tea. And it was.
But make no mistake.
They were there for the beefcake.
And that would be Christian LeBlanc, Michael Graziadei and Chris Engen, the actors who play, respectively, lawyer Michael Baldwin, photographer Daniel Romalotti and prodigal son Victor Newman Jr., on the The Young and the Restless, which is not only the highest-rated soap opera on television, but counts B.C. fans among its most faithful, and has done ever since the venerable Newman and Abbott and Chancellor families of Genoa City, Wis., began their shenanigans 35 years ago.
In fact, we're among the 5.3 million viewers who really, really like The Young and the Restless, and watch it every day.
Which is why actor Kate Linder, who has played Esther Valentine, faithful housekeeper to doyenne Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper) on the show for the past 26 years, started the fundraising tea in Vancouver a decade ago.
The idea blossomed when Linder was in town meeting with friend and local fundraiser Robin Wyss.
Their breakfast kept getting interrupted by Y&R fans coming over to say hi to "Esther," and Wyss was surprised by her recognition and the obvious local appeal of the show.
"He was shocked," says Linder. "And I said, 'You're missing the boat, Robin. To raise money, you should do an event with The Young and the Restless people.'"
Wyss was intrigued, but wondered what it would look like.
"And I said, I would have a tea, because that's what my character does. Serves tea," says Linder.
"Only it would be a real classy tea, to raise money."
She was right, and for 10 years she and an assortment of like-minded Y&R castmates have headed north once a year to Vancouver, the only place Linder holds the event.
All the actors, she says, attend the tea on their own time and ticket, and for their own reasons.
Christian LeBlanc, whose quick-witted, energetic turn as the event's MC was a highlight of the afternoon, has done a number of the Vancouver teas with Linder and, as a native of flood-ravaged New Orleans, says he knows the value of charity.
"I show up and you're glamorous for a day and it makes a difference," says LeBlanc, who does similar work around the U.S. and makes no bones about using his celebrity to raise money.
"I'm here because I'm picking your pocket," he laughs.
Castmate Michael Graziadei, in torn jeans, porkpie hat and flip-flops, looking every bit the 29-year-old cheeky charmer he plays on the show, agrees.
"When there's a charity and events to do that are worthwhile, I just want to do my part," says Graziadei.
That, it must be told, included being adored (okay, pawed) Saturday by hundreds of fans, a surprisingly mixed demographic of young women, well-heeled professional boomers and nattily dressed seniors, who would ante up more thousands by day's end in their soap fervour, buying memorabilia and bidding on auction items, including a tour of Y&R's Los Angeles set. (Linder auctioned two of them, for $4,000 each, and the event netted about $20,000 for the charity.)
New cast member Chris Engen, who plays Victor Newman's long-lost son, and who doesn't suffer from a deficit of good looks, was a big draw.
Smouldering and slightly scruffy in a Marlboro Man kind of way, wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a linen shirt, he charmed the crowd in the Q&A session (yes, gals, he's single!) and took forever to get through the crowds, what with the hugs, cheek bussing, handshaking, photographs and, well, squeezing.
Irene Edwards is a big fan of Engen and his still-developing character, which wavers somewhere between good and evil.
"When he first came on the show, I was like, hmm. But when you see him smile, it totally transforms him."
Edwards, who's 57 and from Surrey, is a recent Y&R convert, having stumbled on the show five years ago while channel surfing and getting, she says, hooked.
She likes the show's theme music, the high calibre of the acting and script writing, and "the opulent sets."
This is not her first tea, for she is also a fan of Linder, who spends much of her off-set time raising money for charities, including The ALS Association, Make-a-Wish Foundation and TV Cares AIDS Awareness.
At 60, Linder is also still a working United Airlines flight attendant, and recently received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, only the fourth soap actor to achieve the recognition.
The soap studs were joined, it should be noted, by the elegant Emily O'Brien, the actor who plays new-age nutcase Jana Hawkes, who when she isn't trying to kill someone is consulting a Ouija board about her love life.
Also along for the ride were producer Josh O'Connell, as well as makeup artist Patty Denney and hair stylist George Desmond, who took a contest winner backstage for a two-hour makeover.
And if you think soap operas are for bonbon-popping soccer moms, think again.
I'm not naming names, but manly radio personality Joe Leary was in the crowd, one of about, oh, three men in the ballroom. He said he was working but he also confessed, sort of, that he has been watching Y&R, sort of, ever since David Hasselhoff was on, way before Baywatch, way before America's Got Talent, way before that I'm-so-drunk-I'm-eating-a-cheeseburger-off-the-floor video incident, and dammit, if the Hoff was man enough to act on a soap opera, then Joe Leary is man enough to watch it.
Besides, if it's okay to spend hours watching some guy plunk tiny white balls into tiny holes on a big lawn -- and an average of six million of you do just that when the PGA is on the tube -- there can be no shame with just as many being addicted to the twisted sport of the human condition playing out in Genoa City.
Mark your calendars for next year, Y&R fans. It will be the best $60 you ever spent.