SoapFest Recap (random, but there ya have it)
Soapfest Dinner Saturday night - May 15th, 2010:
Eric & his wife Jenny are both REALLY nice!
Jenny said that she thought the Luke/Reid kisses were hot. LOL. She said something like "I know that's probably a weird thing for a wife to say. *laughs* You either have chemistry or you don't & Van & Eric do."
Eric is seriously ridiculously funny! He seemed to like this lady at my table who was totally monopolozing the conversation (she was S, the one who did the Q & A with the actors), but he's definitely got some serious Reid-wit going on because at one point he was like "She would kiss anyone for a nickel," about her, which I thought was really funny.
During the auction, when one of the kid's/actors paintings was up for sale, Walt Willey was like "Which planet's not getting paid for?" and Eric yelled out "Uranus!" and everyone laughed.
Eric said that he got a long message from a friend in the medical profession (I guess after Reid diagnosed Noah?) who was like "If Noah actually had what you just described, he'd be done for. Might as well pack it in now. He'd be dead in a week." LOL Eric was just like "I just say what they tell me to."
He said Jake didn't want any part of his head shaved, any patches out for the brain surgery. We were all saying how unrealistic the whole surgery looked. How Noah had no breathing tube, no bandages, how he looked ridiculously healthy afterwards. LOL Eric said that the show apparently *does* have a medical consultant, which is kinda scary considering how unrealistic most of the medical stuff on this show looks.
Eric was also making a joke about the surgery, like "Reid's so good (such a good surgeon) he took Noah's eyes out, put them on a tray, went in that way & put them back in. That's why there's no scar or shaved head!"
Apparently he & Trent Dawson go way back. They did plays & stuff in grad school & he & his wife are both good friends with him. Eric & Trent were apparently texting back & forth from their adjoining tables at the dinner, which I thought was really cute.
S said that she wrote Eric every day & actually at one point wanted to know why he hadn't written her back yet since she wrote him Thursday. o_O She was just a bit much for me, but I listened nicely & didn't say anything (although I SO wanted to LOL). She was also blabbering on & on about how she had brain surgery or something like that & how she was a nurse & mentioned all the things about Noah's surgery that were wrong & that she was called to come in to ATWT & she would've made a good medical consultant. Um...yeah. Basically tooting her own horn, which I think more people found annoying at my table than just me, but Eric was nice, as always.
He just kept laughing and shaking his head at Walt during the auction. Walt was VERY enthusiastic about it. The things that he said were SERIOUSLY questionable at best at times. We were all sitting there like "OMG, did he just go there?!" a lot of the time. But it was fun!
A few random other things from that weekend:
Alex Cole (Hunter) pretty much wins at life, as does Billy Magnussen. Alex came over to my group of friends because he was trying to avoid this older woman, Sandy, who'd been following him around the Bartender Bash. He said she was like "You don't even understand, you're like a son to me!" o_O Um, yeah. Needless to say, he was taking refuge over where we were sitting in the courtyard by the fountain. He was like "This Sandy won't leave me alone. She's probably on the mike going "Where's Alex Cole?!"" The next day at the cruise he remembered my name & asked how I was doing & I was like "Did you have any unfortunate run-ins with Sandy this morning?" and he was like "No! I think she was just a little happy yesterday." He was being really nice about it. He wanted to go get food, but then got stuck taking pics for like half an hour more & saw me again & was like "I still haven't gotten food." I was like "I know!"
Billy was awesome, as always. I talked to him about NJ, where I'm from, for awhile. Just random stuff. He knew a few places here. He said he liked Hoboken & likes to hang out there & he said he knows the Oranges (West Orange/East Orange - which is like 30 minutes from me). Saturday night at the Bartender Bash, he & Cody, his GF, danced to "Your Sex is on Fire" by Kings of Leon & they were great! But the funniest part was when Billy was singing this random-ass song that he was clearly making up as he went along (Meredith joined in for a bit too) & he knows my friend Manny's Jake's BIGGEST fan & in the song was like "You wanna take his shirt off & probably rub oil on it (his chest)!" He was so freaking amused while singing it too, which made it 10000x's funnier - you could tell he thought it was the funniest thing ever, which it was.
OMG - Scott! LMAO. He was HILARIOUS! He doesn't even try to be cool. He was bartending at the Bartender Bash for awhile & he was seriously the most animated bartender EVER! He was dancing around the bar & at one point he said something like "I wanna raise the most money! I'm gonna have people put money down my g-string!" and I was like "Don't say that outloud! You're gonna give people ideas!" and he laughed & was like "I know, right?" Then he came & danced right in front of my friends & I & was waving his hands in front of us & dancing to his own beat. He was seriously all over the place & SO energetic, it was hilarious! At the dinner, Meredith Hagner (old Liberty) and Marnie were auctioning off lunch with them & he stood up at his table & jokingly bid $100 & Walt said something like "That's not real money!" and he was like "That IS real money to me!" It was a cute/funny moment.
All the actors seemed to really enjoy their experience painting with the children/young adults whose paintings they were auctioning off. They all described how they held the children's hands while painting to guide their work & described their paintings & Eric described one of his paintings - it was a hot-air balloon & his child allowed him to put 3 ppl in the balloon basket - the child, Eric, & whoever else they "were taking along for the ride." It was really cute, the way he described it. It's for autism, the cause the auction benefited, and I think a lot of the kids had emotional/mental problems (down syndrome as well), and Susan Haskell (Marty on OLTL) even cried when describing her experience, which was really touching. All of Eric's/Reid's merchandise sold for A LOT. His labcoat alone sold for $850 - he was like "signed by one Eric Sheffer Stevens" lol & his paintings all sold for upwards of $600. His stuff was VERY in-demand.
Also, I got to spend the weekend with seriously AMAZING people, some I've met before, some I was just meeting - Manny, Lyddie, Dani, Bri, Bri, Liz, Holly, Silke, Sarah, Natali, Colleen, and others. Being in Florida in and of itself was amazing too since I'd never been before. It was just a REALLY fun experience & I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out, but if I remember more, I'll post! :)
Oh, other random things: This camera woman sat behind me at the dinner & was talking my ear off, bitching to me about S. How S. wouldn't move so she could take pictures from that angle & how rude S. was. I tried to be polite, and she ended up finding me the next day on the cruise where she proceeded to talk my ear off some more. Eric was funny though! She apparently didn't know how to work a camera & he was like "You don't know how to work that? That's your job! *laughs*" I also sat next to John Driscoll's GF's mother at the dinner & she showed me pics of John & his GF & told me that he knew his GF growing up. She was really nice. We talked for a long time.