Friday, February 24, 2012

Days Actors' Appearance in Atlanta

“Days of our Lives” actors to appear at charity events to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association in Atlanta.

“Days of our Lives” actors James Scott (EJ, pictured), Galen Gering (Rafe), Eric Martsolf (Brady), Shawn Christian (Daniel), Wally Kurth (Justin), Matt Ashford (Jack) and Patsy Pease (ex-Kim) will be in attendance.

The Days Charity Events will take place on Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28, 2012 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Atlanta. The weekend will start with a “Kick Off Party” on Friday at 7 pm, where some of the actors may attend. Then on Saturday, the Questions and; Answers Session will be held from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, the Meet and Greet will be held from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM and the Cocktail Reception will be held from 8:00 PM to 12:00 AM

“I have the great privilege of being invited to many different charity events, but I’ve always considered the events coordinated by “Days Charity Events” to be the most worthwhile and the most fun.” James Scott (EJ, “Days of our Lives”)

“I love being with the fans and the best part is when it’s something you believe in and you know that the events are run by good people.” Brandon Beemer (Owen, “Bold and the Beautiful”)

Tickets prices start as low as $20 per person and the events will have novelties, raffles, and auctions available. For more information please go to www.dayscharityevents.com.

The events are coordinated and organized by Days Charity Events Inc.

All celebrity guests have agreed to and confirmed their appearance on the date listed above but if unforeseen circumstances do arise and the celebrity cancels or is replaced this is beyond our control and beyond the control of the actor. We will do everything we can so this does not happen but we thank you for your understanding if it does. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Ex-GL and AMC Star Attempts Suicide

Daniel von Bargen, perhaps best known in the soap world from Guiding Light and All My Children, was hospitalized this week after shooting himself in the head in a botched suicide attempt.

The Montgomery, Ohio, resident shot himself in the temple with a Colt 38 gun on Monday. He called Hamilton County 911 after his attempt failed.

According to the call, Von Bargen shot himself to avoid going to the hospital. After the dispatcher asked if the shooting was accidental, von Bargen responded, " No, I was supposed to go to the hospital today, didn't want to … well, I shot myself." Von Bargen is a diabetic and was supposed to have two of his toes amputated that day.

Get the full story here.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Interview (Army Wives): Brigid Brannagh: "I'm a Little Geeky"

From left: Wendy Davis, Brigid Brannagh, Kim Delaney, Sally Pressman, Catherine Bell
Lifetime Television’s record-breaking drama “Army Wives,” will be back March 4th (in a two-hour event) for its sixth (and some speculate, final) season. The years have brought the wives joy and sorrow, happiness and pain, and millions of viewers have been along for the ride. I spoke with series star Brigid Brannagh, who plays Pamela Moran, about her tenure on the show, and about special moments and lifelong friends.

Daytime Dial: I can’t believe it’s almost time for the sixth season of “Army Wives” to premiere. I can remember the day I received the press screener for pilot, and I knew right away that you had something special there.

Brigid Brannagh: I know, it’s crazy to me. Time flies! It feels like yesterday to me, and it also feels like a million years ago.

DD: Last season was especially heart wrenching, with Frank and Denise losing their son Jeremy. The scenes dealing with that — especially the funeral — must have been torture to film.

BB: Oh my God, we were all like, “Make this episode stop.” It was bad. I’ve been to enough funerals where “Taps” was played and the song is, just hearing it, it just evokes so many things. It’s impossible not to feel completely consumed with melancholy when “Taps” comes on, let alone that it’s playing over and over [for filming the scenes]. We’ve been surrounded by this world, by this military army life, for all of these years that you just think about a soldier that you love being gone, and you know he’s done his best for his country, and he’s gone, and he’s just a boy. It tore all of us up. Watching Terry Serpico (who plays Frank) walk in and trying not to cry.

It was so exhausting that I didn’t watch that episode for a few weeks, because I didn’t feel like crying again. I was like, “Enough.” And we certainly didn’t go light on it. It was kind of relentless to shoot it, but we all really appreciated what it was. It was just a long day of shooting.

DD: Tell me about working with Jeremy Davidson, who plays your husband, Chase.

BB: We work really hard on trying to get things right, working with the writers and trying to really dig into some of the things that have gone on for Pamela and Chase, and the arc of what our characters have done. We’re very much alike; we’re both a little geeky. Everybody has a different way of rehearsing. Some people think that if they work on something too much it takes away spontaneity. I disagree. For me, I think if you work on something so much, it becomes second nature. So, he and I do that together. There are so many things in our story lines that I’m proud of. Right now I’m just thinking of the divorce, which also killed me. That was heart wrenching. But when you’re working with somebody who you work well with, it’s like a dance. It just flies and it’s amazing.

DD: What’s it like on the “Army Wives” set?

BB: Everybody’s a decent person — there’s no drama about trailers or anything like that. Nobody cares about that sort of stuff, which is nice, because I hear horror stories about other shows. Everybody’s a decent person. Just starting with that is a pretty big deal. I spend a lot of time with Sally Pressman (Roxy) on screen, and she and I have a really easy working relationship. And I always feel humor working with Sally. Everything she does has a wink in it. And then Kim (Delaney, who plays Claudia) is really an emoter. Like when you’re doing an emotional scene and you’re watching Kim do her thing first, you’ll start crying just because she’s so good. She just always has that emotion right there at the ready.

Catherine (Bell, who plays Denise), we’re always cracking up, because Catherine has her phone in one hand and a sandwich in the other, and is totally doing her job. It’s very funny. I’m like, “Are you doing a love scene and you’ve got a turkey sandwich in your right hand?” It’s hilarious. And then Sterling (Brown, who plays Roland) is just standing back, kind of looking at everything. He’s such a good and decent person — although he likes to cause a little trouble. We have a good time.

Interview Outtakes

Most of the time when I am conducting an interview with a soap star, I have more interview material than space for printing the interview. Here are some blurbs from stars that did not make it to the print version of the interview, but were too good not to publish.

Dominic Zamprogna, pictured (Dante Falconeri, “General Hospital”), on working with James Franco: He’s great. He’s just a really nice guy and he’s a really passionate guy, interesting guy. He’s able to do a lot right now cause he’s been blessed with some great things happening in his career, and he’s taking advantage of it. There are a lot of people in his situation who don’t want as much as he wants or to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. He’s grabbing life and fulfilling whatever he wants to fulfill, which is amazing. There should be more people out there doing what he is doing. I think James just realized that [being on a soap opera] was something he wanted to try, and why not? He doesn’t care what people think, otherwise he wouldn’t do half the stuff he’s doing. I think that’s the problem with a lot of actors these days. They do it for the wrong reasons, and they’re losing sight of what matters. You’re not supposed to be doing this so you can get famous; you’re supposed to be doing this because it’s a fire burning inside of you and you have a passion to do this. I can say that’s why almost everybody on this show is doing it, and that’s definitely why James wanted to be a part of it.

Jennie Garth (ex-Kelly Taylor, “90210”), on husband/actor Peter Facinelli: “My husband is such a serious guy most of the time, but he's funny. Makes me laugh, I know that. I love that part of us when we're having fun together. Whenever we come to a crossroads and we are like, “Marriage sucks and it's hard,” I can always come back to, “But you make me laugh so much.” I don't want to end that.

Luke Perry (ex-Dylan McKay, “90210”), on his aversion to Twitter: “We live in a world where people are obsessed with the cult of Twitter, where they have to jump on and tweet every damn thing that happens. And they all have followers. Think about it: This is a media-generated thing where everybody can have followers. I question people who want to have a bunch of followers, and that presumes that they themselves are, what, the leader? I’m not buying into any of that. It’s so weird that everybody wants to tweet and everything, and I’m like, why don’t you just go and do it? I can’t do that – I like to do.

James Reynolds (Abe Carver, “Days of Our Lives”), on working with armed-forces veterans: “I started working with the active duty military about 12 years ago, working with the U.S.O. and with armed forces entertainment. It kind of took me back to those years ago when I was a young Marine serving overseas, and I began to recognize that in this country we ask a very, very small percentage — we don’t even draft anymore —and so we are asking a very, very small number of people to not only protect us in those places that we need protection, but to be the leading edge of whatever our foreign policy may be at the time. I got a letter a few years ago from a young woman whose husband was serving in Afghanistan at the time — this was about seven or eight years ago — she was losing their family home while he was in Afghanistan. It made me realize that we need to draw more attention to what is going on with these young men and women that we’re asking to put their lives and bodies on line for us, and we cheer them and do all of this here, but then we forget about them when they’re not there. So it seemed like a natural fit, and I wanted to make a point to them that all Americans care about them, regardless of political point of view.