Interview: Soap Stars Share the Magic of the Holiday Season, Part 2

Allyson Rice (ex-Connor, “As the World Turns”): I LOVE Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. I put up an absurd amount of lights in my yard and on my house, including an 8-foot-tall inflated Santa on the roof. They go up immediately after Halloween (none of this after-Thanksgiving nonsense!). Starting last year, I decorate my car in lights as well. I wrap about four strands of multicolored lights all over it and plug them into an adapter inside the car. I have actually started to keep lights up in my house and one strand on the front and back porches throughout the entire year now. It just makes me happy to look at them. I say, Why limit the wonderful festive feeling of the season to only a month or two out of the year? I also make handmade Christmas balls (pictured) that we decorate our tree with, and I give them to family members as Christmas gifts. My grandmother started the tradition, and my dad and I, and now my youngest niece, are the ones who have kept it going, thanks to my mom’s encouragement after my grandmother passed away. I put up an art studio in my backyard earlier this year, where I have all my jewelry-making supplies, and I’ve set aside one corner of the place for my Christmas-ball-decorating supplies as well, so that I can make them year-round, whenever the inspiration hits. And of course I play the Christmas playlist I created on my iPod while I make them (I have more than 400 Christmas songs on it!).

Kassie DePaiva (Blair, “One Life to Live”): Normally I spend Christmas up in the Catskills with my immediate family, and between Christmas and New Year’s, I have cousins who come up from Atlanta with their children, and we just sit by the fire, play in the snow, snow-ski, and just eat, drink and be merry. It’s all a very fun, family time that has become tradition for the past 15 years. Usually there’s a lot of good snow, and there is always a lot of good fun.

Mario Lopez (ex-Christian, “The Bold and the Beautiful”): I spend the holidays with my family. It’s family and friends and a lot of food, a lot of cocktails and a lot of love.

Murray Bartlett (Cyrus, “Guiding Light”): It’s about being with family. I usually spend the holidays with family. Because it’s the middle of the summer in December in Australia, I’ll spend the holidays with family on a beach or something. It’s beautiful where we go — there’s the beach and the ocean, there’s tropical rainforests. Also, I remember back in 2000, I rang in the new millennium on a sand dune with my best friends. We just hung out there and waited for the New Year. That is my perfect kind of holiday.

James Reynolds (Abe, “Days of Our Lives”): Every Christmas when my son was young was a special Christmas. A child’s excitement on Christmas morning goes deeper than just getting things. There is a sense of magic and fantasy in the anticipation of this special day.

John O’Hurley (ex-Jim, “The Young and the Restless”): We are developing a family tradition. We just bought a place up in Vermont in an effort to return to authenticity. We’re now going to be spending our holidays up there; it’ll be our return to an authentic Christmas. It’s going to be spent in Vermont rather than L.A. I think Vermont is such a beautiful state, and the holidays are more special up there.

Interview: GL's Cyrus Foley Is a Multifaceted Anti-Hero

When Murray Bartlett joined the cast of Guiding Light in March 2007, his alter ego, slick criminal Cyrus Foley, attracted all the wrong women. Police detective Marina Cooper and her aunt, private detective Harley Cooper, both fell for his charming ways. While the women in his life may have tempered some of his less-than-honest ways, he certainly hasn’t been tamed.

Now the new woman in his life, Cassie Lewis (played by Nicole Forester), appears to accept Cyrus for who he is, criminal tendencies and all. “I am definitely glad to see that side of him resurfacing,” Murray says. “It seems like it comes in waves. He’ll go through times where he is happy, where he is not getting into trouble, but then that other side of his personality comes back, and he starts to get in trouble.”

Is Cyrus bringing out the bad-girl tendencies in Cassie, or were they there all along, and that is what attracted him to her? “I don’t think he necessarily knew those tendencies when he got into it. He started to notice them the more he got to know her, and she started to let them show more.”

With the recent announcement that Nicole is leaving “GL” to concentrate on her new husband and baby on the way, the Cyrus/Cassie romance is up in the air. While there is no word on a possible Cassie recast, Murray is sorry to see her go. He tells me, “Nicole is a great lady.”

If Cyrus ends up losing his leading lady, Murray is glad that his brother, Grady, has come to Springfield. “It’s great for Cyrus to have Grady in town — it gives his character more of a background and sense of grounding and a family relationship. Kane Manera, the actor who plays Grady, comes from the same area of Australia that I do, so we have a connection in that way.

“It’s also nice for me as an actor, because I have more history of the Cyrus character to draw on in scenes. With the addition of Grady, we get to see more sides of Cyrus and why he is the way he is.”

Cyrus is trying to be the responsible big brother to Grady, but it is hard because of his own background. “He is trying to guide Grady, but it is difficult. He sees the life Grady is slipping into, and he is family, so of course he wants the best for him, and he is trying to help — as much as Cyrus can help.”

There has been much talk about the new filming process: the hand-held cameras, outdoor settings and sparse indoor sets. Murray loves the change, explaining: “I really like it. I feel less constrained and free to try new things that would be difficult in a normal studio setup. Plus, I love that we shoot on location so much. That part is really great; it makes everything more raw and real. Personally, I really like this new process.”

What keeps Murray interested in playing Cyrus each day is hopefully what keeps viewers tuning in. “What I really like about Cyrus is that he is interesting to play and, hopefully, interesting to watch. Nobody wants to watch a character who is all good or all bad, I think. They want to see some levels, some humanness in him. I definitely think Cyrus succumbs to his human side. I also like that through him, I can do all sorts of things that I would never do in real life, but it’s OK to do here, because it’s Cyrus.”

Beth Ehlers and Murray Bartlett Q&A

Guiding Light actors Beth Ehlers (Harley Cooper) and Murray Bartlett (Cyrus Foley) answered your questions about the new set design, their characters' relationships, their favorite storylines and GL spoilers!

Check out their videos on iVillage:

tvcocktail.ivillage.com/entertainment/archives/2008/04/guiding-light-stars-qa.html