September 11th Fund
(See photos of this event)

The September 11th Fund is a charitable fund established by United Way of  New York City and The New York Community Trust to meet the immediate and long-term needs of victims, families and communities affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Fund works by making grants to nonprofit organizations and agencies with the expertise to meet a wide range of needs quickly. Founded the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the Fund began making its first grants 11 days later.

On May 16, 2002, the cast of Port Charles (including Thorsten Kaye, Lynn Herring, Marie Wilson, Erin Hershey, Kelly Monaco, Brian Presley, Kiko Ellsworth, Jay Pickett, Nolan North, Brian Gaskill and Eddie Matos) appeared at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Times Square, New York City, to autograph photos, scripts, and T-shirts to help support this cause.

Ah, what a lovely time. I got there late, after they'd started, since I had to work until 3:45... I snuck out after my last patient 15 minutes early.

When I got up to the third floor, I was directed to the area where the signing was taking place. All of the actors were on one bench with a long table in front of them, signing pictures. There was a line about 30 people long, which pretty much stayed that length the whole time, so I wound up going through it twice. As I passed by the table, I peeked in between two people, caught Thorsten's eye, and waved "Hi, Toastie!" Snickers from some castmates at the nickname. TK waved back, pointed, said "Gina! Glad you could make it!"

The benefit wasn't well organized, since I had to ask who to give my money to after I got the pictures, and was directed to a table WAY in the back. The DJs from KTU 103.5 were manning the table to collect the money for the 9/11 Fund. I picked up a script, paid for more pictures, and went back through the line again! Then I went back and bought a tshirt, too. The music was too loud which made it work to talk to the stars, and the way they had the line set up made it impossible to get pics with the individual actors (I managed one with our boyo, tho!)

OK, the cast, in order:

Kiko Ellsworth - what a sweetheart. His eyes are the most lovely blue and so unusual, and what a great guy.  Friendly, well-spoken, and thoughtful. It's obvious that he, Brian Presley and Erin are great friends, since they were nudging and teasing each other the whole time. Lots of inside jokes.

Brian Presley - your little brother with a killer smile. He was charming as could be, and that he and Erin are in love is tattooed on his face. They are just the CUTEST together. I asked if he was nervous about tomorrow night - he said he was, a little bit, and when I wished him luck, he said thanks, and he was just representing the team, and didn't feel like it was his honor alone.

Erin Hershey - omg, a little tiny China doll. She is even more beautiful in person, and warm and friendly, but a little bit shy. And TINY. I told Brian P that he needed to put some meat on her bones, and Kiko chimed in about how she was "chunky," which prompted her to punch him on the arm. They're all just cute as puppies.

The Man - TK was warm, friendly, tired. After some personal chitchat, we talked about... well, never mind, it was all pretty much personal chitchat. (People think I'm nuts but I rarely, if ever, ask him about the show.) OH! Sorry to disappoint you all, but there won't be a Patrick and Marty sighting on OLTL, (unless something happens between now and tomorrow's show!) because, although Susan is in NYC with him, they won't be doing a cameo. He's looking forward to the time off and has some travel plans.

Kelly Monaco - very sweet and friendly. It's actually obvious that most of the cast are chummy with each other - they seem like quite a team. Got some great shots of Kelly and TK together!

Nolan North - what a hoot! I think he was somewhat offended when I said that I thought Chris was a funny, loveable sleaze. "Sleaze? SLEAZE?" Yeah, I replied, he's a real scumbag, but a loveable one. "SCUMBAG?!?!" He was mock mortified. I told him I thought that Ian and Chris needed some more scenes together, because they were really terrific, and he and TK both agreed! When I mentioned that I worked on TK's site, Nolan was funny - "HE has a website? Really?" Very sarcastic. Lots of jokes with him and TK.

Marie Wilson - what a sweeeeet lady. Just unbelievably beautiful, and so tiny, too! We chatted a bit about 9/11 and babies and children (should've seen her jaw drop when I told her I have a 21 year old!) but we had a lovely chat. She said her daughter Skye is now 15 months old, walking, talking, and beautiful. I reminder her it was time for her 15-month shots. (Oy, I can't leave it at work...)

Brian Gaskill - I'm not going to say much, because it didn't appear that he was happy to be there. Of the whole cast, he was the only one who wasn't full of smiles and conversation. Eddie Montes, sitting next to him, mentioned that Brian had been on the red-eye, so I'll just chalk it up to fatigue.

Eddie - Nice, friendly, not a whole lot to say but not reserved at all.

LYNN HERRING - Well, I cannot say enough good things about Lynn Herring. Within moments we were old friends. The minute I told her I was part of C&M that did TK's site, she said "OH, I'm so glad to meet you!" She said that TK had spoken highly of us (whoo hoo!) and she'd heard so much about us.  I mentioned that we did other sites, like Susan's and Dorothy Bridges', and when I told her that Kathy was helping Alicia put together one for Julie, she was genuinely pleased - "Oh, how sweet!" was her very sincere reply. She seems truly fond of Julie and, in my interpretation of her body language and facial expression, I think she feels badly about the way Julie was treated.

In practically NO time, Lynn had drawn out practically my whole life story! She's a natural-born interviewer, that one. I told her that we all agreed that Lucy and Ian needed more bandaid scenes, and she nodded and said "Stay tuned!!!" (I'm taking this as the affirmative that there are, indeed, more bandaids in their future. )

Jay Picket - Wow, was I surprised. What a really intense guy. He was in total agreement that PC should be more focused on the relationships and less on the plot-driven storylines. He worries that if they continue, the plots will get more and more outlandish and it will ultimately hurt the show. He was disturbed that for the focus groups at SSW-West, anyone over 25 was excluded - he said "They're ignoring our core audience!" A really nice, likeable guy, who was so intent on expressing himself he wound up standing up and talking in my ear. I told him what a great job he was doing in the current arc as well as in TIAB - he was gracious and sweet.

The last thing I did was sneak back into TK's space, shoving everything in front of him out of the way, and parking my butt on the table in front of him. I told him to get his hiney off the chair and hug me for a pic for the site - which he did. The ABC photographer snapped the shot.

The party broke up a short while later, and the cast was moved off to a roped off area for a little private party. I got a hug and a few last words with our guy.

I had a really terrific time, and some absolutely fantastic pictures!