When Susan Flannery began playing Stephanie Forrester ,her alter ego on The Bold and the Beautiful ,it was 1987 and Good News Week Paul McDermott was barely out of high school.
So it´s no surprise the queen of daytime TV received a standing ovation from Good News Week´s live audience when agreed to appear as a guest star on tonight´s show.
Confidential hears the audience "went nuts" for Flannery ,who is in town not for promotional purposes but to visit her daughter Blaise,who is studying locally.
Obviusly more beecolent that Forrester ,Flannery squeesed in some promo work for Channel 10 during her trip
NOVA'S brekky co-host Meshel Laurie was having a good news day when she came face-to-face with The Bold and the Beautiful stalwart Susan Flannery on the set of Channel 10's Good News Week in Sydney on Saturday night.
Laurie, who many years ago cheekily got Keanu Reeves to do a video plea on her behalf to appear on Good News Week, realised she would meet the Golden Globe and four-time Emmy winner when she arrived for taping. Flannery is in Australia to visit her daughter, who is attending a Sydney university.
"Part of the fun doing this (line of work) is who you get to meet," Laurie told Qconfidential.
"When they told me she was in the studio, I said 'no need to explain; I know exactly who she is'. Most women would know who she is."
Laurie will appear on Rove and Spicks and Specks later this year, but the appearance she had been steeling herself for was to appear on Good News Week.
Ever since she was a teenager, Laurie had a professional crush on Good News Week host Paul McDermott.
"I got a call about two weeks ago to appear on the show and . . . this was one show I had always wanted to be a part of," Laurie said.
"I once did a comedy routine in Melbourne and all the comedians were appearing on Good News Week and I wasn't.
"So we started this in-house campaign and we got Keanu Reeves to do a video plea on my behalf. It was when he was doing The Matrix and he brought his band out here. We went to his soundcheck . . . and he did the video plea without a problem."
She´s mistress of the angry slap, maestro of the meaningful stare. For 21 fabulous ,sudsy years Susan Flannery has starred as stop-at-nothing
Stephanie Douglas Forrester on super soap The Bold and the beautiful. The Multi -awarded-winning actress -for Daytime Emmys and a Golde Globe ,plus many more nominations -is also a director ,producer ,licenced pilot ,all around advenurer,gourmet cook and a mother of one.
Her "sassy" daughter Blaise 21 ,has lived in Australia for a little over two years with her boyfriend ,who´s a Sidney sportswriter . Thats why 64 -year old Susan -whose melodramatic B&B adventures screen in more that 110 countries ,recently flew Down Under for the first time.
Thankfully, in real life she is nothing like strong-willed ,manipulative matriarch Stephanie ,as Woman´s Day discovered on an exclusive visit with mother and adughter ...
How does your real life compare with The Bold and The Beautiful?
(Chuckles) Not at all! I lead a dull ,quiet life in Santa Barbaara and I like that.
And what about motherhood? Are you a tigress like Stephanie?
Blaise is an only child ,but she´s a handful ,more than enough!
She fell into my life and for me she´s been a gift from the gods . I´m here to enroll her at the university in Sydney .I met her boyfriends family the other day and they´re lovely people but they´re all psychologists -so I was wery craeful what I said I dont want to be analysed !.
Have you ever counted how many people you´ve slapped on the show?
I think it would be such a great promo if they just did clips of all the slaps ,and the I turned around and gave a wink to the camera .I always tell new cast member s "Stay at arm´s length ; thats my best advice" They wait for the slap and look forward to it now . They call the writer and ask "Is Stephanie going to slap me?" Sometimes its not even in the script and I say " Get over here for slapping!".
Is there anyone you itch to slap off screen?
George Bush ; I´d like to slap him silly, and Dick Cheney as well. They´re two nincompoops. Thank God we won´t have them anyomore after this election. I just hope they won´t do anything terrible before they go. Actually I´m a Republican and have been one my whole life until Bush and Cheney.It´sad.
Is there anything of your character in Stephanie?
I like to think she ´s just a great creation between the writers and myself. She´s wery typical American woman . No , honestly! A lot of American women are working ,running a family buisness ,takeing care of farm ,things like that ,and there´s a strong "get on with it " mentality. That´s a generalization ,and all are false ,but I do think Stephanie is a wholly American character.
Are you controlling like Stephanie?
I´m very decisive .I don´t know If I´m bossy mbut directing is wery enjoyable to me.It´s nice to see all the elements come together ,and because I have acted with all the other actors in the show they trust me ,which is nice. They know I will never do something that would injure their character or their preformance for the sake of getting a shot.
Whats the worst Stephanie ever done?
I don´t think the rape story was a great idea. Originally the writers had the idea that Stephanie deliberately placed Brooke in a position to be raped ,and I said "We can´t do that the audience would never forgive her" Also I didn´t like the idea of makeing a victim out of Brooke because that´s one of the great things about her -she never has been the victim. I thought it would demage both charcaters ,so we changed the end of the story .It does´nt happen wery often.
If you would inwent your own exit what would that be?
I would´nt even have to think about it, because William J Bell ,the creator ,will come up with something inventive and great.
Read more of this article in Woman´s Day (on sale March 3,2008).
