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The Main Luncheon I make no bones about the fact that the Main Luncheon is my very favorite event, hands down. It's not just the excitement of having all of those GH stars in one place at one time, but more of the energy of having all of those GH fans in one place at one time. We're all there out of love for the show. Some have recently started viewing. Others are long time veterans like myself and some are passing on their own appreciation of the show to another generation through our children. I've also seen a number of GHFC Weekends, so I have had the pleasure of watching the event itself grow and evolve. I read this recent blind item that ran in Soap Opera Weekly, quoted by Ravenbeauty on her message board: "This recent fan club event had a shockingly low actor turnout, and SOW wanted to know why. Turns out some of the actors are mad at the fan club president so they didn't show up. Unfortunately, the fans were the ones punished." I can tell you that it's not about Debbie Morris and the GH Fan Club Main Luncheon! If it is, then someone obviously doesn't know what they are talking about, so either way, it doesn't apply. Debbie, as usual, had a magnificent actor turnout for the event and it was thrilling to see the fun the actors had participating in this event and the joy on their faces as the crowd loudly welcomed them into the ballroom. The most rewarding part for me, personally, is that a lot of the actors don't know how enthusiastic the fans are about them until they encounter them directly. Hoards of fans who appreciate the work of an actor never take the time to write a fan letter and many actors don't go onto message boards or surf the net looking for viewer response to their performances, so their avenue for learning how the fans feel about them is rather limited. I am quite sure that Carolyn Hennessey had no clue how man of us have girl crushes on her character, mob lawyer, Diane Miller. She was genuinely shocked when the crowd erupted into cheers when emcee, John Ingle, called her name. The biggest cheers of the day when to Bradford Anderson and Stuart Damon, the latter of whom received a standing ovation. It's important to remember that the actors are not paid to participate in this event. They show up out of respect for Debbie and love of the fans. The auctions that took place at the luncheons completely blew my mind. Still being a simple little fan gurrrlll, I can't imagine a situation in which I would spend thousands...thousands (as in 11 or so of them) of dollars to have lunch with 10 GH stars. I mean it's people eating. I appreciate the degree of fandom that brings a person to that place, but I don't think I'd pay that much money to have lunch with all four reunited Beatles, undead and all. That's the cost of a car. A really good used car! I'm grateful for the charities that received a donation like that, don't get me wrong and that day, two of them did as the bid for the lunch was split into two lunches with two bidders walking away very, very happy. See? Now my mind is wondering to any situation where I'd pay $11,000 to eat (that's 3 zeroes, ok, not two) lunch with someone. Maybe my mother and my father. I think that's about it. Eleven thou------sand dollars. Just...wow. There are just too many happy things to say about this year's luncheon, so it's hard to know where to get started. I am one of the people who gets to sign folks in and give them their wrist bands and welcome them and that's such a thrill. We're all so excited and full of high hopes for the day and the experiences we're about to have that sharing the moment with them is like a communion or something. There were tons of actors there this year, really happy to participate in the event. The food looked really, really yummy and I got good reports from people on it. (They were eating it around the time I was happily talking to Sebastian Roche about the location of the bathroom, so no thanks, I don't want to trade) The lines moved quickly and the room temperatures were very comfortable. The fans were in good spirits and there weren't any security emergencies or anything like that. I got to spend my time with my newest buddies, the GH: Night Shift actors who are just the sweetest things on earth. I wanted to hug and squeeze every single one of them and take them home with me and feed them good Southern cooking and Coronas with limes in them and keep them as house friends who never leave. Look at those pretty faces. Isn't that just a party waiting to happen!
Here are my photos of the event (and others from the weekend) and I know that Starr has tons to share with you as well, so that will be coming soon, as well as more recaps from Trish and the others.
In my opinion, best GHFC
Weekend yet. If you are a GH fan and do not leap upon your ticket
for the Main Luncheon like a hen on a June bug when they are released in
December, then you are seriously letting yourself down. |
