Luke & Laura’s Wedding Secrets
THE STARS OF GENERAL HOSPITAL REVEAL WHAT REALLY WENT ON BEHIND THE SCENES OF DAYTIME TV’S MOST-WATCHED WEDDING
On the afternoon of Nov. 17, 1981, nearly 30 million Americans stayed home with the same headspinning, knee-buckling condition — Luke and Laura fever! And the only cure was a lavish wedding.
It’s been 35 years since curlytopped bad boy Lucas Lorenzo Spencer (Anthony Geary) and his luminous teen angel Laura Webber (Genie Francis) said “I do” on General Hospital in what is still the highest-rated event in daytime TV history. Now the stars of the ABC soap are sharing some surprising stories about those Nielsen-busting nuptials. “It all looked fun and glamorous to the audience,” Genie, 54, exclusively tells Closer, “but everyone on the set that day was on edge about everything going perfectly. There was a lot of screaming and yelling. I couldn’t even sit because I was under such pressure not to wrinkle my dress.”
For his part, “When I look back on that episode, all I can think about is how much I hate my hair,” cracks Anthony, 69. The wedding was such a huge to-do that the two stars even received bottles of Bollinger champagne and a congratulatory note from Princess Diana. But Anthony didn’t save his bubbly for posterity. “I drank it, of course,” the actor tells Closer. “Then I turned the bottle into a lamp.”
TOO HOT TO HANDLE
The ceremony was shot on a scorching day on the sprawling grounds of a Hollywood mansion. “It was so hot we were dripping in our costumes,” says Jacklyn Zeman, 63, who plays Luke’s sister, Bobbie. “When you watch, you’ll see the wedding guests aren’t eating because the food had been sitting out for 10 hours and the flies were coming around. We were like, ‘Don’t touch the buffet. You’ll die!’ ”
At least one fan favorite kept his cool, and that was Kin Shriner, 62, who made a surprise appearance — after a year’s absence — as Laura’s jealous first hubby, Scotty. “The producer, Gloria Monty, wanted to keep me a secret so I was sequestered from the rest of the cast,” Kin reveals to Closer. “Everyone else was sweating through their makeup while I was sitting in an air conditioned trailer like Norma Desmond, waiting for my close-up.”
There might have been no ceremony at all if it weren’t for Luke and Laura’s No. 1 fan, Elizabeth Taylor, who famously crashed the reception as glam supervillain Helena Cassadine. “Elizabeth said, ‘I won’t come on the show unless there’s a wedding,’” recalls Tristan Rogers, 70, who played Luke’s best man, Robert. The actor tells Closer that Genie “had an offer to go to CBS” and was planning to flee GH within weeks. “So suddenly everything shifted,” Tristan says with a laugh. “When you’ve got Elizabeth Taylor, you make adjustments!” — Michael Logan, with additional
reporting by Ilyssa Panitz
“Genie and I shared an experience that no one can truly understand.”
— Anthony