FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Jeffrey Vincent Parise had some highlevel support on his first day as Y&R’S Simon. “The first person I ran into when I got to the studio was Peter Bergman [Jack],” he reports. “We were walking in the door at the same time and I was like, ‘I recognize that face! That’s a classic, soap legend face right there.’ I said to him, ‘I’m going to follow you to set.’ He said, ‘Oh, you going to Y&R? Welcome!’ I was like, ‘Wow, he’s super-cool.’ ” Before long, they met again. “After I had shot like three of my scenes, Peter comes up to me, real excited, going, ‘I was just watching what you’re doing. Fantastic! This is going to be fun. Welcome aboard.’ And it was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment because that’s when I was feeling really frazzled about the pace, that it’s one take and then you move on. So, that was really great of him. And you know who else did that, too? Toward the end of the day, it was Tony [Morina], the executive producer. He came on set, introduced himself and just said the most welcoming, kindest words. He just really made me feel like I was entering with golden wings.”