Scenes from a Press Conference
  (Marlena De Lacroix, SOW 11/14/91)

 "Marlena almost never goes to daytime soap press conferences. They're usually scheduled too early in the day for moi. If I want to talk to an actor, I request a phone interview. But when I heard ABC was holding a press conference for All My Children's Michael Nader (Dimitri), I set my alarm clock.

The new headquarters ABC built for itself two years ago near Manhatten's Lincoln Center has a wonderful sense of muted style. It's all gray marble with faux deco detail inside and out. Getting past the ground floor receptionist is like trying to get into Studio 54 in the old days: You're given Attitude even if you've been invited. 'I'm the one with the longest, hardest-to-pronounce name on the list,' I usually snort back, avec Attitude.

At ABC, press conferences are held in a very impressive, massive top floor suite. We're first made to wait (with coffee and juice) in a gallery that has an attractive view of Central Park. And the artwork on display! In this age of network austerity? I'm sure they're on loan.

I love it when the daytime press gathers. Though everyone knows all the dirt on everybody else going back 15 years, we say cold hellos and pretend not to know one another. Marlena plays along. 'Did you see that new magazine?' I say to a fellow free-lancer, 'Isn't it tacky... Oh, hi, (new magazine's editor). Love your magazine.'

We're shown into the subtly stylish conference room. First Mickey Dwyer-Dobbin, ABC's daytime vice president, welcomes us. 'We have made many changes in the last few months,' she says of the network's soap slate. Then she asks for patience for Linda Gottlieb's still-evolving One Life to Live. 'Be gentle with us,' she asks. (She must know Marlena is in the room.) After another introduction by amiable AMC executive producer Felicia Behr, and a short AMC clip, Nader enters, led by the show's publicist. The room goes completely bananas.

Welcome to another Daytime Press Conference Love-in! Marlena's best friend is a political reporter who spends her days butting heads and glowering at New York's mayor, David Dinkins, at press conferences at City Hall. 'We question him to within an inch of his life,' she tells me. Today, the reporters at the ABC press conference only want to be within an inch of Nader. Five daytime press stalwarts sit in the first row in the theatre-like room. They're like a line of groupies at a rock concert. And their questions! 'What do you think Dimitri finds attractive in Natalie? What does Natalie find attractive in Dimitri?' 'Will Dimitri find his way into Erica's bed?' 'Who will Dimitri wind up loving?'

I want to jump up and scream, 'Ladies, this is Michael Nader, an actor from Hollywood, USA, not Dimitri! He doesn't write the show!' But Nader is perfectly cool. A very savvy guy, he grasps the situation right away. He slouches comfortably in his raised director's chair at the front of the room and flirts right back. He points to one of the questioners: 'Hey, you look just like my grandmother!' While actors can be defensive and off-putting at press conferences, Nader drives us crazy by maintaining perfect eye contact with each of us. Even Marlena blushes. And he's very, very funny. When one of the front-row groupies asks him, 'What qualities do you and Dimitri share?' he quips, 'Call my psychiatrist.'

Sitting in the second row, I have a hard time getting in a question. Nader sees my timidly upraised arm and says, 'Let's answer the question of that lady in the red; she's very shy.' 'No she's not!' scream eight reporters.

Now, fans, here's what you've been waiting for. Of course, divinely smoke-voiced Nader is to die for. In person, Nader's dark Vandyke beard highlights the lightness of his skin, a stunning contrast. But I like him even more for his personality. To me, Nader seems more like a pro than a preening male idol. He appears to have come to AMC to do the job, no questions asked. Dimitri was the saving grace of the storyline I'd earlier called an artistic disaster: the Janet and Natalie body switch.

Dimitri's dark, he's mysterious. A cross between Rudolph Valentino's Sheik and the gothic Maxim de Winter from Rebecca, Dimitri's the kind of dark hero from literature who simply sweeps women away. As Dimitri, Nader smolders.

P.S.: Even I, Marlena, couldn't find the courage to ask Nader if those were his real choppers. Like evrey other woman in the room, I was much too busy looking back into his eyes."