On Saturday, June 1^st Coastal Entertainment hosted The Men of GH event at the Stress Factory in New Brunswick, NJ. Josh Kelly (Cody), James Patrick Stuart (Valentin) and Donnell Turner (Curtis) were joined by a surprise guest – none other than Chloe Lanier (ex-Nelle). Kelly and Lanier let fans in on a little secret – they are a couple in real life! The actors answered questions from the fans for a portion of the event and then the meet and greet took place. Each fan walked away with photos with the actors and signed photos and other memorabilia. If you have not attended one of Coastal Entertainment Events, be sure to check one out. They host a lot of the events throughout the year with your favorites from the soaps, both in person and via zoom. Check out a list of their upcoming events here. I was able to speak with Lanier, Kelly and Turner after the event ended as well as the owner of Coastal Entertainment Productions, Linda Rohe. Check out the interviews below.

Josh Kelly (Cody) and Chloe Lanier (ex-Nelle)

Bryan: Some of the fans have been vocal about the direction the show recent changes in the writer’s room. Have you had a say in the direction you would like to see Cody go?

Josh: I don’t feel like I have a say yet and that’s okay, {because] I’m not, really trying to.  I’m trying to support the show as much as I can.  I love the show and always have loved the show. The storyline with Mac [being Cody’s father] is getting addressed again, which is great. Someone [in the audience today] brought up that they would like to see Dominic [Zamprogna who plays Cody’s best friend Dante] go off on an adventure. I am happy exploring all of the storylines.

Bryan: Did you find it easier to jump back into daytime after working in primetime and do you keep in touch with anyone from Midnight, Texas?

Josh: It is much harder than I remembered and way harder than doing a primetime television show. [The actor appeared on One Life to Live as Cutter in both the ABC version and the online reboot] You shoot a scene a day and you have set ups. You do not have to memorize your lines really, unless you have a monologue on a primetime show. It is just a different animal because the camera moves around you and you shoot the same scene all day. It ends up looking beautiful, but daytime is hard and not everyone can do it.

I was just talking to Jason Lewis [who player Joe] the other day. Arielle Kebbel [who played Olivia] and I text all the time. Parisa Fitz-Henley [who played Fiji] is a pure-heart love person. The producers were really cool. It was a really fun show and I even learned how to lasso [while filming the show.]

Bryan: What is it like for you to come out to fan events?

Josh: I like to pull pranks whenever I can.

Bryan: Did you pull any today?

Josh: As “Chloe Lanier” I cannot say whether or not I pulled a prank, but I think say if “Josh Kelly” did today. [both laugh]

Bryan: “Josh Kelly” how did you make your big entrance?

Chloe: Well, I came out onstage in full Josh Kelly garb, thanks to Target and a few other accessories. I tried to convince the audience I was the star of Transformers 2 [Revenger of the Fallen, where Josh played part of the Strike Team]. I felt good about it until people started getting pissed! Then they realized it was me and they weren’t pissed anymore, thankfully! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love playing pranks on people.

Josh Kelly: Nice pranks……

Chloe: When I was on General Hospital, I brought a dummy to set, and I put it up in Chad’s [Duell; Michael] or Josh’s [Swickard; Chase] room. Then people started moving it around from dressing room to dressing room, freaking people out over and over again.

Bryan: If you could write your return to the show, how would you pitch it?

Chloe: I would like to crawl up the cliff [that Nelle supposedly died after falling off it] as if I had been living down there this entire time. It would be great if I could be like Jodie Foster in the movie Nell and I could just make sounds and speaking gibberish as if I made up my own language living down there.

Bryan: Would you come back as “Josh Kelly”?

Chloe: Well then he would get two paychecks if that was the case.

Bryan: That sounds good to Josh!

Josh: Yeah, I can do it! I am willing for you to mumble and me get paid twice! I mean Cody could find you! Nelle and Cody could have a thing.

Chloe: That is very true. You are kind of a con artist on the show or have conned people before. I am dead serious that I really want to see him, and Jane Elliot get together on the show. She is incredible. They are both incredible!

Josh: She is so fun to work with. She works hard. I am just going to say it – she is sexy.

Chloe: She is beautiful, stunning! She is amazing.

Donnell Turner (Curtis)

Bryan: What is it like for you to come to these events to interact with the fans?

Donnell: I love doing them. I love the energy, even when my energy might be low, like it is today, based on recent circumstances. [Turner’s had spent 10 hours the day before in the airport and was separated from his luggage] I always try to bring it, but the fans always make up for it and I am reminded why I love doing this, which is to reconnect with the GH fans, that keep us on the air. You get a lot of other comments sometimes on social media, but it is nice to have people come out and look you in the face and tell you what you mean to them. I have not been to the East Coast in over 3 years, so it was really nice to see familiar faces.

Bryan: What would you like to see happen to Curtis?

Curtis: There are things that I cannot mention that are coming up and pretty exciting. [Some of it] is a little different, but at the same time, more of the same, just bigger. Also, I would like for Curtis to turn and just go rogue, which we have never seen from Curtis – a dark side.

Bryan: Any fun plans for the summer?

Donnell: I just bought a house, so fun for me looks like planting and gardening. I love going back to my roots to when I was a child [where I] was just hanging out with my dad, taking care of the yard.

Bryan: Really?

Donnell: Yeah, because I have been a city boy for the last twenty years and it nice to go back to the roots.

Linda Rohe

Bryan: What made you decide to start Coastal Entertainment and when did it form?

Linda: I started the company in April of 1991 while I was in college. I had been working with another entertainment company, Creative Talent all throughout college and it was just the right time to start something of my own, right out of college.

Bryan: Did you start Coastal Entertainment thinking that your business would be heavily soap opera talent based?

Linda: Definitely not. I wasn’t even working with soap stars then. I was working booking comedy clubs with comedians and managing comedians. I hadn’t watched soaps in years and never planned to even bring soap stars into my business. I was asked to book a soap opera event at a comedy club in Queens and so I went to the city, waited outside of ABC. I had met Michael E. Knight (Martin, GH) a few times in my travels and reintroduced myself. He directed me to [the late] John Callahan who was coming out of the studio and John hopped into my car for a lift across town. We talked the whole way, and he had Kelly Ripa call me that night. They teamed up on a show then word got around, and I started booking a lot of events.

Bryan: Was there an initial focus on General Hospital talent and then it branched out to include more shows, or is that how it naturally happened?

Linda: My connections were NY based, All My Children and some One Life to Live. Steve Burton (Jason, GH) was my first booking of a GH star, and we became fast friends, and I soon was booking Maurice [Benard; Sonny, GH), Wally [Kurth; Ned, GH/Justin DAYS] and many more.

Bryan: What are some of the challenges of being in the event industry, especially post-pandemic?

Linda: The industry has changed so much over the years. I’d say the biggest change is the social media aspect. We have to promote all events, shoot a lot of commercials and promote. Back then everything was done by phone, there was no Facebook or Instagram. Luckily, we also survived the pandemic and during the pandemic, I created the idea of soap events via zoom which has just had such great feedback. Our virtual events have such a fan following and the fans, as well as the actors love doing them.

Bryan: I have been covering your events for close to 15 years, fist for Soap Opera Digest and now for The Actor’s Audience, and I must say they are so well run, and the fans always leave happy. Do you feel like you have respect from both the fans and the actors because of how you and your staff handle events?

Linda: Thanks so much for your support over the years Bryan. I can’t believe it has been 15 years. It’s very important to me to have events that leave fans happy and with a memory that lasts forever. These events mean so much to the fans, so we take our jobs very seriously. I’ve said this many times and I’ll say it again. I couldn’t do what I do without the support of such great people I work with. Joe, Paula, Sandra, Jolynn all have been working with me for years and we all work so well together on these. I know the actors love how we work and we’re always trying to cover all bases and to be there for them.

Bryan: What would you like to say to the fans after all these years?

Linda: Our events wouldn’t exist without the fan support, and we so appreciate all of them. They’ve stuck with us all these years and we’re grateful for all of them. Thanks for being a part of what we do!