Sunday, January 31, 2010

FLASHBACK: Crystal Chappell 1995

Crystal Chappell's pets prompt coast-to-coast treks

By Nancy M. Reichardt
Tampa Tribune
December 31, 1995

NEW YORK - Soon after Crystal Chappell moved cross country to New York City to take the role of Maggie Carpenter on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, her longtime boyfriend Michael Sabatino made the same trek to assume the role of Dr. Jonathan Kinder on ALL MY CHILDREN. Yet, the couple is still bicoastal.

"At least once a month," Chappell explains, "one of us goes back to visit our animals. We have two cats (Bo and Jess) and two dogs (Ebb and Flow). Ebb is a 130-pound bull mastiff; Flow is a 100-pound Akita. So living in a New York City apartment is not a viable option. If we stay here, we'll get a house in New Jersey or something."

Luckily the couple has friends who stay at the house on the West Coast who, we hear, spoil the animals so much that they barely miss their parents.

"But they're our babies," Chappell says, "and, due to scheduling conflicts, Michael and I rarely go to visit together. We'll do things like put the phone next to Ebb's nose so that the one on the other end can hear Ebb snore."

Chappell and Sabatino had made plans to go away for the holidays.

"We were thinking of going scuba diving for the Christmas break," says Chappell, "but we just looked at each other and knew we missed the animals too much not to spend the holidays with them."

We asked Chappell about the interesting origin of Bo's name. Ironically, when Chappell was in college she named Bo for one of her favorite television characters - Bo Buchanan on ONE LIFE TO LIVE. Since Bob Woods is still playing the role, Chappell immediately fessed up to Woods.

"Telling him that I'd had such a crush on him when I was 19 that I named my cat after him surely broke the ice," she says. "But he did tease me about it for a while."

Chappell, who could not be happier with her stint on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, says, "It's nice not playing a character who is constantly being dragged down by her problems like my character Carly was on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. I like Maggie. She's eccentric, impulsive - in transition between being a child and an adult. I love that she puts her foot in her mouth a lot. She's very "Lucyesque.' "

As a sneak peek into upcoming plot developments, Chappell reveals that Maggie will discover Frankie, one of Max Holden's babies, has a hearing problem. Max (played by James De Paiva) will be in denial, which will, of course, ignite more sparks between their characters.

Since Maggie recently confided a deep, dark secret to Cord Roberts (played by John Loprieno), we wonder which man Maggie will ultimately be romantically involved with. Chappell herself is not sure who it will be.

The actor says, "I can tell everyone to watch - it's going to get really good in the next few months. 1995 was a really great year for me. 1996 is going to be a great year for the show."

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