'Newlywed' soap stars visit the bay area

By MARY EVERTZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 18, 2000

When All My Children soap stars Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos eloped in real life four years ago, they had little or no fanfare.

On Friday, the couple's screen characters, Hayley Vaughan and Mateo Santos, were married in an elaborate ceremony in the fictional town of Pine Valley during the show, which airs at 1 p.m. on WFTS-Ch. 28.

"It's a pretty extravagant event," Consuelos said by phone Tuesday from his home on New York's Upper West Side. Consuelos and Ripa and their 3-year-old son, Michael, were busy packing for a trip to the Tampa Bay area. They are here to visit his parents, Tony and Camilla Consuelos of St. Petersburg, and to attend a family wedding today.

Their pretend wedding was a long time coming and a multimedia event. Loyal All My Children fans have been with them on a roller coaster five-year relationship, watching in agony as the couple were separated by one troubling story line after another. The show found some creative ways to involve viewers in the wedding festivities. On her fictional TV show, The Wave, Hayley invited viewers to help her choose her wedding gown.

In the real world, All My Children fans could log on to http://www.weddingchannel.com to choose the Vera Wang gown she wore in Friday's ceremony. Visitors voted for their favorite of four gowns. On Friday, viewers saw the winner.

Visitors to the Web site also had a chance to see pictures of Hayley's surprise bridal shower and a wedding portrait and to send the couple best wishes on a message board.

Will Hayley and Mateo live happily ever after? "You never know on a soap," says Consuelos.

Consuelos graduated from Brandon's Bloomingdale High School and attended Notre Dame University for two years. He received his degree in business from the University of South Florida.

Instead of becoming a doctor like his brother or a lawyer like his sister, Consuelos opted for an acting career. After studying with Cathy Laughlin, a bay area acting coach, he landed the role as Mateo. In May of last year, he took home his second American Latino Media Arts Award for outstanding actor in a daytime soap opera.

On cloud nine

On a fluke, U.S. Airways flight attendant Debra Fanning Phillips of Osprey entered a Clairol ad contest. And she won.

The contest invited women 18 and older to send in a recent photograph and in 100 words tell how Nice 'n Easy "brings honest, natural beauty into their lives." Phillips, who is about to turn 40, wrote a poem as her entry, which went, "How much fun it can be . . . experimenting with colors that suit me!"

Phillips was one of three contest winners who received an all-expense-paid trip to New York to be photographed for a print ad for Nice 'n Easy.

For the ad, scheduled to appear in publications in the fall, Phillips' hair was colored with No. 88 natural ash blonde. The two other winners were Darla Albornoz, 27, of Pasadena, Md., and Sky Hixon, 24, of Charlotte, N.C.

Phillips and daughter Chelsea, 11, moved to Osprey from Charlotte late last year.

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