• In lieu of the usual scramble game, where fans at each table would try to unscramble the names of the B&B stars as they came out, a new game was introduced where each table was shown a slide of a place or object tied to the name of the next star to arrive. Examples were a McDonalds for John McCook, Windsor Castle for Winsor Harmon and the Liberty Bell for Drew Tyler Bell.
• Once again, the stars queried the audience to see, given the show's worldwide audience, who had come the farthest to the event. Winsor Harmon did the honors this year and awarded a B&B cap to a fan who had come from Australia.
• Fans submitted cards with questions addressed to the stars for the Q&A session. One question asked whether the stars kept any of their wardrobe from the show. Jennifer said that she absolutely liked to borrow from Donna's wardrobe, while Winsor joked that he liked to wear Susan Flannery's suits.
• Winsor was asked if Thorne would get involved with the returning third Logan sister, Katie (now played by Heather Tom). Winsor said it was possible, especially since that would mean Thorne would have been with all three Logan sisters, which got him a playful warning from protective "big brother" William.
• Dax was asked if that was really him in the body bag, to which he joked that it couldn't be since he was right there in the room. On a more serious note, Dax talked about the work that went into doing those death scenes between him and Ronn Moss (Ridge).
• John was asked how Eric put up with everything Stephanie did (which was my question, by the way). After Drew joked that John would get emotional about this one and Winsor asked how much time we had, John admitted that trying to relate to how Eric reacted to all the things Stephanie does is one of the hardest things for him in playing the character. While he admires Eric for standing by a commitment to his wife and enjoys the powerful scenes he shares with Susan Flannery (Stephanie), it's hard for him as an actor to understand how Eric continues to just brush off what Stephanie does. He also said this theme would be raised in upcoming episodes.
• When asked who he'd like to work with more on the show, William responded that he's like to work with Lesli Kay (Felicia) and Susan Flannery.
• Drew shared that he recently returned from Romania where he filmed a movie for 20th Century Fox, "The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising," which is due out in October.
• A slide show was shown with highlights of the members of the cast at various events, including the celebrations for B&B's 5000th episode (which aired in February, 2007 in the US), the Rodeo Drive celebration of B&B's 20th Anniversary in March and the 2007 Daytime Emmy Awards. The cast joked about some of the photos, including Drew pointing to the large numbers of photos of him with Kayla Ewell (ex-Caitlin), and William pointing to a photo with him, Jennifer and another woman who is William's ex-girlfriend - with Dax chiming in that it was his ex, too. Winsor was proud of photos of him from the Emmys that showed three generations of Dewey Winsor Harmons - his dad, himself and his son - in attendance for the awards.
• Winsor offered some moving words about the void left in the show by the absence of Darlene Conley (Sally), who passed on earlier this year.
• During the autograph/photo sessions after breakfast, I talked with Jennifer about her current story sticking it to Stephanie. When I mentioned that Stephanie never seems to get what's coming to her, Jennifer hinted to keep watching, since you never know if that might change.
• Even with Shane dead, Dax said he'd be open to coming back to the show. He agreed when I reminded him that there was always a path with Shane having been adopted, so he thought maybe he could come back, instead of the typical evil soap twin, as Shane's good twin. I asked him about his being brought back to the show just to be killed off and he said he was told up front about Shane's death.
• When I told Winsor that I hoped Thorne didn't have to sit on the back-burner again given how long he was off-screen between stories, he said he didn't mind having little to do during the summer months, since he likes taking time off then.
• As a native New Yorker, I asked William how living in L.A. compared to living in the Big Apple. He said he missed New York sometimes. When I bet that he didn't miss the snow, he said he even missed that to some degree.

After a short break to allow the actors and fans at the breakfast to get downstairs, and to allow fans who did not attend the breakfast to arrive, the B&B Fan Luncheon started. This was on a larger scale, with 300 fans in attendance in the hotel's Grand Ballroom, sitting at tables with B&B's 20th Anniversary cast photo as a centerpiece. As a gift, each of the fans was given a tote bag containing a copy of the new B&B 20th Anniversary book, written by B&B publicist Eva Demirjian with contributions by B&B Executive Producer and Head Writer Bradley Bell; a program book with color photos of the entire cast and candles celebrating the life of the late Darlene Conley (Sally). The book, with lots of text and photos about the show's rich history, shows the great deal of work that Eva put into it, and is due to be made available soon at the show's web site, www.boldandbeautiful.com. Cathy then introduced John McCook, who acted as emcee and introduced the various members of the cast (who can be seen in my luncheon photo album above in the order they came out in). All the current cast was in attendance except for Susan Flannery and Constantinue Maroulis, the latter who is touring to promote his new CD that came out in August. And even though she had not yet aired, Heather Tom (the new Katie Logan) was there to greet the fans. Some highlights of the luncheon and the autograph/photo session that followed were:

• With Heather Tom (Katie), Eileen Davidson (Ashley) and Darcy Rose Byrnes (Abby) on stage with him, John joked that he felt like he was on The Young and the Restless again (he played Lance on the show in the 70s, while Heather was Victoria Newman from 1991-2003 and Eileen and Darcy are both playing their Y&R characters on B&B). Heather looked forward to "causing lots of trouble" in L.A., while Eileen thanked fans for welcoming Ashley to her new home in L.A.
• Kyle Lowder (Rick) thanked fans for coming from all over the world and making the event, his first with the show, so enjoyable.
• Entering the room to the tune of Constantine's "A Girl Like You," Mackenzie Mauzy (Phoebe) was also excited to be there. "I can't wait to meet you all," she told the fans.
• Another first timer was Lesli Kay (Felicia), who was excited to be at her first B&B Fan Event, standing on stage with her "daddy," John.
• Lesley-Anne Down (Jackie) thanked the fans, telling them, "This cast is gorgeous, but you are truly the beautiful ones."
• Jack Wagner (Nick) jokingly told fans to pay attention to what Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) had to say and to support her through her "difficult times with improvisation."
• Dan McVicar (Clarke) admitted his character was in a slump lately, but thought a show of love for Clarke would fix that, leading to cheers and applause from the audience.
• Hunter Tylo (Taylor) made her return to the B&B Fan Events, telling fans that she was not at the last one in 2005 as she was still getting re-acclimated to being on the show after Taylor's return from the dead just months before.
• Ronn Moss (Ridge) gave the fans a simple greeting thanking them for their support of the show.
• Katherine Kelly Lang remarked how she heard all the cheers and screams from the crowd while John, during his introduction, talked about all the awful things Brooke has gone through in her story lately, and she thanked everyone for their support.
• After Katherine was the last member of the cast to be introduced, John introduced B&B co-creator Lee Phillip Bell and B&B Executive Producer and Head Writer Bradley Bell, who thanked the fans for supporting The Bold & The Beautiful over the years.
• Betty White, who plays Stephanie's mother Ann, arrived late and was brought to the stage by Cathy Tomas when she arrived. White joked, "You certainly know how to scare a girl. I walked in off the streets, so I don't know where I'm supposed to be."
• A series of clips was shown. Ronn Moss came out first and introduced a memorable clip of Ridge and Caroline after Ridge found out that Caroline was dying, where he gave her an Infinity charm bracelet with charms representing special moments in their lives.
• Next came the Lee Phillip Bell tribute clips, which were shown on the 2007 Daytime Emmys to commemorate Mrs. Bell receiving a lifetime achievement award for her work.
• Ronn and John offered some moving words remembering Darlene Conley. Ronn especially remembered being there in Darlene's final moments, while John pointed out a replica of Sally's office in the ballroom with a guest book for fans to sign. An extended tribute to Darlene was shown highlighting the high points of her vast acting career as well as some of her most memorable moments as Sally.
• The most memorable B&B moments as chosen by the fans were shown. The first clip had Ridge digging up Taylor's grave - but instead of finding a replica of Taylor inside, Ridge instead found Y&R's Victor Newman telling B&B to get its act together. After that humorous interlude, the real clips were shown, including: Eric and Brooke's 1991 Palm Springs wedding; Taylor's death in Ridge's arms in 2002; Macy's "death" in the exploding car from 2000; Thorne finding Macy alive in Portofino from 2003; C.J. learning that Becky was dying from 2000; Stephanie trying to strangle Brooke at Big Bear from 1999; Thorne and Macy's concert from Rotterdam from 1994; Sally giving Stephanie a haircut from 2003; and Ridge and Brooke's 1994 beach wedding.
• A fan named Cami presented Katherine Kelly Lang with a bound book collecting notes from fans and cast members as a special award commemorating 20 years of outstanding performances by Ms. Lang on B&B. Cami asked one of the fans, Joke Devos from Belgium, to join her on stage in presenting the award to Katherine and read Joke's moving note from the book stating that even though she is disabled, Joke always looks forward to seeing Katherine when she can because of the joy Katherine brings to her life.
• I got lots more photos with the stars during the autograph/photo session, which you can see by clicking on the link above.
• And as usual, there were folks who came up to me and recognized me from my web site, some who I met at previous events and some who I met for the very first time this time around. I usually try not to make a big deal about the site at the events because the day is about the show, the stars and the fans, but thanks to each and every one of you who came up to say hi and for the compliments you paid me.

In all, it was another fun and eventful day, with the 20th anniversary theme making it even better. Kudos go to Cathy Tomas for all her hard work in putting the day's events together and making everything run smoothly, and to the stars and staff of B&B for making the day such a success.