• In a new feature, the fans got the chance to write an introduction for their favorite B&B star in attendance at the breakfast, with the best ones used to introduce the actors. Just before each actor came out, Don called on the fan selected to come up and read their intro - and yours truly was lucky enough to get picked to introduce Jennifer Gareis. Seeing that I had filled the page, Don Diamont asked, "Did you write a novel here?" (I told him that was actually the Reader's Digest version.) After a recap of Donna's last year that mentioned brown teeth, green hair, honey, glitter and of course, that bear attack, Jen came out on stage.
• A slide show was shown with highlights over the last two years of B&B, with portions dedicated to each of the actors. Highlights included: banter between Texas and Kyle whenever the subject of their characters being rivals for Steffy came up; Drew telling the story of how he proposed to his girlfriend (now wife) Sarah (who was in attendance) during the taping of Nick and Bridget's wedding; Jennifer telling stories about representing B&B with Kyle in Monaco to accept the Golden Nymph award in 2008, being doused in honey and doing the episodes where Donna and Pam went to THE PRICE IS RIGHT; Alley talking about the recent fashion duel episodes featuring Jim J Bullock as Sergei; John and Jennifer both offering thoughts on the Forrester Royalty campaign; and Don sharing thoughts on his leaving The Young & the Restless to join B&B earlier this year.
• A short photo/autograph session with the actors.

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 in the hotel's Grand Ballroom. Associate Producer Casey Kasprzyk introduced Cathy Tomas, who in turn introduced John McCook as emcee. John then introduced first the Bell family and then 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 (Stephanie), Ronn Moss (Ridge, who was absent due to his upcoming wedding to Devin Devasquez) and Dan McVicar (Clarke). Some highlights of the luncheon and the autograph/photo session that followed were:

• Most of the actors entered the ballroom with some version of the B&B theme playing in the background. But a few had music tailored to their characters like Rick Hearst (who entered to "Whip It"), Lesley-Anne Down (who came in to a jungle beat), Alley Mills (who entered to Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy") and Jack Wagner (who came in to his own song "Going Back Again," which was featured on the show in 2004).
• The minister who presided over Ridge and Taylor's wedding made a special guest appearance to reprise his "man and horse" declaration to introduce Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke).
• After the cast had left the stage, Texas Battle (Marcus) returned to the podium to introduce Aaron D Spears, who would be joining the cast soon as Justin Barber, VP for mergers and acqusitions at Spencer Publications - and Marcus's biological father.
• After lunch, Don Diamont and Heather Tom (Bill and Katie) introduced the first clip of the day, highlights from the two episodes centering on Storm's suicide and Katie getting his heart. These two episodes were submitted by B&B for the Emmys (and won them the Outstanding Daytime Drama Emmy on Sunday night).
• Ashley Jones and Jack Wagner (Nick and Bridget) presented a series of bloopers from the last year of B&B.
• Hunter Tylo (Taylor) arrived late due to some confusion with her ex-husband over whose weekend it was to be with their daughters.
• Lesley-Anne Down and Brandon Beemer (Jackie and Owen) presented a clip entitled "The Strike Zone." Inspired by the way B&B kept going with new episodes during the Writers Strike in late 2007 - early 2008, the clip featured Ian Buchanan (James) showing fans what it would be like if all of CBS went on strike and featured Susan Flannery as the receptionist in the production office, John McCook in Susan's pantsuits and brooch, Lesli Kay as the mail girl and B&B head honcho Brad Bell as the security guard at CBS. Also featured were B&B supervising producer Rhonda Friedman and producer Cynthia Popp, as well as B&B co-creator Lee Phillip Bell giving security guard Brad a big slapand twins Amanda and Rachel Pace (Hope) as B&B's Head Writers!
• Dessert arrived in the form of Pam's lemon bars. Alley Mills (Pam) came to the podium to introduce her creations, although Jennifer Gareis (Donna) joined her to make sure that these lemon bars were safe for the fans.
• I got to meet Ann Willmott, who works in the B&B production offices. Ann and I have exchanged lots of tweets on Twitter, so it was cool to meet her in person.
• I got lots more photos with the stars during the autograph/photo session, which you can see by clicking on the link above.
• And once again, people recognized me from my web site; you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but it still gives me a bit of a thrill to be recognized. Still, the day is about the show, the stars and the fans, not about me. But thanks again to each and every one of you who came up to say hi and for the compliments you paid me.

There was an extra bit of excitement in the air with B&B up for the Outstanding Drama and Outstanding Writing in a Drama Emmys the following day. And while B&B did not win for writing, they did win Outstanding Drama on Sunday!

As always, 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.