Pam St. Clement Stayed At My Hotel!
By Suzanne Lafrance
In December, WLIW/Channel 21 of Plainview, NY, hosted its winter
fundraising drive. I was fortunate enough to be invited down to New
York City to participate. Pam St Clement ("Pat Evans") agreed to fly
across the pond to help roust up EastEnders fan support for the
station. Rumour had it that, surprise of surprises, Ms. St Clement
would be staying at my hotel, which would be quite the Happy
Coincidence (for me, anyway), almost too good to be true.
I came back to the Hotel Excelsior late Tuesday evening after an
after-hours meal at NorthWest (where I also happened to run into
Buckaroo Bonzai himself, Peter Weller). Imagine my surprise when, as
the doorman at the hotel opened the door, I saw the Grand Dame
herself, Pam St Clement (elegantly wrapped in a beautiful full-length
white coat), checking in at the front desk.
As my husband patiently waited by the elevator admiring the
Christmas tree, I made my move. Sauntering over to the front desk, I
asked one of the desk clerks about attaining tickets to The Rocky
Horror Show at Circle in the Square and/or The Nutcracker at Lincoln
Center. While the clerk told me about the theatre brochures across
from the counter that I already knew about, I tuned in to Pam and her
conversation with the other desk clerk.
Not that I was eavesdropping (she was staying on the eleventh
floor), but one cannot help but be a bit curious standing arms-length
away from someone they've cherished watching for over 10 years on
their favourite show. I was aghast to hear her name mispronounced by
the hotel staff. Rather than publicly flogging the erroneous
employee, I waited for my moment.
As Pam turned my way, I knew my moment had arrived. Deep
breath..."Excuse me Ms. St Clement? Pam St Clement?"
"Why yes I am" (look of surprise on her face). "I'm Suzanne
LaFrance and I write for the Walford Gazette and it's such an honour
to meet you!" "Oh! It's nice to meet you!"
After several moments of light conversation (me in a semi-daze^Ò
in which I'm sure my face was three shades of red)^Ò I realised that
she must have been jetlagged, and let her go. After saying hellos to
Tim Wilson, who was accompanying her to the hotel from the airport, I
said my good-byes.
The next night we drove out to what seemed like the farthest
reaches of Long Island to the TV station. Once there, we went through
the standard "how to take a pledge" training, then settled into the
Community Room to wait our turn for a shift in the studio.
Unfortunately Al Gore's concession speech/George W. Bush's
victory speech interrupted the scheduled EastEnders marathon. Other
than a few callers insisting on talking to Ms. St Clement
herself-which wasn't possible-the fundraising went quite smoothly. As
Pam walked into the studio, fans bristled with excitement, eagerly
awaiting her presence.
Once in the studio, Pam and Laura Savini, the WLIW on-air host
for the evening, chatted during breaks between programming. She also
auctioned off several autographed t-shirts and, much to the viewers'
delight, an authentic pair of "Pat's" earrings, big and sparkly as
one would expect. The final prized items for the evening: two
autographed EastEnders scripts for episodes not yet seen by U.S.
audiences. I'm proud to say that I took the winning bid for the
bigger script. I didn't tell the chap on the phone that he was
bidding against me.
The highlight of the evening was the Q and A session between Pam
and Ms. Savini. Larry Jaffee, my husband J.D., myself and all the
other EastEnders fans present that evening were invited to be in the
studio while the interview took place. Pam chatted with Laura about
EastEnders, about the differences and similarities between her and
her alter ego, "Pat" and about Pam's involvement with animal rights
activism.
Upon the completion of the interview, fans flocked around Pam,
showering her with autograph requests, photo opportunities and
Christmas presents. She was gracious, poised and warm, letting
everyone have their moment.
We drove back into Manhattan, an ice storm nipping at our heels,
safely deposited back to the Upper West Side. As we waited by the
elevators, who should stroll in behind us, but Pam. She seemed to
have had a lovely time that evening. She asked of our culinary plans,
to which she seemed surprised and a bit interested that food delivery
was still an option. I gave her the name of the pizza parlor and we
parted ways for the evening. The next day when we upgraded our room
to a suite, the bellhop escorted us and our luggage to the elevator
and pushed eleven. Happy Coincidence.
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