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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