Soap Opera Weekly
June 16, 2001
The Gossip-Friends & Lovers

Larry Lau (Sam, One Life to Live) says he's been "in a holding pattern, circling," as far as getting into any new relationships since breaking up with his last girlfriend in November. "I just decided to take a serious breather. It's the first time I've ever done this. In the past five years I dated five or six different women, and I only gave myself like a month off in between. And it's kind of nice right now. My life is so uncomplicated. It's allowing me to focus on my work without any distractions and to bond with a new group of people with a lot more ease."

He's referring to his cast mates at OLTL, most particularly Catherine Hickland and Hillary B. Smith (Lindsay and Nora). "The three of us have become such good friends in six weeks. I couldn't be more floored and flattered and happy about it, because they're wonderful people and amazing actors."

The two women collaborated on a birthday surprise for him. "I'd gone to a barbecue in some friends' backyard, and when I got home there were five messages from Catherine and Hillary saying, 'We can’t believe we missed you when you stopped by the studio. You've gotta come back; we've got cake and presents for you!' Since I'm a 10-minute walk from the studio--I'm renting David Forsyth's condo while he's in L.A.--I went back, and the two of them regaled me with cake and presents."

Coincidentally, Larry and Catherine's husband, Michael E. Knight (Tad), shared a storyline when Larry was on AMC back in the early 80's. Though they were friendly, he says they "weren't big hangout buddies. But when I originally tested for OLTL a year ago last March, Michael did this really cool thing. We were doing the test over at the AMC studio. As I was sitting in a dressing room, waiting for my turn to go up, there was a knock on the door. It was Michael. He said, 'Larry, I just wanted to come by and say we're all out here rooting for you. We're so happy to see you back, and we really hope you get this job.' And he gave me a big 'ol hug and said, 'Go get 'em--break a leg.'

"You know, I hadn't seen him for almost a decade, and to have him make the effort to come out of wherever he was working and find me was really special, because testing is always a nervous thing. He's tops, man."

By the way, when Larry does resume dating, each woman he meets is going to have to go through approval by "the committee": Hillary and Catherine, who have taken a proprietary interest in his love life. "They've discussed it, and it's got to be unanimous--thumbs-up or thumbs-down from both of them. So it's not going to be easy."