In real life it’s usually the bride who coordinates the mammoth event (with the groom basically told to show up and know your lines), but OLTL’s Max Holden (Nicholas Walker) took care of all the details for his nuptials with his bride, Gabrielle Medina (Fiona Hutchison)

    On the episode aired July 6 (and continuing July 9) Max told Gabrielle to be at a certain place at a  certain time, no questions asked.  Upon arriving at her destination, Gabrielle realized that it was the same country inn where she and Max were to be married before he “died”” in a fiery car crash.

    From Gabrielle’s antique wedding dress to the guest list, Max made sure that everything was taken care of so he and Gabrielle could finally exchange vows without further delay.

    SOAP OPERA WEEKLY visited the One Life To Live set, and asked the bride and groom: Now that their character’s union is legal, what kind of  couple do they want to be?

    “I know exactly what I don’t want,” says Walker, “[and that’s] for us to become predictable.  Either it’s a very good thing to be married on a  soap -- you can become the supercouple of the show -- or you sort of disappear into married bliss.  I don’t think the latter will happen and I would really like for us to be a supercouple.”

    To avoid wedded bliss (i.e., boredom), walker feels it’s important not to alter Max and Gabrielle’s personalities.  “the marriage does neutralize our inherent characteristics.  I think we are fully dimensional human beings; we are currently in the gray area, and will probably explore more gray.  I hope we have a tumultuous marriage, meaning I wouldn’t be surprised if I will do things that will send Gabrielle right up the wall, and visa versa,” says Walker.  “I wouldn’t be surprised if we cheated on each other.  But somehow, we would come back together.  I think these people are into power, ambition and sex..  I think they have very restless spirits, which is part of their nature, which can’t be helped.”

    “They’re troubled souls,” he suggests.  “In a funny way, I think they’re sort of tragic figures.  Nothing is ever enough.  There’s always something missing ... and it’s a wonderful element for drama.  That’s the backbone of both characters.”

    As for other half of this relationship, Hutchison basically agrees with Walker’s assessment that the Holden’s can’t afford to face married life ala Ozzie and Harriet.
    “There is no way they’re going to be happily married,” she says with a devilish grin.  “They will never be another Sarah and Bo (another OLTL couple) of the sweet happiness everything’s-OK-lover type marriage.  When Max and Gabrielle get together it will be constant, playful energetic kind of happily married.  You know it will have the overtones of sex.  These two people thrive on physical bonding.  They just don’t sit arm and arm on the sofa and talk about life.  We my have scenes like that to do, but I’m stating here and now -- and I know Nicholas feels the dame way -- we will find a way to convey, within those scenes of talking [about mundane things], there will be the overriding urge, “Can we hurry up and go to bed?”
    The passions that this couple has for each other (witness the hayloft scene) is, perhaps the very reason why Gabrielle and Max’s wedding took place so soon after he revealed his true identity to her.  “Nicholas and I, as actors are not modest about our movements that we make [in love scenes].  Standards and Practices (the network censors) find it a little difficult dealing with us, to be honest,” reveals Hutchison.  “We push it to the limit, and I think it will be easier to accept what we do and what we will do in the future if we are properly married.  Maybe in New York they don’t care, but I think in the Midwest they may have a problem.”
    Meanwhile, what about young Al, Max and Gabrielle’s son?  Will the child be an integral part of this parents’ storyline, or will he spend the summer taking a nap off camera? 
    “I think  there will be family scenes, because what you’ve got to show is that no matter how ruthless people can be in their business life, no matter how seductive they can be in their sexual life, it doesn’t meant they’re bad people.  They can love that child and car for that child more than their own life itself, and I feel that’s true of Max and Gabrielle,” says Hutchison.
    “Max is torn with the restless spirit, but knows that it’s important to be there as a father and a husband,” says Walker, himself the father of a small boy.  “And I think that if he had to choose between being a husband or a father, he would choose to be a father.”
    Whatever kind of married couple the Holden’s end up being, one thing is certain”  “We will never be boring,” says Walker.  “We’ll probably run Llanview pretty soon.”