Fiona Hutchisons 1st fitting for OLTL took place at Victorias Secret and lasted four hours---not surprising, considering how underdressed she's been in her scenes since returning to the screen. 

"My majority of heavy-duty days have been done in bras, panties, garters, tap pants," Fiona concedes, adding, "If somebody had told me 3 or 4 years ago,'After you've had 2 kids, you're going to go back on OLTL, and you're going to wear nothing but underwear, and you're going to try to be a seductive troublemaker,' I'd have said ,'You've got to be kidding!' You know I'm not 29 anymore."

She says when she was told how her character was going to return, she worried about "whether I could pull it off and not look silly.  I didn't want to embarrass myself." Though in shape from years of yoga, swimming & ballet, she went to the
gym and "did everything physically in my power--hundreds of sit-ups--to get my stomach the best I could. And then I have to give great great credit to Susan Gammy, the costume designer,who, believe me, worked miracles. And then there's this terrific product called body makeup that I could not live without. I put it everywhere!"

Admitting she's never been inhibited by modesty (I remember her telling me years ago that she prefered doing her hot tub scenes au naturel), Fiona says it helps working with a crew she's known for years. "If you're walking around with practically nothing on, you want to feel like people are on your side."

Co-star James DePaiva has also been extremely supportive in helping her reacclimate to OLTL. "I knew from working with him before that he had a real directors eye and a lot of ideas, and I was hoping he still had the interest. Because people change over the years--they don't want to bother anymore, or they get fed up, or whatever the deal is. But when I came back I told him, 'If you think I'm missing the boat or if you think they are missing the shot, please speak up.'  And he's done it,and it's been great. I mean I'm not the best judge of this, but from
what I hear, the on-screen chemistry is there."

Though there have been rumors of rockiness between the two co-stars at the end of their 1st run, Fiona says their offscreen reunion has been "even better than I might have predicted. The first week I was back he and had great chats about our history and our situation and working and the storyline, so I think we put everything where it needed to be."

Fiona mentioned that she and her husband had invited James and Kassie DePaiva out for dinner, but their schedules hadn't yet meshed. I said "Why not get old Jim to whip them up a Chinese banquet?" Fiona was shocked--she'd known Jim for years and never had an inkling that he's a trained Chinese chef. But, yes, he studied advanced Chinese cooking in his hometown of Livermore, Calif.

-----Pat Sellers