Susan Lucci is very cool. And I was very lucky last night to be seated between her and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at the annual TJ Martell dinner, the record industry’s proud raiser of funds for research into leukemia, cancer, and AIDS. Lucci, who played Erica Kane into a brand name on ABC’s “All My Children” for 41 years, is getting ready to start shooting Marc Cherry’s “Devious Maids” in Atlanta this winter. The nighttime series will air on Lifetime.
It’s Susan’s revenge for the bad way she and everyone on “AMC” was treated including creator Agnes Nixon. Good for her. And you know, Susan is a doll. She’s nothing like Erica. “I’m so happy to be home,” she said. “We lived in Los Angeles a lot for the last two years, but there’s nothing like New York.” One reason La Lucci has survived: diversification. She’s got all kinds of endorsement deals and a line of jewelry on HSN. “That’s all thanks to my husband,” she said of her seatmate Helmut Huber, to whom she’s been married since like forever.
And just a note for “AMC” fans who got the wrong idea last year when Prospect Park Productions made it seem like it was Lucci who was making it impossible to produce “AMC” for the internet. “We were in negotiations,” Susan said. “When they announced they weren’t doing our show we had no idea what was going on.”
But it’s a sweet victory to have Cherry, creator of “Desperate Housewives,” running her new show. Susan and Helmut also introduced me to their son. He was not– like Erica Kane’s children–born in a blizzard, on a mountaintop or during a bout of amnesia. Just so you know.
