Thursday, October 18, 2007
She's a soap star
As Ashlee Holland wins the contest, her father cheers from Roanoke.
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Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times
From left, George Miller, Adrian Wade and Al Holland Sr. cheer as Holland's daughter Ashlee wins the reality show "I Wanna Be a Soap Star" on Tuesday night. The top prize is a 13-week contract role on "Days of Our Lives."
Friends and family of Ashlee Holland watch her compete on the reality show "I Wanna Be a Soap Star" at her parents' home in Northwest Roanoke.
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Act I: The bar
10:45 p.m. Tuesday
The first drama of the night: Ashlee Holland is not on the TV screen.
"I Wanna Be a Soap Star" is starting soon. Tonight Holland, Roanoke-raised and Hollywood-bound, can win top prize on the show's finale -- a part on "Days of Our Lives."
But at 15 minutes to showtime, the channel, SOAPnet, isn't coming in at Buffalo Wild Wings at Valley View.
Family and friends anxiously sip their drinks. A manager calls the cable company. The screen's still blank.
"That's mickey mouse to me," grumbles Ashlee's father, Al Holland Sr.
He stands and declares the party's moving to his house. Despite a recent knee replacement, he hurries to a waiting car.
"Follow us," he shouts.
The crowd vaporizes and reappears in Northwest Roanoke, at the Holland home.
Act II: At home
11:15 p.m.
Ashlee is on TV when the large screen flickers on.
The crowd has thinned; it's mostly Al Sr.'s Monday Night Football crew now. Big guys who fill the family room with their patter -- George Miller, Adrian Wade, Bart Edwards, Al Holland Jr.
But the room is silent as scenes of Ashlee play before them.
Baseballs and plaques line the walls from Al Sr.'s years pitching with the Phillies and Yankees. Lifetime ERA: 2.98.
"She has soap star potential," the show's host says. The room cheers.
The camera moves to her competition, Jimena Hoyos, an actress from the soaps of her native Colombia.
"I don't think so," someone in the family room says.
Act III: Back story
Months ago
Ashlee left Roanoke for Los Angeles in 2002 as a young mother with a young son and ambitions for the screen.
She worked as an extra, shot commercials and ate ramen noodles. The call for "Soap Star" came last spring.
She spent 10 days shooting the show. By day she did her scenes for the show's three judges. By night, she slept on a bunk bed in a sound stage.
Ashlee sat on the secret that she was a finalist for months. The anxiety kept her awake at night.
"It's literally the break I need," she said in August when the show first aired.
Now she has beaten eight other contestants -- laughed, danced and cried her way to the reality show's finale. She stands on a stage, live on cable TV.
Act IV: Judges?
Almost midnight
On screen, the judges look her up and down. They say Ashlee's a thrill to watch. A happy person. A fighter.
But Jimena smolders, the judges say, smolders. She's moving. She's real.
Host Cameron Mathison, from "All My Children," juices the moment.
"ASHLEE! ... JIMENA! ... ," he says, going slowly. "We'll be right back!"
Al Sr., who has pitched in championship games before millions of people, says the commercials are killing his nerves. There are pictures of fried chicken, an ad for Botox.
Finally, Ashlee and Jimena stand on stage. The hour's almost up.
Mathison pauses. "Ashlee. You. Are. The ... "
"I TOLD YA! I TOLD YA!" Al Sr. is now on his feet.
" ... Winner!"
Everyone is on his feet. Hugs, applause, cellphones begin to ring.
"ROANOKE! V! A!" Bart Edwards shouts into his phone. "NATIONAL TV!"
Al Sr. punches at the air. In a nearby painting, he wears a Phillies uniform. His fist is up then, too, at the 1983 World Series.
"They put the camera in my face in 1983 and asked me 'How do you feel?' " he recalls. "I FEEL ... GOOD!"
On TV, Ashlee's eyes moisten. Her mother, Mary, is on stage and the room whoops at the sight of her. Joseph, Ashlee's son, appears in her arms.
Al Sr.'s hand moves to his heart. An oversized ring glints on his pinky.
"She pulled it off, baby," he says. "It's just wonderful to see your children do well."
During a commercial break, his cellphone rings.
"Oh God," he says, "I wish I was there to hug you right now."
Act V: The morning after
9:30 a.m. Wednesday
It's 6:30 a.m. on the West Coast. A reporter's phone call wakes Ashlee after an hour of sleep.
There was an after-party the night before, she says, sounding groggy but pleased.
She is the first woman to win on the SOAPnet reality show. The William Fleming High School grad starts work at "Days" on Friday.
No script yet, no sense of whom she's playing. But no more uncertainty. She's working for the next 13 weeks. One of the judges, actress Mary Beth Evans, is her co-star now.
"Whatever comes from this," Ashlee said, "I'm happy."
