Women On The Ledge

WOMEN ON THE LEDGE NBC is presenting WOMAN ON THE LEDGE, a TV-movie dramatizing the emotional entanglements of three women who are close friends. As the movie begins, the problems of one of the women have become so overwhelming that she finds herself teetering on a building ledge, prepared to end her life. So the film (told primarily in flashbacks) poses two questions: Which woman is it? And will she be rescued from that ledge? Playing the friends in this movie, which boasts a soap opera ensemble cast, are Deidre Hall, Leslie Charleson (Monica, GH) and Colleen Zenk Pinter (Barbara, ATWT). Their male counterparts are Josh Taylor (ex-Chris Kositchek, DOOL), Kale Browne (ex-Michael Hudson, AW) and Peter Bergman (Jack, Y&R).

DEIDRE HALL: Baby Business Deidre Hall plays Quinn "a business woman who is successful driven, spontaneous. She'd hit a point in her life where she decided against having children, but given an opportunity to remedy that choice she decides she wants to become pregnant. So her struggle is the issue of pregnancy. She wants to have a child. She's spent her life having everything she wants the way she wants it, and having superficial relationships, and now she's confronted with the results of that lifestyle. "Quinn's very audacious. I liked her," adds Hall. "She does very, very shocking, courageous things. She's a woman who stands by her friends. She's a fighter, a scrapper. And she has no compunction about putting her own energy into what she believes is right."

LESLIE CHARLESON: Betrayal "Rachel is a housewife who's devoted her life to her two kids and her husband, Jeff (Josh Taylor)," says Charleson. "Jeff runs a successful sporting goods store, and in the early years of the marriage she had helped him a lot there. She believes that everything is going along fine between them -- not that life is ecstatic -- but the two of them have more or less gotten into a rut, a routine. "All of a sudden she becomes suspicious that he's straying," Charleson continues. "She finds a receipt for flowers. She can't, of course, remember the last time he sent her flowers. Then she sees him go into a hotel with another woman, a stranger to her. She puts two and two together very quickly, and decides he's having an affair. So that's what shatters her life -- and then we see how she resolves what she perceives to be his adultery."

COLLEEN ZENK PINTER: Starting Over The third friend, Steffi, is played by Pinter. "She's a pianist with a local symphony orchestra and is a divorced, single mom of a 15-year-old girl -- a sensitive, caring mom who's trying to do everything for her daughter. Stef's intelligent but vulnerable. She tries to do the right thing for herself, too. She's trying to heal her wounds from a very bad marriage by going to see a psychiatrist -- and only gets herself deeper and deeper into trouble. "Another one of Stef's conflicts is that she's been seeing a newspaperman, and she's not ready to get involved in another relationship," continues Pinter. "Her divorce has only recently gone through, and she's just not ready to get in deep with anybody. And in the beginning, the new guy (Elliot, played by Kale Browne) is not quite understanding of what she's going through."

IT'S A TOUGH JOB, BUT SOMEONE'S... Peter Bergman is Bob, Quinn's romantic partner. "He's a successful lawyer and a bit of a ladies' man. He certainly appears to love Quinn, but he's also a bit self-absorbed," says Bergman. "Their relationship is a pretty physical one, which was great fun for me. The first scenes I had with Deidre were meeting her at the airport and then, as Bob, climbing on top of her in a limousine, going to a hotel room, undressing her while she's making a phone call to Rachel, and then falling on the bed with her. "Deidre Hall was a joy," he enthuses. "I'd always thought she was a very attractive lady, but I went into this project with a pretty open mind as to what she was going to be like. She was a lovely surprise. Open and warm and accessible. Ready to experiment and try stuff." Hall returns the compliment. "From being on soaps, we understand what works and how to make it work. There was no shyness; it was just there. We were in a hotel room, and we had limited time there. So we were working it out. 'OK, if I kiss your chest here and then you put your arm around my waist her and put your hand on my thigh here...' We were to fall on the bed in a joined embrace. The camera was set up, and Peter said to me, "You wanna be on the bottom or the top?' We just howled with laughter! So we had a quiet little visit and talked about positions and worked it out. He's great."

As Steffi, Pinter had to disrobe in the office of an unscrupulous psychiatrist, Dr. Martin, played by Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes, DALLAS). "It was tough stuff for me," she admits. "It was territory I'd never visited before. The director, the producers, the crew were fabulous, making sure I was comfortable. They were all very supportive of me -- including Ken. He was just terrific to work with. Very professional, very prepared." Browne's Elliot, Steffi's beau, refuses to sleep with Quinn. "Why he won't is a question that I asked myself many times, but that was the part, and I had a good time. Deidre was just great to work with," he says. "She was a real kick in the pants. "I've known Michael (Zaslow, GL's Roger; here he plays Tad, the looking-for-love dad of a pal of Rachel's son) and Colleen from years back, and everybody else either knew each other or of each other, so it was a really nice experience," he continues. "We all worked for each other. As far as socially, I can't think of a better working experience that I had in a long time."

OLD HOME WEEK The three couples appear in only one scene together, a dinner party at Rachel and Jeff's home. But it was old home week for actors other than Browne. Bergman and Zenk Pinter had also trod the theatrical boards in the East during their pre-soap days, while Charleson says, "Josh and I go back a long time. We never acted together before, but we did a number of personal appearances. We kind of dated a little bit, too. So it was wonderful seeing him again."

The three actresses got along famously, says Pinter. "I had a ball with Leslie -- and Dee, she's a nut. She was so funny. She said, 'Well, next year we'll do the sequel." So, of course, we were all writing our own storyline for WOMAN ON THE LEDGE II, creating all kinds of new trouble for our characters to get into," she laughs. "We'll do a new movie update every year!" As to NBC's apparent attempt to lure daytime audiences to watch a nighttime movie, Hall comments, "I think it's a very wise choice. However, I think we'll all wake up early [the morning after the movie airs] and call for the [overnight Nielsen] numbers. Because it all depends on the question , 'Can the audience accept character crossover?' Yes, they'll tune in to see me, if they watch Marlena on DOOL, but will they settle for watching me make love to Peter Bergman?"

Thanks to Linn Kaarstad for sending me this article.