CBS Soaps In Depth, 05/29/99
Ma Cherie Paramour

Daytimers Jennifer Roszell and David Andrew Macdonald
find love after dark--onscreen, that is!

When you're channel-surfing this month, and think you see a 1943 version of GUIDING LIGHT's Jennifer Roszell (Eleni) and ANOTHER WORLD's David Andrew Macdonald (Jordan/David), don't try to adjust your TV set. It's the daytimers alright. Over a year and a half ago, the duo teamed up to film the comedy PARAMOUR, an original program for cable's American Movie Classics network. This month, the show's four episodes finally get to see the light of day.

His Girl Friday
Roszell stars as Samantha McRae, a no-nonsense editor who, much to the dismay of Macdonald's Robert Brandt, is hired to turn his sagging racetrack-devoted Horseplay magazine into a snappy Hollywood gossip rag, which she aptly titles Paramour. "I was visiting my parents in California," Roszell remembers, "when my agent, who represented someone from the sister show REMEMBER WENN, called me about the audition."
Knowing that Roszell and her parents were big fans of AMC's radio-station comedy, her agent overnighted the script. "I was reading it on the beach, howling with laughter because I thought it was so cute and charming. I just had a feeling deep down in my stomach that I had to play this role."
To get into character, Roszell spent hours in front of her television watching 1940s movies, everything from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to The Philadelphia Story. And, to gain some insight into the world of publishing, she dialed Soaps In Depth editor-in-chief Dawn Mazzurco. "I was playing a character starting up a movie magazine, and thought that talking to the editor of a (then) start-up soap magazine would be the closest thing.
"Back then, the movie magazines worked so closely with the studios because the actors were so protected," she continues. "And soap magazines more or less work the same way. And Dawn was incredibly helpful in telling me her day-to-day concerns."
Macdonald, on the other hand, took a different approach to researching his character. "I read the script!" he laughs. "You can do all the research you want, but if you're not doing what's implied on that paper, you're doing the writer and the production a big disservice."
I Love You...I Mean Hate!
Although their research techniques differed, Roszell and Macdonald are in resounding agreement on one particular issue: Their characters love to disagree. "I think Sam was absolutely in love with David's character and didn't know it," Roszell muses. "Bobby is one of those people you get in a room with, and every little thing they do annoys you. He is everything she hates, but he makes her knees weak."
Adds Macdonald: "I think eventually Sam will wise up and realize she is in love with this man. Not to press the obvious joke, but they're always topping one another. Just when she'd be thinking he's an idiot, he'd accomplish something that she never dreamed he could. And vice versa."

To Be Continued...
Whether or not Bobby and Sam ever will admit their feelings for one another remains to be seen. But while there are no plans for further installments of PARAMOUR, both Roszell and Macdonald are hopeful that additional episodes will be ordered. "Sam was really a spitfire, independent in a time when women weren't so," Roszell says. "I loved playing her."
Macdonald echoes the sentiment. "I had never done television before PARAMOUR, and I loved it. If they want to do more of these episodes, I'll try my damnedest to make it work (with my schedule)."
PARAMOUR airs at 10 p.m. EST, Friday nights throughout May on American Movie Classics.
--Michelle Ann Moro