Like most girls in America who were teen-agers in the late 80's and early 90's, GUIDING 
LIGHT'S Tammy Blanchard (Drew) grew up worshipping one of the most successful and 
scandal-plagued pop-culture icons of all time.  Unlike everybody else, though, Blanchard's idol was not Madonna, but Judy Garland.
     "The Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie," the actress says wistfullly, "and everytime 
somebody was staging the play, starting in the sixth grade, I always auditioned for it."  She 
always got the lead, too, having followed the yellow brick road on video so many times that she could emulate Garland's every gesture and note.  And in the end, as playing Dorothy  blossomed into a genuine interest in acting, Garland became less a heroine than a standard to match and, perhaps, beat.  "I knew I wanted to be a big star," Blanchard says, "Judy Garland-big."
     If that sounds like a vaguely anachronistic ambition, don't be surprised.  Blanchard, who turned 21 last year, happens to be one big ol' tangle of surprises and contradictions.  She yearns to move out of her working class hometown - Bayonne, NJ - and can finally afford to, but won't  leave until her mother agrees to come, too.  When spiritual confusion strikes, she spends "months just reading and praying at home" - but when all's well, she can be as saucily insouciant as a Bond girl with a golden card.  She's a dreamer, but oddly practical, too;  as a child, she did beauty pageants until the money for them ran out, "and that was that."
     She's also very honest, sometimes to a fault.  During the Miss Preteen New Jersey competition, Blanchard, then 12 years old, was one of ten finalists, then "goofed" when the judges asked her to cite the one thing she didn't like about her mother.  "I didn't know what to say, so I told the truth," she recalls.  "I said, ' I don't like when my mom tells me to admit that I'm wrong.' She pauses.  "It was not a good answer, I guess.  You don't say something like that and win."
     Other times, honesty has actually proven to be the best policy.  Consider, for example, her GL callback, when she read for Executive Producer Paul Rauch.  "Everyone was telling me, "Don't jump around.  Don't be yourself.  Be calm; be serious.' "  For Blanchard, who is more easily influenced than she would like, rejecting that advice was tough.  "But then I was like, 'No, I'm going to go in there and be myself.'  And I think that's what Paul liked about me:  That I wasn't too professional, that I was just a girl who wanted to make a dream come true."
     Come true it did, but when the actors playing Drew's two love interests, Taye Diggs (ex-
Sugar) and Ethan Erickson (ex-J) both quit late in 1977, it looked like Blanchard was in for a
rude awakening.  "Taye left, I thought, 'This is unbelievable,' " she laughs.  "Then they put me with Ethan and I thought, 'Oh, ok.'  Then Ethan left, too!  So I had no storyline and I had no idea what they were going to do with me." 
     In the end, the writers mixed her character into the sugary Jesse/Michelle romance, got her established as a possible troublemaker, then, this past spring, fleshed out Drew by having her father die of a heart attack.  The timing couldn't have been worse:  Less then a month before, Blanchard's real dad had finally succumbed to AIDS and cancer after a years-long battle.
     "I cried so much over my dad, and then I had to do it all in front of everyone [in the studio]," says the actress, suddenly sounding closer to 40 than 20, so much wiser and more tired than her other self, the carefree Tammy who sings Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" on kareoke night and will , if pressed, shyly confess that she sleeps in the nude ("but I live alone so it doesn't matter").  "As soon as they would say, 'Action,' I wasn't able to cut off my emotions and I would just think about my dad lying there.  The tought came to my mind every time.  It was really hard."
     But, says Blanchard, it was time for her father to go.  "He was in and out of the hospital for
five years.  There were so many times when we went to the hospital and they were like, 'He's not going to make it.'  And he'd just look at me and say 'No, I'm not going yet, I'm a survivor.'  But the very last time, he didn't say anything.  I think he knew."
     "My best friend's mom passed away two weeks after my dad," she continues.  "My friend was there for me through evrything, and then two weeks later, I had to be there for her.  Somehow that just made everything easier, that we were both going through the same thing at the same time."   the sum of her experiences has made Blanchard realize that timing really is  everything. "If this had happened to me three, four, five years ago, I would have been out of my mind.  But I'm growing."
     And the more she grows, the less she wonder's what's over the rainbow.  "I don't really think about being as big as Judy Garland anymore," muses Blanchard, who now appeals to a different Oz.  "I'm just putting everything in God's hands."  And by the looks of it, God's nodding His approval.
     "The other day," she smiles, "I was driving around, wondering if things would work out,
questioning myself, questioning life.  And then I saw a bird with a little piece of bread in its mouth and I remembered a passage from the Bible that says, 'Does not He feed the birds?'  And I thought to myself, 'Tammy,what are you worrying about?' "

Tammy Blanchard (Drew) has never been one to shy away from the camera.  After all, she spent her time as a youngster on the beauty-pageant circuit.  "My parents never made me do them, says Blanchard.  "I wanted to do them because they were fun.  But my parents also saw it as a way for me to gain confidence in myself, so they encouraged it.  My mom would help me practice answering questions - we'd just have fun."  During her time at these pageants, did she ever see any pushy parent-type situations?  Blanchard does 
recall one particular incident.  "There was this girl, and her mom was yelling at her because she didn't walk right, and the girl was in tears.   That was horrible to watch.   I remember my mom turned my face away.

Now that Joie Lenz has been playing Michelle
for a couple of weeks, Tammy Blanchard (Drew) can't say enough good things about her
new co-star.  "Joie is wonderful - she's sweet and innocent, and she's great to work with," praises Blanchard.  "Before we have to cry in a scene, we go behind the set, hold each other's hands, look into each other's eyes and make each other cry!  It's such an awesome thing, because we really are working together."  Since her character, along with Michelle, has killed Mick and sworn Jesse(Paulo Benedeti) and Bill (Ryan Brown) to silence, Blanchard is also thrilled about the storyline.  "All four of us are coming together, and we're really starting to rock.   So just look out, give us a chance, and we'll give you a good story," she promises.

                                       ANSWERED PRAYERS

     On the anniversary marking the completion of her first year as Drew Jacobs, Guiding
Light's tempestuous teen temptress, a gleeful Tammy Blanchard has encountered a vexing
situation:  The tall and slightly gawky - though sweetly sexy -  21-year-old requested that we meet and talk over pizza.  A little different, but hey, whatever floats an actor's boat.  So at
a Greenwich Village pizza establishment considered by connoisseurs to be among the best
in Manhattan,  Blanchard, sipping iced tea through a straw from a gigantic can, is dismayed to 
learn that  she can't order just a single slice.  The look on her face makes it abundantly clear
that one slice is all she desired.  Once the pie arrives on the table she wastes no time in 
deeming it OK, but not nearly as tasty as the pizza served in her hometown of Bayonne, N.J.
Fixing me with a mock angry stare, she asks loudly, "You got a  problem with me being a
'Joisey' girl?"
     That she is, albeit not some neighbourhood street chick with a cynical facade.  Quite the
opposite, actually.  Blanchard is an optimistic dreamer with an unswerving faith in her family
and her God, whom she alludes to often in conversation.  She also tends to blurt out 
whatever is on her mind.
     For instance, one of the first thoughts she expresses is an unprompted and heartfelt
declaration of her desire to be married.  "I want the white-picket-fence thing and all that
goes with it, " she says sincerely.  Told that having a family at her age could be a career
inhibitor, she appears unfazed and remarks, "I don't think children are difficult, as long as
they come out of love and are given love.  I do want other things, like my acting career, but
I'm not going to stop doing anything just because of a family life.  That's just another dream.
I want everything - career, love, security."
     Although Blanchard had a high school beau for several years and is currently dating another young man, presently there is no potential marriage partner in sight.  And no, there
was not and never has been anything serious between her and GL co-star Paulo Benedeti
(Jesse).  With a dismissive laugh she says, "We went out on a date.  We kissed a little, blah-
blah-blah-blah.  But that was it.  We both knew we didn't want to go there, because of 
working together.  I think if we had met on the street, we might have dated seriosly.  He says
so, too.  I don't know.
     Surely, events of the past year have gone a long way toward fulfilling one of Blanchard's
primary dreams.  However, it's been an emotionally draining period as well for this
neophyte daytimer, whose principal acting experience prior to the role of Drew  consisted of
playing Dorothy in grammar and high school productions of The Wizard of Oz (her favorite
movie of all time).  "I was  in a fog when I first got the job," Blanchard reflects.  "My 
performance has  obviously been good enough for the people I work with.  In my mind, I'm
always thinking I can do better.  Lately, I'm trying to stop judging myself.  Overall, I think
I'm doing well.  I feel like in the important scenes in the show,  I rock.  I'm happy that I'm
doing my best, and I feel I deserve to be a little more involved.  I'd definetely like it if
Selena (Patti D'Arbanville) turns out to be my mother (and she has!).  Patti is just like my
mother anyway."
     For the saddest of reasons, the high and low points of Blanchard's past year are
intertwined.  A month after her father died of AIDS, she had to perform scenes in which Drew
reacted to her father's death from a heart attack.  Those scenes, Blanchard says, her eyes
welling with tears, were her best work to date.  "I put all my heart into it, all I had.  All my
family members were calling me up after those scenes aired.  I didn't know I was going to
have to do that so soon after my own dad died.
    "Probably my biggest dissappointment is not making an effort to go see my dad that
much (her parents split up on her 10th birthday).  I did spend time with him, but not as much
as I would have liked.  One of the last times we were together I held on to him in the car,
and I didn't let go all the way back to the center where he was living.  I think that settled a
lot of things between us.  No one in the family ever really wanted to talk about what 
happened with him, and he never wanted to , either.
     "He used to tell me, 'You better not cry.  I am a survivor, I'm going to live.'  He'd always
say that.  He was a tough guy, a biker and a bad guy," she remembers, laughing softly to 
herself.
     Not surprsingly, Blanchard and her mom enjoy a special relationship, and she credits her
family for being the single biggest factor behind her desire to succeed in show business.
"My mom is just a great woman, Blanchard says, settling into a chair at an Italian pastry
shop after enjoyng a cigarette during the stroll across the street.  "She went through a lot
after my father left.  She had three kids and no money.  She's so strong.  My wonderful
family - my mom, brothers, uncles and aunts - made me feel so supported and encouraged
me to become an actress.  My mother has always told me I could definetely do this, and 
that's a wonderful thing."
     Nevertheless, not long ago, Blanchard was about ready for a change of direction.
Forgoing college,  she had been modeling for three years (but, "It just wasn't me"), going
on auditions, and "praying to God" that someday she'd get a big break.  In fact, two months
before GL beckoned, she had resigned herself to going to school and halting the pursuit of
her dream.  "It had all gotten to be too much," she recalls.  "I was going to become a great
teacher, or whatever else I was going to be.  I was leaving it in God's hands.  Nothing was
happening at all.  Lots of people had sacrificed for me, and if it wasn't to be, it wasn't to be.
And two weeks later I got Guiding Light !  I was in the car with my mom when my manager
called and told me I booked the job.  I screamed, my mom screamed, and from that day on I know I've been ia a daze that I'm just starting to get out of.  God answered my prayers.  I
couldn't believe it." 
     As for suddenly making more money than ever before, Blanchard giggles and declares,
"I'm spending it.  I'm not a saving person.  I always have it in the back of my mind that I'll
be taken care of.  Recently, I moved into my own place.  Yes, it's in Bayonne, the twilight
city I live in that I can never escape.  I have two kittens.  I'm buying my mom a house, too,
and putting my brothers (T.J. and William) through college.  That's it.  We're all just living
it up."
     Playing Drew has been a challenge for her, especially because the screen test,  she says,
demanded she portray the character as a tough, New York-style bad girl.  Once Blanchard
began on the show, however, the scripts called for Drew to be "this spoiled-brat rich girl
who would do anything to get what she wants.  I found a way to still play a tough girl, and at
the same time a spoiled brat.  As time goes on, I think they're allowing the audience to feel who she is a little more.  She's less spoiled brat and more a smart chick who knows what's
going on in the world.  You can see a difference in Drew  from when I first came on.  I think
the audience is starting to like her now, and that gives me confidence."
     Having never taken an acting lesson, Blanchard insists that she's comfortable relying
strictly on instinct.  "I really don't want to be coached or take lessons.  I know there are all
these techniques actors talk about, but people made them up.  You can make up your own
if you work on it.  Beth Ehlers never took an acting lesson, and she's great.  I'm not even 
concerned with the technical stuff that goes on.  They still have to tell me which camera is
mine.  I'm just worried about what's going on between me and the other person in the scene."
     Does she still harbor notions of going to school, just in case?  "I thought about that just a
week ago,"  Blanchard responds.  "But, no.  No, no, no!  This is where I'm supposed to be,
what I'm going to do.  School and teaching I would accept.  Acting is what I really want to do.
This is my dream.  I want to be a successful actress.  Right now I'm just worried about the 
show.  I want to rock on the show, just do well.  I have a three year contract, and I want to
last the entire three years, and walk out of here knowing I did a good job and learned a lot."
     Dreams and prayers provide sustenance for Blanchard.  Performing, family and friends,
love, sunshiny days,  the white picket fence life - they're all very tangible touchstones in the
revolving whirl of her mind and imagination.  But nothing and no one comes before God.
Describing her spiritual bent as a one-on-one relationship, Blanchard relates the story of
how, at age 2, she saw Jesus Christ when she took a serious tumble down the stairs in her 
parent's house.  Ever since then, "My whole life has been about Jesus.  I was praying at 
such a young age.  No one can tell me what to think about God.  I know that he loves me, 
and I know that he's with me always.  I feel God has chosen me to do something really
special, I just do.  It's all about peace, love and happiness.
     "I've been very blessed,"  Blanchard says, once again flashing a loopy grin, "even though I know  I've been through a lot of things people my age have not.  After  wanting something
for so long and then getting it, to be so blessed, it's all so hard to believe I'm doing it. 
Everything is so meaninful to me, every single thing on every single day.  I don't think I'd 
like to be like anyone else  anymore.  I think I'd just like to find a place for me."

Some people start heading toward their destinies at a very early age.  Tammy Blanchard (Drew)
admits that she had a penchant for performing ever since she was a little kid.  " I was always
jumping in front of the camera," recalls the actress.   "My mom always put me in the center of
attention, and if I was going to be the center of attention, I was going to be a little comedianne."
Actually, though, Blanchard got her start as a model.  She tells us that her very first modeling
memory was when she was six and her mother put her in a pair of Levi's jeans, placed her in 
front of a wall and started  snapping photos.  "I  just went at it as soon as she said, 'Go ahead -
model," Blanchard reports.  "She still has those pictures."

Outstanding performers for the week of May 24

TAMMY BLANCHARD (Drew, Guiding Light)

There's no other way to put it:  Tammy Blanchard nailed it when Drew finally discovered that Selena is her mother - and there was no doubt in our minds that she would.  Blanchard has made tremendous strides as an actress since she started on GUIDING LIGHT, and has become one of daytime's most exciting young talents.  This week, she got to play The Big Moment, and it was riveting.
     That word riveting gets thrown around a lot in critiques, but it best captures these high-drama/high-stakes scenes and Blanchard's remarkable performance, which never felt like acting.  Blanchard gives a performance from her heart, from her soul, from natural, raw talent, never from technique or devices.  In the beginning, this worked against her, because she wasn't polished, but today, with her skills honed, she's become downright dazzling.
     Blanchard infused the Selena/Drew confrontation with energy and pathos.  Drew lashed out at her newfound mother ("Whore, hooker; you mean nothing to me!"), but Blanchard played another level.  Despite all the venom Drew was spewing, we saw a little girl crying inside.  A part of Drew seemed to want to reach out to Selena, but the pain was so great that all she could do was make Selena hurt more than she.
     Later, in another series of high-voltage scenes, Drew lashed out at Jesse and Buzz for  knowing the truth.  There was an unmistakable confidence in Blanchard's work.  She delivered her lines with force and fire, sustaining the two levels she had established in the beginning of the week.  But this time, the angrier she became, the more she seemed to be dying inside.

DREW IS IN THE MIDST OF PROBLEMS! 
 But for all the right reasons, says GL's Tammy Blanchard.
 I'm really glad that Drew likes Ben, loves Ben, and she's glad that he's her father.  It's great that he's the underdog on the show and that Drew is rooting for him. Now she's getting into trouble with everybody because of it. Buzz and her mom Selena are fighting over it, and Drew is fighting with Jesse because of it.
 I like that Drew's in turmoil, but for the right reasons. In the beginning, Drew was in turmoil because she was just a bitch and she didn't know what she was doing. I like playing a character who's in the right, but no one else can see that, except for the audience. That's totally fun and totally fun to play. I'm just glad Drew's growing older, she's maturing...and she's becoming a real character that people can relate to and that people are starting to adore and look up to.
 As far as feeling conflicted about her two dads, it's been a long time since her dad, Mr. Jacobs, died, and it's been a long time that she's been dealing with being adopted. She understands that Mr. Jacobs was the man who adopted her and loved her. He was her daddy. But she realizes that she was borne of two people that she should completely know and get to know and love just as much as her daddy."