Crystal Chappell's autobiography The Perfect Art Of Imperfection: My Life So Far is available as an ebook from either Amazon or from her website at http://www.venicetheseries.com (in the VShop). Note: you can still download from Amazon and view if you don't have a Kindle by using the free Kindle Cloud Reader.
If you like soaps and have been following Crystal's long career (on Guiding Light, Days Of Our Lives, The Bold & Beautiful, etc) this is a must read. It tells the story of her early life, her first marriage, struggles in show biz, the ups and downs of her long term relationship and marriage (to fellow soap actor Michael Sabatino) and the births of her two sons.
After reading her book, if I had to use two terms to describe her they would be "honest" and "scrappy". She didn't try to sugarcoat anything to make herself look better. When she was a diva she took responsibility for it. When life knocked her on her ass, she did the work she needed to do and then got back out there and tried again. I appreciated learning about her struggles since I too have had some of the same issues and have done a lot of work over the years to get to a good place in my life. Life is a full contact sport. Anyone who tells ya different is lying.
I also appreciated the info on Otalia and how that lead to Venice The Series (which has completed 3 seasons) and The Grove (the pilot episode was just launched this month). She is also working on The Inn which will be out in February: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=sJibA_pejRk&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DsJibA_pejRk If ya like scary movies, this looks like a good one.
For anyone who needs a 5 second overview about Otalia: Crystal's character Olivia is delightfully wreaking havoc upon the residents of Springfield whenever she has an opportunity. Then she finds out she has a bad ticker. She also has the hots for Gus. Gus is (Jessica Leccia's character) Natalia's husband. Natalia is very religious and an all around good person. Olivia is not. Gus is killed in a motorcycle accident. Natalia gives Olivia his heart. Then the two women are bonded together whether they like it or not because Olivia doesn't want to live but Natalia is determined to keep her alive since she has Gus's heart. The storyline is excellent because ever so gradually they fall in love with each other. Olivia confesses her love for Natalia at Gus's grave the day of Natalia's wedding to Frankenfurter. That scene alone should have gotten Crystal an Emmy. You were robbed!!! Anyway I digress. Natalia can not marry Frank and runs from the church. Olivia finds Natalia in a gazebo in the snow and Natalia professes her love and super couple "Otalia" is born.
All sorts of other push / pull stuff happens (like Natalia gets pregnant and runs to a convent, Olivia's heart is broken and she cant trust Natalia, etc) until unfortunately GL is canceled. The most frustrating part for viewers (and I've read for the actors) is that they couldn't kiss each other. Ya gotta hand it to them though. I think they did everything possible to try to get around it (like lots of eye sex, forehead touching, and standing near each other) but COME ON! Give me a break. You can show any number of straight couples in bed at any given time and ya can't let them have ONE kiss. If I had telekinetic powers the executives at CBS and P&G would have their eyebrows singed off. Luckily for them I don't. Yes it's been several years but I'm still upset about it :)
Anyway Crystal created a web series called Venice The Series with she and Jessica as the main couple. As with all soaps, lots of drama ensued. The first episode was viewable for free and then the rest were by subscription for the season. There were some 11,000 paid subscribers (and yep I've been one since the beginning). I'm happy to pay the very small subscription fee to see programming I'm interested in. Last year Venice won an Emmy for "Outstanding Special Class Short Format Daytime". Let's remember to keep supporting Crystal and Open Book Productions. I hope we'll get to see season 4 soon: http://www.venicetheseries.com/
Their newest endeavor (with again Jessica and Crystal as the main couple) is The Grove. The pilot episode is viewable for free here: http://www.thegrovetheseries.com/ AfterEllen also has a good review of it here: http://www.afterellen.com/content/2013/01/crystal-chappell-and-jessica-leccias-lesbian-characters-fall-love-all-over-again Thanks Crystal for all your great work! I look forward to seeing more of The Grove too.
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And if you're looking for the scene Crystal referred to in her book btwn Hope and Carly it's here: Days Of Our Lives - Carly 2.0 01/12/10 and 01/13/10 http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kIaj9EPOA3Y&feature=relmfu#/watch?v=kIaj9EPOA3Y&feature=relmfu and http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wDo6njM9_rE&feature=relmfu#/watch?v=wDo6njM9_rE&feature=relmfu That was a great scene. I was afraid someone was going to hit each other too.
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