You've come a long way, baby

If you caught Live with Regis and Kelly on Friday, you would have been pleasantly surprised to see Kelly Ripa's real life hubby, Mark Consuelos, filling in for Regis on his day off. Consuelos doesn't fill in very often, so this was a real treat. (He was absent from Oprah's Friday Live panel filmed in Chicago where he is a regular, possibly to make the Regis and Kelly show filmed in NYC.) Consuelos and Ripa met and fell in love while both acting on All My Children.

The two engaged in a playful banter that lasted a full 12 minutes, which I have to guess was lengthened to account for the missing American Idol reject interview, usually scheduled around this time. The two told stories about everything from a traumatic bicycle accident which Ripa suffered as a child, to tales of Consuelos' obsessive compulsion to clean, and funny tidbits about eating Chinese food with the kids. I was enthralled and captivated. The dialog was magic.

The two did not disappoint when it came time to interview their first guest, Drew Barrymore, and discuss common and everyday dilemmas: Do we get on Facebook? Do we read papers in print or online?

I first began watching Kelly Ripa on All My Children where she played Adam Chandler's illegitimate, long lost daughter, Hayley. At the time, a whole slew of younger characters had been added to the cast. Every day, I would rush home from school to watch the latest episode to find out what Hayley, Kendall, (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Charlie (Robert Duncan McNeill), and Julie (Lauren Holly) were up to. I cringed when Ripa's character Hayley was attracted to Alec McIntyre, who seemed twice her age. Soon after, I stopped watching the show because my school schedule conflicted.

Imagine my surprise when many years later, Ripa was chosen to cohost the Regis show after Kathy Lee Gifford left for greener pastures. I'd watched a few shows where she filled in and thought she did a fabulous job.

Hosting an interview show has got to be the most difficult job in the acting world. For most of the segment, you have no script and yet you have to look intelligent on live camera. You have to rely on your staff to do background research for interviews so you don't come off looking like an unprepared idiot. The camera moves around and you have to look for the light. You never know where the interview will go next, so you have to roll with the punches. It's truly an art and an amazing skill which few people have.

Ripa and Consuelos, who met while playing opposite love interests on All My Children, make a fabulous hosting pair. Someday when Regis is ready to try something new (maybe become the fifth judge on American Idol), I hope Consuelos will take over permanently.